Terms & Concepts
How our thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings
Social Psychology
This social psychologist demonstrated just how much people are willing to obey authority figures through a series of experiments with questionable ethics
Stanley Milgram
The results revealed that children who watched the adult model behave violently toward the doll were likelier to imitate the aggressive behavior later on.
The Bobo Doll Experiment
If you saw someone in trouble, do you think you would try to help? Psychologists have found that the answer to this question is highly dependent on the number of other people present. We are much more likely to help when we are the only witness but much less likely to lend a hand when we are part of a crowd. What is this concept called?
The Bystander Effect
When people do something that violates their view of themselves, this causes an uncomfortable state of dissonance that motivates a change in either attitudes or behaviour.
Cognitive dissonance theory
The unselfish concern for other people—doing things simply out of a desire to help, not because you feel obligated to do so out of duty, loyalty, or religious reasons. Instead, it involves acting purely out of concern for the well-being of other people.
Altruism
This social psychologist is best known for laboratory studies on conformity showing that under certain circumstances, a large percentage of people will conform to a majority position even when the position is clearly incorrect.
Solomon Asch
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a psychologist named Walter Mischel led a series of experiments on delayed gratification. What were these experiments called?
The Marshmallow Test Experiment
Studies have shown that _______________ happen within mere milliseconds and are based on several cues, such as facial expressions, body language, voice, and the beliefs held by the observer.
first impressions
According to this theory, human behavior is the direct result of both the individual characteristics and the environment they live in. We are not just beings who act from internal impulses. Instead, we are greatly influenced by our surroundings.
Field Theory
Prejudiced, unfair, or unequal treatment of people based on their personal characteristics such as race, religion, disability, age, nation of origin, or gender
Discrimination
He conducted a controversial study: 24 ordinary male college students were arbitrarily selected to be either “guards” or “prisoners” in a fake jail.
Phillip Zimbardo
In this experiment boys were separated into two groups and spent the first week of the experiment bonding with their other group members. It wasn't until the second phase of the experiment that the children learned that there was another group, at which point the experimenters placed the two groups in direct competition with each other.
Robbers Cave Experiments
Examples of this social psychology concept include: someone who is usually quiet and reserved might become much more outgoing when placed in a leadership role. Another example is how people sometimes behave differently in groups than they would if they were alone.
Situation Helps Determine Outcomes, power of situation
A human tendency to make comparisons between us and others. People assess their own personal and social worth and evaluate their actions, accomplishments, and opinions by comparing themselves to others.
Social Comparison Theory
A psychological phenomenon in which people strive for consensus within a group. In many cases, people will set aside their own personal beliefs or adopt the opinions of the rest of the group.
Groupthink
This social psychologist is recognized worldwide as an expert in the areas of compliance, persuasion and negotiation
Robert Cialdini
In this experiment, Thorndike discovered that when people hold a good impression of one characteristic, those good feelings tend to affect perceptions of other qualities.
Halo Effect Social Experiment
One essential social psychology concept is that our interactions serve goals or fulfill needs. List at least three needs that people try to meet through social behaviors.
This theory is concerned with the ways in which people explain (or attribute) the behaviour of others. The theory divides the way people attribute causes to events into two types.
Attribution Theory
A process in which one person or entity tries to influence another person or group of people to change their beliefs or behaviors
Persuasion
This person is widely regarded as the father of modern social psychology
Kurt Lewin
This experiment tested how our impressions based on what's on the outside sometimes cause people to overlook the characteristics and qualities that lie on the inside.
Carlsberg Social Experiment
According to this concept, social interactions play a central role in the development of a sense of self.
reflected appraisal process
This is an economic social theory that assumes human relationships are based on rational choice and cost-benefit analyses.
Social exchange theory