Social Psych Flashcards
Who conducted the first social psychology study? what was it on?
Norman Triplett did the first study - looking at social facilitation, spec. riding a bike by yourself vs riding with others, you’ll do better with others
What is social psychology?
the study of how people relate to and influence each other
What did Norman Triplett study?
early questions in social psychology
What did Kurt Lewin contribute to social psychology?
- founder of the field
- gestalt theories applied to social behavior
- conceived field theory of individual beh
- coined the terms life space, valence, vector, and barrier as aspects of the life space
What is Lewin’s life space?
the collection of forces influencing an individual
What are the three main forces in Lewin’s life space?
valence, vector, and barrier
What were the two theories founded by Fritz Heider?
- Attribution theory
- Balance theory
What does attribution theory study?
how people infer the causes of other people’s behavior -the emotions, intentions, and agency of other’s actions
What does balance theory study?
how people try to make their feelings/actions consistent to maintain psychological homeostasis
Who postulated attribution theory and balance theory?
Fritz Heider
What is the fundamental attribution error?
Actions of other’s are always a result of their choices and intentions, esp negative actions. Our own actions can be influenced by circumstances-bad things are less our fault
What does the phrase action-observer attributional divergence mean?
the observer of an action and the person performing the action have different perspectives on the behavior
What is an illusory correlation?
assuming two unrelated things have a relationship
What is hindsight bias?
believing after the fact that you knew some piece of information all along, even though you didn’t
What is the halo effect?
believing that if someone has one good quality the she has only good qualities
What is the false consensus bias?
believing most other people think the same as you do
What experiment did Lee Ross conduct?
many experiments on belief perseverance
- tell subjects a statement, later tell them it was a false statement
- subjects who had devised their own logic for the statement continued to believe it was true
What did Richard Nisbett’s research focus on?
how people lack awareness about the reasons for their actions
What is the base rate fallacy?
Assuming things we are familiar with in our own lives are much more common than they are in reality
Who theorized the just-world bias?
MJ Lerner
What is the just-world fallacy?
that good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people. leads to victim-blaming
What was the focus of Ellen Langer’s research?
the illusion of control
What is the illusion of control?
that you have control or influence over things you do not. this illusion is the driving force behind the idea of ‘playing’ the lottery, superstition, etc.
What is a representativeness heuristic?
a mental shortcut based on assumptions about ‘typical/representative’ features rather than actual logic
What theory did Leon Festinger propose?
the cognitive dissonance theory
Who proposed the cognitive dissonance theory?
Leon Festinger
What is the basic tenet of the cognitive dissonance theory?
it is uncomfortable for people to have beliefs that do not match their actions. so after difficult decisions/actions, people feel the need to justify it with their beliefs
What theory did Daryl Bem propose?
the self-perception theory
Who proposed the self-perception theory?
Daryl Bem
What is the basic tenet of the self-perception theory?
when people are unsure of their beliefs/desires, they infer from their actions what those beliefs must be
What is the over-justification effect?
people lose the pleasure of doing something they used to enjoy once they are paid to do it (often creative things like art/singing/dance)
What is the gain-loss theory?
people act to achieve gains and avoid losses. so much so that a neg-pos change in situation is experienced as better than an always positive situation
What is social exchange theory?
humans interact in ways to maximize reward and minimize costs
what is impression management?
trying to ‘manage’ the impression given to others by your behavior, usually to leave a positive impression
what is social facilitation?
the tendency for the presence of other people to enhance OR HINDER performance
What did Robert Zajonc discover to be a basic trend in social facilitation?
that it helps performance on easy tasks but hinders on complex tasks