Social Pschology Flashcards
Sense of self
An individual’s sense of identity that has been influenced by social, cultural, and psychological experiences; your sense of who you are in relation to other people.
Social cognition
The mental processes people use to make sense of their social environment.
Social influence
The effect of situational factors and other people on an individual’s behavior.
Person perception
Mental process we use to form judgements and draw conclusions about the characteristics and motives of other people.
Social norms
The rules for appropriate social behavior.
Social categorization
The mental process of categorizing people into groups (or social categories) on the basis of their shared characteristics
Explicit cognition
Deliberate conscious mental process involved in perceptions, judgements, decisions and reasoning.
Implicit cognition
Automatic mental processes involved in perceptions, judgements, decisions, and reasoning.
Implicit personality theory
A network of assumptions about the relationships among various types of people, traits, and behaviors.
Attribution
Mental process of inferring the causes of people’s behavior.
Fundamental attribution error
The tendency to attribute the behavior of others to internal, personal characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the effects of external, situational factors; an attributional bias that is common in individualistic cultures.
Actor-observer bias
The tendency to attribute our own behavior to external, situational characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the effects of internal personal factors.
Blaming the victim
Tendency to assume it’s the victims fault a situation has occurred.
Hindsight bias
Tendency to overestimate ones ability to have foreseen the outcome of an event.
Just-world hypothesis
Assumption that the world is fair and therefore people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
Self serving bias
Tendency to attribute successful outcomes to ones own behavior and unsuccessful ones to external, situational ones.
Attitude
A learned tendency to evaluate some object, person, or issue in a particular way.
Such evaluations may be positive, negative or ambivalent.
Cognitive dissonance
An unpleasant state of psychological tension that occurs when two thoughts or perceptions are inconsistent.
Typically results from the awareness that attitudes and behaviors are in conflict.
Prejudice
Negative attitude toward people who belong to s specific social group.
Stereotype
A cluster of characteristics that are associated with all members of a specific social group, often including qualities that are unrelated to the objective criteria that define the group.
Conformity
Adjusting your opinions, judgements, or behaviors so that they match the those of the social norm or situation.
Normative social influence
Behavior that is motivated by the desire to gain social acceptance and approval.
Informational social influence
Behavior that is motivated by the desire to be correct.
Altruism
Helping another with no expectation of reward.
Priscilla behavior
Any behavior that helps another whether it’s self serving or selfless.
Bystander effect
Phenomenon in which the greater number of people present, the less likely each individual is to help someone in distress
Diffusion of responsibility
Phenomenon where the presence of people makes it less likely that any individual will help because obligation is shared among everyone.
Social loafing
Expend less effort in group tasks.
Social facilitation
Presence of other people enhanced individual performance
Social Psychology
Branch of psychology that studies how a persons thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the presence of other people and by the social and physical environment.
