Social Psychology Overview

Social Psychology

• Social Facilitation: The effect of others' presence on performance; it can enhance or hinder performance depending on the task. Presence of others increases arousal, leading to enhanced emission of 'dominant responses'.
• Zajonc's Theory: The presence of others increases arousal, leading to the enhancement of dominant responses (the responses a person is most likely to make).
• Evaluation Apprehension: Concern about how others may evaluate them; this can impact performance.
• Social Loafing: Reduction of effort when working in a group setting compared to individual work, where individual contributions are not distinguishable.
• Groupthink: When highly cohesive groups prioritize consensus over critical evaluation of ideas, leading to poor decision-making. Causes include self-censorship, shallow examination of alternatives, and a sense of invulnerability.
• Group Polarization: Group decisions tend to be more extreme than individual decisions in the direction the group was already leaning.
• Elements of Power: Include power, status, authority, and dominance.
• Approach/Inhibition Theory: High-power individuals tend towards quick judgments and goals, while low-power individuals are more cautious.

Social Identity

• Deindividuation: Reduced sense of individual identity, leading to diminished self-regulation when in a large group.
• Individuation: Emphasizes individuality and careful action in line with personal values.
• Spotlight Effect: Belief that others are paying more attention to one's actions than they actually are.
• Need to Belong: A strong motivation for humans to form relationships and maintain connections with others.
• Communal Relationship: Strong sense of responsibility for one another; interactions are based on need.
• Exchange Relationship: Relationship focused on mutual benefit and trade; often short-term.
• Social Exchange Theory: Relationships are based on assessment of costs and rewards, driving evaluations of relationships.
• Comparison Level: Expectations about what individuals should expect to get out of a relationship.
• Comparison Level for Alternatives: Expectations about what they could get out of other relationships.
• Equity Theory: Ideal relationships emphasize fairness and equality of contributions and rewards.
• Attachment Theory: Early childhood attachments influence patterns of relating in later relationships.
• Anxiety Dimension of Attachment: Worry about rejection and abandonment in relationships.
• Avoidance Dimension of Attachment: Comfort level with intimacy and dependence.
• Secure Attachment: Characterized by trust and intimacy in relationships.
• Avoidant Attachment: Characterized by discomfort with closeness and intimacy.
• Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment: Characterized by extreme reactions to separation and reunion.
• Functional Distance: Layout of an environment that encourages or discourages interactions between people.
• Mere Exposure Effect: Increased liking for something based on repeated exposure.
• Similarity and Attraction: Attraction to those with similar backgrounds or characteristics.
• Complementarity: Attraction to those with traits that fulfill one's own deficits or needs.
• Halo Effect: Positive characteristics in one area affecting evaluation in other areas.
• Gender and Attractiveness: Attractiveness is often more important for women than men in relationships.
• Reproductive Fitness: The capacity to pass one's genes to future generations.

Helping Behavior

• Investment Model of Commitment: Commitment in relationships is influenced by satisfaction, lack of alternatives, and investments in the relationship.
• Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Key factors that predict divorce by damaging relationships: criticism, defensiveness, stonewalling, and contempt.
• Altruism: Prosocial behavior with no expectation of reward and concern for the consequences for others.
• Social Reward: Helping in exchange for tangible or intangible rewards.
• Personal Distress: Helping to reduce one's own distress when observing another person's distress.
• Empathic Concern: Helping due to understanding and sharing the feelings of another person in need.
• Volunteerism: Regular assistance to others without compensation.
• Bystander Intervention: Assistance provided by a witness in a crisis or emergency.
• Diffusion of Responsibility: Reduced individual responsibility to intervene when others are present.
• Pluralistic Ignorance: Misunderstanding of others' perspectives or beliefs, creating a false impression of what others believe.
• Kin Selection: Evolutionary behavior that favors gene-related individuals, even when it has costs to the individual.

Intergroup Relations

• Reciprocal Altruism: Helping others with the expectation of future reciprocation.
• Prisoner's Dilemma: Game theory model illustrating conflict between cooperation and self-interest.
• Reputation: Social judgment and perception of an individual's trustworthiness and cooperation in social interactions.
• Tit-for-Tat Strategy: Cooperation initially, and then repeating the opponent's last action in subsequent interactions.
• Stereotype: Oversimplified beliefs about groups, often negative and inflexible.
• Prejudice: Negative attitude toward a group and its members.
• Discrimination: Negative behavior toward a group and its members.
• Modern Racism: Implicit prejudice and discriminatory behavior disguised as non-prejudice.
• Implicit Association Test (IAT): Tool to identify implicit attitudes or stereotypes toward different groups.
• Priming: Presentation of information to activate a particular concept or belief to guide subsequent thoughts and behaviors.
• Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP): Technique to measure implicit attitudes, by eliciting emotions and attributing them to stimuli.
• Realistic Conflict Theory: Intergroup conflict arises when groups compete over scarce resources.
• Ethnocentrism: Favoritism towards one's own group and negativity towards other groups.
• Superordinate Goals: Shared goals that require cooperation between groups to achieve.
• Jigsaw Classroom: Educational approach minimizing prejudice by requiring students to work together and contribute to a shared project.
• Minimal Group Paradigm: Experimental method to investigate factors affecting group formation and intergroup prejudice using arbitrary group assignments.
• Social Identity Theory: People gain self-esteem through their group memberships and pride in their groups.
• Basking in Reflected Glory (BIRG): Tendency to affiliate with successful groups or individuals to enhance self-esteem.
• Paired Distinctiveness: Tendency to associate two distinctive events, which may be erroneous.
• Subtyping: Explanation for exceptions of stereotypes by creating a new category of a stereotype for an exception.
• Outgroup Homogeneity Effect: Perception that members of outgroups are more similar than members of ingroups.
• Own-Race Identification Bias: Better recognition of one's own race compared to other races.
• Stereotype Threat: Fear of confirming negative stereotypes about one's group, which may impact performance.
• Contact Hypothesis: Prejudice can be reduced through contact between members of different groups under certain conditions. Positive contact requires equal status, shared goals, necessary cooperation, community support, one-on-one contact.