Chapter 16 - SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
MODULE 16.1- Perceiving Others
Social psychology - The subfield in psychology that deals with how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are
influenced by our social interactions with others
Social perception - The processes by which we form impressions, make judgments, and develop attitudes about the
people and events that constitute our social world
Impression formation - The process of developing an opinion or impression of another person
Social schema - A mental image or representation that we use to understand our social environment
Stereotypes - Oversimplified generalizations about the characteristics, attributes, and behaviors of members of a
particular group or category
Self-fulfilling prophecy - An expectation that helps bring about the outcome that is expected
Attribution - An assumption about the cause of behavior or events
Dispositional causes - Causes relating to the internal characteristics or traits of individuals
Situational causes - Causes relating to external or environmental events
Fundamental attribution error - The tendency to attribute behavior to internal causes without regard to
situational influences
Actor-observer effect - The tendency to attribute the causes of one’s own behavior to situational factors while
attributing the causes of other people’s behavior to internal factors or dispositions.
Self-serving bias - The tendency to take credit for our accomplishments and to explain away our failures or
disappointments
Attitude - A positive or negative evaluation of persons, objects, or issues
Elaboration likelihood model (ELM) - A theoretical model that posits two channels by which persuasive appeals
lead to attitude change: a central route and a peripheral route
MODULE 16.2- Relating to Others
Attraction - Feelings of likening for others, together with having positive thoughts about them and inclinations to
act toward them in positive ways
Matching hypothesis - The belief that people tend to pair off with others who are similar to themselves in
physical attractiveness and other characteristics
Proximity - Nearness or propinquity
Reciprocity - The principle that people tend to like others who like them back
Prosocial behavior - Behavior that benefits others
Bystander intervention - Helping a stranger in distress
Social norms - Standards that define what is socially acceptable in a given situation
Prejudice - A preconceived opinion or attitude about an issue, person or group
Discrimination - Unfair or biased treatment of people based on their membership in a particular group or category
In-groups - Social, religious, ethnic, or national groups with which one identifies
Out-groups - Groups other than those with which one identifies
Out-group negativism - A cognitive bias involving the predisposition to attribute more negative characteristics to
members of out-groups than to those of in-groups
In-favoritism - A cognitive bias involving the predisposition to attribute more positive characteristics to members
of in-groups that o those of out-groups
Out-group homogeneity - A cognitive bias describing the tendency to perceive members of out-groups as more
alike those members of in-groups
Authoritarian personality - A personality type characterized by rigidity, prejudice, and excessive concerns with
obedience and respect for authority
Contact hypothesis - Allport’s belief that under certain conditions, increased intergroup contact helps reduce
prejudice and intergroup tension.
Frustration - A negative emotional state experienced when one’s efforts to pursue one’s goals are thwarted
Racism - Negative bias held toward others based on their ethnicity or racial identification
MODULE 16.3- Group Influences on Individual Behavior
Personal identity - The part of our psychological identity that involves our sense of ourselves as unique individuals
Social identity - The part of our psychological identity that involves our sense of ourselves as members of
particular groups. Also called group identity
Conformity - The tendency to adjust one’s behavior to actual or perceived social
Pressures compliance - The tendency to accede to the requests or demands of others
Social validation - The tendency to use other people’s behavior as a standard for judging the appropriateness of
one’s own behavior
Foot-in-the-door technique - A compliance technique based on securing compliance with a smaller request as a
prelude to making a larger request
Bait-and switch technique - A compliance technique based on “baiting” an individual by making an unrealistically
attractive offer and then replacing it with a less attractive offer
Low-ball technique - A compliance technique based on obtaining a person’s initial agreement to purchase an item
at a lower price before revealing hidden costs that raise the ultimate price
Door-in-the-face technique - A compliance technique in which refusal of a large unreasonable request is followed
by a smaller, more reasonable request
Obedience - Compliance with commands or orders issued by others, usually persons in a position of authority
Legitimization of authority - The tendency to grant legitimacy to the orders of commands of persons in authority
Social facilitation - The tendency to work better or harder in the presence of others than which alone
Social loafing - The tendency to expend less effort when working as a member of a group than when working alone
Deindiciduation - The loss of self-awareness that may occur when one acts in concert with the actions of a crowd
Group polarization - The tendency for members of decision-making groups to shift toward more extreme views in
whatever direction they were initially leaning
Risky-shift phenomenon - A type of group polarization effect in which group discussion leads to the adoption
of a riskier course of action than the members would have endorsed initially
Groupthink - Janis’s term for the tendency of members of a decision-making group to e more focused on reaching
a consensus than on critically examining the issues at hand
MODULE 16.4- Application: Psychology Goes to Work
Telecommunicating - A form of working at home in which people communicate with their home office and clients via
computer or telecommunications
Organizational culture - The system of shared values and norms within an organization