Chapter 12: Social Psychology Exam Study Definitions

Practice vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from Chapter 12: Social Psychology, including attitudes, attribution theory, social influence, conformity, prejudice, and types of love.

Social psychology

Study of how others affect our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Attitudes

Evaluations of a particular person, behavior, belief, or concept.

Persuasion

The process of changing attitudes through communication.

Message source

Characteristics of the person delivering a persuasive message.

Message characteristics

Features of an argument, including one-sided, two-sided, or fear-producing messages.

Central-route processing

Carefully considering the issues and arguments in a persuasive message.

Peripheral-route processing

Being persuaded by factors unrelated to the message's content or quality.

Cognitive dissonance

Discomfort arising when a person holds two contradictory attitudes or thoughts.

Social cognition

Processes underlying our understanding of the social world.

Schemas

Sets of thoughts and beliefs about people and social experiences.

Impression formation

Organizing information about someone to form an overall impression.

Central traits

Traits used to form overall impressions of other people.

Attribution theory

Explains how we decide the causes of another person's behavior.

Situational causes

Behavioral causes arising from the surrounding environment.

Dispositional causes

Behavioral causes arising from a person's internal traits or personality.

Self-serving bias

Attributing successes to yourself and failures to outside factors.

Fundamental attribution error

Overemphasizing personality while overlooking situations when explaining others' behavior.

Halo effect

Assuming someone has other positive qualities based on an initial positive impression.

Assumed-similarity bias

Assuming other people are similar to ourselves.

Conformity

Changing behavior or attitudes to follow other people's beliefs or standards.

Social influence

When individuals or groups affect the behavior of others.

Social supporter

Someone sharing an unpopular viewpoint, thereby reducing conformity.

Social roles

Behaviors associated with people occupying particular positions.

Groupthink

Seeking group agreement so strongly that alternative views are no longer critically evaluated.

Compliance

Responding to direct social pressure or requests.

Foot-in-the-door technique

Making a small request before a larger one.

Door-in-the-face technique

Making a large request before a smaller one.

That's-not-all technique

Offering an initially inflated deal, then improving the offer.

Not-so-free sample

Giving a sample to encourage reciprocity and later compliance.

Norm of reciprocity

Feeling obligated to return a favor after receiving something.

Obedience

Changing behavior because of another person's commands.

Milgram's obedience study

A 1963 study examining obedience to commands from an authority figure.

Stereotypes

Generalized beliefs and expectations about social groups and their members.

Prejudice

Positive or negative evaluations of groups and their members.

Discrimination

Negative behavior toward members of a particular group.

Social learning approach

Group attitudes develop through the behaviors of parents, adults, and peers.

Social identity theory

Group membership provides a source of pride and self-worth.

Prosocial behavior

Behavior intended to help other people.

Altruism

Helping others even when doing so requires personal sacrifice.

Diffusion of responsibility

Feeling less individually responsible when responsibility is shared among others.

Liking

Positive feelings toward someone, influenced by proximity, exposure, similarity, reciprocity, and attractiveness.

Proximity

Physical closeness that can influence liking.

Mere exposure

Repeated exposure to someone that can influence liking.

Similarity

Shared characteristics that can influence liking.

Reciprocity-of-liking effect

Tending to like people who like us.

Physical attractiveness

Appearance as a factor that can influence liking.

Passionate (romantic) love

Intense attraction involving arousal, psychological interest, and caring for another person.

Companionate love

Strong affection for someone deeply involved in our life.

Intimacy

Emotional closeness, represented by liking in the love triangle.

Passion

Arousal and attraction represented in the love triangle.

Decision / commitment

The decision to maintain a relationship, represented in the love triangle.

Infatuation

Love involving passion without intimacy or commitment.

Empty love

Love involving commitment without intimacy or passion.

Fatuous love

Love combining passion and commitment without intimacy.

Consummate love

Love combining intimacy, passion, and commitment.