Social Psychology Terms Flashcards

Social Psychology Key Terms

• Informational Social Influence: Acceptance of others' opinions about reality, influencing personal beliefs or behaviors.
• Normative Social Influence: Desire for approval or to avoid disapproval leads to conformity to group norms.
• Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM): Persuasive appeals affect attitude change via two routes: central (logic-based) and peripheral (superficial cues).
• Reciprocity: The principle that doing something for someone creates an obligation for them to return the favor.
• Scapegoat Theory: Prejudice serves as an outlet for anger by providing a target for blame.
• Ethnocentrism: Belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic group over others.
• Altruism: Unselfish concern for the welfare of others, characterized by selfless acts.
• Social Group: A collection of individuals who interact and share a sense of unity.
• Norms: Established rules and expectations that guide societal behavior.
• Roles: Different positions within a group, each accompanied by specific norms.
• Latane & Darley Study: Demonstrated pluralistic ignorance; individuals are less likely to respond to emergencies when others are passive.
• Sherif Study: Showed that competition can foster intergroup hostility, which can be mitigated through cooperation on shared goals.
• Rosenthal & Jacobson Study: Explored the Pygmalion Effect, finding that expectations influence student performance.
• Zimbardo Study: Investigated how assigned roles (prison guards or prisoners) can impact behavior and social dynamics.
• Out-Group Homogeneity: The tendency to perceive individuals from outside one's group as more similar than they might be.
• In-Group Bias: Preferring members of one's own group over those from outside the group.
• Dispositional Factors: Personal characteristics that are seen as the primary cause of an individual’s behavior.
• Situational Factors: Environmental influences that can affect behavior.
• Superordinate Goals: Goals that require cooperation among different groups and unify individuals towards a common end.
• Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis: Argues that frustration often leads to aggressive behavior.
• Attribution Theory: Framework for understanding how individuals explain causes of behavior, attributing it to either situational or dispositional factors.
• Actor-Observer Bias: A cognitive bias where one's own behavior is attributed to external factors, while others' behaviors are attributed to internal characteristics.
• Central Route of Persuasion: Involves presenting facts and evidence to appeal to a thoughtful audience, resulting in stable attitude change.
• Peripheral Route of Persuasion: Uses superficial cues (like attractiveness) to persuade, leading to less stable attitude change.
• Instrumental Aggression: Aggression as a means to achieve a goal, not primarily to cause pain.
• Hostile Aggression: Aggression driven by anger aimed explicitly at inflicting harm.
• False-Consensus Effect: The tendency to overestimate how much others agree with our beliefs and behaviors.
• Milgram Study: Investigated obedience to authority, revealing people's willingness to inflict harm under authoritative commands.
• Asch Study: Examined conformity, demonstrating that individuals often conform to incorrect group answers.
• Festinger Study: Explored cognitive dissonance, showing that people may change beliefs to align with their actions when insufficient justification is provided.
• Stereotypes: Generalized beliefs about groups that influence perceptions of individual members.
• Prejudice: An unfavorable attitude toward a group or individual without adequate personal experience.
• Discrimination: Negative behaviors directed at a group or its members, often unjustified.
• Just-World Phenomenon: The belief that the world is just, leading to the perception that individuals get what they deserve.
• Conformity: Adjusting attitudes or behaviors to align with group norms.
• Compliance: Yielding to a request or command from others.
• Foot-In-The-Door Technique: A strategy where a small request is followed by a larger request, often leading to compliance.
• Cognitive Dissonance: Psychological discomfort arising from conflicting attitudes or behaviors.
• Bystander Effect: The phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help in emergencies when others are present.
• Door-In-The-Face Technique: A strategy where an initial large request is made, followed by a smaller, more reasonable request.
• Social Loafing: The tendency for individuals to exert less effort in a group context compared to when they are accountable individually.
• Deindividuation: Loss of self-awareness in group settings, leading to decreased personal accountability.
• Social Facilitation: Improved performance of well-mastered tasks in the presence of others, with the opposite effect on difficult tasks.
• Group Polarization: Discussion within a group can enhance the group's prevailing attitudes.
• Groupthink: A mode of decision-making that prioritizes harmony over realistic assessments of alternatives.
• Diffusion of Responsibility: Reduced personal responsibility experienced by individuals in a group, contributing to phenomena like the bystander effect.
• Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to overestimate personal traits and underestimate situational factors in others' behaviors.
• Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to attribute personal successes to internal factors while blaming failures on external circumstances.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Expectations that cause individuals to act in ways that confirm those expectations.
• Mere Exposure Effect: Increased liking of stimuli upon repeated exposure.