Psych Unit 9: Social Psych

Disposition Attribution: Assigning the cause of a person's behavior to internal characteristics, such as personality traits, rather than external circumstances.

Situation Attribution: Assigning the cause of a person's behavior to external factors, such as situational influences or external events.

Actor/Observer Bias: The tendency to attribute one's own actions to situational factors while attributing the actions of others to their personality traits.

Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to overemphasize personality-based explanations for the behaviors of others while underestimating situational influences.

Person Perception: The process of forming impressions of others based on their appearance, behavior, and other social cues.

Mere Exposure Effect: The phenomenon by which individuals tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: A belief or expectation that brings about the situation it envisions, often influencing others' behavior in ways that reinforce the belief.

Social Comparison (upward or downward): Evaluating oneself by comparing to others, with upward comparison being to those perceived as better and downward to those perceived as worse.

Relative Deprivation: The experience of being deprived of something to which one believes they are entitled, often leading to feelings of resentment or dissatisfaction.

Stereotype: A widely held but oversimplified and generalized belief or idea about a particular category of people.

Prejudice: An unfavorable or negative attitude toward a group and its members, often based on stereotypes.

Discrimination: Behaving differently, usually unfairly, toward the members of a particular group.

Implicit Attitudes: Attitudes that exist outside of conscious awareness and influence thoughts and actions involuntarily.

Just-World Phenomenon: The cognitive bias that assumes a person's actions always lead to fair and fitting consequences, resulting in the perception that victims must have done something to deserve their fate.

Out-Group Homogeneity Bias: The tendency to view members of an out-group as more similar to each other than they really are, while seeing members of one’s in-group as more diverse.

In-Group Bias: The tendency to favor one's own group over others, often leading to discriminatory behaviors.

Ethnocentrism: The belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture, typically accompanied by a disdain for other groups.

Cognitive Dissonance: The mental discomfort experienced when holding two or more conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes, often leading to a change in beliefs to reduce the discomfort.

Belief Perseverance: The tendency to maintain one's beliefs even in the face of contrary evidence.

Social Norms: The accepted behaviors within a group or society, which can dictate appropriate conduct in social situations.

Social Influence Theory: Explains how individuals change their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in response to social influences.

Normative Social Influence: The influence of other people that leads us to conform to be liked and accepted by them.

Informational Social Influence: The influence that produces conformity when a person believes others are correct in their judgments.

Persuasion: The process of changing someone's beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors through argument, reasoning, or appealing to emotions.

Elaboration Likelihood Model: A theory of persuasion that suggests there are two pathways through which persuasive messages lead to attitude change: a central route and a peripheral route.

Central Route to Persuasion: Involves being persuaded by the content of the message, requiring high effort in processing information.

Peripheral Route to Persuasion: Involves being persuaded in a manner not involving a lot of thought, often through superficial cues.

Halo Effect: The cognitive bias where the perception of one positive trait (like attractiveness) influences the perception of other traits (like intelligence).

Foot-in-the-Door Technique: A strategy where a small request is made first with the intent that it will be followed by a larger request.

Door-in-the-Face Technique: A strategy involving making a large request that is expected to be refused, followed by a smaller request.

Conformity & Conditions That Strengthen Likelihood: The tendency to align attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those of the group, more likely to occur in groups with larger size, higher status, and when the group is unanimous.

Obedience & Conditions That Strengthen Likelihood: Compliance with an order or request from an authority figure, more likely to occur in situations where the authority figure is perceived as legitimate, close, and the individual feels a sense of obligation.

Individualism: A social pattern in which individuals prioritize their personal goals and values over those of the group.

Collectivism: A social pattern in which individuals prioritize the needs and goals of the group over their own personal desires.

Multiculturalism: The presence of, or support for, multiple cultural traditions within a single society, embracing diversity and inclusion of various groups.

Group Polarization: The tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclinations of their members.

Groupthink: A psychological phenomenon where the desire for harmony in a decision-making group leads to irrational or suboptimal outcomes due to suppression of dissenting viewpoints.

Diffusion of Responsibility: The reduction of personal responsibility felt by individuals when they are part of a group, often leading to lower likelihood of helping behavior.

Social Loafing: The tendency for individuals to put forth less effort when they are part of a group compared to when they are working alone.

Deindividuation: A social phenomenon where individuals lose self-awareness and feel less accountable in group situations, leading to behaviors that are not consistent with their personal norms.

Social Facilitation: The tendency for people to perform better on tasks in the presence of others compared to when they are alone.

False Consensus Effect: The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

Superordinate Goals: Goals that require the cooperation of multiple groups and can only be achieved through collaboration, often used to reduce conflict between groups.

Social Traps: Situations where individuals or groups act according to their own self-interests, leading to a negative outcome for all involved.

Altruism: Selfless concern for the well-being of others, often resulting in acts of kindness or charity without expectation of reward.

Social Reciprocity Norm: The expectation that people will respond favorably to each other by returning benefits for benefits.

Social Responsibility Norm: The expectation that individuals will help those in need, based on societal and cultural standards.

Bystander Effect: The phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present, due in part to the diffusion of responsibility.