12.11 CHAPTER REVIEW

Social Psychology

KEY POINTS

Introduction: What Is Social Psychology?

Person Perception: Forming Impressions of Other People

Attribution: Explaining Behavior

The Social Psychology of Attitudes

Understanding Prejudice

Conformity: Following the Crowd

Obedience: Just Following Orders

Altruism and Aggression: Helping and Hurting Behavior

The Influence of Groups on Individual Behavior

KEY TERMS

Match each of the terms on the left with its definition on the right. Click on the term first and then click on the matching definition. As you match them correctly they will move to the bottom of the activity.

Question

actor-observer bias
aggression
altruism
attitude
attribution
blaming the victim
bystander effect
cognitive dissonance
conformity
deindividuation
diffusion of responsibility
explicit cognition
fundamental attribution error
hindsight bias
implicit attitudes
implicit cognition
implicit personality theory
informational social influence
in-group
in-group bias
just-world hypothesis
normative social influence
obedience
out-group
out-group homogeneity effect
person perception
persuasion
prejudice
prosocial behavior
self-serving bias
sense of self
social categorization
social cognition
social facilitation
social influence
social loafing
social norms
social psychology
stereotype
The mental processes we use to form judgments and draw conclusions about the characteristics and motives of other people.
The tendency to expend less effort on a task when it is a group effort.
Automatic, nonconscious mental processes that influence perceptions, judgments, decisions, and reasoning.
The deliberate attempt to influence the attitudes or behavior of another person in a situation in which that person has some freedom of choice.
The tendency to attribute our own behavior to external, situational characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the effects of internal, personal factors.
The tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for having somehow caused the problem or for not having taken steps to avoid or prevent it.
Verbal or physical behavior intended to cause harm to other people.
A learned tendency to evaluate some object, person, or issue in a particular way; such evaluations may be positive, negative, or ambivalent.
Deliberate, conscious mental processes involved in perceptions, judgments, decisions, and reasoning.
Preferences and biases toward particular groups that are automatic, spontaneous, unintentional, and often unconscious; measured with the Implicit Associations Test (IAT).
The tendency to overestimate one's ability to have foreseen or predicted the outcome of an event.
The mental processes people use to make sense of their social environments.
The tendency to judge the behavior of in-group members favorably and out-group members unfavorably.
The effect of situational factors and other people on an individual's behavior.
A phenomenon in which the presence of other people makes it less likely that any individual will help someone in distress because the obligation to intervene is shared among all the onlookers.
Adjusting your opinions, judgments, or behaviors so that they match the opinions, judgments, or behaviors of other people, or the norms of a social group or situation.
A network of assumptions or beliefs about the relationships among various types of people, traits, and behaviors.
A negative attitude toward people who belong to a specific social group.
The tendency to attribute successful outcomes of one's own behavior to internal causes and unsuccessful outcomes to external, situational causes.
The belief that the world is fair and that therefore people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
A social group to which one does not belong.
Behavior that is motivated by the desire to be correct.
An unpleasant state of psychological tension or arousal (dissonance) that occurs when two thoughts or perceptions (cognitions) are inconsistent; typically results from the awareness that attitudes and behavior are in conflict.
An individual's unique sense of identity that has been influenced by social, cultural, and psychological experiences; your sense of who you are in relation to other people.
Any behavior that helps another, whether the underlying motive is self-serving or selfless.
The mental process of categorizing people into groups (or social categories) on the basis of their shared characteristics.
The performance of a behavior in response to a direct command.
The mental process of inferring the causes of people's behavior, including one's own. Also refers to the explanation made for a particular behavior.
A phenomenon in which the greater the number of people present, the less likely each individual is to help someone in distress.
Behavior that is motivated by the desire to gain social acceptance and approval.
Branch of psychology that studies how a person's thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the presence of other people and by the social and physical environment.
The tendency to attribute the behavior of others to internal, personal characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the effects of external, situational factors; an attributional bias that is common in individualistic cultures.
The tendency for the presence of other people to enhance individual performance.
A cluster of characteristics that are associated with all members of a specific social group, often including qualities that are unrelated to the objective criteria that define the group.
A social group to which one belongs.
The reduction of self-awareness and inhibitions that can occur when a person is a part of a group whose members feel anonymous.
Helping another person with no expectation of personal reward or benefit.
The "rules," or expectations, for appropriate behavior in a particular social situation.
The tendency to see members of out-groups as very similar to one another.

KEY PEOPLE

Solomon Asch (1907–1996) American social psychologist who is best known for his pioneering studies of conformity. (p. 502)

John M. Darley (b. 1938) Contemporary American social psychologist who, along with co-researcher Bibb Latané, is best known for his pioneering studies of bystander intervention in emergency situations. (p. 513)

Bibb Latané (b. 1937) Contemporary American social psychologist who, along with co-researcher John Darley, is best known for his pioneering studies of bystander intervention in emergency situations. (p. 513)

Stanley Milgram (1933–1984) American social psychologist who is best known for his controversial series of studies investigating destructive obedience to an authority. (p. 504)

Muzafer Sherif (1906–1988) American social psychologist who is best known for his Robbers Cave experiments studying prejudice, conflict resolution, and group processes. (p. 500)

Philip G. Zimbardo (b. 1933) American social psychologist, known for his research on cognitive dissonance and social influence, and especially for a study known as the Stanford Prison Experiment, which demonstrated how situational forces can impact behavior. (p. 494)