Social Psychology ALL TERMS List

influence resulting from one's willingness to accept other's opinions about reality

influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

a theoretical model that posits two channels by which persuasive appeals lead to attitude change: a central route and a peripheral route

idea that if you do something for someone, they owe you something in return

the theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group

the quality of unselfish concern for the welfare of others

a collection of people who interact with one another and have a certain feeling of unity

rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members

the different positions in the group, each with its own set of norms

When white smoke comes in, you are much less likely to respond if there are passive confederates. Proves pluralistic ignorance- assume nothing is wrong because others seem unconcerned

children in a summer camp were divided into two groups on an arbitrary basis and made to engage in competition with each other. This engendered intergroup hostility and dislike, which was found to be greatly reduced when a task requiring the two groups to cooperate (on superordinate goals) was introduced.

aimed to test the existence of the Pygmalion Effect in schools. Found that those students randomly assigned to the "bloomer" group made larger gains at the end of the year than the "average" students.

This social psychologist studied how people behave when they are asked to play roles, in particular as prison guards or prisoners.

tendency to view all individuals outside our group as highly similar

tendency to favor individuals within our group over those from outside our group

Personal factors of the individual being the main explanation for their behaviour

environmental stimuli that affect a person's behavior.

shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation

Theory arguing that aggression is the natural reaction to frustration.

the theory that we tend to give a casual explanation for someone's behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition

The tendency to attribute other people's behavior to internal causes while attributing our own behavior (especially errors and failures) to external causes.

the speaker uses facts, figures, and other information to enable listeners to carefully process information and think about their opinions; attitudes changed tend to be more stable

superficial factors (supermodels and celebrities) used as distractors, leading to less stable change in attitudes.

Aggression as a means to some goal other than causing pain

Aggression stemming from feelings of anger and aimed at inflicting pain

the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors

the study of people to see the tendency to obey authority figures; how far people would go into violence, even though it violates values and ethics, such as commands to harm an innocent stranger

Participants were asked to select the line closest in line to length X. When cohorts gave obviously wrong answers, more than 1/3 of the subjects conformed and agreed with the incorrect choices. Depends on group size: 7 is optimal.

paid people $1 to lie, $20 to lie, and nothing to lie. Those who experienced the most pleasure were the $1 liars. The experimenters concluded that human beings, when asked to lie without being given sufficient justification, will convince themselves that the lie they are asked to tell is the truth.

generalized beliefs about what members of an identifiable group are like that operate as schemas when perceiving members of those groups

a negative attitude formed toward an individual or group without sufficient experience with the person or group

unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members

the tendency of people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get

adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

an act of doing as another wishes or yielding to a request or command; a tendency to yield to others

term describes a phenomenon in which people who agree to a small request are more likely to later agree to a larger request

an uncomfortable mental state due to conflicts between attitudes or between attitudes and behavior

the tendency to not offer help when needed if others are present who do not offer help

a request is made of someone that will be surely turned down, only to be followed by a lesser, or less demanding request.

the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

improved performance of tasks in the presence of others; occurs with simple or well-learned tasks but not with tasks that are difficult or not yet mastered

the enhancement of a group's prevailing attitudes through discussion within the group

the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

reduction in sense of responsibility often felt by individuals in a group; may be responsible for the bystander effect

the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition

he tendency to assign oneself credit for successes but to blame failures on external forces

an expectation that causes you to act in ways that make that expectation come true.

the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them