social Flashcards
definition of social psychology
the scientific investigation of how people think about, interact with, influence and are influenced by the thoughts, feelings and behaviours
definition of social influence
the ways in which people alter their behaviour or attitudes because of the direct or indirect influence of others
definition of social facilitation
a boost in performance due to the presence of others
definition of social inhibition
the presence of others leads to a worse performance
definition of a group
any collection of two or more people who interact with and influence one another and who share a common purpose
definition of group polarisation
discussion within groups tends to strengthen opinions, when individuals are in groups with others who hold similar attitudes and beliefs
definition of obedience
compliance with an order, request or law or submission to another’s authority
definition of conformity
action in accordance with some specified standard or authority
what is attribution theory?
deals with how the social perciever uses information to arrive at causal explanations for events. it examines what information if gathered and how it is combined to form causal judgement
what is internal attribution
the process of assigning the cause of behaviour to some internal characteristic
what is external attribution
the process of assigning the cause of behaviour to some situation or event outside a person’s control rather than internal characteristics
what is the fundamental attribution error
the tendency for an observer, when interpreting and explaining the behaviour of another person, to underestimate the situation and to overestimate the personal disposition
what does milgram’s agency theory suggest?
people have two states of behaviour when in social situations
what are the two states of behaviour?
autonomous state and agenic state
what is the autonomous state?
people direct their own actions, and take responsibility for the results of those actions.
what is the agentic state?
People allow others to direct their actions, and then pass off the consequences of those actions to the person giving the orders.
what are the two things that have to be in place for people to enter the agentic state?
- The person giving the orders must be seen as qualified to direct behaviour
- The person being ordered must believe the authority will accept responsibility
what is cognitive dissonance?
refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviours. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviours to reduce the discomfort and restore balance
what is the covariation model?
a logical model for judging whether a particular action should be attributed to some characteristic (internal) of the person or the environment (external).
what are the low and high factors?
Low factors = person (internal) attribution. High factors = situational (external) attribution.
what are the three types of causal information
consensus
distinctiveness
consistency
what is consensus?
the extent to which other people behave in the same way in a similar situation.
what is distinctiveness?
the extent to which the person behaves in the same way in similar situations.
what is consistency?
the extent to which the person behaves like this every time the situation occurs.
