Andy Lopez

AP PSYCH Notes Chapter 18

Social Psychology
I. Social psychology pg 723
a. The three main focuses of social psychology are: how people think
about, influence, and relate to one another
II. Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations pg 724-726
a. Attribution theory: suggests how we explain someone’s behavior – by
crediting either the situation or the person’s dispositions
b. Situational attributions: stressing the influence of external events that
may explain our own behavior. Dispositional attributions: assumption
of behavior because of personal traits (e.g. a teacher may wonder
whether the behavior of a child is caused by either aggressive
personality (dispositional attribution) or stress or abuse.
c. Fundamental attribution error: the tendency to underestimate the
impact of the situation and to overestimate the impat of personal
disposition (e.g. A person may be quiet in class but maybe at a party
this person may not be so quiet)
d. Our attributions – to individual’s dispositions or to their situations –
have consequences
III. Attitudes and Actions pg 726- 730
a. Attitudes: feelings, often based on belief that predispose us to respond
in a particular way to objects, people, and events (e.g. if we believe
someone is mean, we may feel dislike towards the persona and
therefore act unfriendly towards them
b. Attitudes are most likely to have an affect towards behaviors when
social pressure is minimal, when the attitude is specific to the
behavior and when we are keenly aware of our attitudes.
c. Foot in the door phenomenon – the tendency for people who have
first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.
“start small then gradually build up”
d.