UNIT 8: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Flashcards
Conformity
The act of
matching attitudes,
beliefs, and behaviors to
group norms
Normative Influence
“Social Norm”
Norm” Influence
that produces conformity
when a person fears the
negative social
consequences of
appearing deviant
Stanley Milgram (1963)
Measured the willingness
to obey an authority
figure who instructed
them to perform acts that
conflicted with their
personal conscious
Social Facilitation
A process whereby the
presence of others
enhances performance on
easy tasks but impairs
performance on difficult
tasks
Social Inhibition
Performance is poorer
when watched by others
Social Loafing
Tendency of
individuals to put forth less
effort when they are part of
a group
Deindividuation
The loss
of a person’s sense of
individuality and the
reduction of normal
constraints against deviant
behavior
Group Polarization
The exaggeration of initial
tendencies in the thinking
of group members
through group discussions
Groupthink
A group
decision-making style
characterized by an
excessive tendency among
group members to seek
concurrence
Prejudice
“Prejudgement”
Unjustified Negative
attitude about a group of
people based on their
membership in the group
Discrimination
Unjustified
Negative behavior toward
members of a target group
(individual level) based on
their race, ethnicity, or
other shared characteristic
Stereotype Threat
A
situation in which people
feel at risk of performing as
their group is expected to
perform
In-Groups
Group that we
identify with “us” or see
ourselves as belonging to
Out-Groups
Social groups
with whom a person does
not identify; “them”
The Frustration-
Aggression Principle
The idea that people become
aggressive when they’re
frustrated by being
blocked from reaching a
goal
Bystander Effect
Phenomenon in which
the greater the number of
people present, the less
likely people are to help a
person in distress
(diffusion of responsibility
Altruism
The unselfish
concern for other people;
doing things simply out of
a desire to help, not
because you feel
obligated to
Social Exchange Theory
Argues that altruism only
exists when the benefits
outweigh the costs—i.e.,
when your behavior helps
you even more than it
helps the other person
Reciprocity
Social
expectation in which we
feel pressured to help
others if they have already
done something for us
Social Responsibility
Norm
Societal rule that
tells people they should
help others who need
help even if they may not
repay us
Social Dilemma
A situation in which a
self-interested choice by
everyone will create the
worst outcome for
everyone
Familiarity “Mere
Exposure Effect”
Liking someone occurs because
of repeatedly seeing that
person or thing
Proximity
The closer
together people are
physically, the more likely
they are to form a
relationship/friendship
Fundamental Attribution
Error
Our tendency to
underestimate the
impact of situational
factors and overestimate
the impact of dispotional
(personal) factors when
assessing why other
people acted the way
they did
Self-Serving Bias
Tendency to blame
external forces when bad
things happen and to
give ourselves credit
when good things
happen
Actor-Observer Bias
Tendency to attribute
one’s own actions to
external causes while
attributing other people’s
behaviors to internal
causes
False Consensus Effect
Tendency to overestimate
how much other people
agree with us
Just-World Phenomenon
Tendency to believe that
the world is just and that
people get what they
deserve
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Prediction that causes
itself to come true due to
the simple fact that the
prediction was made
Central Route of
Persuasion
The process by
which a person thinks
carefully about a
communication and is
influenced by the strength
of its arguments
Peripheral Route of
Persuasion
The process by
which a person does not
think carefully about a
communication and is
influenced instead by
superficial cues
Foot-In-The-Door
Phenomenon
Tendency
for people who have first
agreed to a small request
to comply later with a
larger request
Door-In-The-Face
Technique
Asking for a
large commitment and
being refused and then
asking for a smaller
commitment and getting
agreement
Cognitive Dissonance
(Leon Festinger 1957):
Sense of discomfort or
distress that occurs when a
person’s behavior does not
correspond to that person’s
attitudes
