LearnSmart 11: Social Psychology

___________ is an unselfish interest in helping someone else.

Alturism

____________ theory seeks to explain how we decide, on the basis of samples of an individual's behavior, what are the specific causes of that person's behavior.

Attribution

T/F: When considering attitude change, the source of the message is the only important variable.

False

______________ social influence is the influence that other people have on us because we want them to like and approve of us.

Normative

___________ is behavior that complies with explicit demand of the individual in authority.

Obedience

___________ is an unjustified negative attitude toward an individual based on the individual's membership in a group.

Prejudice

Groupthink is a type of thinking in which group members share such a strong motivation to _________ that they lose the ability to critically evaluate alternate points of view.

achieve consensus

Conformity

adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

Aggression is a social behavior that

aims to harm others

According to social exchange theory, what is the most important predictor of a relationship's success?

equity

The elaboration likelihood model states that ____________ occurs through either a central route or a peripheral route.

persuasion

Group ___________ effect is the solidification and further strengthening of an individual's position as a consequence of a group discussion

polarization

Individuals with high self-esteem have been shown to have a variety of ___________ illusions.

positive

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to explain the behavior of others in terms of their personalities rather than aspects of the __________.

situation

The central question in making attribution is whether the cause of behavior is due to ___________ or ___________ factors.

situational; dispositional

A ______________ is a generalization about a group's characteristics that does not consider any variations from one individual to another.

stereotype

Self-bias is the tendency to

take credit for successes and deny responsibility for failures.

T/F: Zimbardo had to halt the study early due to concern for participant safety.

True

cognitive dissonance

an individual's psychological discomfort caused by two inconsistent thoughts

Social thinking involves not only perceptions and attributions but also ___________ which are opinions and beliefs, about people, objects, and ideas, or, simply put, how we feel about things.

attitude

Social facilitation is the ___________ in an individual's performance because of the presence of others.

improvement

The influence other people have on us because we want to be correct is referred to as

informational social influence

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency for observers to overestimate the importance of ____________ and underestimate the importance of ____________ when they seek to explain the behavior of others.

internal traits; external situations

What is the definition of social psychology

the study of how people think about, influence, and relate to other people