1 | Social psychology | The scientific study of how we think about, influence, & relate to one another | |
2 | Person perception | How we form impressions of ourselves & others, including attributions of behavior | |
3 | Attribution theory | Theory that we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation (a situational attribution) or the person’s stable, enduring traits (a dispositional attribution) | |
4 | Fundamental attribution error | Tendency for observers, when analyzing others’ behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation & to overestimate the impact of personal disposition | |
5 | Actor-observer bias | Tendency for those acting in a situation to attribute their behavior to external causes, but for observers to attribute others’ behavior to internal causes; contributes to the fundamental attribution error (which focuses on our explanations for others’ behavior) | |
6 | Mere exposure effect | The tendency for repeated exposure to novel stimuli to increase our liking of them | |
7 | Prejudice | An unjustifiable & usually negative attitude toward a group & its members; prejudice generally involves negative emotions, stereotyped beliefs, & a predisposition to discriminatory action | |
8 | Stereotype | Generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people | |
9 | Discrimination | Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members | |
10 | Just-world phenomenon | Tendency for people to believe the world is just & that people therefore get what they deserve & deserve what they get | |
11 | Social identity | The “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships | |
12 | Ingroup | “Us” - people with whom we share a common identity | |
13 | Outgroup | “Them” - those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup | |
14 | Ingroup bias | The tendency to favor our own group | |
15 | Scapegoat theory | The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame | |
16 | Other-race effect | The tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately than faces of other races; also called cross-race effect & own-race bias | |
17 | Attitudes | Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, & events | |
18 | Foot-in-the-door phenomenon | The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request | |
19 | Door-in-the-face phenomenon | The tendency for people who deny a large request to comply later with a smaller request | |
20 | Role | A set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave | |
21 | Cognitive dissonance theory | The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent; for example, when we become aware that our attitudes & our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes | |
22 | Persuasion | Changing people’s attitudes, potentially influence their actions | |
23 | Peripheral route persuasion | Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness | |
24 | Central route persuasion | Occurs when interested people’s thinking is influenced by considering evidence & arguments | |
25 | Norms | A society’s understood rules for accepted & expected behavior; norms prescribe “proper” behavior in individual & social situations | |
26 | Conformity | Adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard | |
27 | Normative social influence | Influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval | |
28 | Informational social influence | Influence resulting from a person’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality | |
29 | Obedience | Complying with an order or command | |
30 | Social facilitation | In the presence of others, improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks, & worsened performance on difficult tasks | |
31 | Social loafing | The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable | |
32 | Deindividuation | The loss of self-awareness & self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal & anonymity | |
33 | Group polarization | The enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations through discussion with the group | |
34 | Groupthink | The mode thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives | |
35 | Culture | The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, & traditions shared by a group of people & transmitted from one generation to the next | |
36 | Tight culture | A place with clearly defined & reliably imposed norms | |
37 | Loose culture | A place with flexible & informal norms | |
38 | Industrial-organizational (I/O) psychology | The application of psychological concepts & methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces | |
39 | Altruism | Unselfish regard for the welfare of others | |
40 | Bystander effect | The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present; when more people share responsibility (diffusion of responsibility), we are less likely to help | |
41 | Social exchange theory | Theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits & minimize costs | |
42 | Reciprocity norm | An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them | |
43 | Social-responsibility norm | An expectation that people will help those needing their help | |
44 | Conflict | A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas | |
45 | Social trap | A situation in which two parties, by each pursuing their self-interest rather than the good of the group, become caught in mutually destructive behavior | |
46 | Mirror-image perceptions | Mutual views often held by conflicting parties, as when each side sees itself as ethical & peaceful & views the other side as evil & aggressive | |
47 | Self-fulfilling prophecy | A belief that leads to its own fulfillment due to the person’s own actions | |
48 | Superordinate goals | Shared goals that override differences among people & require their cooperation | []p |