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Social Psychology

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The branch of psychology that studies how we think and behave in social situations

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Social Cognition

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The area of social psychology that deals with the ways in which we think about other people and ourselves

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Attitude

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An evaluative belief that we hold about something

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Cognitive Consistency

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The idea that we strive to have attitudes and behaviors that do not contradict on another

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Dissonance Theory

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A theory that predicts that we will be motivated to change our attitudes and/or our behaviors to the extent that they cause us to feel dissonance, an uncomfortable physical state

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Persuasion

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A type of social influence in which someone tries to change our attitudes

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Central Route to Pesuasion

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A style of thinking in which the person carefully and critically evaluates persuasive arguments and generates counterarguments; the central route requires motivation and available cognitive resources

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Peripheral Route to Pesuasion

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A style of thinking in which the person does not carefully and critically evaluate persuasive arguments or generate counterarguments; the peripheral route ensues when one lacks motivation and/or available cognitive resources

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Impression Formation

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The way that we understand and make judgements about others

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Attribution

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The act of assigning cause to behavior

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Trait Attribution

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An attribution that assigns the cause of behavior to the traits and characteristics of the person being judged

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Situational Attribution

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An attribution that assigns the cause of behavior to some characteristic of the situation or environment in which the behavior occurs

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Fundamental Attribution Error

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Our tendency to overuse trait information when making attributions about others

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Individualistic Culture

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A culture in which individual accomplishments are valued over group accomplishments (i.e. western cultures)

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Collectivistic Culture

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A culture in which group accomplishments are valued over individual accomplishments (i.e. Asian cultures)

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Actor/ Observer Bias

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Our tendency to make the fundamental attribution error when judging others, while being less likely to do so when making attributions about ourselves

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Self-Serving Bias

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Our tendency to make attributions that preserve our own self-esteem (i.e. trait attribution- success/ situational attributions- failures)

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Stereotype

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A schema for a particular group of people

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Prejudice

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A largely negative stereotype that is unfairly applied to all members of a group regardless of their individual characteristics

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Discrimination

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The behavioral expression of a preudice

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Aversive Racism

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A proposed form of subtle racism in which European Americans feel aversive emotions around African Americans, which may lead them to discriminate against African Americans

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Stereotype Threat

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A phenomenon in which fears of being discriminated against elicit stereotype-confirming behaviors(similar to, but NOT the same as, self-fulfilling prophecy)

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In-Group Bias

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Our tendency to favor people who belong to the same groups that we do

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Out-Group

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A group that is distinct from one's own and so usually an object of more hostility or dislike than one's in-group

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Out-Group Homogeneity

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Our tendency to see out-group members as being pretty much all alike

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Realistic-Conflict Theory

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The theory that prejudice stems from competition for scarce resources

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Scapegoat

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An out-group that is blamed for many of society's problems

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Contact Hypothesis

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The theory that contact between groups is an effective means of reducing prejudice between them

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Superordinate Goal

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A goal that is shared by different groups

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Proximity

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Physical closeness

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Matching Hypothesis

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The theory that we are attracted to people whose level of physical attractiveness is similar to our own

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Norm

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Unwritten rule or expectation for how group members should behave

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Cohesiveness

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The degree to which members of a group value their group membership; cohesive groups are tight-knit groups

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Conformity

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Behaving in accordance with group norms

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Normative Conformity

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Conformity that occurs when group members change their behavior to meet group norms but are not persudaded to change their beliefs and attitudes

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Informal Confomity

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Conformity that occurs when conformity pressures actually persuade group members to adopt new beliefs and/or attitudes

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Deindividuation

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A state in which a person's behavior becomes controlled more by external norms than by the person's own internal values and morals

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Social Facilitation

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Performing better on a task in the presence of others than you would if you were alone

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Social Loafing

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When group members exert less effort on a group task than they would if they were performing the task alone

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Obedience

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Yielding to a demand

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Compliance

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Yielding to a simple request

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Foot-in-the-door compliance

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Increasing compliance by first asking people to give into a small request, which then paves the way for compliance with a second larger request

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Door-in-the-face

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Increasing compliance by first asking people to give in to a very large request and then, after they refuse, asking them to give in to a smaller request

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Reciprocity

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A strong norm that states that we should treat others the way they treat us

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Low-Balling

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Increasing compliance by first getting the person to agree to a deal and then changing the terms of the deal to be more favorable to yourself

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That's-not-all

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Increasing compliance by first getting the person to agree to a deal and then changing the terms of the deal to be more favorable to yourself

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Destructive Obedience

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Obedience to immoral, unethical demands that cause harm to others

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Slippery Slope

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The use of foot-in-the-door compliance in an obedience situation to get people to obey increasing demands

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Psychological Distance

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The degree to which one can disassociate oneself from the consequences of his/her actions

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Instrumental Aggression

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Aggression that is used to facilitate the attainment of a goal

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Hostile Aggression

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Aggression that is meant to cause harm to others

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Frustration-agression Hypothesis

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The idea that frustration causes aggressive behavior

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Prosocial Behavior

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Behavior that helps others

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Altruism

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Helping another without being motivated by self-gain

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Helping Behavior

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Another term for altruism

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Bystander Effect

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The idea that the more witnesses there are to an emergency, the less likely anyone of them is to offer help

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Diffusion of Responsiblity

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The idea that responsibility for taking action is diffused across all the people witnessing an event

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Pluralistic Ignorance

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The idea that we use the behavior of others to help us determine whether a situation is an emergency requiring our help; if no one else is helping we may conclude that help isn't needed

PSY101: Chapter 10: Social Psychology – Flashcards

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