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🇵🇰 CSS Psychology · subject
CSS Psychology Social and Developmental Psychology Syllabus
Every chapter and topic of Social and Developmental Psychology examined in CSS Psychology — 2 chapters, 10 topics, plus 51 flashcards written against it.
Social and Developmental Psychology syllabus — full chapter and topic list
Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Social and Developmental Psychology in CSS Psychology, not a summary of it.
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Social Influence and Group Dynamics
6 topics- Social Facilitation
- Attribution
- Conformity and Obedience
- Altruism
- Attitudes and Attitude Change
- Social Norms
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Developmental Psychology
4 topics- Physical Development
- Cognitive Development
- Social and Emotional Development
- Stages of the Lifespan
Social and Developmental Psychology flashcards for CSS Psychology
23 of 51 cards from the Social and Developmental Psychology deck — real questions with worked answers.
What is social facilitation?
The tendency for the presence of others to improve performance on simple/well-learned tasks and impair performance on complex/novel tasks.
Who coined the term 'social facilitation' and in what early study?
Norman Triplett (1898), in his study showing cyclists rode faster when racing against others than against the clock alone.
According to Zajonc's drive theory, why does the presence of others affect performance?
The presence of others increases arousal, which strengthens the dominant (most likely) response—helping on easy tasks and hurting on difficult ones.
What is social loafing?
The tendency for individuals to exert less effort when working in a group toward a collective goal than when working alone.
What is attribution in social psychology?
The process by which people explain the causes of their own and others' behavior.
Distinguish between internal (dispositional) and external (situational) attributions.
Internal attribution credits behavior to personal traits, abilities, or character; external attribution credits behavior to environmental or situational factors.
What is the fundamental attribution error?
The tendency to overestimate dispositional (internal) causes and underestimate situational (external) causes when explaining others' behavior.
What is the actor-observer bias in attribution?
The tendency to attribute our own actions to situational causes but others' actions to dispositional causes.
What is the self-serving bias?
The tendency to attribute one's successes to internal factors and one's failures to external factors.
What are the three dimensions in Kelley's Covariation Model of attribution?
Consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency.
In Kelley's model, what attribution results from high consensus, high distinctiveness, and high consistency?
An external (situational) attribution—the behavior is attributed to the stimulus/situation.
What is conformity?
A change in behavior or belief to match the actions or standards of a group, due to real or imagined social pressure.
What did Solomon Asch's line-judgment experiments demonstrate?
That people will conform to an obviously incorrect majority answer; about 75% of participants conformed at least once, with an average conformity rate around 33%.
Distinguish normative from informational social influence.
Normative influence is conforming to gain approval/avoid rejection; informational influence is conforming because others are seen as a source of accurate information.
What is obedience?
Complying with the direct commands or orders of an authority figure.
What did Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments find?
About 65% of participants administered the maximum 450-volt 'shock' when ordered by an authority figure, showing the power of obedience to authority.
Name three factors that increase obedience in Milgram's studies.
Proximity/legitimacy of the authority figure, the prestige of the institution, and the physical/emotional distance from the victim.
What was the key finding of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)?
Situational and role assignment can powerfully shape behavior—'guards' became abusive and 'prisoners' became submissive, demonstrating deindividuation and the power of roles.
What is compliance (as distinct from conformity and obedience)?
Publicly acting in accordance with a direct request from another person while not necessarily privately agreeing.
What is altruism?
Helping behavior that is motivated by concern for others' welfare, often without expectation of personal reward.
What is the bystander effect?
The phenomenon where the presence of other people decreases the likelihood that any one individual will help a person in need.
What is diffusion of responsibility?
The tendency for individuals to feel less personal responsibility to act when others are present, because responsibility is shared among the group.
Which case prompted research into the bystander effect, and who studied it?
The 1964 Kitty Genovese murder; studied by John Darley and Bibb Latané.
Planning Social and Developmental Psychology for CSS Psychology
Social and Developmental Psychology is about 11% of the CSS Psychology syllabus by topic count — 10 of 87 topics, spread over 2 chapters. At roughly 45 minutes per topic plus 12 minutes per sub-topic, a first pass runs to about 8 hours.
Work top-down: read the chapter, then tick topics off individually rather than marking the whole chapter done. Sub-topics are where silent gaps hide.
Social and Developmental Psychology (CSS Psychology) FAQ
What is in the CSS Psychology Social and Developmental Psychology syllabus?
Social and Developmental Psychology is split into 2 chapters — Social Influence and Group Dynamics and Developmental Psychology, containing 10 topics and 0 sub-topics in total.
How is Social and Developmental Psychology structured in the CSS Psychology syllabus?
2 chapters. Social and Developmental Psychology accounts for about 11% of the topics in the whole CSS Psychology syllabus (10 of 87).
How long should I spend on Social and Developmental Psychology for CSS Psychology?
Budget around 8 hours for a first pass through Social and Developmental Psychology — about 45 minutes per topic plus 12 minutes per sub-topic across its 10 topics. Add revision cycles on top.
Are there flashcards for CSS Psychology Social and Developmental Psychology?
Yes — a 51-card Social and Developmental Psychology deck. Sample cards are printed on this page, and the full deck is free in the Examius app with spaced repetition scheduling.