Chapter 15: Social Psychology Flashcards
Social psychology
The study of how the immediate social context as well as broader cultural environments influence people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions
Transference
The tendency to treat one person as if they possess the traits or characteristics of another more familiar person. For example, in psychotherapy, clients might respond to a therapist in ways that resemble the dynamic they have with major figures in their own lives
False consensus
The tendency to overstimulate the extent to which other people’s beliefs and attitudes are similar to our own
Impression management
A series of strategies that people use to influence the impressions that others form of them
Attribution
Assignment of a casual explanation for an event, action, or outcome.
Fundamental attribution error
The tendency to assume that people’s actions are more the result of their internal dispositions than of the situational context
Self-serving attributions
The attributions people make for their own behaviours or outcomes: we tend to make dispositional attributions for positive events but situational attributions for negative events
Affective forecasting errors
People’s inability to accurately predict the emotional reactions they will have to events
Attitude
An orientation toward some target stimulus that is composed of an affective feeling, a cognitive belief, and a behavioural motivation toward the target.
Implicit attitude
An automatically activated evaluation of a stimulus ranging from positive to negative
Explicit attitude
The consciously reported evaluation a person has in response to a target stimulus
Elaboration likelihood model (ELM)
A theory of persuasion contending that attitudes can change by two different routes; a central route that focuses on the strength of the argument and a peripheral route that is sensitive to more superficial cues
Cognitive dissonance
A sense of conflict between people’s attitudes and actions that motivates efforts to restore cognitive consistency
Social norms
The patterns of behaviour, traditions, and preferences that are tacitly approved of by a given culture or subculture
Conformity
The process by which people implicitly mimic, adopt, or internalize the behaviours and preferences of those around them
Informational social influence
Pressure to conform to others actions or beliefs based on a desire to behave correctly or gain an accurate understanding of the world.
Normative social influence
Pressure to conform to others actions or beliefs in order to gain approval from others or avoid social sanctions.
Social facilitation
An enhancement of the dominant behaviour response when performing a task in the mere presence of others; easy or well-learned tasks are performed better, but difficult or novel tasks are performed worse
Social loafing
The tendency for individuals to expend less effort on a task when they are doing it with others rather than alone
Group polarization
A tendency for people’s attitudes to become more extreme after they discuss an issue with like-minded others
Groupthink
A form of biased group decision making whereby pressure to achieve consensus leads members of the group to avoid voicing unpopular suggestions
General aggression model
An integrative framework of the various factors and psychological processes that contribute to an act of aggression
Weapons affect
A phenomenon whereby simple exposure to a gun or weapon can increase aggressive responses by bringing violent thoughts to mind
Kin selection
An evolved or adaptive strategy of assisting those who share one’s genes, even at personal cost, as a means of increasing the odds of genetic survival
