AP Psych U12: Social Psychology

• social psychology


  how individuals interact w/ each other + society
• what does social psychology focus on?

  how we think + act in certain situations
• sociology


  how groups + cultures behave + interact
• what is the difference between social psychology and sociology?

  social psychology focuses on how individuals interact and sociology focuses on how groups interact
• who made attribution theory?

  Fritz Heider
• what does attribution therapy say about behavior?

  behavior can be explained either through crediting traits/disposition or situation they're in
• what does fundamental attribution error say about explaining behavior?

  our tendency to overestimate traits/disposition in explaining behavior
• what are two ideas/theories about attribution?

  attribution theory

  fundamental attribution error
• what are two routes of persuasion?

  central route persuasion

  peripheral route persuasion
• central route persuasion


  using reasoning/directness to convince people
• peripheral route persuasion


  using something other than the message to convince people
• what kind of people does peripheral route persuasion work best on?

  unfocused people
• what are 5 techniques of persuasion?

  foot-in-the-door technique

  door-in-the-face technique

  low-ball technique

  brainwashing

  write-it-down technique
• foot-in-the-door technique


  opening w/ a small request before making a larger request
• door-in-the-face technique


  opening w/ a large request which will surely be rejected because making a more reasonable request
• what is the difference between door-in-the-face technique and foot-in-the-door technique?

  door-in-the-face starts off with a large request while foot-in-the-door starts with a small request
• low-ball technique


  attracting someone w/ a desirable situation before applying undesirable additions
• brainwashing


  requests steadily increasing compliance; builds to attitude changes
• write-it-down technique


  once you've written it down/filled out the form, you'll do it
• role


  set of expectations about a social position
• what experiment demonstrates the effect or roles and societies perception about them?

  Stanford Prison Experiment
• who conducted the standford prison experiment?

  Phillip Zimbardo
• what happened in the standford prison experiment?

  randomly assigned "prisoners" and "guards" took on passive + abusive roles
• cognitive dissonance theory


  we experience discomfort from conflicting thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behavior
• who is behind cognitive dissonance theory?

  Leon Festinger
• chameleon effect


  automatic mimicry; we copy the behavior of those around us
• compliance


  a favorable response to a request
• obedience


  a compliance with authority
• normative social influence


  driver for conformity
• informational social influence


  accepting societal interpretations of reality
• what are two types of social influence?

  normative social influence

  informative social influence
• conformity 


  adjusting behavior/thinking to align w/ group standards
• what experiments demonstrate conformity?

  Solomon Ash Conformity Experiments
• What happened in the Solomon Ash Conformity experiments?

  confederates did illogical things/made obviously wrong choices, subjects often swayed by confederates
• what are some behaviors in groups?

  social facilitation

  social loafing

  deindividuation
• social facilitation


  different, usually stronger responses in front of others
• social loafing


  people put in less work when working as a group, than when individually accountable
• deindividuation


  loss of self-awareness + restraint in group situations
• what are some of the effects of groups in cognition?

  social inhibition

  group polarization

  group think
• social inhibition


  conscious/unconscious avoidance of social interaction; drives asocial behaviors