psychology SAC Flashcards
Person Perception
Definition: The process of forming impressions of others.
Key Points: Involves interpreting, analyzing, remembering, and using information about others in social interactions.
Physical cues:
Physical appearance, halo effect, body language, behaviour.
Salience detection:
Attributions
Explanations we make for the causes of behavior, either internal (personal factors) or external (situational factors).
Key Points: Includes fundamental attribution error (overemphasis on internal factors) and self-serving bias (attributing successes to oneself and failures to external factors).
Attitudes
Definition: A learned tendency to evaluate objects, people, or concepts in a certain way.
Key Points: The three components of attitudes are affective (feelings), behavioral (actions), and cognitive (thoughts).
Stereotypes
Oversimplified, generalized beliefs about a group of people.
Key Points: Can lead to prejudice (negative attitudes) and discrimination (unjust treatment).
Avoidance of Cognitive Dissonance
The discomfort experienced when holding conflicting beliefs or attitudes.
Key Points: Cognitive biases (e.g., confirmation bias) are used to reduce discomfort by aligning thoughts and actions.
Heuristics
heuristic is a strategy for solving a problem or making a decision that is based on
experience with similar types of problems but cannot guarantee a correct outcome.
For example, a heuristic learnt through experience in playing classic Monopoly is to
purchase as many properties as possible, particularly those that enable hotel rental
payments. This heuristic will not ensure winning, but using it does increase one’s chance of
doing so.
Prejudice and Discrimination
Back:
Definition: Prejudice is an unjustified attitude toward a group; discrimination is the behavior that stems from that attitude.
Key Points: Can harm mental well-being and social harmony; strategies to reduce include intergroup contact and education.
Influence of Social Groups and Culture
Definition: Social groups and cultural norms shape individual behaviors and attitudes.
Key Points: Cultural influences such as individualism vs collectivism affect how we behave in social situations.
Obedience
Definition: Following orders or directions from an authority figure.
Key Points: Milgram’s obedience experiment showed the extent to which individuals will obey authority, even against their ethical judgments.
Conformity
Definition: Adjusting one’s behavior or beliefs to align with group norms.
Key Points: Asch’s experiments demonstrated how social pressure can lead individuals to conform to group decisions, even if they believe those decisions are wrong.
Media Influence
Definition: The effects of media consumption on individual and group behavior.
Key Points: Includes social comparison, addiction to media, and how information access changes behavior. Can have both positive and negative effects.
Independence and Anti-Conformity
Definition: Resisting the pressure to conform to the norms or expectations of a group.
Key Points: Encourages independent decision-making and critical thinking, especially when group norms may be harmful.
Groupthink
Definition: A decision-making process where the desire for harmony in a group results in irrational or dysfunctional outcomes.
Key Points: Often leads to poor decision-making due to pressure to conform within the group.
Cognitive Dissonance
Definition: The mental discomfort experienced when holding contradictory beliefs.
Key Points: People tend to reduce dissonance by changing beliefs or justifying actions.
Types of Data
Definition: Quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (descriptive) data.
Key Points: Quantitative data is useful for statistical analysis, while qualitative data provides depth and context.
