PSYCH 102 Exam 3 Flashcards
(157 cards)
Scientific study of how people think, feel, & behave in social contexts
Social Psychology
Assigning causes to explain others’ behaviors
Attributions
2 Types of casual attributions
Dispositional and Situational
Explanations based on person’s disposition
Dispositional
Explanations based on current situation
situational
the tendency, when evaluating others’ behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation & to overestimate the impact of their personal disposition
fundamental attribution error
Moderated by cultural factors & familiarity with the other person
fundamental attribution error
We tend to use dispositional attributions to explain our wins & situational attributions to explain our losses.
self-serving bias
first impressions (based on attributions) affect observer’s behavior, & as a result, the first impression comes true.
self-fulfilling prophecy
feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, & events
attitudes
people like their attitudes & actions to be consistent with one another
consistency principle
state of tension that occurs when your attitudes are inconsistent with your actions.
cognitive dissonance
occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness.
Peripheral route persuasion
occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.
Central route persuasion
tendency for people who’ve first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.
foot-in-the-door phenomenon
adjusting behavior or thinking to go along with a group standard (no direct request)
social contagion
changing behavior in response to direct order from an authority figure
obedience
Other factors that influence behavior in the presence of others, or within a group, include:
- Social facilitation
- Social loafing
- Deindividuation
- group polarization
- When others observe us, we perform well-learned tasks more quickly and accurately.
- On new and difficult tasks, performance is slower and less accurate.
Home-team advantage
Tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable
Social loafing
loss of self-awareness & self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal & anonymity
Deindividuation
discuss with like-minded others cause initial attitudes to become more extreme
group polarization
desire for harmony in decision-making group overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives
groupthink
behavior intended to harm another person
aggression