©SOPHIABENNETT@2024-2025 Monday, August 19, 2024 12:35 AM
Psychology Chapter 13: Social
Psychology Study Guide
social psychology – Answer✔️✔️-study of how people influence others'
behavior, beliefs, and attitudes
social facilitation - Answer✔️✔️-enhancement of performance brought about
by the presence of others (ex: bicycle riderse obtained faster speeds when
racing w/ other bicyclists than when racing against only the clock)
social disruption - Answer✔️✔️-worsening of behavior in the presence of
others; occurs in tasks we find difficult (ex: "choking" in the company of
others while singing a difficult song)... effects of social influence can be
either positive or negative, depending on the situation and person
attribution - Answer✔️✔️-process of assigning causes to behavior; some are
internal (ex: we conclude that Joe Smith robbed a bank because he's
impulsive) and others are external (ex: we conclude that Bill Jones robbed a
bank because his family was broke)
fundamental attribution error - Answer✔️✔️-tendency to overestimate the
impact of dispositional influences (enduring characteristics such as
personality traits, attitudes, and intelligence) on other people's behavior..
we attribute too much of people's behavior to who they are
social comparison theory - Answer✔️✔️-theory that we seek to evaluate our
beliefs, attitudes, and abilities by comparing our reactions with others' (ex:
Page 1 of 8
, ©SOPHIABENNETT@2024-2025 Monday, August 19, 2024 12:35 AM
if you want to find out whether you're a good psychology student, it's only
natural to compare your exam performance with that of your classmate)
mass hysteria - Answer✔️✔️-outbreak of irrational behavior that is spread
by social contagion; we tend to engage in social comparison when a
situation is ambiguous; episodes can lead to collective delusions in which
many people simultaneously come to be convinced of bizarre things that
are false (ex: UFO sightings)
conformity - Answer✔️✔️-tendency of people to alter their behaviors as a
result of group pressure (ex: The Asch paradigm, comparison of lines)
parametric studies - Answer✔️✔️-studies in which an experimenter
systematically manipulates the independent variable to observe its effects
on the dependent variable
deindividuation - Answer✔️✔️-tendency of people to engage in
uncharacteristic behavior when they are stripped of their usual identities
groupthink - Answer✔️✔️-emphasis on group unanimity and the expense of
critical thinking and sound decision making; groups sometimes become so
intent on ensuring that everyone agrees w/ everyone else, that they give
up their capacity to evaluate issues objectively; not all lead to bad
decisions, rather overconfident ones
group polarization - Answer✔️✔️-tendency of group discussion to
strengthen the dominant positions held by individual group members (ex:
Page 2 of 8
Psychology Chapter 13: Social
Psychology Study Guide
social psychology – Answer✔️✔️-study of how people influence others'
behavior, beliefs, and attitudes
social facilitation - Answer✔️✔️-enhancement of performance brought about
by the presence of others (ex: bicycle riderse obtained faster speeds when
racing w/ other bicyclists than when racing against only the clock)
social disruption - Answer✔️✔️-worsening of behavior in the presence of
others; occurs in tasks we find difficult (ex: "choking" in the company of
others while singing a difficult song)... effects of social influence can be
either positive or negative, depending on the situation and person
attribution - Answer✔️✔️-process of assigning causes to behavior; some are
internal (ex: we conclude that Joe Smith robbed a bank because he's
impulsive) and others are external (ex: we conclude that Bill Jones robbed a
bank because his family was broke)
fundamental attribution error - Answer✔️✔️-tendency to overestimate the
impact of dispositional influences (enduring characteristics such as
personality traits, attitudes, and intelligence) on other people's behavior..
we attribute too much of people's behavior to who they are
social comparison theory - Answer✔️✔️-theory that we seek to evaluate our
beliefs, attitudes, and abilities by comparing our reactions with others' (ex:
Page 1 of 8
, ©SOPHIABENNETT@2024-2025 Monday, August 19, 2024 12:35 AM
if you want to find out whether you're a good psychology student, it's only
natural to compare your exam performance with that of your classmate)
mass hysteria - Answer✔️✔️-outbreak of irrational behavior that is spread
by social contagion; we tend to engage in social comparison when a
situation is ambiguous; episodes can lead to collective delusions in which
many people simultaneously come to be convinced of bizarre things that
are false (ex: UFO sightings)
conformity - Answer✔️✔️-tendency of people to alter their behaviors as a
result of group pressure (ex: The Asch paradigm, comparison of lines)
parametric studies - Answer✔️✔️-studies in which an experimenter
systematically manipulates the independent variable to observe its effects
on the dependent variable
deindividuation - Answer✔️✔️-tendency of people to engage in
uncharacteristic behavior when they are stripped of their usual identities
groupthink - Answer✔️✔️-emphasis on group unanimity and the expense of
critical thinking and sound decision making; groups sometimes become so
intent on ensuring that everyone agrees w/ everyone else, that they give
up their capacity to evaluate issues objectively; not all lead to bad
decisions, rather overconfident ones
group polarization - Answer✔️✔️-tendency of group discussion to
strengthen the dominant positions held by individual group members (ex:
Page 2 of 8
