Social Psyhology

Social Thinking:
how we think about one another
Fundamental Attribution Error:
The tendency to underestimate the impact of a personal disposition
Attitude:
a belief or feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to something
Foot-In-The-Door Phenomenon
the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply to later with a larger request
Door-In-The-Face Phenomenon
the tendency for people to say no to a huge request to comply with a smaller one.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory:
we do not like when we have either conflicting attitudes or when our attitudes do not match our actions

Conformity:
adjusting to one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a groups standard
- Asch's study dealt with conformity
Conditions that strengthen Conformity:

• One is made to feel incompetent
• The group is at least 3 people
• The group is unanimous
• One admires the group status
• One had made no prior commitment
• The person is observed

Reasons Why People Conform:

• \Normative Social Influence: Influence resulting from a persons desire to gain approval or avoid disappointment
• Informational Social Influence: Influence resulting from ones willingness to accept others opinion about reality

Social Facilitation:
improved performance or tasks in the presence of others
Social Loafing:
 the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts towards a common goal than if they were individually accountable
Deindividuation:
the loss of self-awareness and self restraints occurring in group situations that foster
Group Polarization:
the concept that a groups attitude is one of extremes and rarely moderate
Group Think:
the mode of thinking that occurs when desire for harmony in a decision making group overrides common sense
Self Fulfilling Prophecies:
Occurs when one persons belief about others leads one to act in ways that induce the others to appear to conform to the belief