Norms
Rules" about how group members should act
Social Scripts
Preset notions about certain types of situations--scripts that enable us to anticipate the goals, behaviors, and outcomes likely to occur in a particular setting
Social Cognition
The way people gather, use, and interpret information about social aspects of the world around them
Social Loafing
When individuals put less effort into group projects than when acting alone
Deindividuation
When people get swept up by a group and do things they would never have done if on their own-Loss of self-restraint occurs when group members feel anonymous and aroused-results from a loss of self-awareness due to identification with a large group
Social Facilitation
Improved performance on a well-known tasks in the presence of others, but impaired performance on difficult tasks.
Social Impairment
Decreased performance on a new task in the presence of others
Altruism
Selfless sacrifice for the sake of others
Group Polarization
Tendency of a group to make more extreme decisions than the group members would make individually
Minority Influence
Tendency for the lone dissenter to have an influence on the decisions of the group
Groupthink
Tendency for some groups to make bad decisions because some members keep ideas to themselves because they aren't favored by the majority of the group-the need for agreement takes priority over the motivation to obtain accurate knowledge and make appropria
Bystander Intervention
The conditions under which people nearby are more and/or less likely to help someone in trouble
Diffusion of Responsibility
The larger number of people who witness an emergency situation, the less likely any one is to intervene or help
Pluralistic Ignorance
If others are behaving as if no emergency is happening, then the subject may not feel the situation is serious
Altruism
repeat
Social Cognition
repeat
Attribution Theory
Tries to explain how people determine the cause of what they observe
Dispositional Attributions (Interpersonal)
Individual personality characteristics that affect a person's behavior
Situational Attributions (External)
Environmental stimuli that affect a person's behavior
Fundamental Attribution Error
When looking at the behavior of others, people tend to overestimate the importance of dispositional factors and underestimate the role of situational factors
Misattribution
An inaccurate explanation that shifts the cause for emotional arousal from the true source to another one
Self-Serving Bias
Tendency to take more credit for good outcomes than for the bad ones
Self-Handicapping
Behaviors designed to sabotage one's own performance in order to provide a subsequent excuse for a failure.
Downward Social Comparison
Defensive tendency to compare ourselves to others who are worse off than we are (hint: think Jerry Springer Show)
Relative Deprivation
The feeling of discontent aroused by the belief that one fares poorly compared to others
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The process by which one's expectations about a person eventually lead that person to behave in ways that confirm those expectations-a perceiver's expectation actually leads to its own fulfillment
Actor-Observer Bias
Observers tend to attribute others' behavior to dispositions, but their own behavior to situations.
Social Categorization
The classification of persons into groups on the basis of common attributes
In-Group/Out-Group Bias
The preference for members of a group to prefer those form their own group over those from an outside group
Out-Group Homogeneity
People tend to see members of their own group as more diverse than members of other groups-tend to see outside groups as more similar than they really are, leading to the belief that there may be fines and subtle differences between "us," but "they" are a
Superordinate Goal
A goal that benefits all and needs the participation of all people in the group, therefore joint cooperation is required
Contact Theory
Contact between hostile groups will reduce animosity, but only if the groups are made to work toward a superordinate goal.
Jigsaw Classroom
A cooperative learning method used to reduce racial prejudice through interaction in group efforts
Scapegoat Theory
Aggression that cannot be otherwise expressed is taken out on socially acceptable victims
Ethnocentrism
Belief that our culture or social group is superior to others
Just-World Bias
(phenomenon) Tendency to believe in fairness, that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get
Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
Getting someone to agree to a small request before asking him or her to agree to a larger one
Door-in-the-Face Phenomenon
Making a request so big it'll be turned down before making a smaller request that seems more reasonable
Identification
Individual's desire to be like some other person
Internalization
When an individual adopts the group's beliefs as his/her own
Reciprocity
Feeling that if someone does something for you, you are obligated to return the favor
Mere Exposure Effect
The more one is exposed to something, the more one will come to like it.
Elaboration Likelihood Model
Looks at 2 ways attitudes can change-deep, careful processing of information or superficial, emotion-based information
Central Route of Persuasion
The process in which a person thinks carefully about a communication/message and is influenced by the strength of its arguments (stable)
Peripheral Route of Persuasion
The process in which a person does not think carefully about a communication and is influenced by superficial cues
Sleeper Effect
A delayed increase in the persuasive impact of a non-credible source
Inoculation Hypothesis
The idea that exposure to weak versions of a persuasive argument increases later resistance to that argument
Normative Social Influence
Effect of accepting behavior of others to gain approval or avoid disapproval
Instrumental Aggression
Aggression in order to achieve some goal
Hostile Aggression
To inflict pain upon someone else
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
The feeling of frustration makes aggression more likely
Catharsis
Use of aggression as a means of releasing inner tension that may lead to mental illness if not releases
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
If you behave in a way that's inconsistent with one of your attitudes, the inconsistency will produce dissonance (an unpleasant state of tension).
False-Consensus Effect
Tendency for people to overestimate the number of people who agree with them