Chapter 12 - Social Psychology Flashcards
social psychology
interactions between people, spanning a wide range of how we connect: from moments of confrontation to moments of working together and helping others, an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by social situations
intrapersonal topics
emotions and attitudes, the self, and social cognition
interpersonal topics
helping behavior, aggression, prejudice and discrimination, attraction and close relationship, and group processes and intergroup relationships
bystander effect
phenomenon in which a witness/bystander does not volunteer to help a victim or person in distress
diffusion of responsibility
tendency for no one in a group to help because the responsibility decreases with more people around
social cognition
how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information
person perception
- physical attractiveness (“beautiful is good” stereotype, self-fulfilling prophecy, “average” faces)
- first impressions
matching hypothesis
people tend to pick someone they view as their equal in physical attractiveness and social desirability
attitude
our evalution of a person, an idea, or an object
affective component
feelings
behavioral component
the effect of the attitude on behavior
cognitive component
belief and knowledge
self perception theory
individuals makes inferences about their own attitudes by perceiving their own behavior, especially if their attitudes are unclear
cognitive dissonance
psychological discomfort arising from holding two or more inconsistent attitudes, behaviors, or cognitions
self-serving bias
tendency to take credit for success and deny responsibility for failure, dispositional or internal attributions for positive outcomes but situational or external attributions for negative outcomes
self-objectification
tendency to see oneself primarily as an object in the eyes of others
attribution
a belief about the cause of a result, one model of attribution proposes three dimensions
locus of control
internal vs. external
stability
extent to which the circumstances are changeable
controllability
extent to which the circumstances can be controlled
stereotype threat
a self-fulfilling fear about being judged on the basis of a negative stereotype about their group, can undermine performance
social comparison
process by which we evaluate out thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and abilities in relation to other people, upward comparisons can lead to envy and inadequacy, downward comparisons can make us feel better about our own lives
actor-observer bias
phenomenon of explaining other people’s behaviors are due to internal factors and our own behaviors are due to situational forces
fundamental attribution error
tendency to overemphasize internal factors as explanations/attributions for the behavior of other people and underestimate the power of the situation (people tend to fail to recognize when a person’s behavior is due to situational variables)
confirmation bias
tendency to seek out information that supports our stereotypes and ignore information that is inconsistent with our stereotypes
self-fulfilling prophecy
an expectation held by a person that alters his or her behavior in a way that tends to make it true
prosocial behavior
voluntary behavior with the intent to help other people
altruism
people’s desire to help others even if the costs outweigh the benefits of helping, selfless helping, feeling good after helping is a consequence
explanation of altruism
- biological - genetics, neurotransmitters, midbrain
- psychological factors - empathy, personality, mood
- sociocultural factors - socioeconomic status, media influence
empathy
the capacity to understand another person’s perspective, to feel what he/she feels, making more emotional connections with others and feel compelled to help
Asch effect
the influence of the group majority on an individual’s judgment
the size of the majority
the greater the majority, the more likely an individual will conform
the presence of another dissenter
causes conformity rates to drop to near zero
the public or private nature of the responses
public responses cause more conformity than private
