Key Terms
- actor-observer bias
- phenomenon of explaining other people’s behaviours are due to internal factors and our own behaviours are due to situational forces
- ageism
- prejudice and discrimination toward individuals based solely on their age
- aggression
- seeking to cause harm or pain to another person
- altruism
- humans’ desire to help others even if the costs outweigh the benefits of helping
- Asch effect
- group majority influences an individual’s judgment, even when that judgment is inaccurate
- attitude
- evaluations of or feelings toward a person, idea, or object that are typically positive or negative
- attribution
- explanation for the behaviour of other people
- bullying
- a person, often an adolescent, being treated negatively repeatedly and over time
- bystander effect
- situation in which a witness or bystander does not volunteer to help a victim or person in distress
- central route persuasion
- logic-driven arguments using data and facts to convince people of an argument’s worthiness
- cognitive dissonance
- psychological discomfort that arises from a conflict in a person’s behaviours, attitudes, or beliefs that runs counter to one’s positive self-perception
- collectivist culture
- culture that focuses on communal relationships with others such as family, friends, and community
- companionate love
- type of love consisting of intimacy and commitment, but not passion; associated with close friendships and family relationships
- confederate
- person who works for a researcher and is aware of the experiment, but who acts as a participant; used to manipulate social situations as part of the research design
- confirmation bias
- seeking out information that supports our stereotypes while ignoring information that is inconsistent with our stereotypes
- conformity
- when individuals change their behaviour to go along with the group even if they do not agree with the group
- consummate love
- type of love occurring when intimacy, passion, and commitment are all present
- cyberbullying
- repeated behaviour that is intended to cause psychological or emotional harm to another person and that takes place online
- diffusion of responsibility
- tendency for no one in a group to help because the responsibility to help is spread throughout the group
- discrimination
- negative actions toward individuals as a result of their membership in a particular group
- dispositionism
- describes a perspective common to personality psychologists, which asserts that our behaviour is determined by internal factors, such as personality traits and temperament
- empathy
- capacity to understand another person’s perspective—to feel what he or she feels
- foot-in-the-door technique
- persuasion of one person by another person, encouraging a person to agree to a small favour, or to buy a small item, only to later request a larger favour or purchase of a larger item
- fundamental attribution error
- tendency to overemphasize internal factors as attributions for behaviour and underestimate the power of the situation
- group polarization
- strengthening of the original group attitude after discussing views within the group
- groupthink
- group members modify their opinions to match what they believe is the group consensus
- homophily
- tendency for people to form social networks, including friendships, marriage, business relationships, and many other types of relationships, with others who are similar
- homophobia
- prejudice and discrimination against individuals based solely on their sexual orientation
- hostile aggression
- aggression motivated by feelings of anger with intent to cause pain
- in-group
- group that we identify with or see ourselves as belonging to
- in-group bias
- preference for our own group over other groups
- individualistic culture
- culture that focuses on individual achievement and autonomy
- informational social influence
- conformity to a group norm prompted by the belief that the group is competent and has the correct information
- instrumental aggression
- aggression motivated by achieving a goal and does not necessarily involve intent to cause pain
- internal factor
- internal attribute of a person, such as personality traits or temperament
- just-world hypothesis
- ideology common in the United States that people get the outcomes they deserve
- justification of effort
- theory that people value goals and achievements more when they have put more effort into them
- normative social influence
- conformity to a group norm to fit in, feel good, and be accepted by the group
- obedience
- change of behaviour to please an authority figure or to avoid aversive consequences
- out-group
- group that we don’t belong to—one that we view as fundamentally different from us
- peripheral route persuasion
- one person persuades another person; an indirect route that relies on association of peripheral cues (such as positive emotions and celebrity endorsement) to associate positivity with a message
- persuasion
- process of changing our attitude toward something based on some form of communication
- prejudice
- negative attitudes and feelings toward individuals based solely on their membership in a particular group
- prosocial behaviour
- voluntary behaviour with the intent to help other people
- racism
- prejudice and discrimination toward individuals based solely on their race
- reciprocity
- give and take in relationships
- romantic love
- type of love consisting of intimacy and passion, but no commitment
- scapegoating
- act of blaming an out-group when the in-group experiences frustration or is blocked from obtaining a goal
- script
- person’s knowledge about the sequence of events in a specific setting
- self-disclosure
- sharing personal information in relationships
- self-fulfilling prophecy
- treating stereotyped group members according to our biased expectations only to have this treatment influence the individual to act according to our stereotypic expectations, thus confirming our stereotypic beliefs
- self-serving bias
- tendency for individuals to take credit by making dispositional or internal attributions for positive outcomes and situational or external attributions for negative outcomes
- sexism
- prejudice and discrimination toward individuals based on their sex
- situationism
- describes a perspective that behaviour and actions are determined by the immediate environment and surroundings; a view promoted by social psychologists
- social exchange theory
- humans act as naïve economists in keeping a tally of the ratio of costs and benefits of forming and maintain a relationship, with the goal to maximize benefits and minimize costs
- social facilitation
- improved performance when an audience is watching versus when the individual performs the behaviour alone
- social loafing
- exertion of less effort by a person working in a group because individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group, thus causing performance decline on easy tasks
- social norm
- group’s expectations regarding what is appropriate and acceptable for the thoughts and behaviour of its members
- social psychology
- field of psychology that examines how people impact or affect each other, with particular focus on the power of the situation
- social role
- socially defined pattern of behaviour that is expected of a person in a given setting or group
- stanford prison experiment
- Stanford University conducted an experiment in a mock prison that demonstrated the power of social roles, social norms, and scripts
- stereotype
- specific beliefs or assumptions about individuals based solely on their membership in a group, regardless of their individual characteristics
- triangular theory of love
- model of love based on three components: intimacy, passion, and commitment; several types of love exist, depending on the presence or absence of each of these components