Chapter 13: Social Psychology Flashcards
sociometer theory
self-esteem derives primarily from our perception of other’s attitudes toward us
big-fish-in-small-pond effect
change of reference group can dramatically affect self-esteem
positive illusory bias
overestimation of abilities
norm of reciprocity
tendency to comply with people who have done things for us
norm of obedience
obeying legitimate authorities
altruistic punishment
punishing someone who contributed less
in-group favouritism; out-group discrimination
increased willingness to help members of own group; decreased willingness to help members of another group
attitude
belief/opinion that has an evaluative component
attribution
inference about the cause of a person’s behavioural action or set of actions
cognitive dissonance theory
people seek to relieve the disconfort associated with the awareness of inconsistency between two or more of one’s own cognitions/beliefs (Festinger’s theory)
explicit attitudes
conscious attitudes; attitudes that people are aware of holding and can state verbally
explicit stereotypes
stereotypes that people hold consciously
foot-in-the-door technique
technique for gaining compliance in which one first asks for some relatively small contribution of favor before asking for a larger one; complying with the first request predisposes the person to comply with the second
fundamental attribution error/ actor-observer-discrepancy
tendency for people to attribute an action to the individual’s personality and to ignore the constraints that the role or situation places on how the person can/must act
group polarization
tendency for a group of people who already share a particular opinion to hold that opinion more strongly after discussing the issue among themselves
groupthink
model of thinking in which members of a group are more concerned with group cohesiveness and unanimity that with realistic appraisal of the actions being considered
implicit assotiation test
test of a person’s automatic, unconscious mental assotiations, designed to assess implicit streotypes or other implicit attitudes
implicit attitudes
attitudes that are manifested in a pesron’s behaviour or automatic mental associations, even though the person may not be conscious of holding those attitudes
implicit stereotypes
sterotypes that automatically, unconsciously influence people’s judgements and actions toward others
impression management
the entire set of ways by which people either consciously or unconsciously attempt to influence other people’s impressions of them
informational influence
class of social influence that derives from the use of other’s behaviour or opinion as information in forming one’s own judgement about the objective nature of an event/situation
in-groups
groups to which we belong
insufficient-justification effect
change in attitude that serves to sutify an action that seems unjustified in the light of the prevously held attitude
low-ball technique
sales trick in which the salesperson suggests a low price for the item being sold, and then, when the potential customer has agreed to buy it at that price, pretends to discover that the item cannot be sold for that price
normative influence
class of social influence that derives from people’s concern about what others will think of them if they behave in a certain way or express a certain belief
out-groups
groups to wich we do not belong
person bias
tendency to attribute a person’s behaviour too much to the person’s inner characteristics/personality and not enough to the environmental situation
personal identity
portion of the self-concept that pertains to the self as a distinct, separate individual
self-fulfilling prophecies/ Pygmalion effects
phenomenon by which beliefs and expectations that others have on a person can to a some degree create reality by influencing that person’s self-concept and behaviour
reference group
group of people with whom an individual compares him- or herself for the purpose of self-evaluation
self-concept
way a person defines him- or herself
self-esteem
person’s feeling of approval and acceptance of him- or hersels
self-serving attributional bias
tendency of people to attribute their successes to their own qualities and their failures to the situation
social comparison
process in which an individual evaluates their own abilities/ characteristics/ ideas/ achievements by comparing them with those of other people
social dilemma
situatin in which a particular action will:
- benefit the individual who takes it
- harm the individuals who don’t
- cause more harm than benefit to everyone if everyone takes it
social facilitation
tendency to perform a task better in front of others than when alone
social identity
portion of the self-concept that pertains to the social categories/groups of which the person is a part
social interference
tendency to perform a task worse in front of others than when alone
social pressure
entire set of psychological forces that are exerted on an individual by other people or by the individual’s beliefs about other people
social psychology
branch of psycholgy that attempts to understand how the behaviour and subjective experiences of individuals are influenced by the actual/imagined presence of other people
stereotype
mental concept by which people characterize one or more specific groups/categories of people
stereotype threat
threatened feeling that occurs, during the taking of a test, when a person is reminded of the fact that they belong to a group that, according to a culturally prominent stereotype, is expected to perform poorly on the test
superordinate goals
goals shared by two or more groups, which tend to foster cooperation among the groups
