PSY 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Social Trap, Cognitive Dissonance, Fundamental Attribution Error
Chapter 15: Social Psychology
Social Thinking!
ā¢Social Psychology: scientiļ¬c study of how we think about, inļ¬uence, and relate to one
another!
ā¢Attribution Theory: tendency to give a causal explanation for someoneās behavior, often by
crediting either the situation or the personās disposition!
ā¢Fundamental Attribution Error: tendency for observers, when analyzing anotherās behavior,
to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal
disposition!
ā¢Attitude: belief and feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to objects,
people and events!
ā¢Our behavior is aļ¬ected by our inner attitudes as well as by external social inļ¬uences !
ā¢Attitudes follow behavior!
ā¢Cooperative actions feed mutual liking!
ā¢Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon: tendency for people who have ļ¬rst agreed to a small
request to comply later with a larger request!
ā¢Role: set of expectations about a social position!
ā¢deļ¬nes how those in the position ought to behave!
ā¢Cognitive Dissonance Theory: we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when
two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent!
ā¢example- when we become aware that our attitudes and our actions clash, we can
reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes!
Social Inļ¬uence!
ā¢Conformity: adjusting oneās behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard!
ā¢Normative Social Inļ¬uence: inļ¬uence resulting from a personās desire to gain approval or
avoid disapproval!
ā¢Informational Social Inļ¬uence: inļ¬uence resulting from oneās willingness to accept othersā
opinions about reality!
ā¢Social Facilitation: improved performance of tasks in the presence of others occurs with
simple or well-learned tasks but not with tasks that are diļ¬cult or not yet mastered!
ā¢Social Loaļ¬ng: tendency for people in a group to exert less eļ¬ort when pooling their eļ¬orts
toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable!
ā¢Deindividuation: loss of self-awareness and self- restraint in group situations that foster
arousal and anonymity!
ā¢Group Polarization: enhancement of a groupās prevailing attitudes through discussion within
the group!
ā¢Groupthink: mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making
group overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives!
ā¢Prejudice!
ā¢an unjustiļ¬able (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members!
ā¢involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory
action!
Social Relations!
ā¢Stereotype: a generalized (sometimes accurate, but often overgeneralized) belief about a
group of people!
ā¢Discrimination: unjustiļ¬able negative behavior toward a group or its members!
ā¢Ingroup: āUsā- people with whom one shares a common identity!
ā¢Outgroup: āThemā- those perceived as diļ¬erent or apart from oneās ingroup!
ā¢Ingroup Bias: tendency to favor oneās own group!
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Document Summary
Social thinking: social psychology: scienti c study of how we think about, in uence, and relate to one another, attribution theory: tendency to give a causal explanation for someone"s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person"s disposition. Social in uence: conformity: adjusting one"s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard, normative social in uence: in uence resulting from a person"s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval. Social relations: stereotype: a generalized (sometimes accurate, but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people. Ingroup: us - people with whom one shares a common identity: discrimination: unjusti able negative behavior toward a group or its members, outgroup: them - those perceived as di erent or apart from one"s ingroup. Ingroup bias: tendency to favor one"s own group: scapegoat theory: theory that prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.
