AP Psychology

Social Psychology

actor-observer biasfundamental attribution error

With the actor-observer bias in explaining behavior, actors favor external explanations (attributions) while observers favor more internal attributions.

It is further explained thusly. Fundamental attribution error refers to observers’ bias in favor of internal attributions in explaining others’ behavior. The actor and the observer might make totally different attributions to explain behavior. The observer is likely to point to internal factors when evaluating an actor’s behavior while looking at external factors requires much more awareness, thought and effort.

aggressionhostile and instrumental aggression

Aggression, to put it psychologically, is the presenting of negative stimuli to one not interested or unwilling to accept the same. There are two types of aggression:

Hostile aggression is the culmination of one striking out at another person identified as causing the problem. This may or may not be true but it explains why it is being done. The clerk at the store, upon your leaving, says “Have a nice day.” You respond angrily, “No. I don’t want to and you can’t make me.”

Instrumental aggression is acted upon in order to reach a goal or some type of benefit. Sports is often seen as the proving ground for instrumental aggression.

altruism

Altruism is a selfless act, gesture or care by one person towards another. It is typically noted for self-sacrifice. Theorists have been interested to figure out whether this is a biologically based behavior or if it is a learned response.

attitudesAttitudes refer to positive or negative evaluations of objects of thought (defined as things such as social issues, groups, institutions, consumer products and people).

Recent studies say that attitudes might have three different components:

Cognitive component – the beliefs that a person holds.Affective component – the emotional feelings engendered.Behavioral component – predispositions to act in certain ways.

The variance of attitudes is measured in three specific ways:Attitude strength Accessibility of an attitude (how often one thinks about it)Ambivalent attitude (conflicted evaluations)

attribution theoryAttributions (also known as dispositional factors) are inferences that people draw about the causes of events, others’ behavior and their own behavior. People do this to try to understand, to make sense of their lives. Fritz Heider (1958), suggested that people attribute based on from within (attributing behavior to their personal factors) or from without (attributing behavior to environmental factors).

Internal attributions – ascribe the causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities and feelings.External attributions – ascribe the causes of behavior to situational

demands and environmental constraints.

bystander interventionOne of the ways in which groups have been studied is the likelihood that a group will help others when needed. The bystander effect highlights that people are less likely to provide needed help when they are in groups than when they are alone.

Psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latane (1968) proved that as groups grow larger, people are less likely to help when needed. One factor that might explain this is termed diffusion of responsibility, referring to the likelihood that someone else will help.

The study was spurred on by the famous case of Kitty Genovese, who was attacked, stabbed and killed by a mugger while she was calling out to her neighbors, none of whom came to her defense and only one called a rather unclear message to the police. She later died.

complianceCompliance refers to doing something at the behest of someone else.

This can be considered socially acceptable (listening to a teacher or police officer) or others might see it as a sign of individual weakness (doing things because your peer group deems it necessary, etc.).

conformityConformity is when people yield to real or imagined social pressure.

One of the more famous studies on conformity was conducted by Solomon Asche. He show two cards – one with one vertical line on it and another with three vertical lines of various lengths, including one that matches the length of the first card.

A true subject was put in a room with five other secret experimenters acting as fellow subjects who, when asked which line matches the line of the first card, all chose the same, incorrect line. Half of the true subjects conformed to the predominant opinion over half of the time.

contact theoryThe contact theory suggests that if two groups who can’t stand one another approach each other on an equal footing, it should lower tension and increase understanding, cooperation and collaboration.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “People fail to get along because they fear each other; the fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

deindividuationDeindividuation occurs when one loses their identity to a larger group of which they are a part.

In 2011, the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins were playing for the Stanley Cup (hockey version of the Super Bowl or World Series). When the Bruins won the series, Vancouver fans took to the streets and began rioting. Over the course of the night, many who might consider themselves law-abiding citizens and decent people began burning cars and garbage cans as well as throwing beer bottles into stores and at public screens showing the series. This process, for those who it could be said of were decent, is an example of deindividuation.

diffusion of responsibility

Diffusion of responsibility is a term used to explain the bystander effect. Studies have shown that when in large groups, the individual is more likely to assume someone else will help when assistance is required than to do it themselves.

discrimination

Discrimination is acting upon prejudice. When a person treats another person on the basis of the former’s prejudicial attitudes, that is discrimination. Discrimination can be done on racial, ethnic, gender, age, religious and political grounds.

elaboration likelihood model: central and peripheral routes of persuasion

Originally put forth by Richard Petty and John Cacioppo (1986), the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) suggests that there are two major paths to persuasion.

Central route – people carefully ponder and consider the logic of a straight-forward presented message.

Peripheral route – persuasion depends on nonmessage factors such as looks and credibility of source.

Studies show that the central route creates more concrete attitudinal change than the peripheral route.

ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism, also known as nationalism, is a belief system that suggests that one’s own culture is superior to all others. This generally requires an us v. them (ingroup v. outgroup) mentality based on a general lack of knowledge of those in the outgroup.

foot-in-the-door

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon refers to a person willing to do a large task for someone if previously they did a smaller task.

If the school moocher asked a classmate once for a $1, they likely will ask later for $5 and the person is likely to do it because they have consented to the idea once before.

group polarization

Group polarization occurs when group discussion strengthens a group’s dominant point of view and produces a shift toward a more extreme decision in that direction.

The group dynamic allows for new ideas to be put forth that others might not have considered and the emergence of shared opinions could create more strongly argued positions.

groupthink

Groupthink occurs when members of a cohesive group emphasize concurrence at the expense of critical thinking in arriving at a decision. The term emerged in the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the fact that of many of Kennedy’s smart advisors, no one saw the danger of this scenario coming.

Irving Janis (1972) determined that as groups delve into this practice, individual thinking gives way to a shared group mentality. This is seen when a group begins to think more along the lines of “us versus them” as well as the withholding of information unique to particular members of the group.

in and out groupsAn in-group is an exclusive group that requires an intense loyalty. Such a group might include a small military unit, a sports team or a gang. Such a group has well-defined boundaries that separate the in from the out-group members – things such as handshakes or badges or uniforms could serve as a boundary.

An out-group is one targeted by an in-group as an opposition or competition.

informational social influence

Informational social influence is a type of behavioral modification based on what people around you (presumably in the same situation you are in) are doing.

An American in Japan for the first time might not know what to do and not do within a Buddhist temple. However, by following how other, more accustomed visitors are behaving, it can direct the tourist’s actions.

jigsaw classroom

A form of cooperative learning, the jigsaw classroom has expert groups teach novice groups in their particular part of the overall information to be learned. Among other things, it is designed to increase self-esteem (you are the expert) and the achievement of lesser academic students.

just-world phenomenon

A product of fundamental attribution error, the just-world phenomenon is a line of thinking that says people get what they deserve.

One could connect it to the Hindu/Buddhist concept of karma which says that the culmination of one’s actions are revisited upon them (good or bad) either in this life or the next.

mere exposure effect

The mere exposure effect says that the more you are exposed to a particular stimulus (a person, feeling, locale, etc.) the more you fond you could grow of it.

The first time eating blood sausage might result in fighting off a gag reflex but over time, one might grow to like it more and more. Or, the longer one is in a new town, the more one may grow to like its traits and quirks.

normative social influence

When you first got to high school, was there a particular group you fell into? In what way did your behavior or other things you did change as a result of being in that group? This can be a good or bad phenomenon.

If you fell in with a group of learners, perhaps your grades improved because you decided to study more to maintain status in your new flock of friends. If you fell in with a bunch of hoodlums, to fit in you perhaps pushed around students smaller than you or took their lunch money. Fitting into group dynamics by doing certain things to gain approval is called normative social influence.

normsNorms are the rules defining appropriate and inappropriate behavior.

In the United States, the shaking of hands is appropriate as a form of greeting (a norm) while the slapping of a child for corrective purposes in public, while previously accepted, is no longer considered appropriate.

out-group homogeneity

Out-group homogeneity is the idea of lumping all out-groups into similar categories, exhibiting similar behaviors simply because they are parts of an out-group.

prejudice

Prejudice is a negative attitude toward an entire group of people, such as a racial or ethnic minority. Researchers have connected prejudice to the “fear of the stranger,” religious/nationalist chauvinism and fear of economic competition and can be reduced through greater interaction.

reciprocityA young family moves into a new neighborhood. As they are moving things into the house, one of the neighbors arrives with a newly baked apple pie. It smells delicious and after a long day of moving, the family are grateful for the gift. The neighbor waves good-bye and returns to her house across the street. Later that week, the same neighbor knocks on the family’s door and after some pleasantries, asks if they would be willing to join their neighborhood association that provides services for those in need. The new family thinks of the apple pie and feels they cannot refuse.

This gift giving to get the recipient to do something at a later date is called reciprocity.

rolesRoles refers to social ranking that is similar to group dynamics.

Consider all the roles you have: daughter/son, brother/sister, friend, worker, student, adherent to a faith, runner, etc. It can be depressing to think of how many roles you have but it also shows the extent and variance of your interaction with others.

scapegoat theory

As the name might suggest, scapegoat theory is the practice of blaming a personal failing upon someone else.

self-fulfilling prophecy

American automaker Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or can’t, you are right.” This speaks to an internal version of self-fulfilling prophecy – the tendency to allow preconceived notions of another to dominate how the nature of that relationship. The treatment tends to bring out the “notions” in the other person, ergo affirming them.

self-serving biasdispositional and situational attributions

Self-serving bias refers to how people explain successes or failures so as to save or enhanced our self-esteem.

A student who just finished and aced a test high-fives and chest bumps his classmates, demanding congratulations for his brilliance (dispositional attributions). On the next test, the student fails miserably. Out in the hallway and in conspiratorial tones, he tells a few students that the teacher hates him and anyway, he did not sleep that well the night before because he was sick. Therefore, he could not study (situational attributions).

social cognition

Social cognition refers to the processes we use to understand the world around us.

If you never attended a Catholic Church before, there are many things that you are observing and taking in for the purpose of understanding your surroundings and ensuring you are doing things “correctly.”

social facilitationWhen in front of an audience, there are some people that rise to the occasion and can perform tasks that are not done nearly as well alone. This concept is called social facilitation.

Some athletes practice in an almost perfunctory sort of way, not able to reach an apex of performance. However, once the event is afoot, these athletes seem to be able to find another “gear” that allows for an athletic bravura.

social group

A social group is composed of people who have several characteristics in common and tend to maintain contact with one another, share thinking or behaving, typically take into account one behavior and have shared goals and interests.

social loafing

One of the biggest complaints heard about group work is that in every group, there is one student who does nothing. They are content to let the rest of the group work. This is called social loafing. Because group work is often assessed as a group, the slacker is feels no particular reason to put forth maximum effort but would, if the situation was reverse.

social psychologySocial psychology is a branch of psychology concerned with the way individuals’ thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by others.

There are six broad topics typically discussed within this discipline:Person perception Attribution processesInterpersonal attraction AttitudesConformity and obedience Behavior in groups

stereotype

A stereotype refers to unreliable generalizations about all members of a certain group, failing to recognize the individual differences within a group.

Stereotypes are often used to judge or characterize a group of people, essential as a part of labeling theory.