Unit 1a Social Psychology

Question 1

Social Psychology

Answer 1

Study of the way thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of one individual are influenced by the real, imagined, or inferred behavior or characteristics of other people.

Question 2

Personality Psychology

Answer 2

The study of how people are unique and how their personalities develop and vary.

Question 3

Person Perception

Answer 3

Impression of ourselves and others, including attributions and behaviors.

Question 4

Social Comparison

Answer 4

People come to know themselves by evaluating their own attitudes, abilities, and beliefs in comparison with others.

Question 5

Upward vs. Downward Comparison

Answer 5

Upward: Looking at something better. Downward: Looking at something worse.

Question 6

Attribution Theory

Answer 6

Tries to explain how people make judgments about the causes of other people’s behavior.

Question 7

Dispositional Attribution

Answer 7

Personality trait causes tendencies to act a certain way.

Question 8

Situational Attribution

Answer 8

Credit behaviors to situations/scenarios.

Question 9

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 9

Tendency for people to over estimate dispositional causes for behavior. In reality, situational attribution is a more likely cause.

Question 10

Actor-Observer Bias

Answer 10

Attribution of behavior will depend if you are the actor or observer. Actor- more likely to accredit situational attribution. Observer- more likely to accredit dispositional attribution.

Question 11

Explanatory Style

Answer 11

A person’s way of interpreting and explaining events.

Question 12

Prejudice

Answer 12

Unjustifiable, usually negative attitude toward a group and its members. Generally involves negative emotions, stereotyped beliefs, and a predisposition to discriminatory action.

Question 13

Stereotype

Answer 13

Over-generalized beliefs about a group of people or things, by-products of how we cognitively try to simplify the world.

Question 14

Discrimination

Answer 14

Unfair, prejudiced, negative behavior.

Question 15

Implicit Bias

Answer 15

Unconscious bias, unaware that it exists.

Question 16

Self-Serving Bias

Answer 16

Example of Actor-Observer Effect, tendency for people to attribute positive events in their life to dispositional traits and negative events to situational factors.

Question 17

WEIRD Acronym

Answer 17

W- Western
E- Educated
I- Industrial
R- Rich
D- Democracies,
Describing cultures. 80% of research is done in WEIRD countries, making up 12% of global population. This means the entire population is not represented/can’t be generalized.

Question 18

Just-World Phenomenon

Answer 18

Reflects the common idea that good is rewarded and evil is punished; those who succeed must be good and those who don’t must be bad.

Question 19

False Consensus Effect

Answer 19

Attribution type of cognitive bias whereby people tend to overestimate the extent to which their opinions, beliefs, preferences, values, and habits are normal and typical of those of others. We over assume that others share our opinions.

Question 20

Halo Effect

Answer 20

The tendency for people to take a positive dispositional trait and extend it to every aspect of their life.

Question 21

Devil Effect

Answer 21

The tendency for people to take a negative dispositional trait and extend it to every aspect of their life.

Question 22

Schema

Answer 22

Mental representation of a concept. A shortcut/pattern of behavior or thought.

Question 23

Out-group homogeneity

Answer 23

Perceiving uniformity of out-group attitudes, personality, and appearance that we don’t identify with. We tend to think other groups are all alike.

Question 24

In-group bias

Answer 24

A favoring of our own group after identifying “us” and “them.”

Question 25

Ethnocentrism

Answer 25

Assuming the superiority of one's ethnic group.

Question 26

Scapegoating

Answer 26

Theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.

Question 27

Attitudes

Answer 27

Feeling influenced by beliefs, predispose us to respond in a particular way.

Question 28

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 28

Belief that leads to its own fulfillment.

Question 29

Central Route Persuasion

Answer 29

Using central, key details to influence decision/attitude. More logical appeal.

Question 30

Peripheral Route Persuasion

Answer 30

Using things that aren't really important to influence decision/attitude. More emotional appeal.

Question 31

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

Answer 31

Tendency for people to who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

Question 32

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Answer 32

Feeling of tension/discomfort when values and behaviors are inconsistent.

Question 33

Conformity

Answer 33

A behavior that is engaged in in order to fit in with a group.

Question 34

Norm

Answer 34

Understood rules for accepted and expected behavior.

Question 34

Normative Social Influence

Answer 34

Pressure resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.

Question 35

Informational Social Influence

Answer 35

Influence resulting from one's willingness to accept other's opinions about reality.

Question 36

Obedience

Answer 36

Whether or not to follow directives of assumed authority figure.

Question 37

Group Polarization

Answer 37

Phenomenon where, in decisions and opinions, people in a group setting become more extreme than their actual, privately held beliefs.

Question 38

Groupthink

Answer 38

Mode of thinking that occurs with desire for harmony. In decision making the group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Leads to worse decisions.

Question 39

Social Facilitation

Answer 39

Improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others. (Opposite if social inhibition).

Question 40

Social Loafing

Answer 40

Tendency for people to exert less effort when working in a group than when individually accountable.

Question 41

Deindividuation

Answer 41

Process of losing self-awareness and self-restraint when in a crowd.

Question 42

Altruism

Answer 42

Doing good without expecting anything in return.

Question 43

Bystander Effect

Answer 43

Presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in situations.

Question 44

Reciprocity Norm

Answer 44

A social norm where, if someone does something for you, you feel obligated to return the favor.

Question 45

Social Exchange Theory

Answer 45

We enter relationships because we benefit from them.

Question 46

Social Traps

Answer 46

People act to obtain short-term individual gains. Which in the long run leads to a loss for the group as a whole.

Question 47

Superordinate Goals

Answer 47

Goals that require cooperation of two or more people or groups to achieve, which usually results in rewards to the groups.

Question 48

Mere Exposure Effect

Answer 48

Tendency to like something/someone more because you are exposed to it often.

Question 49

Social Contagion

Answer 49

The spread of behaviors, emotions, or attitudes through a group or network.

Question 50

Antisocial

Answer 50

Long term pattern of disregarding social norms.