social psychology

• social psychology

  study how social context and cultural enviornments influence thoughts/feelings/behaviours
• transference

  tendency to assume a new person we meet has the same traits as someone else we know
• false consensus

  tendency to use self as an anchor and overestimate the extent to which other people's beliefs and attitudes are similar to our own
• impression management

  strategies to put their best face forward and influence the impressions that others make of them
• attribution

  assignment of causal explanation for an event, action or outcome
• fundamental attribution error

  assuming a persons actions reflects their internal dispositions other than their situational context
• self serving attributions

  perceive outcomes and actions in ways that benefit ourselves, (like self serving bias)
• affective forecasting errors

  our estimations of future happiness in inaccurate, because we overestimate the influence of some factors and underestimate others
• three components of attitudes

  orientation toward target stimulus

  1. affective feeling (positive/negative)
  2. cognitive belief (of characteristics of target)
  3. behavioural motivation (approach / avoid target)
• implicit attitudes

  automatic activated associations through learned exposures to a person, place, thing or issue
• explicit attitudes

  explicit reports of beliefs of a person, place, thing or issue shapes by norms, values, etc.
• elaboration liklihood model

  suggest changes can come about through different routes

  1. central route: relies on thoughtfulness and reflection
  2. peripheral route: impressionable and slapdash
• cognitive dissonance

  sense of conflict between actions and attitudes can motivate efforts to reduce dissonance and restore a sense of internal consistency
• conformity

  efforts of people to implicitly mimic or adopt behaviours / beliefs / preferences
• informational social influence

  conformity to others' actions or beliefs to behave correctly to gain accurate understanding of the world
• normative social influence 


  when we conform to gain approval from others or avoid disapproval
• social facilitation

  evidence that men presence of others can boost arousal in a way that facilitates dominant response to a task
• social loafing


  tendency for individuals to expend less effort on a task when they're doing it with others rather than alone
• group polarization

  tendency for people attitudes on an issue to become extreme after discussing it with like minded others
• groupthink

  during a group decision when people feel pressure to maintain allegiance to a group leader under time pressure
• Stanley Milgram Study Conclusion

  obedience to authority can be changed by altering the legitimacy of the authority figure
• general agression model

  framework for knitting together factors that predict likelihood that people act aggressively
• weapons effect

  suggest simple exposure to a gun or weapon can increase aggressive responses by bringing violent thoughts to the mind
• kin selection

  evolved adaptive strategy of assisting those who share one's genes even at personal cost (means of increasing the odds of genetic survival)
• norm of reciprocity


  people agree to help others who have helped them in the past or might help them in the future
• empathy gap

  inability to actively stimulate the mental suffering of another person
• bystander effect

  people less likely to come to the aid of a victim when other observers are present than when they are alone
• pluralistic ignorance


  where people are collectively unaware of each other's true attitudes or beliefs (multiple observers looking to each other for cues to what is happening)
• diffusion of responsibility

  assume someone either has already gone for help or would be more skilled at knowing what to do
• stereotypes

  mental representations or schemas we have about groups
• prejudice

  negative attitudes of a group or members of a group
• discrimination


  tendency for people to receive different treatment or outcomes as a result of their membership in a given social group
• realistic group conflict theory

  negative intergroup attitudes against one another for access to the same scarce resources
• social identity theory 


  people maintain this positive attitude for their in-group in part by seeing outgroups in a more negative light
• according to social identity theory, what is necessary for prejudice to exist between two groups

  perception of an in-group is better than an outgroup
• implicit racial bias

  culturally learned negative attitudes / stereotypes about members are automatically brought to mind

  • leads to people being treated differently based on their race
• aversive racism

  egalitarian minded people have unconscious negative reactions to people of racial or ethnic groups
• research suggests about implicit racial bias

  it is automatically activated but its expression can be inhibited
• contact hypothesis: Gordon Allport

  portal that prejudice can be reduced by sanctioned, friendly and cooperative, interactions between members of different groups, working together as equals to achieve a common goal
• parental investment theory

  suggest women's greater expenditure of time, resources, and efforts lead to far greater caution in selection a long term amte