Social Psychology

Attribution

A belief concerning why people behave in a certain way,

Social perception

A subfield of social psychology that studies the ways in which we form and modify impressions of others.

Fear Appeal

A type of persuasive communication that influences behavior on the basis of arousing fear instead of rational analysis of the issues.

Social Influence

The area of social psychology that studies the ways in which people influence the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of others.

Social Psychology

The field of psychology that studies the nature and causes of individual thoughts, feelings, and overt behavior in social situations.

A-B problem

The issue of how well we can predict behavior on the basis of attitude.

Social facilitation

The process by which a person's performance is increased when other members of a group engage in similar behavior.

Deindividuation

The process by which group members may discontinue self-evaluation and adopt group norms and attitudes.

Attribution process

The process by which people draw inferences about the motives and traits of others.

Diffusion of responsability

The spreading or sharing of responsability for a decision or behavior withing a group.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to assume that others act predominantly on the basis of their dispositions, even when there is evidence suggesting the importance of their situations.

Actor-observer effect

The tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational factors but to attribute the behavior of others to dispositional factors.

Primacy Effect

The tendency to evaluate others in terms of first impressions.

Regency Effect

The tendency to evaluate others in terms of the most recent impression.

Self-Serving bias

The tendency to view one's successes as stemming from internal factors and one's failure as stemming from external factors.

Matching hypothesis

The view that people tend to choose persons similar to themselves in attractiveness and attitudes in the formation of interpersonal relationships.

Elaboration likelihood model

The view that persuasive messages are evaluated (elaborated) on the basis of central and peripheral cues.

Prejudice

This belief that a person or group, on the basis of assured racial, ethnic, sexual, or other features, will possess negative characteristics or perform inadequately.

Altruism

Unselfish concern for the welfare of others.

Stereotype

A fixed, conventional idea about a group.

Foot-in-the-door

A method for inducing compliance in which a small request is followed by a larger request.

Groupthink

A process in which group members are influenced by cohesiveness and a dynamic leader to ignore external realities as they make decisions.

Situational Attribution

An assumption that a person's behavior is determined by external circumstances such as the social pressure found in a situation.

Dispositional Attribution

An assumption that a person's behavior is determined by internal causes such as personal attitudes and goals.

Attraction

An attitude of liking or disliking (negative attraction)

Attitude

An enduring mental representation of a person, place or thing that evokes an emotional response and affected behavior.

Evaluation apprehension

Concern that others are evaluating our behavior

Selective exposure

Deliberately seeking and attending to information that is consistent with one's attitudes.

Selective avoidance

Diverting one's attention from the information that is inconsistent with one's attitudes.

Social Norms

Explicit and implicit rules that reflect social expectations and influence the ways people behave in social situations.

Consensus

General agreement

Social decision schemes

Rules for predicting the final outcome of group decision making on the basis of the member's initial positions.

Discrimination

The denial of privileges to a person or group because of prejudice.

Conform

To change one's attitudes or overt behavior to adhere to social norms.