Social Cognition
Mental frameworks that organize information and help us make sense of the world
Schemas
The process of comparing oneself to others you perceive as better off than you
The process of comparing oneself to others you perceive as worse off than you
Upward social comparison
Downward social comparison
Relatively enduring evaluation of an object, person, place, idea, etc
Attitude
The process of trying to determine the cause behind someone's behavior
Causal attribution
Tendency to adjust behavior, attitudes, and beliefs to align with other members of a group
Conformity
Learning process that occurs through associations between two stimuli
Classical conditioning
A term used to express that people form their self-concept based on how they believe others perceive them.
Looking-glass self
The process of changing someone’s attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors
Persuasion
Explaining behavior as being caused by factors within the person, such as their personality, abilities, motives, and efforts.
Internal attribution
Following orders and instructions from an authority figure
Obedience
Learning process that shapes behavior by linking actions to consequences
Operant conditioning
Behavior a person performs to influence how others perceive them
Self-presentation
The psychological discomfort that occurs when one’s attitudes and behaviors are inconsistent
Cognitive dissonance
Explaining behavior as being caused by situational factors
External Attribution
The ability to influence or control the behavior, decisions, or perceptions of others within a social group.
Social power
Consequence that increases the likelihood of a behavior being repeated
Reinforcement
The process of internalizing labels that others apply to you and incorporating them into your self concept
Self-labeling
Type of information processing that occurs automatically without paying much attention to the content of the message itself
Spontaneous Message Processing
The tendency to overemphasize internal traits and underestimate situational factors when explaining others' behavior
Fundamental Attribution Error
The rules and expectations about what is considered appropriate in a given social situation
Norms
Consequence that decreases the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.
Punishment
Describes how many different aspects or roles make up a person’s self-concept
Self-complexity
Type of information processing that requires deliberately evaluating the content of the message
Thoughtful Message Processing
The tendency to make more favorable attributions for ourselves than we would for others
Actor-observer bias
Conforming to others’ behavior out of belief that they are correct.
Informational Social Influence
A process in which individuals learn by watching others and imitating their actions.
Observational learning
Theory that argues one's self-concept is influenced by the social groups they belong to
Social identity theory
The tendency to seek, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms existing beliefs.
Confirmation bias
The tendency to make favorable attributions of one's own group (crediting positive outcomes of one's own group to internal factors while attributing negative outcomes to external factors).
Group-serving bias
Conforming to others’ behavior out of desire for social approval
Normative Social Influence
The gap between one's perception of their actual self and ideal self
Self discrepancy
The process of integrating new information into an existing attitude/schema
Assimilation
Tendency to generalize about entire groups based on individual examples
Group Attribution Error
When a person outwardly goes along with a group’s behavior or beliefs but privately disagrees
Public Compliance
Self-concept is [one of the ABCs]; Self-esteem is [one of the ABCs].
Cognitive; Affective
The process of changing existing attitudes on the basis of new information
Accommodation
What historical event led to the increase of social psychology research on conformity and obedience?
The Holocaust/World War II
When people behave in ways that reinforce the expectations and labels imposed on them by others, this is called a ____.
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Principle that describes the human motivation to keep thoughts, feelings, and behaviors consistent with one another
Principle of attitude consistency
Something that is created and defined by society, rather than a natural reality.
Social construction