Social Psychology: Key Concepts

• Social psychology studies personality, social interaction, and how others influence behavior.

Intra-personal Topics

• Relate to the self in social situations, e.g., attitudes, social cognition.

Inter-personal Topics

• Relate to the behavior of dyads and groups, e.g., attraction, aggression.

Situationism

• Behavior is primarily determined by the situation.

Dispositionism

• Behavior is determined by internal factors, such as personality

Fundamental Attribution Error

• The assumption the behavior of others is dispositional, ignoring situational factors.
• Halo effects: One aspect of an individual influences overall perception in other areas.
• More likely in individualistic than collectivistic societies.

Actor-Observer Bias

• The assumption the behavior of others is dispositional, and our behavior is situational.

Self-Serving Bias

• The assumption successes are dispositional, and failures are situational.

Just World Hypothesis

• The assumption that people get what they deserve.

Social Roles

• Patterns of behavior culturally expected of a person in each setting or group.
• Different social roles exist in different situations, e.g., at campus, at home, at church.

Social Norms

• Define how people are expected to behave and think given a social role.

Scripts

• Knowledge of what sequence of behaviors are expected in each situation guide social behaviors.

Stanford Prison Study

• Philip Zimbardo studied how people behave when randomly assigned the role of prisoner or guard in a fake prison setting.

Attitudes

• Evaluations of people, ideas, or objects, that can be positive or negative.
• Attitudes can be learned through direct experience, instruction, interactions, or observation.
• Attitudes have three components; affective (feelings), behavioral, and cognitive (belief and knowledge).

Mere Exposure Effect

• Familiarity with something may result in more positive attitudes toward it.

Cognitive Dissonance

• Inconsistency between attitudes and behaviors causes psychological discomfort.
• Dissonance reduced by changing attitudes or behaviors.

Justification of Effort

• Belief that something is more worthwhile if it is difficult to obtain.
• Hazing, pledging, and initiation rituals are examples.

Persuasion

• An active and conscious effort to change attitudes through the transmission of a message.

Yale Attitude Change Approach Conditions

• Source Credibility: Expert, trustworthy, attractive, and/or prestigious source.
• Message Subtle: Presents more than one side with proper timing.
• Audience Attentive: Lower intelligence, moderate self-esteem, younger individuals.

The Foot-in-the-Door Technique

• Agreeing to a small request increases the likelihood of agreeing to a larger request later.

The Door-in-the-Face Technique

• A very large, difficult request increases the likelihood of agreeing to a reasonable request later.

Conformity

• Situations in which people alter their opinions or behaviors to "go" with the group.
• Asch (1951) studies on line length perception.

Social Influence of the Group:

• Normative Social Influence- The group does what is "normal" and we see our behavior as judged against that "norm"
• Informational Social Influence- In ambiguous situations, people compare their reactions/behavior with the group to judge what is appropriate

Conformity Likelihood

• More likely with a sizeable majority (up to 7 group members), no dissenters, and public responses.

Compliance

• Agreeing with things requested by others who have no real authority.

Obedience

• Compliance with authority.

Milgram's Studies

• Milgram's (1963, 1974) classic obedience studies.

Group Decision Making

• Risky-Shift Effect: Groups take more risks than individuals.

Group Polarization

• Strengthening of a group attitude after discussion within the group.

Groupthink

• Group members reassure each other, aligning with the group's consensus but suppressing dissenting opinions.

Social Loafing

• Reduction in individual performance when working in a group.
• Seen if the group is evaluated as a whole, increases with group size, and reduced if individual performance is evaluated.

Social Facilitation

• Arousal from group evaluation improves performance in simple tasks, but may reduce it in complex tasks.

Deindividuation

• Being in a group can reduce self-awareness due to anonymity, low accountability, and a reduced sense of self.

Stereotype

• A belief or assumption about an individual based only on their membership in a group.

Prejudice

• A negative attitude or feeling toward someone based on group membership
• Typically observed toward members of unfamiliar cultural groups which decreases with interaction.

Discrimination

• Negative action toward a group of people, based on prejudices.

Racism

• Prejudice and discrimination based on race.

Sexism

• Prejudice and discrimination based on sex.

Ageism

• Prejudice and discrimination based on age

Homophobia

• Prejudice and discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

• Expectations that alter behavior to make expectations true.

Confirmation Bias

• Seeking information that supports stereotypes and disregarding inconsistent information.

In-Groups

• Groups people identify with

Out-Groups

• Groups that people don't identify with

In-Group Biases

• Preference for the in-group.
• Can lead to prejudice and discrimination toward the out-group.

Scapegoating

• Blaming the out-group for frustrations.

Reducing Prejudice

• Working together with the out-group blurs the lines between groups.
• Working together towards a goal reduces prejudice against the out-group.

Aggression

• Behaviors intended to harm another person.

Hostile Aggression

• Motivated by anger with the intent of causing harm or pain.

Instrumental Aggression

• Motivated by achieving a goal, not necessarily intending to cause pain.

Function of Aggression

• Males use aggression to display dominance, protect a mate, or offspring; sexual jealousy.
• Females show instrumental aggression, typically covert, such as attacks on social standing.

Bullying

• Repeated negative treatment.
• Can be physical, verbal, or psychological.

Cyberbullying

• Bullying online.
• Victims at high risk of suicide.

Bystander Effect

• People less likely to help in a group than when alone.

Bystander Apathy

• Diffusion of responsibility, fear of social blunders, anonymity, and perceived cost.

Prosocial Behavior

• Voluntary behavior intended to help others.

Altruism

• Helping others even if the costs outweigh the benefits.

Empathy

• Understanding another person's experience, associated with altruism and helping

Proximity

• More likely to form relationships with those with most contact.

Similarity

• Attraction to those who are similar (homophily); can create homogeneous in-groups.

Relationships Requirement

• Require reciprocity (giving and receiving benefits) and mutual self-disclosure.

Attraction

• Attracted to similar people.
• Universally attractive physical features exist for men and women.
• Social traits like leadership and warmth are attractive.
• Facial symmetry is preferred.

Matching Hypothesis

• Attracted to those similar in physical attractiveness and social desirability.

Sternberg's Theory of Love

• Intimacy, passion, and commitment, combination in different ways result in different types of love.

Social Exchange Theory

• People compare the costs and benefits of relationships.

Satisfaction

• Positive balance where benefits are equal to or greater than costs.

Dissatisfaction

• Negative balance where benefits are less than costs.