AP Psychology - Social Psychology

Conformity

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

Aggression

Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone.

Mere Exposure Effect

The phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them.

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

False Consensus Effect

overestimating the number of people who share our belief or action.

Reference Groups

Groups we are similar to with who we compare ourselves to.

Outgroup

"Them"—those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup.

Conflict

A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.

Compliance

Conforming to a request or demand.

Attitude

Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events. (ABC)

Normative Social Influence

Influence (conforming) resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.

Companionate Love

The deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined.

Other-Race Effect

The tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races. Also called the cross-race effect and the own-race bias

Social Comparison

when we compare our performance to the performance(s) of others.

Ingroup

"Us"—people with whom we share a common identity.

Discrimination

(Social) unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.

Role

A set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.

Dispositional (Internal) Attribution Theory

Explaining behaviors based on a person's characteristics; traits, maturity, etc.

Situational (External) Attribution Theory

Explaining behaviors based on outside factors influencing and individual.

Prisoner's Dilemma

Social trap where 2 prisoners are separated and have to consider the impacts of cooperating with their partner or competing to get the first confession.

Superordinate Goals

Shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation.

Ethnocentricism

Evaluation of other cultures according to the standards and customs of one's own culture.

Mirror-Image Perceptions

Mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive.

Fundamental Attribution Error

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

Social Loafing

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

Self Fulfilling Prophecy

A belief that leads to its own fulfillment.

Passionate Love

An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship.

Diffusion of Responsibility

Reduction in feelings of personal burden in the presence of others.

Self-Disclosure

Revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others.

Obedience

A change in behavior following a demand from an authority figure.

Matching Hypothesis

Idea that individuals pair up into relationships with people who are similar to their level of physical attraction.

Social-Responsibility Norm

An expectation that people will help those dependent upon them.

Reciprocity Norm

An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them.

Commons Dilemma

Social trap where people must consider how much they take or use of a scarce resource.

Public Goods Dilemma

Social trap where people must consider how much to give/contribute to a shared resource.

Bystander Effect

The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.

Just-World Phenomenon

The tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get. (Blame the Victim)

Ingroup Bias

The tendency to favor our own group.

Relative Deprivation

The tendency when we compare ourselves to others to feel worse off then them.

Personal Space

The buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies.

Culture

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

Group Polarization

The enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group. (Extremes)

Deindividuation

The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity. (Mob Mentality)

Groupthink

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

Frustration-Aggression Principle

The principle that frustration—the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal—creates anger, which can generate aggression.

Norm

An understood rule for accepted and expected behavior. They prescribe "proper" behavior.

Prejudice

An unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members. It generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action.

Central Route Persuasion

Attitude change path in which interested people focus on the arguments, facts and respond with favorable thoughts.

Peripheral Route Persuasion

Attitude change path in which people are influenced by incidental cues, emotional responses such as a speaker's attractiveness.

Temporal Comparison

when we compare our performance to our own past performance(s).

Equity

A condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it.

Stereotype

A generalized (sometimes accurate, but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people.

Social Trap

A situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.

Albert Bandura

Developed Social Learning Theory, where children learn through watching AND imitating actions.

Solomon Asch

Examined the impact of conformity with his famous Line Perception experiment.

Stanley Milgram

Examined the impact of obedience to authority with his controversial Shock experiment.

Phillip Zimbardo

Examined the impact of social roles and authority on behavior with his famous Stanford Prison experiment.

Pygmalion in the Classroom

Experiment by Rosenthal and Jacobsen that measured the impact(s) of expectation on student performances; supporting the theory of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction (GRIT)

Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction—a strategy designed to decrease international tensions.

Informational Social Influence

Influence (conforming) resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality.

Leon Festinger

Measured cognitive dissonance by paying participants to $1 or $20 to lie about the enjoyment of a dull task. Participants paid $1 more likely to change their beliefs about the task.

Consummate Love

Sternberg believes this is the ultimate form of love that has all 3: Passion, Intimacy & Commitment (Companionate).

Social Facilitation

Stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

Social Exchange Theory

The theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs.

Scapegoat Theory

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

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognition) are inconsistent. For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting discomfort by changing our attitudes.

Attribution Theory

The theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation (external) or the person's disposition (internal).

Robert Sternberg

Theorized the Triangle Theory of Love when describing social relationships. PIC: Passion, Intimacy & Commitment (Companionate).

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.