©SOPHIABENNETT@2024-2025 Monday, August 19, 2024 12:35 AM
AP PSYCHOLOGY: (UNIT 9) SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY STUDY GUIDE
Social Psychology - Answer✔️✔️-The scientific study of how we think
about, influence, and relate to one another.
Attribution Theory - Answer✔️✔️-the theory that we explain someone's
behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition
Fundamental Attribution Error - Answer✔️✔️-The tendency to attribute
other people's behavior to dispositional (internal) causes rather than
situational (external) causes.
Attitudes - Answer✔️✔️-Patterns of feelings and beliefs about other people,
ideas, or objects that are based on a person's past experiences, shape his or
her future behavior, and are evaluative in nature.
Central Route Persuasion - Answer✔️✔️-occurs when interested people
focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts
Peripheral Route Persuasion - Answer✔️✔️-occurs when people are
influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness (Men
would be easily swayed by a curvy, bottom-heavy woman than another
man)
Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon - Answer✔️✔️-the tendency for people who
have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
(It's like escalating a situation from 0-100... just when you ask for money,
Page 1 of 8
, ©SOPHIABENNETT@2024-2025 Monday, August 19, 2024 12:35 AM
then you ask for food, then you ask for a place to stay, then you ask to
borrow their car to escape a heist... it's just the little things before leading to
a huger thing!)
Role - Answer✔️✔️-a set of expectations (norms) about a social position,
defining how those in the position ought to behave (You are to be normal,
and not what we deem as crazy, when you're out in public. Is that why
parent's usually punish their child when they act completely out of the
ordinary to what we call our societal roles?)
Cognitive Dissonance Theory - Answer✔️✔️-the theory that we act to reduce
the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions)
are inconsistent. For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and of
our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our
attitudes (Or rather than that confusing example, when we deem a
situation as discomforting, we try to run away from it or situate ourselves
in a maladaptive attitude. Like dealing with wavering friends, you would
suddenly grow silent and independent when dealing with these friends to
finally 'reduce' the discomfort from your friend's presence)
Conformity - Answer✔️✔️-Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide
with a group standard. (Something that we should all stop doing, in my
opinion. However, it is just like when you're in the popular crowd, when
you were once a nerdy guy. When you are put into this group, you try to
coincide with how they act so... they ridicule their nerdy friends with
his/her crowd)
Page 2 of 8
AP PSYCHOLOGY: (UNIT 9) SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY STUDY GUIDE
Social Psychology - Answer✔️✔️-The scientific study of how we think
about, influence, and relate to one another.
Attribution Theory - Answer✔️✔️-the theory that we explain someone's
behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition
Fundamental Attribution Error - Answer✔️✔️-The tendency to attribute
other people's behavior to dispositional (internal) causes rather than
situational (external) causes.
Attitudes - Answer✔️✔️-Patterns of feelings and beliefs about other people,
ideas, or objects that are based on a person's past experiences, shape his or
her future behavior, and are evaluative in nature.
Central Route Persuasion - Answer✔️✔️-occurs when interested people
focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts
Peripheral Route Persuasion - Answer✔️✔️-occurs when people are
influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness (Men
would be easily swayed by a curvy, bottom-heavy woman than another
man)
Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon - Answer✔️✔️-the tendency for people who
have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
(It's like escalating a situation from 0-100... just when you ask for money,
Page 1 of 8
, ©SOPHIABENNETT@2024-2025 Monday, August 19, 2024 12:35 AM
then you ask for food, then you ask for a place to stay, then you ask to
borrow their car to escape a heist... it's just the little things before leading to
a huger thing!)
Role - Answer✔️✔️-a set of expectations (norms) about a social position,
defining how those in the position ought to behave (You are to be normal,
and not what we deem as crazy, when you're out in public. Is that why
parent's usually punish their child when they act completely out of the
ordinary to what we call our societal roles?)
Cognitive Dissonance Theory - Answer✔️✔️-the theory that we act to reduce
the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions)
are inconsistent. For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and of
our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our
attitudes (Or rather than that confusing example, when we deem a
situation as discomforting, we try to run away from it or situate ourselves
in a maladaptive attitude. Like dealing with wavering friends, you would
suddenly grow silent and independent when dealing with these friends to
finally 'reduce' the discomfort from your friend's presence)
Conformity - Answer✔️✔️-Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide
with a group standard. (Something that we should all stop doing, in my
opinion. However, it is just like when you're in the popular crowd, when
you were once a nerdy guy. When you are put into this group, you try to
coincide with how they act so... they ridicule their nerdy friends with
his/her crowd)
Page 2 of 8
