ap psych module 8 vocabulary

Olvin

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11-01-2025

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Module 8 of AP Psychology delves into the fascinating world of social psychology, exploring how individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Mastering the vocabulary is crucial for success in this module. This guide provides comprehensive definitions and examples to help you conquer AP Psychology's social psychology terminology.

Key Terms and Concepts:

Social Cognition: Understanding Others

• Attribution: The process of explaining one's own behavior and the behavior of others. We attribute behavior to either internal (dispositional) or external (situational) factors. For example, attributing a friend's lateness to a traffic jam (situational) versus their lack of responsibility (dispositional).

  • Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to overemphasize dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining others' behavior. Seeing someone trip and immediately thinking they're clumsy, rather than considering a slippery floor.

  • Actor-Observer Bias: The tendency to attribute one's own actions to situational factors while attributing others' actions to dispositional factors. You cut someone off in traffic because you were late (situational), but when someone else does it, they're a terrible driver (dispositional).

  • Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors. Acing a test because you're smart, failing because the test was unfair.

• Attitudes: Evaluative judgments about people, objects, or ideas. These can be positive, negative, or ambivalent and influence our behavior. For example, a positive attitude towards recycling might lead to consistent recycling behavior.

  • Cognitive Dissonance: The mental discomfort experienced when holding two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values. This discomfort motivates individuals to reduce the dissonance, often by changing their beliefs or behaviors. For example, someone who believes smoking is harmful but continues to smoke might rationalize their behavior to reduce the dissonance.

  • Persuasion: The process of influencing attitudes and behaviors. Key factors include the source (credibility), the message (logic and emotional appeal), and the audience (pre-existing beliefs and motivations). A compelling advertisement persuading consumers to buy a new product.

Social Influence: Conformity and Obedience

• Conformity: Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. Asch's conformity experiments demonstrated the powerful influence of group pressure on individual judgment.

• Obedience: Compliance with a direct command. Milgram's obedience experiments revealed a surprising level of obedience to authority figures, even when commands involved inflicting harm on others.

• Groupthink: The tendency for decision-making groups to suppress dissent in the interest of group harmony, resulting in poor decisions. A group of friends consistently agreeing on a plan, even though individual members harbor doubts.

• Group Polarization: The tendency for a group's initial leanings to become more extreme after discussion within the group. A group initially leaning towards a moderate political stance becoming more strongly opinionated after a discussion.

Social Relations: Prejudice, Aggression, and Prosocial Behavior

• Prejudice: A negative attitude towards a group and its members. This involves preconceived judgments and stereotypes. Racial prejudice is a prime example.

• Stereotype: A generalized belief about a group of people. Stereotypes can be positive or negative, but they often oversimplify and distort reality. A stereotype might be that all Asians are good at math.

• Discrimination: Unfair or biased treatment of individuals based on their group membership. Denying someone a job opportunity because of their race.

• Aggression: Behavior intended to harm another person. Physical aggression involves physical harm, while verbal aggression uses words to hurt.

• Prosocial Behavior: Any act intended to benefit another person. Helping a stranger, donating to charity, or volunteering.

• Altruism: Helping others with no expectation of personal reward. Risking one's life to save a stranger.

• Bystander Effect: The tendency for individuals to be less likely to help a victim when other people are present. The more bystanders, the less likely anyone is to intervene.

This vocabulary list provides a strong foundation for understanding Module 8. Remember to actively engage with the material, use examples in your studies, and relate the concepts to real-world situations to enhance your comprehension and retention. Good luck with your AP Psychology studies!