Chapter 12: Social Psychology – Flashcards
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Social Psychology
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The branch of psychology that studies how people think, feel, and behave in social situations.
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Social Cognition
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The study of the mental processes people use to make sense out of their social environment.
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Social Influence
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The study of the effects of situational factors and other people on an individual's behavior.
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Person Perception
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The mental processes we sue to form judgement and draw conclusions about the characteristics and motives of others.
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Social Norms
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The "rules," or expectations, for appropriate behavior in a particular social situation.
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Social Categorization
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The mental process of categorizing people into groups (or categories) on the basis of their shared characteristics.
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Implicit Personality Theory
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A network of assumptions or beliefs about the relationships among various types of people, traits, and behaviors.
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Attribution
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The mental process of inferring the causes of people's behavior, including one's own. Also refers to the explanation made for a particular behavior.
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Fundamental Attribution Error
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The tendency to attribute the behavior of others to internal, personal characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the effects of external, situational factors; an attributional bias that is common in individualistic cultures.
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Blaming the Victim
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The tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for having somewhere caused the problem or for not having taken steps to avoid or prevent it.
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Just-World Hypothesis
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The assumption that the world is fair and that therefore people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
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Actor-Observer Discrepancy
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The tendency to attribute one's own behavior to external, situational causes, while attributing the behavior of others to internal, personal causes; especially likely to occur with regard to behaviors that lead to negative outcomes.
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Self-Serving Bias
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The tendency to attribute successful outcomes of one's own behavior to internal causes and unsuccessful outcomes to external, situational causes.
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Attitude
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A learned tendency to evaluate some object, person, or issue in a particular way; such evaluations may be positive, negative, or ambivalent.
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Cognitive Dissonance
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An unpleasant state of psychological tension or arousal (dissonance) that occurs when two thoughts or perception (cognitions) are inconsistent; typically results from the awareness that attitudes and behavior are in conflict.
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Prejudice
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A negative attitude toward people who belong to a specific social group.
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Stereotype
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A cluster of characteristics that are associated with all members of a specific social group, often including qualities that are unrelated to the objective criteria that define the group.
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In-Group
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A social group to which one belongs.
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Out-Group
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A social group to which one does not belong.
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Out-Group Homogeneity Effect
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The tendency to see members of out-groups as very similar to one another.
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In-Group Bias
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The tendency to judge the behavior of in-group members favorably and out-group members unfavorably.
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Ethnocentrism
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The belief that one's own culture or ethnic group is superior to all others and the related tendency to use one's own culture as a standard by which to judge other cultures.
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Social Influence
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The study of the effects of situational factors and other people on an individual's behavior.
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Conformity
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The tendency to adjust one's behavior, attitudes, or beliefs to group norms in response to real or imagined group pressure.
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Normative Social Influence
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Behavior that is motivated by the desire to gain social acceptance and approval.
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Informational Social Influence
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Behavior that is motivated by the desire to be correct.
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Obedience
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The performance of an action in response to the direct orders of an authority or person of higher status.
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Muzafer Sherif
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(1906-1988) American social psychologist who is best known for his Robbers Cave experiments to study prejudice, conflict resolution, and group processes.
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Solomon Asch
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(1907-1996) American social psychologist who is best known for his pioneering studies of conformity.
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Stanley Milgram
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(1933-1984) American social psychologist who is best known for his controversial series of studies investigating destructive obedience to an authority.
