Social Psychology

Social Thinking
Attribution Theory- we usually give a casual explanation for a person's behavior; credit the behavior to the situation or disposition
Fundamental Attribution Theory- underestimate the impact of a situation and overestimate personal disposition

Attitudes

• belief or feeling that predisposes someone to react a certain way
• Foot In the Door Phenomenon- people who first agreed to a small request to comply later to a bigger request
• Door In Face Phenomenon- people who say no to a large request comply to a smaller one
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory- people don't like when they have conflicting attitudes, or their actions don't match their attitudes

Social Influence

• Conformity- adjusting behavior to agree with the group
• Normative Social Influence- influence from a person's desire to gain approval from a group
• Informational Social Influence- influence from one's willingness to accept others' opinions

Group Influence

• Social Facilitation- improved performance when other people are around
• Yerkes-Dodson Law- optimal level of arousal for the best performance of any task
• Social Loafing- people in a group will exert less effort than if they were working alone
• Deindividuation- loss of self awareness and self restraint in group situations
• Group Polarization- group attitude is one of extremes
• Groupthink- desire for harmony in decision making overrides common sense

Social Relations

• Prejudice- unjustifiable attitude towards a group of people
• Stereotype- generalized belief about a group of people

Social Inequalities

• Ingroup- the group you are in
• Outgroup- anyone outside your ingroup
• Ingroup Bias- tendency to favor your ingroup
• Scapegoat Theory- unfairly blaming others for a problem

Aggression-any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy

• Frustration Aggressive Principle- frustration generates anger which leads to aggression

Conflict- incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

Attraction

• Mere Exposure Effect- repeated exposure breeds liking
• Reciprocal liking- more likely to like someone who likes you
• Similarity- breeds content

Love

• Passionate Love- aroused state of intense positive absorption
• Compassionate Love- deep affectional attachment; equity and self-disclosure make this work

Altruism- unselfish regard for the welfare of others

• Bystander Effect- people are less willing to help if there are others around
• Social Exchange Theory- social behavior is an exchange where we maximize benefits and minimize costs

Motivation

•  Motivation-psychological process that directs and maintains behavior toward a goal
• Instinct Theory- motivated by our inborn automated behaviors such as hunger or sleep; social includes things such as play
• Drive Theory- biological internal motivation (homeostasis)
• Incentive Theory- environmental motivation; outside forces
• Drive Reduction Theory- when there is a need or drive, there is motivation to reduce the need or drive

Hunger

• comes from the hypothalamus in the brain, not the stomach
• glucose provides major source of energy for body tissue
• insulin converts glucose to fat

Hypothalamus

• Lateral- stimulation causes hunger
• Ventromedial- stimulation causes feeling of fullness
• Set Point Theory- acts as a thermostat to maintain weight

Eating Disorders

• Bulimia Nervosa- characterized by binge eating and purging
• Anorexia Nervosa- starve themselves to below 85% of normal body weight; see themselves as fat; mostly affects women
• Obesity- severely overweight to the point where it causes health issues

Achievement Motivation

• Intrinsic- internal rewards such as enjoyment or satisfaction
• Extrinsic- outside rewards such as money, popularity, or grades
• Over Justification- reward for doing something you like to do results in seeking rewards as motivation for doing the task (lowers intrinsic motivation)

Management Theory

•  Theory X- employees work for benefits or if threatened; extrinsic motivation; Maslow's lower needs 
• Theory Y- employees internally motivated to do good work; intrinsic motivation; Maslow's higher needs

Emotion

Emotion- response of the whole organism

• James-Lange Theory of Emotion- experience of emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion arousing stimuli
• Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion- emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger
• Schachter's Two-Factor Theory of Emotion- to experience emotion one must be physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal

Polygraph- machine commonly used in attempts to detect lies by measuring physiological responses accompanying emotion such as perspiration, cardiovascular, and breathing changes

Experienced Emotion

• Amygdala- neural key to fear learning
• Catharsis- emotional release; catharsis hypothesis is releasing aggressive energy which relieves aggressive urges
• Feel Good, Do Good Phenomenon- people tend to be helpful when already in a good mood
• Adaptation-Level-Phenomenon- form judgments relative to a "neutral" level
• Relative Deprivation- perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself