Social psychology flashcards

Social psychology examines how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Students must understand attribution theory, including the fundamental attribution error and actor-observer bias, as well as attitudes and how they change through persuasion and cognitive dissonance. Key group processes include conformity (Asch), obedience (Milgram), groupthink, social facilitation, and social loafing. Students should also grasp concepts like the bystander effect and diffusion of responsibility, prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes, and in-group versus out-group dynamics. Understanding how situational versus dispositional factors shape behavior, and how classic experiments demonstrated the power of social context, is central to this topic.

1. Card 1

   What is the fundamental attribution error?

   The tendency to overestimate dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining other people's behavior.

2. Card 2

   What did Milgram's obedience experiments demonstrate?

   That ordinary people would administer apparently dangerous shocks under authority pressure, showing the power of situational factors on obedience.

3. Card 3

   What is cognitive dissonance?

   The discomfort felt when a person holds two conflicting beliefs or acts against their beliefs, motivating attitude change to restore consistency.

4. Card 4

   What is the bystander effect?

   The finding that individuals are less likely to help in an emergency when others are present, largely due to diffusion of responsibility.

5. Card 5

   How does Asch's conformity research define conformity?

   Conformity is adjusting one's behavior or beliefs to match a group standard, as shown when participants matched obviously wrong line lengths to fit the group norm.

6. Card 6

   What is the difference between normative and informational social influence?

   Normative influence is conforming to gain approval; informational influence is conforming because you believe the group has accurate knowledge.

7. Card 7

   What is groupthink?

   Groupthink occurs when a cohesive group prioritizes harmony over realistic evaluation, suppressing dissent and leading to poor decision-making.

8. Card 8

   What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?

   Prejudice is a negative attitude toward a group; discrimination is negative behavior directed at group members based on that attitude.

9. Card 9

   What is social facilitation?

   The tendency for people to perform simple or well-learned tasks better and complex tasks worse when in the presence of others.

10. Card 10

    What is the actor-observer bias?

    We attribute our own behavior to situational factors but attribute others' behavior to dispositional factors, the reverse of how we judge ourselves.

11. Card 11

    What is the just-world hypothesis?

    The belief that people get what they deserve, leading to blaming victims for their misfortune and supporting dispositional attributions for others' hardships.

12. Card 12

    What is deindividuation?

    A loss of self-awareness and personal responsibility that occurs in group settings, often leading to impulsive or antisocial behavior due to reduced individual accountability.

• Students often confuse the fundamental attribution error with the actor-observer bias; the former applies specifically to how we explain other people's behavior, not our own.
• Many students incorrectly assume that conformity always requires direct pressure from others, but informational social influence shows people also conform simply by believing the group knows better.
• A common error is treating prejudice and discrimination as interchangeable; prejudice is an internal attitude while discrimination is the observable behavior that may result from it.

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