� Social cognition
how we form impressions of other people; how we interpret the meaning of other's behavior; how our behavior is affected by our attitudes
� Social influence
how our behavior is affected by situational factors and other people (conformity, obedience, compliance)
� Person perception
mental processes we use to form judgments about others
� Social norms
rules" or expectations for appropriate behavior in a particular social situation
� Social categorization
mental process of classifying people into groups based on common characteristics like gender, race, age, or occupation (pros-provide us with basic info and mentally organize & remember info about others. cons-based on superficial info and jump to conclusi
� Implicit personality theories
network of assumptions or beliefs about the relationships among various types of people, traits, and behaviors. Previous social experiences make us assume that they're a type of person. ->giving traits to groups
� Interpersonal context components
characteristics of individual you're trying to size up; own characteristics as perceiver; situation
� Physical attractiveness
we believe that what is beautiful is good
� Attribution
mental process of inferring the causes of people's behavior and own behavior; explanation for a particular behavior
� Fundamental attribution error
tendency to attribute the behavior of others to internal personal characteristics while ignoring/underestimating the effects of external situational factors
� Blaming the victim
tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for having somehow caused the problem or prevented it
� Just world phenomenon/hypothesis
assumption that the world is fair and therefore people get what they deserve and deserve what they get
� Saliency bias
using the most noticeable characteristics to define who a person is
� Social traps
situations that force us into self defeating behaviors (situation don't want to be in)
� Relative deprivation
believing you are entitled to something and disappointed if you don't receive it
� Social dilemma
a situation where you pick to benefit self & others negative and vice versa
� Explaining behavior
we automatically come to the conclusion that if something went wrong, it is somebody's fault
� The actor-observer bias/discrepancy
tendency to attribute one's own behavior to external situational causes and others to internal personal causes (especially with negative outcomes)
� Self serving bias
tendency to attribute successful outcomes of one's own behavior to internal causes and unsuccessfulness with external causes
� The effect of attitudes on behavior
people don't always act in accordance with their feelings. Most likely to act when-> extreme/frequent attitude, formed through experience, knowledgeable about subject, interest in subject and anticipate favorable outcome
� Cognitive dissonance (Leon Festinger)
an unpleasant state of psychological tension that occurs when two thoughts or perceptions are inconsistent. (attitude and behavior conflict)
� Over justification effect (Greene, Sternberg, Leeper)
do something for personal award and then receive eccentric (actual) award; do it for the award
� Problem with stereotypical thinking
it's an exaggerated notion that different groups are very different when truthfully they're more alike than they are different
� Out-group homogeneity effect
tendency to see members of out- groups as very similar to one another
� In-group bias
judge in-group members favorably and out-group members unfavorably
� Ethnocentrism
the belief that one's own culture or ethnic group is superior to all others and use own culture as standard to judge others
� Emotional basis of prejudice
emotions negative=hatred, fear; behaviorally=discrimination
� The Robbers Cave experiment (Muzafer Sherif)
boys camp, compete with each other, competitive, must work together to achieve goal
� The jigsaw classroom (Elliot Herderson)
diverse groups come together and bring info to the group
� Combating prejudice at the individual level
Patricia Devine; decide its wrong consciously, internalize beliefs, learn to replace prejudice actions
� Conformity
change behavior, attitude, or belief in response to group pressure
� Following the crowd
we change our behavior when social situations change; do what others do whether you believe it or not
� Group pressure to conform (Solomon Asch)
line experiment; we still conform even though the answer is CLEARLY wrong
� Normative social influence
desire to be liked and accepted by group; so we conform
� Informational social influence
desire to be right; when we're doubting our own opinion we look to the group as an accurate source of info; so we conform
� Culture and conformity
less common to conform today; in 1950's deviation from group was suspicious; conformity higher in collectivistic cultures than individualistic
� Prejudice
thoughts
� Discrimination
actions
� Obedience
(Stanley Milgram) performance of an action in response to the direct orders of an authority or person of higher status
� Milgram's original obedience experiment
teacher had to punish student through electric shocks; see how far they'll go; 2/3rds of subjects went to full level; not one stopped before 300
� Factors of obedience from Milgram's study
previous mental framework is to obey (doing experiment); situation (told it was for scientific research); gradual escalation (lower was okay); experimenters reassurance; physical and psychological separation from learner
� Altruism
helping another person with no expectation of personal reward or benefit
� Pro-Social behavior
behavior that helps another person (volunteering)
� Coming to the aid of strangers
(Kitty Genovese) people less likely to help a stranger when there's many people around
� Factors that increase likelihood of bystanders helping
happy more likely to help; feeling guilty for not helping; seeing others willing; perceiving person as deserving; knowing how to help; personal relationship; familiar environment
� Factors that decrease likelihood of bystanders helping
being in big city or small town; vague situations; personal costs outweigh benefits
� Bystander effect
phenomenon in which the greater the number of people present, less likely an individual is to help
� Diffusion of responsibility
phenomenon in which the presence of others makes it less likely that any individual will help someone in distress because the obligation to intervene is shared among others
� Social loafing
tendency to expend less effort on a task when it's a group effort (cultural variations=opposite in other cultures)
� Arousal theory
when being observed perform well on tasks that need little attention and less on those that need much attention
� Social facilitation
tendency for the presence of others to enhance individual performance
� Social inhibition
lowering of performance on a given task in presence of others; usually not well rehearsed in
� Deindividuation
reduction of self awareness and inhibitions that can occur when a person is part of a group shoes members feel anonymous
� Group polarization
enhancement of a groups prevailing opposing attitudes through discussion; shoe assumptions
� Group think
thinking that occurs when desire for harmony in decisions making overrides realistic alternatives; compromise
� Philip Zimbardo
Prisoner Guard; prisoners took position and so did guards; had to stop early; to intense