Unit IX - Social Psychology

• ingroup "us" -people with whom we share a common identity
• outgroup "them"- people perceived as different or apart from our ingroup
• frustration-aggression principle is the principle that frustration- the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal- creates anger which can generate aggression
• altruism is the unselfish regard for the welfare of others
• aggression is any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally
• conformity is adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard
• obedience is a form of social influence that involves acting on the orders of an authority figure.
• normative social influence is an influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval,
• informational social influence is the influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality
• just-world phenomenon is the tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get
• other-race effect is the tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races
• deindividuation is the loss of self-awareness and self- restraint occurring in group situation that foster arousal and anonymity
• norms are understood rules for aceepted and expected behavior. Norms prescribe "proper" behavior
• culture is the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next
• foot-in-the-door phenomenon is the tendency for people who have agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
• social facilitation is improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others
• social responsibility is an ethical theory in which individuals are accountable for fulfilling their civic duty, and the actions of an individual must benefit the whole of society
• majority influence refers to the social pressure to conform to the norms of the greater part of the group.
• minority influence refers to the social pressure exerted by the smaller part, their norms, and ideas. people tend to conform to the majority more often than we are influenced by the minority.
• group polarization is he enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations though discussion within the group
• groupthink is the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives
• stereotype is a generalized (sometimes accurate but overgeneralized) belief about a group of people
• prejudice is an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action
• discrimination is unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members
• peripheral route persuasion occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as the speaker's attractiveness
• central route persuasion occurs when interested people focus on arguments and respond with favorable thoughts
• fundamental attribution error is the tendency for observers when analyzing others' behaviors to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition
• situational attributions blame a person's behavior on the situation, whereas dispositional attributions say a person acted a certain way because of their personality
• The Milgram experiment is a famous psychological study exploring the willingness of individuals to follow the orders of authorities when those orders conflict with the individual's own moral judgment.
• The Asch conformity experiments consisted of a group “vision test”, where study participants were found to be more likely to conform to obviously wrong answers if first given by other “participants”, who were actually working for the experimenter.
• The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was a psychological experiment conducted in August 1971. It was a two-week simulation of a prison environment that examined the effects of situational variables on participants' reactions and behaviors.
• mere-exposure effect is the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them
• social exchange theory is the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs
• reciprocity norm is an expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them
• social-responsibility norm is an expectation that people will help those needing for help
• social loafing is the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable
• The factors of attraction were include proximity, familiarity, physical attractiveness, similarity, reciprocity, and intimacy
• superordinate goals are shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation
• cognitive dissonance is described as the mental discomfort people feel when their beliefs and actions are inconsistent and contradictory, ultimately making them change one factor to align better
• GRIT is a strategy designed to decrease international tensions