Chp. 11 - Social Psychology Flashcards
What is Social Psychology?
scientific study of how individuals think about, influence and relate to one another.
The Fundamental Attribution Error
We overestimate the influence of personality and underestimate the influence of situations. Attribute behavior to the individual’s personality traits. See behaviors more often in some cultures than in others.
Peripheral Route Persuasion
Occurs when people are influenced by unimportant cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness.
Central Route Persuasion
Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.
Foot in Door Phenomenon
Tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.
Stanford Prison Experiment
Male college students volunteered to spend time in a mock prison & were assigned the roles of guards or prisoners. Volunteers self-consciously played their roles only for a day or two, after which most guards developed negative attitudes towards the prisoners.
Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiment
Milgram investigated the effects of punishment on learning. Experiments involved commands to stock on individual. Participants would ego against what the thought was morally right in reaction to authority figures.
Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Study
Situations when obedience is highest. Individuals giving orders are in close proximity and are perceived as a legitimate authority figures.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Individuals act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) they feel when 2 of their thoughts (cognitions) clash.
Chameleon Effect
Humans are natural mimics, unconsciously imitating, others expressions, postures, and voice tones.
Conformity
Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.
Normative Social Influence
Results from a person’s desire to grain approval or avoid disapproval.
Social Facilitation
Improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.
Informational Social Influence
Results from a person’s willingness to accept others opinions about reality.
Social Loafing
Tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable.
Deindividuation
Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint that occurs in group situations.
Group Polarization
Strengthening a group’s preexisting attitudes through discussions within the group. If a group is like-minded, discussion strengths it’s prevailing opinions.
Group Think
Occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-taking group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.
Prejudice
Unfair and negative attitude toward a group and its members.
Discrimination
Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.
Just-world Phenomenon
Tendency to believe that the world is just so that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
In Group Bias
Tendency to favor one’s own group. People associate themselves with others via social identities.
In Group
“Us” - People with whom we share a common identity.
Outgroup
“Them” - Those perceived as different or a part of our group.
Scapegoat Theory
Prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.
Other-race Effect
Tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately than faces of other faces.
Aggression
Any act intended to harm someone physically or emotionally.
Frustration-Aggression Principle
Frustration creates anger, which can generate aggression and other aversive stimuli that can trigger aggression such as hot temperatures, physical pain for personal insults, foul orders, cigarette smoke, and crowding.
Social Script
Culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations.
Equality
Condition in which people recieve from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it.
Self-disclosure
Act of revealing intimate aspects of one’s life to others.
Altruism
Unselfish concern for the welfare of otherwise.
Bystander Effect
When people thought they alone heard the calls for help from a person they believed to be having an epileptic seizure, they usually helped.
Socialization Norm
Social expectation prescribes how individuals should behave.
Reciprocity Norm
The expectation is that people will help those dependent on them.
Social-Responsibility Norm
the expectation that people will help those dependent on them.
Conflict
Perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
A belief that leads to its own fulfillment.
Mirror-Image Perceptions
Mutual views held by conflicting people.
Contact
Positive contact is most effective when it is noncompetitive and between parties with equal status.
Superordinate Goals
Superordinate goals; shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation.
