Chapter 12 - Social Psychology Flashcards
Just-world phenomenon
The tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and what they get.
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.
Self-Serving Bias
A readiness to perceive oneself favorably.
Stereotype
A generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people.
Scapegoat Theory
The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.
Ingroup Bias
The tendency to favor our own group.
Robber’s Cave/Superordinate Goals
Shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation.
Attraction
Proximity, Similarity, Physical Attractiveness
Actor/Observer Effect
People tend to attribute other people’s behaviors to their dispositional factors while attributing own actions to situational factors.
Central Route Persuasion
Attitude change path in which interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.
Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger quest.
Norms
An understood rule for accepted and expected behavior. Norms prescribe “proper” behavior.
Mere Exposure Effect
The phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking them.
Aggression
Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone.
Confirmation Bias
The tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
A belief that leads to its own fulfillment.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent.
Conformity
Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.
Social Exchange Theory
The theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs.
Bystander Effect
The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.
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.
Deindividualization
The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal an anonymity.
Group Polarization
The enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group.
Groupthink
The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.
Social Facilitation
Stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.
Blaming the Victim
Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act are held entirely or partially responsible for the transgressions committed against them.
Self-Effacing Bias
attributing success to external factors and blaming failure on internal factors (the individual).
Ethnocentrism
judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture
Door-in-the-face-technique
a technique used to get compliance from others (to get them to behave in a way you want) in which a large request is made knowing it will probably be refused so that the person will agree to a much smaller request.
Norms of Reciprocity
the expectation that people will respond favorably to each other by returning benefits for benefits, and responding with either indifference or hostility to harms.
Prisoner’s Dilenma
a situation in which two players each have two options whose outcome depends crucially on the simultaneous choice made by the other, often formulated in terms of two prisoners separately deciding whether to confess to a crime.
Cross-Cultural Differences
scientific study of human behavior and mental processes, including both their variability and invariance, under diverse cultural conditions
Diffusion of Responsibility
a sociopsychological phenomenon whereby a person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when others are present.
Kitty Genovese
Stabbed multiple times, no one helped.
Asch
Line experiment testing conformity.
Milgram
Experiment involving a “teacher” delivering volts to a “learner” while an authorized figure is present. Tests obedience to authority.
Zimbardo
Prison experiment. Tests power if situation and environment.
