Social Psych Flashcards
Describe the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
when an initially inaccurate expectation leads to actions that cause the expectation to come true
example - “i am gonna fail psych —> doesn’t study, doesn’t pay attention —> fails psych
Describe the Other-Fulfilling Prophecy
when the expectation of others leads to actions that cause the expectation to come true
example - you will excel in basketball this season —> focus in practice, put in extra time —> excel in bball
Describe the Attributional Theory
Judgements that a person’s behavior was caused by their personality
example- shouting at an airport means that they are always an angry person
Describe the Fundamental Attribution Error
when observers overestimate the role of personality factors on behaviors and underestimate the role of situational influences
example- blaming a coworker for being late because they’re unreliable instead of considering that they got stuck in traffic
Describe the Actor-Observer Difference
the tendency for individuals to judge their own behaviors as caused by situational forces but the behavior of another as caused by their personality
example- tripping on the road and blaming to road, but watching someone else trip and thinking they’re clumsy
Describe the Availability Heuristic
estimating the likelihood of an event by the ease at which it comes to mind
example- non-commonness of plane crashes make people more afraid than of a car crash, which happens often
Describe the Representative Heuristic
classifying something as belonging to a certain category
grouping like things together
(stereotypes)
Describe the Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic
using a stereotype as a starting point and then adjusting it to include unique characteristics
Describe False Consensus
the tendency to overestimate the extent in which others agree with us
example- thinking that everyone loves basketball just because you feel that way
Describe Downward Social Comparison
the process of which comparing ourselves with those who are less well off
example- breast cancer surgery vs heart surgery
Describe Upwards Social Comparison
the process of comparing ourselves with those who are better off than ourselves
example - comparing yourself to someone who gets As to inspire urself to study
Describe the Self-Serving Bias
The tendency to take credit for our successes and to blame external factors on our failures
Describe the Overconfidence Phenomenon
people’s confidence in their actions is reliably higher than their accuracy of those actions
Describe the 2 types of Overconfidence Phenomenon
1. Overestimation - judging the precision of your abilities to be higher than they actually are
example- thinking u aced a test when u bombed it
2. Over placement- judging your performance to be higher than others
Describe Deindividualization
powerful in large groups
occurs due to a loss of self-awareness and increased feeling of anonymity (lacking identity), heightened emotions/arousal and diminished responsibility
Diminished responsibility—> behaviors you would not normally exhibit
(example - riots)
Describe Conformity
a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group
change occurs in response to real or imagined group pressure
What are the 2 types of conformity?
1. Normative - conforming to a group’s behavior to be liked by the group
2. Informational - turning to group members to obtain and accept accurate information
Describe the Factors that effect Conformity
- made to feel incompetent
- at least 3 people
- high status group (want to fit in)
- unanimity ( not stand out)
- no prior commitment
- our behavior is in the open
- cultural effect
Describe Social Facilitation
improved performance on simple tasks in the presence or implied presence of others
social evaluation has an impact on performance (likely due to arousal)
enhanced speed and accuracy of well-practiced tasks but will degrade performance of less familiar tasks
Describe Social Loafing
the tendency for individuals to slack off when doing things as a group
when you believe other are trying you may quit because you feel less accountable
Describe Group Polarization
when like-minded people form a group, their similar thoughts tend to intensify
as a result, small differences between groups tend to grow
Describe the GroupThink Phenomenon
Desire for group harmony leads to dysfunctional decision making
to minimize group conflict, opposing viewpoints and outside influences are suppressed
the group reaches an agreement without evaluating the opposing ideas
can be stopped by a good leader that listens to other and welcomes criticism—> also minorities can effect the group if they stick to their guns
Describe Self-Handicapping
engaging in behaviors that sabotage your chances of success
Describe Cognitive Dissonance
when your actions directly conflict with your beliefs and it leads to internal conflict
easier to change your beliefs about the actions as you cannot undo what has been done
