Untitled Flashcards Set

Attribution Theory: how we explain causes of behaviors and events 

• Dispositional: blame things on others based on who they are as people 

  • example) Doug thinks amanda is shy because she never talks to him in the morning when they get to work – intelligence & personality 

• Situational: quick to be nicer about a situation 

  • example) when a car speeds past you on the highway, you say the driver might have an emergency and be heading to the hospital – social pressure & external factors 

• Fundamental Attribution Error: overemphasize who they are but underestimate their situation → judging others 

• Self-fulfilling Prophecy: expectation leads to fulfillment 

• Locus of control: degree to which individuals believe they have control over the events and outcome of their lives 

  • Internal: personal choices, efforts, hard work 

  • External: fate, luck, others, circumstances 

• Defensive Attribution Theory: our brain's tendency to blame victims to remove ourselves from the event 

Person Perception:  ow we form impressions on others and ourselves 

Attitudes: evaluations or feelings people have towards objects, people, events, or ideas 

• Aggression

  • antisocial – amygdala/testosterone 

• Love

  • Reward theory of attraction: 

    • Passionate: honeymoon phase/hookup…testosterone/estrogen 

    • Compassionate: self-disclosure…positive support, oxytocin 

  • Proximity (mere exposure effect) 

  • Attractiveness 

  • Similarity 

• Frustration Aggression Principle: 1) frustration 2) anger 3) aggression 

• Social Script: what behaviors culture says is okay in situations 

• Bias: 

  • Implicit: unconscious, microaggressions, trained, innate, automatic 

  • Explicit: conscious, avert sexism, racism, ageism 

• Self-serving bias: judging others 

  • example) if I do well it was me//if i do bad it was the test 

• Actor/observer Bias: I see it as situational but others see it as dispositional 

• Out group homogeneity bias: “they” are all the same 

• Ingroup bias: everyone in our group MUST be good 

• Belief Perseverance: despite being proven wrong, you still persevere with your belief 

  • Confirmation Bias: tendency to seek out information that confirms one's belief while ignoring contradictory evidence 

• Cognitive Dissonance: discomfort someone feels when they hold two or more conflicting beliefs, attitudes, or values — action doesn’t equal attitude 

“Us Versus Them” mentality: cognitive bias where people categorize others into ingroup and outgroup  

• Stereotypes: false assumptions 

• Prejudice: attitude of hatred 

• Discrimination: behavior towards a certain type of group that's different than you 

• Scapegoat Theory: easier to blame others rather than yourself 

• Other Race Effect: easier to understand your own race 

Conformity: adjusting our behavior or thinking toward some group standard – example) suggestibility & mimicry 

• Normative social influence: resulting from  a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval 

• Informational social influence: one's willingness to accept others opinions about reality 

• Automatic Mimicry: behavior is contagious – humans tend to go with their group, do what it does, etc – help us emphasize and feel what others feel 

  • chameleon effect: form of mimicry 

Obedience/Authority: obedience is following orders 

• High obedience when… 

  • Victim was depersonalized or at a distance 

  • There was no role models for defiance 

Social Situations: 

• Just world phenomenon: we believe the world is just → good is rewarded … evil is punished 

• Social influence theory: what we do is influenced by social situations and can lead to conformity 

• Stanley Shock Experience 

• Foot in the door Phenomenon: persuading by asking little by little 

• Door in the face Phenomenon: make a CRAZY suggestion at first but then back it up with something more reasonable 

Social Roles: expected behaviors and attitudes of our society 

Social Norms: unwritten rules and expectations that govern behavior in a society or group 

• Examples) Conformity, normative social influence, informational social influence, etc 

• Cultural phenomenon: individualism (western count.) – collectivism (eastern count.) – multiculturalism 

  • Individualism: about competition 

  • Collectivism: things we value like community and family 

  • Multiculturalism: bridging together individualism and collectivism 

• Diffusion of responsibility: bystander effect… “someone call 911” 

  • Bystander effect: witnessing a crime and not stepping in 

Persuasions: how to influence others 

• Central: the route to persuade 

• Peripheral: humor, color, light 

  • Halo effect: taking the characteristic of one person to persuade – example) Brad Pitt and his cologne commercial 

Group Memberships: 

• Group polarization: building up on similar opinions 

• Group think: group thinks in one way 

  • Much easier to agree with what's said 

• Social loafing: more people in a group = less likely to do work 

• Deindividualization: loose sense of self/identity 

• Social facilitation: tend to perform better in front of group 

• False consensus effect: untrue belief that everyone shares overstimulated agreement 

  • Social trap: putting ourselves over group 

• Prisoners dilemma: if you do what you’re told your outcome may be better 

Robbers Cave Experiment: 

• Superordinate goals: being divided but come together under common goal 

• Industrial/Organizational Psych: study how people perform in the workplace – example) team bonding 

• Prosocial/Antisocial behavior: going with or against social norms 

  • Altruism: selfless behavior (prosocial) 

Humanistic Theory of Psychology: how and why we act the way we do 

• Self esteem: how we view ourselves 

• Self efficacy 

• Self actualization

• Unconditional positive regard: you accept someone and don’t judge them __> promote feedback 

• Top of pyramid: self-actualization —- bottom of the pyramid: basic needs 

Psychodynamic Theory of Psychology:  Freud and his iceberg theory 

• Id: the devil on your shoulder – any physiological need..quick easy pleasure 

• Superego: angel on your shoulder … morality…are we doing things for an ethical principle 

• Ego: mediating between Id and Superego 

• Ego Defense Mechanisms: unconsciously protect ego from threats 

  • #1) Repression: erase from our conscious mind (if you get embarrassed) 

  • #2) Regression: revert back to childlike behavior (if we don’t get our way) 

  • #3) Projection: Accuse someone of our own feelings (not owning up to our feelings) 

  • #4) Displacement: redirect feelings to somewhere else 

  • #5) Reaction Formation: act opposite of how we feel 

  • #6) Rationalization: justification  

  • #7) Denial: refusal to acknowledge something 

  • #8) Sublimation: redirect to socially acceptable behavior