Chapter 17 & 18: Social Psychology Flashcards
Leon Festinger (1954)
Pointed out that self evaluation involves two types of questions: Those that can answered by taking objective measurement and those that cannot. We use both temporal comparison and social comparison
Social cognition
Mental processes associated with peoples perceptions of and reactions to other people
Self concept
The way one thinks of oneself
Our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, characteristics
Self esteem
The evaluation one makes about how worthy one is as a human being
Social comparison
Using other people as a basis of comparison for evaluating oneself
Comparing how attractive someone is to someone else
Reference groups
Categories of people to which people compare themselves
You are like let to compare yourself to those you normally compete against
Relative deprivation
The belief that, in comparison to a reference group, one is getting less than is deserved.
Ex. No matter how much money you receive, it’s less than you deserve in comparison to others.
Social identity
The beliefs we hold about the groups to which we belong
Social perception
The process through which people interpret information about others, draw inferences about them, and develop mental representations of them
Ex. Draw conclusions based on how someone is dressed
Self fulfilling prophecy
A process through which our expectations about another person cause us to act in ways that lead the person to behave as we expected.
Ex. If you’re nice to someone you expect to be nice, they will most likely act in that way since you did
Actor- observer effect
The tendency to attribute other people’s behavior to internal causes while attributing our own behavior (especially errors/failures) to external causes
Attitude
A predisposition toward a particular cognitive, emotional, or behavioral reaction to objects.
Elaboration likelihood model
A model suggesting that attitude change can be driven by evaluation of the content of a persuasive message (central route) or by irrelevant persuasion cues (peripheral routes)
Ex. Rational of argument vs. appearance of messenger
Contact hypothesis
The idea that stereotypes and prejudices toward a group will diminish as contact with the group increases
Matching hypothesis
The notion that people are most likely to form relationships with those who are similar to themselves in physical attractiveness
Social influence
The process whereby one persons behavior is affected by the words or the actions of others
Social facilitation
A phenomenon in which the presence of others improves a persons performance.
Ex. Sports (competition)
Social interference
A reduction in performance due to the presence of other people
Ex. Nervous in individual competition
Social loafing
Exerting less effort when performing a group task than when performing the same task alone
Environmental psychology
The study of the relationship between behavior and the physical environment
Helping behavior
Any act that is intended to benefit another person.
Ex. Donating a kidney
Altruism
An unselfish concern for another persons welfare.
Cost- Reward theory
A theory attributing peoples helping behavior to their efforts to reduce the unpleasant arousal they feel in the face of someone’s need or suffering
Empathy-Altruism Theory
A theory suggesting that people help others because of empathy with their needs
