Social Psychology Lecture: Introduction and Key Concepts

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the major concepts and famous experiments in social psychology, including attribution theory, conformity, obedience, and group dynamics.

Social Psychology

The study of how the actual or implied presence of others influences human behaviors, feelings, and thoughts.

Primacy Effect

The initial overall impression of another person that sticks, even if it is incorrect, and influences how we treat them or what we pay attention to.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

The process where we label others and then come to expect them to act in ways that align with those labels.

Attributions

The explanations we assign to causes of people's behavior.

Situational Attributions

Attributing behavior to an external cause, such as luck, environment, or a specific circumstance like a difficult test.

Dispositional Attributions

Attributing behavior to an internal cause, such as a person's effort, personality traits, or personal stress.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overemphasize internal factors and underemphasize external factors when explaining the behavior of others, especially when meeting them for the first time.

Self-serving Bias

The tendency to assume our successes result from internal causes but our failures result from external causes.

Proximity

Geographic closeness that increases the likelihood of becoming attracted to or friends with someone.

Mere Exposure Effect

A phenomenon where people develop more positive feelings toward a stimulus as their exposure to it is repeated.

Reciprocal Liking

The natural human tendency to like people who demonstrate that they like us.

Matching Hypothesis

The theory that individuals are likely to be with partners whose social assets, including physical attractiveness, match their own.

Conformity

Changing one's behavior or attitude to be consistent with social norms or the expectations of others.

Social Norms

The standards of behavior and attitudes expected of members within a group.

Solomon Ashe Study (1955)

A famous experiment on conformity where participants were asked to compare line lengths and often aligned their answers with the group even when they were obviously wrong.

Obedience

The act of following orders or commands from a higher power or authority figure.

Milgram’s Shock Experiment

A study on obedience where $65\%$ of participants continued to deliver shocks up to $450\,\text{volts}$ because they were told to do so by a researcher.

Social Facilitation

The positive or negative effect on an individual's performance caused by the presence of other people.

Audience Effects

The impact that passive spectators have on a person's performance.

Co-action Effects

The impact on performance caused by the presence of others who are performing the same task.

Social Loafing

The tendency of individuals to exert less effort when working in a group than they would if they were working alone.

Group Polarization

The tendency for group discussions to shift members toward more extreme positions.

Groupthink

A cohesive group dynamic where decisions are reached collectively and all members feel they are providing input.

Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)

A study where participants were assigned roles as guards or prisoners in a simulated jail; it was halted after 6 days because the guards began to abuse their power.

Cognitive Component of Attitude

The thoughts and beliefs an individual holds about a particular subject.

Affective Component of Attitude

The emotional part of an attitude, representing how someone feels about a subject.

Behavioral Component of Attitude

The actions an individual takes regarding a subject, such as practicing a habit or buying equipment.

Cognitive Dissonance

A highly unpleasant state that occurs when an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are incompatible or do not match.

Prejudice

Negative attitudes, beliefs, and emotions regarding a particular group that can escalate into hate.

Discrimination

Negative behavior or harmful actions taken toward others based on their membership in a particular group.

Realistic Conflict Theory

The theory that prejudice and discrimination increase amongst competing groups as competition for resources increases.

In-group

A social group with a strong sense of togetherness that an individual identifies with and tends to protect.

Out-group

A social group that an individual does not identify with, often creating an us versus them mentality.

Bystander Effect

The phenomenon where the probability of a victim receiving help decreases as the number of bystanders increases.

Kitty Genovese

A high-profile case in New York where 37 observers heard a woman being murdered but did not intervene, illustrating the diffusion of responsibility.