social

Question 1

definition of social psychology

Answer 1

the scientific investigation of how people think about, interact with, influence and are influenced by the thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Question 2

definition of social influence

Answer 2

the ways in which people alter their behaviour or attitudes because of the direct or indirect influence of others

Question 3

definition of social facilitation

Answer 3

a boost in performance due to the presence of others

Question 4

definition of social inhibition

Answer 4

the presence of others leads to a worse performance

Question 5

definition of a group

Answer 5

any collection of two or more people who interact with and influence one another and who share a common purpose

Question 6

definition of group polarisation

Answer 6

discussion within groups tends to strengthen opinions, when individuals are in groups with others who hold similar attitudes and beliefs

Question 7

definition of obedience

Answer 7

compliance with an order, request or law or submission to another’s authority

Question 8

definition of conformity

Answer 8

action in accordance with some specified standard or authority

Question 9

what is attribution theory?

Answer 9

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

Question 10

what is internal attribution

Answer 10

the process of assigning the cause of behaviour to some internal characteristic

Question 11

what is external attribution

Answer 11

the process of assigning the cause of behaviour to some situation or event outside a person’s control rather than internal characteristics

Question 12

what is the fundamental attribution error

Answer 12

the tendency for an observer, when interpreting and explaining the behaviour of another person, to underestimate the situation and to overestimate the personal disposition

Question 13

what does milgram’s agency theory suggest?

Answer 13

people have two states of behaviour when in social situations

Question 14

what are the two states of behaviour?

Answer 14

autonomous state and agenic state

Question 15

what is the autonomous state?

Answer 15

people direct their own actions, and take responsibility for the results of those actions.

Question 16

what is the agentic state?

Answer 16

People allow others to direct their actions, and then pass off the consequences of those actions to the person giving the orders.

Question 17

what are the two things that have to be in place for people to enter the agentic state?

Answer 17

• The person giving the orders must be seen as qualified to direct behaviour
• The person being ordered must believe the authority will accept responsibility

Question 18

what is cognitive dissonance?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

what is the covariation model?

Answer 19

a logical model for judging whether a particular action should be attributed to some characteristic (internal) of the person or the environment (external).

Question 20

what are the low and high factors?

Answer 20

Low factors = person (internal) attribution. High factors = situational (external) attribution.

Question 21

what are the three types of causal information

Answer 21

consensus
distinctiveness
consistency

Question 22

what is consensus?

Answer 22

the extent to which other people behave in the same way in a similar situation.

Question 23

what is distinctiveness?

Answer 23

the extent to which the person behaves in the same way in similar situations.

Question 24

what is consistency?

Answer 24

the extent to which the person behaves like this every time the situation occurs.