Social Psychology: Final Exam Study Guide

Study Guide - Smart Notes

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Social comparison theory explains how individuals evaluate their own abilities, opinions, and traits by comparing themselves to others.

Definition: The process of comparing oneself to others to assess one's own standing.
Upward vs. Downward Comparison: Upward comparison involves comparing oneself to those who are better off, which can motivate improvement but may also lower self-esteem. Downward comparison involves comparing oneself to those worse off, which can boost self-esteem.
Example: A student compares their exam score to classmates to gauge their academic performance.

Self-Esteem: One's overall sense of self-worth or personal value.
Self-Affirmation Theory: Suggests that people maintain self-integrity by affirming their values, especially when threatened.
Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors.
Example: Attributing a good grade to intelligence but a poor grade to unfair questions.

Attribution theories explore how people explain the causes of behavior and events.

Dispositional Attribution: Assigning cause to internal characteristics (e.g., personality).
Situational Attribution: Assigning cause to external factors (e.g., environment).
Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to overemphasize dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining others' behavior.
Example: Blaming a driver’s recklessness on their personality rather than road conditions.

Conformity: Adjusting behavior or thinking to match group norms.
Compliance: Responding favorably to a request from others.
Obedience: Following direct orders from an authority figure.
Persuasion: The process of changing attitudes or behaviors through communication.
Central vs. Peripheral Route: Central route involves careful consideration of arguments; peripheral route relies on superficial cues.
Example: Advertising using celebrity endorsements (peripheral) vs. detailed product information (central).

Attitude: A learned tendency to evaluate things in a certain way.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory: The discomfort experienced when holding conflicting cognitions, leading to attitude change.
Self-Perception Theory: People infer their attitudes from observing their own behavior.
Example: Feeling uncomfortable after acting against one's beliefs, leading to a change in attitude.

Group Polarization: Tendency for group discussion to strengthen the dominant positions held by group members.
Groupthink: A mode of thinking where the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives.
Social Facilitation: Improved performance on simple tasks in the presence of others.
Social Loafing: Reduced effort by individuals when working in groups compared to working alone.
Deindividuation: Loss of self-awareness and individual accountability in group settings.
Example: People shouting more loudly in a crowd than alone (deindividuation).

Prejudice: A negative attitude toward a group and its members.
Stereotype: A generalized belief about a group of people.
Discrimination: Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members.
Realistic Group Conflict Theory: Prejudice arises from competition between groups for limited resources.
Dehumanization: Denying the humanity of others, often used to justify discrimination.
Example: Ethnic groups competing for jobs leading to increased prejudice.

Functions of Emotions: Emotions guide social interactions, signal intentions, and facilitate group cohesion.
Emotion Regulation: Strategies to influence which emotions one has, when, and how they are experienced or expressed.
Example: Suppressing anger during a group meeting to maintain harmony.

Altruism: Helping others without expectation of personal gain.
Reciprocal Altruism: Helping others with the expectation that the favor will be returned.
Bystander Effect: The tendency for individuals to be less likely to help in an emergency when others are present.
Example: Not helping a person in distress because others are present (bystander effect).

Social Identity Theory: People’s sense of who they are is based on their group membership(s).
Ingroup vs. Outgroup: Ingroup is the group to which an individual belongs; outgroup is any group the individual does not belong to.
Example: Favoring members of one’s own sports team over others.

Milgram Obedience Study: Examined the extent to which individuals would obey authority figures, even when asked to perform actions conflicting with their personal conscience.
Robbers Cave Experiment: Investigated intergroup conflict and cooperation among boys at a summer camp, supporting realistic group conflict theory.
Example: Participants administering shocks to others under authority (Milgram).

Concept	Definition	Example/Application
Social Comparison Theory	Evaluating oneself by comparison to others	Comparing test scores with classmates
Fundamental Attribution Error	Overestimating dispositional factors in others	Blaming a driver’s personality for bad driving
Conformity	Adjusting behavior to group norms	Agreeing with group opinion in a meeting
Groupthink	Desire for harmony overrides realistic appraisal	Making poor decisions to avoid conflict
Prejudice	Negative attitude toward a group	Disliking people based on ethnicity
Bystander Effect	Less likely to help when others are present	Ignoring someone in need in a crowd

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Where only keywords were provided, standard textbook explanations were added for clarity.