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.
