Module #18 - Social Psychology Flashcards
Social psychology
The scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another.
Attribution theory
The theory that we tend to examine the behavior of others as an aspect of either an internal disposition (an inner trait) or the situation.
Situational Disposition
Attributing someone’s actions to the various factors in the situation.
Dispositional Attribution
Attributing someone’s actions to the person’s dispositions i.e. Their thoughts, feelings, personality characteristics, etc.
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to attribute the behavior of others to internal disposition rather than to situations.
Self-Serving Bias
A readiness to perceive oneself favorably.
Attitude
The belief and feeling that predisposes someone to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
We act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when our thought (cognitions) and actions are inconsistent.
Conformity
Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.
Solomon Asch (1907-1996)
Social psychologist who researched the circumstances under which people conform.
Stanley Milgram (1933-1984)
Social psychologist who researched obedience to authority.
Obedience
The tendency to comply with orders, implied or real, from someone perceived as an authority.
Social Facilitation
Improved performance of tasks in the presence of others. Occurs with simple or well learned tasks but not tasks that are difficult or not yet learned.
Social Loafing
The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable.
Deindividuation
The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.
