AP Psych Unit 9 Flashcards
Attribution Theory
the theory that we explain people’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition “That man is yelling because he’s a bad person
Dispositional Attributions
Internal Characteristics (Personal Traits) such as personality and intelligence
Situational Attributions
Environmental Factors
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency for observers, for analyzing others’ behavior, to underestimate the impact of the
situation and to overestimate the impact of a person’s disposition “Because of the Fundamental Attribution Error I believe that the
man is yelling because he is a bad person, not because he’s under a lot of stress.”
Actor-Observer Bias
Tendency to attribute one’s own actions to external causes while attributing other people’s behaviors to internal causes
Self-Serving Bias
We attribute causes of behavior to external causes if we fail & internal causes if we succeed. (I passed my test because I am smart or I failed my test, because my teacher doesn’t teach me well)
Just-World Phenomenon
the tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get “Homeless people are lazy and don’t work so they deserve to be poor.”
False-consensus effect
when you believe that everyone else shares your opinions and attitudes
Confirmation bias
is the tendency to search for or put more value on information that confirms your beliefs, while disregarding opposing information
Halo effect
believe someone is good, you will interpret all of their actions as good, and fail to notice their bad traits
Self-schemas
They are made up of many categories such as but not at all limited to:
○ Gender - the biologically and socially influenced characteristics by which people define male and female
○ Race - A group of human beings distinguished by physical traits, blood types, genetic code patterns or genetically
inherited characteristics
○ Ethnicity - Identity with a group of people that share distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common
heredity and cultural traditions
● Gender-being Male or female-males understand males and females understand or fit in with females.
● Race and ethnicity-difference in biological traits-different races relate to others of the same race
● While race is a social construct without a genetic reality, it is still a very powerful force both for good (pride in one’s group)
and for evil (systemic racism).
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
a belief that leads to its own fulfillment
Mirror-Image Perception
mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive
Attitude
feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events
“The student has a bad attitude towards his teacher so he doesn’t do his homework for that class.”
Elaboration Likelihood Model of Attitude Change
People are more likely to carefully process persuasive messages when they are motivated and capable of considering all available information
Peripheral Route Persuasion
occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speakers’ attractiveness “Ads for
makeup often uses peripheral route persuasion to get people to buy the product.”
Central Route to Persuasion
occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts “Doctors often use central route persuasion when talking about medical treatments.”
Foot-In-The-Door Phenomenon
Tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
Door in the face phenomenon
when someone starts with a large request that the other person would turn down, and then asking a more reasonable request that the person would accept.
Low-Ball Technique
pitching an attractive offer and then increasing the price with the sole aim of earning profit
Cognitive Dissonance
the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent. “Ms. Kong
hated Justin Bieber but likes one of his songs so she’s had to match her thoughts and likings.”
● Change their conflicting behavior to make it match their attitude
● Change their current conflicting cognition to justify their behavior
● Form new cognitions to justify their behavior
Solomon Asch
the Asch conformity experiments or the Asch paradigm were a series of studies directed by Solomon Asch studying if and how individuals yielded to or defied a majority group and the effect of such influences on beliefs and opinions
Stanley Milgram (1963)
Designed one of the more famous experiments in the history of psychology on obedience. Measured the willingness to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscious
Philip Zimbardo
American psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He became known for his 1971 Stanford prison experiment, which was later severely criticised for both ethical and scientific reasons.
Social Influence
the ways people are affected by the real or imagined pressures of others
Chameleon Effect
Unconsciously mimicking others automatically without thought or effort
Conformity
adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard
Normative Social Influence
influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval to avoid disapproval. Example: You wear
army pants and flip flops to fit in with the popular kids
Informative Social Influence
influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality. Example: you go to a football game for the first time and stand up, because everyone is standing up.
Obedience
Changing one’s behavior at the direct command of an authority figure
Milgram Experiment
His experiments involved instructing study participants to deliver increasingly high-voltage shocks to an actor in another room, who would scream and eventually go silent as the shocks became stronger.
Milgram also found that obedience is highest when:
● The person giving the orders was close at hand and perceived to be an authority figure
● The authority figure is associated with a prestigious institution
● The victim is depersonalized and/or at a distance
● There are no role models for defiance
Role
a set of expectations about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment
Demonstrates the powerful role that the situation can play in human behavior. When
randomly assigned to behave like prison guards or prisoners, subjects adopted that role to the point where guards became abusive to prisoners and prisoners planned a rebellion against the guards (even though subjects were allowed to opt out at any time). This emphasizes the power of role play