Social Psychology Chapters 4-7

Contact hypothesis

the view that increased contact between members of various social groups can be effective in reducing prejudice between them.

Social learning view

the view that prejudice is acquired through direct and vicarious experiences in much the same manner as other attitudes

Discrimination

differential (usually negative) behaviors directed toward members of different social groups

Observational learning

A basic form of learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behavior as a result of observing others

Classical conditioning

A basic form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to evoke reactions through repeated pairing with another stimulus. In a sense, one stimulus becomes a signal for the presentation or occurrence of the other.

Social identity theory

A theory concerned with the consequences of perceiving ourselves as a member of a social group and identifying with it.

Elaboration-likelihood model

A theory suggesting that persuasion can occur in either of two distinct ways, differing in the amount of cognitive effort or elaboration the message receives

Forewarning

Advance knowledge that one is about to become the target of an attempt at persuasion. This often increases resistance to the persuasion that follows.

Glass cliff effect

Choosing women for leadership positions that are risky, precarious, or when the outcome is more likely to result in failure

Social Comparison Theory

Festinger (1954) suggested that people compare themselves to others because for many domains and attributes there is no objective yardstick to evaluate ourselves against and other people are therefore highly informative

Modern racism

More subtle beliefs than blatant feelings of superiority. It consists primarily of thinking minorities are seeking and receiving more benefits than they deserve and a denial that discrimination affects their outcomes.

Moral disengagement

No longer seeing sanctioning as necessary for perpetrating harm that has been legitimized

Systematic Processing

Processing of information in a persuasive message that involves careful consideration of message content and ideas

Repulsion hypothesis

Rosenblum's provocative proposal that attraction is not increased by similar attitudes, but is simply decreased by dissimilar attitudes. This hypothesis is incorrect as stated, but it is true that dissimilar attitudes tend to have negative effects that are stronger than the positive effects of similar attitudes

Similarity-Dissimilarity Effect

The consistent finding that people respond positively to indications that another person is similar to themselves and negatively to indications that another person is dissimilar from themselves

Collective guilt

The emotion that can be experienced when we are confronted with the harmful actions done by our in-group against an out-group. It is most likely to be experienced when the harmful actions are seen as illegitimate.

Balance theory

The formulations of Heider and of Newcomb that specify that relationships among an individuals liking for another person, his or her attitude about a given topic, and the other person's attitude about the same topic. Balance (liking plus agreement) results in a positive emotional state. Imbalance (liking plus disagreement) results in a negative state and a desire to restore balance. Nonbalance (disliking plus either agreement or disagreement) leads to indifference.

Matching hypothesis

The idea that although we would prefer to obtain extremely attractive romantic partners, we generally focus on obtaining ones whose physical beauty is about the same as our own

Proportion of similarity

The number of specific indicators that two people are similar divided by the number of specific indicators that two people are similar plus the number of specific indicators that they are dissimilar

Realistic conflict theory

The view that prejudice stems from direct competition between various social groups over scarce and valued resources

Incidental feelings

Those feelings induced separately or before a target is encountered; as a result, those feelings are irrelevant to the group being judged but can still affect judgments of the target

Subordinate goals

Those that can only be achieved by cooperation between groups

Zero-sum outcomes

Those that only one person or group can have; so if one group gets them, the other group can't.

Introspection

To privately contemplate "who we are". It is a method for attempting to gain self knowledge

Implicit Attitudes

Unconscious associations between objects and evaluative responses

Repeated exposure effect

Zajonc's finding that frequent contact with any mildly negative, neutral, or positive stimulus results in an increasingly positive evaluation of that stimulus

Instrumental conditioning

a basic form of learning in which responses that lead to positive outcomes or which permit avoidance of negative outcomes are strengthened

Upward social comparison

a comparison of the self to another who does better than or is superior to us

Downward social comparison

a comparison of the self to another who does less well than or is inferior to us

Attitude-to-behavior process model

a model of how attitudes guide behavior that emphasizes the influence of attitudes and stored knowledge of what is appropriate in a given situation on an individual's definition of the present situation. This definition, in turn, influences overt behavior.

Implementation plan

a plan for how to implement our intentions to carry out some action

Unconditioned stimulus

a stimulus that evokes a positive or negative response without substantial learning

Subtype

a subset of a group that is not consistent with the stereotype of the group as a whole

Bona fide pipeline

a technique that uses priming to measure implicit racial attitudes

Selective avoidance

a tendency to direct attention away from information that challenges existing attitudes. Such avoidance increases resistance to persuasion

Theory of reasoned behavior

a theory suggesting that the decision to engage in a particular behavior is the result of a rational process in which behavioral options are considered, consequences or outcomes of each are evaluated, and a decision is reached to act or not to act. That decision is then reflected in behavioral intentions, which strongly influence overt behavior.

Common ingroup identity model

a theory suggesting that to the extent individuals in different groups view themselves as members of a single social entity, intergroup bias will be reduced

Self-control

achieved by refraining from actions we like and instead performing actions we prefer not to do as means of achieving a long-term goal

Social identity theory

addresses how we respond when our group identity is salient. Suggests that we will move closer to positive others with whom we share an identity but distance from other in-group members who perform poorly or otherwise make our social identity negative

Theory of planned behavior

an extension of the theory of reasoned action, suggesting that in addition to attitudes toward a given behavior and subjective norms about it, individuals also consider their ability to perform the behavior.

Cognitive dissonance

an internal state that results when individuals notice inconsistency between two or more attitudes or between their attitudes and their behavior

Personal-versus-social identity continuum

at the personal level, the self is thought of as a unique individual, whereas at the social level, the self is seen as a member of a group

Fear appeals

attempting to change people's behaviors by use of a message that induces fear

Self-promotion

attempting to present ourselves to others as having positive attributes

Central route to persuasion

attitude change resulting from systematic processing of information presented in persuasive messages

Peripheral route to persuasion

attitude change that occurs in response to peripheral persuasion cues, which is often based on information concerning the expertise or status of would-be-persuaders

Glass ceiling

barriers based on attitudinal or organizational bias that prevent qualified females from advancing to top-level positions

Stereotypes

beliefs about social groups in terms of the traits or characteristics that they are believed to share. These are cognitive frameworks that influence the processing of social information

Mere exposure

by having seen before, but not necessarily by remembering having done so, attitudes toward an object can be formed

Subliminal conditioning

classical conditioning of attitudes by exposure to stimuli that are below individuals' threshold of conscious awareness

Stereotype threat

can occur when people believe that they might be judged in light of a negative stereotype about their group or that, because of their performance, they may in some way confirm a negative stereotype of their group

Tokenism

can refer to hiring based on group membership. It can concern a numerically infrequent presence of members of a particular category or it can refer to instances where individuals perform trivial positive actions for members of out-groups that are later used as an excuse for refusing more meaningful beneficial actions for members of these groups

Social networks

composed of individuals with whom we have interpersonal relationships and interact with on a regular basis

Autobiographical memory

concerned with memory of ourselves in the past, sometimes over the life course as a whole

Explicit Attitudes

consciously accessible attitudes that are controllable and easy to report

Persuasion

efforts to change others' attitudes through the use of various kinds of messages

Attitude

evaluation of various aspects of the social world

Implicit self-esteem

feelings about the self of which we are not consciously aware

Reference groups

groups of people with whom we identify and whose opinions we value

Self-construal

how we characterize ourselves, which can vary depending on what identity is salient at any given moment

Possible selves

image of how we might be in the future- either a "dreaded" potential to be avoided or "desired" potential that can be strived for

Proximity

in attraction research, the physical closeness between two individuals with respect to where they live, where they sit in a classroom, where they work and so on. The smaller the distance, the greater the probability that the two people will come into repeated contact experiencing repeated exposure to one another, positive affect, and the development of mutual attraction.

Threat

it primarily concerns fear that our group interests will be undermined or our self-esteem is in jeopardy

Intragroup comparisons

judgments that result from comparisons between individuals who are members of the same group

Intergroup comparisons

judgments that result from comparisons between our group and another group

Self-regulation

limited capacity to engage our willpower and control our own thinking and emotions

Implicit associations

links between group membership and trait associations or evaluations that the perceiver may be unaware of. They can be activated automatically based on the group membership of a target

Prejudice

negative emotional responses based on group membership

Reactance

negative reactions to threats to one's personal freedom. This often increases resistance to persuasion and can even produce negative attitude change or opposite to what was intended.

Singlism

negative stereotyping and discrimination directed toward people who are single

Heuristic processing

processing of information in a persuasive message that involves the use of simple rules of thumb or mental shortcuts

Hypocrisy

publically advocating some attitudes or behavior and then acting in a way that is inconsistent with these attitudes or behavior

Self-deprecating

putting ourselves down or implying that we are not as good as someone else

Objectification of females

regarding women as mere bodies that exist for the pleasure of others

Habit

repeatedly performing a specific behavior so responses become relatively automatic whenever that situation is encountered

Subjective scales

response scales that are open to interpretation and lack an externally grounded referent, including scales labeled from good to bad or weak to strong. They are said to be subjective because they can take on different meanings depending on the group membership of the person being evaluated

Recategorizations

shifts in the boundaries between our ingroup ("us") and some outgroup ("them"). As a result of such recategorization, people formerly viewed as outgroup members may now be viewed as belonging to the ingroup and consequently viewed more positively.

Gender stereotypes

stereotypes concerning the traits possessed by females and males and that distinguish the two genders from each other

Need for affiliation

the basic motive to seek and maintain interpersonal relationships

Physical attractiveness

the combination of characteristics that are evaluated as beautiful or handsome at the positive extreme and as unattractive at the negative extreme.

Self-esteem

the degree to which we perceive ourselves positively or negatively; our overall attitude towards ourselves. It can be measured explicitly or implicitly

Attitude similarity

the extent to which two individuals share the same attitudes

Less-leads-to-more effect

the fact that offering individuals small rewards for engaging in counterattitudinal behavior often produces more dissonance, and so more attitude change, than offering them larger rewards

Ego-depletion

the lowered capacity to exert subsequent self-control following earlier efforts to exert self-control. Performance decrements are typically observed when people's ego strength has been depleted by prior efforts at self-control

Illusion of truth effect

the mere repetition of information creates a sense of familiarity and more positive attitudes

Social capital

the number of social ties each person has to others; typically there are connections people can draw on for knowledge, assistance, or other social goods

Social learning

the process through which we acquire new information, forms of behavior, or attitudes from other people

Social comparison

the process through which we compare ourselves to others to determine whether our view of social reality is, or is not, correct.

Conditioned stimulus

the stimulus that comes to stand for or signal a prior unconditioned stimulus

Above average effect

the tendency for people to rate themselves as above the average on most positive social attributes

Self-verification Perspective

theory that addresses the processes by which we lead others to agree with our views of ourselves; wanting others to agree with how we see ourselves

Self-evaluation maintenance model

this perspective suggests that to maintain a positive view of ourselves, we distance ourselves from others who perform better than we do on valued dimensions and move closer to others who perform worse than us. This view suggests that doing so will protect our self-esteem.

Objective scales

those with measurement units that are tied to external reality so that they mean the same thing regardless of category membership (eg: dollars earned, feet and inches, chosen or rejected)

Essence

typically some biologically based feature that is used to distinguish one group and another; frequently can serve as justification for the differential treatment of those groups

Risk averse

we weigh possible losses more heavily than equivalent potential gains. As a result, we respond more negatively to changes that are framed as potential losses than positively to changes that are framed as potential gains

Salience

when someone or some object stands out from its background or is the focus of attention

Minimal groups

when we are categorized into different groups based on some "minimal" criteria we tend to favor others who are categorized in the same group as ourselves compared to those categorized as members of a different group

Pluralistic ignorance

when we collectively misunderstand what attitudes others hold and believe erroneously that others have different attitudes than us

ingratiation

when we try to make others like us by conveying that we like them; praising others to flatter them

Shifting standards

when we use one group as the standard but shift to use another group as the comparison standard when judging members of a different group