Social Psychology Final Exam Study Guide questions and answers 2023 update.

Social Psychology The scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to others. Social Learning Theory A modern offshoot of behaviorism that places primary emphasis on how people learn social behaviors from one another, especially through social reinforcement and modeling. Frustration-aggression Hypothesis In its most absolute form, this hypothesis asserts that frustration always creates feelings of aggression and that aggression is always caused by frustration. Decision Making Theory People calculate the costs and benefits of various actions and select the best alternative in a fairly logical way. Interdependence Theory The theory that because members of a couple or group are interdependent (i.e., the outcomes one person experiences depend on what others do and vice versa), individuals must coordinate their behavior to maximize their joint benefits. This is the most important social exchange perspective in social psychology. Social Exchange Theory A Theory that analyzes the interaction between people in terms of the outcomes (rewards minus costs) that the individuals exchange with each other. Operational Definition The specific procedure or operation that is used to measure or manipulate a variable in a research study. Independent Variable The variable in a study that is interpreted as the cause of changes in the dependent variable. This variable may be systematically manipulated by the researcher in an experiment or passively measured in a correlational study. Dependent Variable In an experiment, the responses to the independent variable being manipulated or measured. Person Perception The mental processes we use to form judgments and draw conclusions about the characteristics and motives of other people; the process of forming impressions of others. Implicit Personality Theory The ordinary person's theory about which personality traits go with other traits, such as "weak" going with "cowardly" and "calm" going with "decisive." Social Categories groups that share a social characteristic such as age, gender, or religion Stereotype Beliefs about the typical characteristics of members of a group or social category. In the study of prejudice, are the cognitive component of group antagonism. Assimilation IN the study of attitude change, the tendency to perceive a communicator's position as closer or more similar to the individual's own position than it actually is. Exemplar An example of a category that embodies the significant attributes of the category or the ideal of that category. Example: a robin is an exemplar of the category "bird." Social Learning A modern offshoot of behaviorism that places primary emphasis on how people learn social behaviors from one another, especially through social reinforcement and modeling. Prejudice The affective component of group antagonisms/ disliking a group or the members of a group. Fundamental Attribution Error The tendency for observers to overestimate the causal importance of a person's dispositions and to underestimate the importance of the situation when they explain the person's actions. Actor Observer Bias The tendency for observers to overestimate the importance of the actor's dispositions, and for the actor to overestimate the importance of the situation in explaining the actor's behavior. Social Cognition The study of how people form inferences and make judgments based on social information. Illusory Correlation The belief that two things are related to each other because expectations dictate that they ought to go together, when in fact those things bear little or no relationship to each other. Schema An organize system or structure of cognitions about a stimulus, such as a person, a personality type, a group, a role, or an event. Heuristics A shortcut for problem solving that reduces complex or ambiguous information to more simple judgmental operations. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy The tendency for people's expectations to influence their attitudes and behavior. (Example: Prejudiced; it can influence how the prejudiced person acts toward the target, which may, in turn, influence the target to act in a way that confirms the first person's prejudices. Self Concept The collection of beliefs we hold about ourselves. Self Esteem The value one places on oneself. Reflected Appraisal Self-evaluation based on the perceptions and evaluations of others. Social Identity in the study of the self, that part of a n individual's self-concept that derives from his or her membership in a social group or groups, together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership. Self-Enhancement The need to hold a positive view of oneself to protect oneself from negative feedback. Self-Schema A cognitive structure that represents how one thinks about oneself in a particular domain and how one organizes one's experience in that domain. Ideal Self The personal attributions one would like to have. Self-Awareness The state of experiencing oneself as an object of one's own attention. Terror Management Theory The theory that humans cope with the fear of their own death by constructing worldviews that help to preserve their self-esteem Social Comparison The act of evaluating one's abilities, opinions, or emotions with those of another person or persons. Downward Social Comparison Comparison of one's traits or abilities with those of someone who is perceived as worse off than oneself. Attribution Theory The principles that determine how attributions are made and what effects these causal attributions have. Affect That part of an attitude consisting of a person's feelings associated with beliefs about an attitude object. Behavior(ism) Identifies association and reinforcement as the key determinants of learning. Cognition All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. Learning Theory The central idea in this theory is that a person's behavior is determined by prior learning. Dissonance The state of aversive arousal that results when a person simultaneously holds two beliefs that conflict with or contradict each other. Self Perception The theory that people infer their attitudes from their overt behavior and from their perceptions of the external situation, rather than from their own internal state. Expectancy Value Theory Decisions are based on the combination of two factors: (a) the value of the various possible outcomes of the decision and (b) the likelihood or probability that each outcome will actually occur. Message A communication transmitted between people by written or spoken word. Discrimination The behavioral component of group antagonism. People do this against a disliked group by refusing its members access to desired jobs, educational opportunities, and so on. Old Fashion Racism Beliefs in white racial superiority, segregation, and formal discrimination. Implicit Stereotypes Stereotypes that are expressed outside the person's awareness and are not under the person's control. Conformity Voluntary performance of an act because others also do it. Often results from a person's desire to be right (informational desire) and/or desire to be liked (normative influence). Compliance Performance of an act at another's request. Informational Influence One reason for conformity is the desire to be correct in our behavior or interpretation of an ambiguous situation. This occurs when we conform because the behavior of others provides useful information. Systematic Processing Careful scrutiny of the argument in a persuasive communication, which gives argument strength more weight, induces counterarguing, and makes attitude change more enduring; minimizes the role of peripheral cues. Power Influence over others. Obedience A form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority. Loneliness The psychological discomfort we feel when our social relations lack some essential feature. This deficit may be quantitative (too few relationships) or qualitative (unsatisfying relationships). Secure Attachments A from of attachment that is the most common(66%) according to Mary Ainsworth, where a child displays confidence when the parent is present, shows mild distress when the parent leaves, and quickly reestablishes contact when the parent returns good balance between exploration and attachment Avoidant A personality disorder characterized by inhibition in social situations; feelings of inadequacy; oversensitivity to criticism Attraction Cohesion; Surface tension Intimacy In Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood; closeness to another person. Passion Drives that lead to romance, physical attraction and sexual consummation. Commitment The perception that one's decision cannot be exchanged or revoked. Interdependent The condition in which two or more people have some degree of mutual influences on each other's feelings, thoughts, or behaviors; depend on each other. Equity Theory An approach to motivation that is concerned with individuals' beliefs about how fairly they're treated compared with their peers, based on their relative levels of inputs and out(puts)comes. Self-Disclosure The sharing of intimate information or feelings about oneself with another person. Social Facilitation The tendency for people (and other kinds of animals) to perform better on simple, well-learned tasks when others are present than when they are alone. Social Loafing Individuals sometimes work less hard as members of a group than they would if they worked alone. Individuals may feel that their own efforts will be less recognizable in a group, a belief that may lead to a diffusion of responsibility and diminished effort by individuals.