PSYC104 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Social Comparison Theory, Fundamental Attribution Error, Pluralistic Ignorance
18 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
PSYC104 LECTURE READING
Week 8 – Chapter 13: Social Psychology
- Soial psholog: stud of ho people ifluee others ehaiour, eliefs ad attitudes
- Social comparison theory: theory that we seek to evaluate our beliefs, attitudes and abilities
by comparing our reactions with those of others
- Mass hysteria: outbreak of irrational behavior that is spread by social contagion
- Social facilitation: enhancement of performance brought about by the presence of others
- Attribution: process of assigning causes to behavior
- Fundamental attribution error: tendency to overestimate the impact of dispositional
ifluees o other peoples ehaior
- Conformity: tendency of people to alter their behavior as a result of group pressure
- Deindividuation: tendency of people to engage in uncharacteristic behavior when they are
stripped of their usual identities
- Groupthink: emphasis on group unanimity at the expense of critical thinking and sound
decision-making
- Cults: groups of individuals who exhibit intense and unquestioning devotion to a single cause
- Inoculation effect: approach to convincing people to change their minds about something by
first introducing reasons why the perspective might be correct and then debunking it
- Obedience: adherence to instructions from those of higher authority
- Parametric studies: studies in which an experimenter systematically manipulates the
independent variable to observe its effects on the dependent variable
- Pluralistic ignorance: error or assuming that no one in a group perceives things as we do
- Diffusion of responsibility: reduction in feelings of personal responsibility in the presence of
others
- Social loafing: phenomenon whereby individuals become less productive in groups
- Altruism: helping others for unselfish reasons
- Enlightenment effect: learning about psychological research can change real-world behavior
for the better aggression: behaviour intended to harm others, either verbally or physically
- Relational aggression: form of indirect aggression, prevalent in girls, involving spreading
rumours, gossiping and nonverbal putdowns for the purpose of social manipulation
- Belief: conclusion regarding factual evidence
- Attitude: belief that includes an emotional component
- Self-oitorig: persoalit trait that assesses the etet to hih peoples ehaior
reflects their true feelings and attitudes
- Cognitive dissonance: unpleasant mental experience of tension resulting from two
conflicting thoughts or beliefs
- Self-perception theory: theory that we acquire our attitudes by observing our behaviours
- Impression management theory: theory that we do not really change our attitudes, but
report that we have so that our behaviours appear consistent with our attitudes
- Foot-in-the-door technique: persuasive technique involving making a small request before
making a bigger one
- Door-in-the-face technique: persuasive technique involving making an unreasonably large
request before making the small request that we are hoping to have granted
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
