AP Psych: Unit 9 Social Psychology Notes

Module 74: Attribution, Attitudes, and Actions

• Social Psychology explores the connections between connections of humans by thinking about how we think about, influences, and relate to one another.

• Social scientists focus on the situation. They study the social influences that explain why the same person acts differently in situations.

• Fritz Heider is known as the father of attribution theory, which describes how individuals interpret events and behaviors to understand their social environment.

• We can credit or blame (attribute) the behavior to the persons internal stable, enduring traits (dispositional attribution) or to external factors, such as the context or situation they are in (situational attribution), which helps us understand the complexity of human behavior.

• Fundamental attribution error: the tendency for observers when analyzing others behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition

• Dispositional: Persons traits and internal characteristics

• Situational: Environmental factors and external circumstances that influence behavior, highlighting that behavior can often be a response to specific contextual elements.

• Attitudes affect actions and actions affect attitudes.

• Attitudes: feelings influenced by beliefs.

• Peripheral route persuasion: occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues such as a speakers attractiveness.

• Ex. Believing and listening to a celebrity's political endorsement because they are attractive/other incidental cues.

• Central route persuasion: occurs when people are influenced by arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.

• For instance, buying a product based on how useful it would be to the consumer.

  Compare and Contrast:

  • Peripheral route is more effective for emotional appeals, while central route works better for thoughtful consideration.

  • The level of involvement in the topic being discussed can determine which route of persuasion will be more effective

  Module 74: Conformity

• Norms: understood rules for accepted and expected behaviour

• Social contagion: Idea that behaviors are contagious

  Ex. Smiling or laughing at someone else’s laugh or smile

• Social networks serve as contagious pathways for moods such as happiness and loneliness but also things like drug use, and even the behavior patterns that lead to obesity and sleep loss.

• Conformity: Adjusting behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard because of real or imagined pressure to fit in

• Normative social influence is the influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

• Informational social influence influence from accepting other opinions about reality

  Module 77: Prejudice and Discrimination

• Explicit biases are when people are aware of their biases

• Implicit Bias is when a person is unaware of their biases

• Prejudice is an unjustifiable attitude toward a group and its members

• Factors involved in prejudice include negative emotions, stereotypes, and predisposition to discriminate

• Negative emotions include hostility and fear

• Prejudice is a negative belief often supported by stereotypes

• DIscrimination is a negative behavior

• Ethnocentrism is assuming superiority of one’s ethnic group

• Just world phenomenon is the tendency for people to believe that the world is just or fair and people get what they deserve and deserve what they get

• In group: “Us”

• Our group: “Them”

  Module 78: Aggression

• Aggression is any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone whether done out of hostility or as a calculated means to an end

• Biological factors can lead to aggression such as genetics, neural influences, and biochemical factors

• Amygdala and frontal lobes deal with aggression

• Facial width to height ratio can be a predictor of men’s aggressiveness

• Alcohol is the only drug known to spark aggression

• There are both psychological and sociocultural factors that lead to aggression

• The principle that frustration creates anger which creates aggression is known as the frustration-aggression principle

• Social script is a culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations’

  Module 80: Altruism, Conflict, And Peacemaking

• Altruism is acting to help someone else, even at a cost to oneself, without expectation of a reward or reciprocity

• Social psychologists use the term diffusion of responsibility to describe the behavior in which one assumes they are not responsible for behavior taking place in a group

• The bystander effect is the tendency for any nearby person to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

• The social exchange theory is that our social behavior is an exchange process the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs

• Reciprocity norm is an expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them

• The social responsibility norm is the expectation that we should help those who need our help even if the costs outweigh the benefits

• A conflict is a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

• Social trap is a situation in which the conflicting parties become caught in mutually destructive behavior

• Mirror image perceptions are mutual views often held by conflicting people as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful views the other side as evil and aggressive

• Self fulfilling prophecy is a belief that leads to its own fulfillment