Chapter 13 Social Psychology

The spreading of behaviors, actions, emotions and ideas that are imitative is known as:

social contagion

What are the 3 parts of the attribution theory?

1. Internal/External causes 2. Stable/unstable causes 3. Controllable/uncontrollable causes

How long to make a first impression?

100-milliseconds

Love that occurs when individuals desire to have another person near and have a deep, caring affection for the person

Affectionate / companionate love

Social behavior with the objective of harming someone, either physically or verbally

Aggression

According to personality psychologists, _____ is the trait most associated with prosocial behaviors.

Agreeableness

Unselfish interest in helping another person

Altruism

An individual's opinions and beliefs about people, objects, and ideas - how the person feels about the world

Attitudes

the process by which we come to understand that causes of others' behavior and form an impression of them as individuals (explanations of causes of behavior)

Attribution

the view that people are motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior as part of their effort to make sense of the behavior. (vary along 3 dimensions)

Attribution Theory

An individual's psychological discomfort (dissonance) caused by two inconsistent thoughts -Inconsistency between what we believe and what we think - Do you practice what you preach?

Cognitive dissonance theory

A change in a person's behavior to coincide more closely with a group standard

Conformity

The reduction in personal identity and erosion of the sense of personal responsibility when one is part of a group -KKK prime example - hide behind hoods to conceal identity

Deindividuation

An unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group simply because the person belongs to that group - group based (you take action to isolate/harm others)

Discrimination

Neurotransmitters in pro-social behavior

Dopamine (reward) Serotonin (happiness) Oxytocin (love for a child / personal relationships)

coming up with a rationale for the amount of work we put into getting something, typically by increasing the value associated with things that are difficult to attain

Effort justification

Giving to another person to ensure reciprocity; to gain self-esteem; to present oneself as powerful, competent, or caring; or to avoid censure from oneself and others for failing to live up to society's expectations -reciprocity - we help another person with the hopes that he/she will return the favor

Egoism

Theory identifying two ways to persuade: a central route and a peripheral route -central route works by engaging the audience thoughtfully with a sound, logical argument -peripheral route involves factors such as the source's attractiveness or the emotional power of an appeal

Elaboration likelihood model

"Putting yourself in someone else's shoes" is another way of saying that you should have:

Empathy

3 factors of pro-social behavior

Empathy Personality Mood

The tendency to favor one's own ethnic group over other groups

Ethnocentrism

People's overestimation of the degree to which everybody else thinks or acts the way they themselves do -our bias affects how we come up with conclusions about a group of people

False consensus effect

the blocking of someone's attempt to reach a goal

Frustration

states the frustration always leads to aggression

Frustration-aggression hypothesis

observers' overestimation of the importance of internal traits and underestimation of the importance of external situations when they seek explanations of an actor's behavior

Fundamental Attribution Theory

The solidification and further strengthening of an individual's position as a consequence of a group decision or interaction -A person who is punished more severely because the whole population saw it

Group polarization effect

The impaired group decision making that occurs when making the right decision is less important than maintaining group harmony

Groupthink

The influence other people have on us because we want to be right -we go along with the crowd to be right

Informational social influence

Resisting persuasion - knowing the consequences beforehand, therefore you do not engage in activity Example: Cheating on a test

Inoculation

A model of long-term relationships that examines the ways that commitment, investment, and availability of attractive alternative partners predict satisfaction and stability in relationship

Investment model

The phenomenon that the more individuals encounter someone or something, the more probable it is that they will start liking the person or thing even if they do not realize they have seen it before

Mere exposure effect

the teacher punishes the learner - study for obedience -if you don't answer correctly you get shocked (you thought you were shocking someone - to point of death)

Milgram's experiment

The influence others have on us because we want them to like us

Normative Social influence

Behavior that complies with the explicit demands of the individual in authority

Obedience

the process by which we use social stimuli to form impressions of others (usually by their faces)

Person perception

trying to change someone's attitude - and often his or her behavior 1. Communicator 2. Medium 3. Target 4. Message

Persuasion

Favorable views of the self that are not necessarily rooted in reality -psychologically happier people

Positive Illusions

An unjustified negative attitude toward an individual based on the individual's membership in a group - individual based

Prejudice

the motivation to reject attempts to be controlled

Reactance

The tendency for a group decision to be riskier than the average decision made by the individual group members

Risky shift

Love with strong components of sexuality and infatuation, often dominant in the early part of a love relationship

Romantic / passionate love

expectations cause individuals to act in ways that serve to make the expectations come true -"averageness" is an essential component to attractiveness

Self-fulfilling prophecy

the tendency to see oneself primarily as an object in the eyes of others

Self-objectification bias

Bem's theory on how behaviors influence attitudes, stating that individuals make inferences about their attitudes by perceiving their behavior -I don't smoke cigarettes, therefore I don't like people that do

Self-perception theory

the tendency to take credit for one's successes and to deny responsibility for one's failures

Self-serving bias

The way individuals define themselves in terms of their group membership EX: Ethnicity, Religion, Relationships, Vocations, Political affiliation, Stigmatized Identities

Social Identity

Tajfel's theory that social identity is a crucial part of self-image and a valuable source of positive feelings about oneself

Social Identity theory

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

Social Psychology

the area of social psychology that explores how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information (The way individuals think in social situations)

Social cognition

The process by which individuals evaluate their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and abilities in relation to others

Social comparison

Imitative behavior involving the spread of actions, emotions, and ideas -the popularity of smoking in teenagers

Social contagion

The view of social relationships as involving an exchange of goods, the objective of which is to minimize costs and maximize benefits. -equity - person is doing "fair share" in the relationship

Social exchange theory

Each person's tendency to exert less effort in a group because of reduced accountability for individual effort -going along with the crowd

Social loafing

A generalization about a group's characteristics that does not consider any variations from one individual to another -these are heuristics (mental shortcuts) -"beautiful is good" - attractive people are nicer and get better jobs

Stereotype

An individual's fast-acting, self-fulfilling fear of being judged based on a negative stereotype about his or her group -anxiety about living "down" to expectations and consequently underperforms -someone's race threatens how they feel about themselves

Stereotype threat

the tendency of an individual who observes an emergency to help less when other people are present than when the observer is alone

The bystander effect

Anyone can be savage and or aggressive - you can learn to be evil - the situation makes you evil

Zimbardo Experiment (Standford Prison)

what are controllable/uncontrollable causes?

a. If rain ruined the dinner or if the actual food cooked badly affected the dinner

what are internal/external causes?

a. Internal = specific to person / traits and abilities b. External = outside person like social pressure, social situations, weather luck

what are stable/unstable causes?

a. Permanent or temporary actions

the notion that the customer or individual feels a sense of obligation since the initial request was rejected so the smaller request should be accepted. (persuasion)

door-in-the-face technique

The favoring of your own ethnic group while asserting that ethnic out-groups are worse than your own is:

ethnocentrism

Start small and work your way up (for persuasion)

foot-in-the-door technique