1.

Social Psychology
2. Social Cognition
3. Social Perception
4. The Self
5. Attitudes
6. Causes and Cures of Stereotyping, Prejudice and Discrimination
7. Liking, Love and Other Close Relationships
8. Social Influence
9. Prosocial Behavior
10. Aggression
11. Groups and Individuals
12. Dealing with Adversity and Achieving a Happy Life

 Altruistic- Acting helpfully towards others without obvious benefit to oneself.

An example of this might be chasing a stranger in order to return their wallet,
which involves no guarantee of reward.
 Bystander- a Person who is present at, but may not be directly involved in, a
particular situation.
 Confederate- n. Confederates are pretend research participants, who are
actually accomplices of the researchers. The actual participants are unaware
(until after the session is over) that the confederates are not bona fide
participants. Research with confederates is common in social psychology when
researchers wish to simulate a particular type of social situation to examine how
participants will react.
 Conspecific- Member of the same species.
 Cost-benefit model- Involves a decision-making process in which a person weighs
up both the advantages and disadvantages of helping. If it seems beneficial to
help, then the person is more likely to do so; if the risks are too great, they may
refrain.
 Destructive obedience- Obedience that has potential to cause psychological or
physical harm or injury to another.
 Diffusion of responsibility- n. A state in which an individual perceives his/her
own responsibility as less than usual because it is shared by a group of people.
This is the hypothesized cause of bystander effect, in which bystanders’
likelihood of acting to help after witnessing an accident, crime or other incident
depends on the number of other people who are also witnesses or believed to be
witnesses to the same incident.
 Good Samaritan- This term originates from the New Testament in the Bible. It
refers to a story of a Samaritan (person originating from ancient Samaria) who
stops to offer help to an injured stranger.
 Naturalistic observation-
 Obedience- n. acting in compliance with a command or other directive such as
obeying the law.
 White collar workers- Refers to individuals who work in professional
occupations, as compared to ‘blue collar’ workers which refers to those who
perform manual work.
 Naturalistic observation- n. A research methodology that collects descriptive
data via observations of target phenomena occurring in their natural context (as
opposed to laboratory research). Naturalistic research involves watching target
behaviors, events or phenomena without interference from the researcher; as
such, naturalistic observation is one of the most common unobtrusive research
methods. The goal of naturalistic observation is to observe and record target
behaviors without influencing, controlling or manipulating the situation. For
example, a researcher interested in mating behavior may choose to observe
individuals interacting at a dance to examine social interaction in an environment
in which people do not know they are being studied. The advantage of this type
of approach is that people are not influenced by the research environment; the
disadvantage is that there are often ethical concerns with the observation and
recording of behavior without the consent of the individuals being studied.
 Survey research- n. Survey research is a rigorous quantitative methodology
employed by social scientists to collect information that can be used to estimate
the characteristics of defined populations and/or test research hypotheses.
The varieties of survey research are highly diverse. Both cross-sectional and
longitudinal, or panel survey designs are common. Although most surveys are of
individuals, many other units of analysis are also examined, including social
networks, discrete and random events, and various organizational structures,
such as businesses, hospitals, schools and political jurisdictions. More complex
multilevel survey research, in which information is collected and organized at
two or more levels (e.g., from surveys of both employers and employees) is also
becoming commonplace. Survey research is routinely conducted using a variety
of different modes, including face-to-face and telephone interviews and self-
administered mail and Web-based questionnaires. Types of phenomena commonly
measured via survey include the behaviors, attitudes, opinions and other
qualities of the individuals or units being studied.
 Surveys- n. Surveys involve systematically gathering information by asking
questions. Surveys typically involve questioning individuals but can also involve
organizations or institutions. Survey questions can be asked in telephone or in-
person interviews or via self-administered questionnaires completed on paper or
on an Internet Web site. Surveys typically involve gathering data from a sub-
sample of a larger population (often with the goal of surveying a representative
sample). Questions asked in a survey are also standardized (i.e., questions are
asked in the same way to each respondent), and responses to survey questions
are typically quantified into categories for aggregation and analysis.
 Correlation- n. 1. The degree of relationship between two or more variables. 2. A
mathematical index of association between two or more variables.
 Correlational method- n. A research approach in which two or more variables are
measured, usually in naturalistic settings, and the covariance (n. a mathematical
index of the degree of relatedness between two variables, most usually the
average of the product of the deviations of each variable from its mean) of the
variables is examined to find relationships between or among them. This
approach lacks the control of extraneous variables present in good experimental
research, and so casual are seldom properly made from correlational studies.
This approach is often made when experiment is impossible, ecological validity is
a primary concern, or ethical limitations prevent experimental research.
 Correlational statistics- n. Any of a family of statistics that describe the
relationship between two or more variables.
 Correlational study- n. A study of the relationship between two or more
variables, usually using correlational statistics to describe the relationship.
 Correlation coefficient- n. A mathematical index of association between two or
more variables and usually a linear index scaled so that 0 indicates no
relationship, +1 indicates a perfect positive relationship, and -1 indicates a
perfect inverse relationship.
 Independent variable- n. A variable controlled or manipulated by an
experimenter in order to observe the effect of the control or manipulation on
one or more outcome or dependent variables. Quasi-independent variables are
those such as sex or age that are treated as independent but are not under the
control of the experimenter.
 Dependent variable- n. The outcome factor or variable of interest in an
experiment that is compared to determine whether differences exist between
experimental conditions as a result of manipulation or treatment conditions.
Within basic experimental design, changes in the dependent variable are
measured to examine the relative impact of another variable (independent
variable). For example, in an experiment to examine the impact of alcohol
consumption on memory, the researcher will vary the amount of alcohol
consumed (independent variable) to examine changes in memory (dependent
variable). The dependent variable is measured and compared in order to draw
conclusions about the relative impact of the independent variable.
 Experimental methods- n. A system of procedures and materials used
systematically to investigate the relationships between controlled (independent)
variables and uncontrolled (dependent) ones.
 Confounding- n. The process of an uncontrolled variable’s affecting the results
of an experiment such that no clear interpretation of the results can be made.
 Mediating variable- n. A mediating variable explains how or why two variables are
related by specifying that the mediating variable transmits the effect of one
variable to another variable. There is a temporal relation such that the initial
variable is related to the mediating variable and then the mediating variable is
related to the outcome variable. Mediating variables may be observed measures
used in a statistical analysis, or they may be theoretical constructs that guide a
research project. One of the difficulties of research on mediating variables is
the development of accurate measures of theoretical mediating constructs.
Mediating variables are often considered once a relation between two variables
is established. Here the mediating variable provides an interpretation of the
relation between