Study guides › P/S › Psychology
Social Psychology
This chapter covers how people explain behavior, form attitudes, and are influenced by others and groups. You will match terms, theorists, and classic studies to scenarios, including attribution, dissonance, conformity, obedience, group effects, prejudice, aggression, and altruism.
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What this chapter covers
- Attribution & Social Perception. Attribution questions give you a behavior and ask whether the explanation is dispositional or situational, and which bias is at work.
- Attitudes, Persuasion & Dissonance. Persuasion routes, compliance tricks, and the Festinger studies each have a scenario signature you can learn to spot.
- Conformity, Compliance & Obedience. Asch, Sherif, Milgram, and Zimbardo are among the most tested studies, so pair each name with its finding.
- Group Behavior & the Bystander Effect. Group phenomena have near-identical names, so learn each with its defining scenario.
- Prejudice, Aggression & Altruism. Keep prejudice, stereotype, and discrimination separate, and learn the theory linked to each cause of aggression and helping.
Key points to know
- Fundamental attribution error: overrating disposition for others
- Self-serving bias: success is mine, failure is the situation
- ABC: affective, behavioral, cognitive
- Central route = lasting; peripheral route = superficial cues
- Conformity: no request; compliance: request; obedience: order
- Asch: normative influence on an obvious task; Sherif: informational under ambiguity
- Social facilitation: audience helps easy tasks, hurts hard tasks
- Social loafing needs unidentifiable individual effort
Try a practice question
A driver cuts you off and you conclude he is a reckless person, ignoring that he might be rushing to a hospital. This is
- self-serving bias
- the just-world hypothesis
- the halo effect
- the fundamental attribution error
Show the answer
D. Blaming another person's disposition while overlooking the situation is the fundamental attribution error. Self-serving bias concerns explanations of one's own outcomes.
Common questions
What does this chapter cover?
Social Psychology covers Attribution & Social Perception, Attitudes, Persuasion & Dissonance, Conformity, Compliance & Obedience, Group Behavior & the Bystander Effect, Prejudice, Aggression & Altruism.
What should I know first?
Fundamental attribution error: overrating disposition for others Self-serving bias: success is mine, failure is the situation ABC: affective, behavioral, cognitive
24 original practice questions accompany this chapter in the app. Spaced review brings missed ideas back at the right time; it helps memory but cannot promise you will not miss an idea again.