Social Psychology Terminology – Flashcards

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Actor-Observer bias
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a term in social psychology that refers to a tendency to attribute one's own actions to external causes, while attributing other people's behaviors to internal causes.
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attribution
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an ascribed quality, character, or right.
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conformity
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behavior in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards.
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central route persuasion
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occurs when a person is persuaded by the content of the message
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defensive attribution
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a social psychological term from the attributional approach referring to a set of beliefs about who is culpable in a given situation.
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emotional component
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a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others.
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ethnocentrism
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evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture.
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evolutionary psychology
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a theoretical approach to psychology that attempts to explain useful mental and psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, i.e., as the functional products of natural selection.
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group polarization
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refers to the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members.
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halo effect
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the tendency for an impression created in one area to influence opinion in another area.
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in-group bias
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In-group favoritism, sometimes known as in-group-out-group bias, in-group bias, or inter-group bias, is a pattern of favoring members of one's in-group over out-group members.
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just-world hypothesis
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or just-world fallacy is the cognitive bias (or assumption) that a person's actions are inherently inclined to bring morally fair and fitting consequences to that person, to the end of all noble actions being eventually rewarded and all evil actions eventually punished.
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need to affiliate
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a term that was popularized by David McClellan and describes a person's need to feel a sense of involvement and "belonging" within a social group.
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outgroup
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those people who do not belong to a specific in-group.
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psyical proximity
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"nearness," and it is often qualified by the word close.
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person perception
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an element of social psychology concerning how we process information about people.
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role conflict
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A situation in which a person is expected to play two incompatible roles. For example, a boss will suffer role conflict if forced to fire an employee who is also a close friend.
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self-serving bias
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people's tendency to attribute positive events to their own character but attribute negative events to external factors.
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social comparison
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we determine our own social and personal worth based on how we stack up against others. As a result, we are constantly making self and other evaluations across a variety of domains (for example, attractiveness, wealth, intelligence, and success).
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social inhibition
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a conscious or subconscious avoidance of a situation or social interaction. With a high level of social inhibition, situations are avoided because of the possibility of others disapproving of their feelings or expressions.
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social roles
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a set of rights, duties, expectations, norms and behaviors that a person has to face and fulfill. The model is based on the observation that people behave in a predictable way, and that an individual's behavior is context specific, based on social position and other factors.
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attachment
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a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space. Attachment does not have to be reciprocal. One person may have an attachment to an individual which is not shared.
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bystander effect
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or bystander apathy, is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. The probability of help is inversely related to the number of bystanders.
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collectivism
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the practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it.
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deindividuation
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Deindividuation is a concept in social psychology that is generally thought of as the loss of self-awareness in groups, although this is a matter of contention (see below). Sociologists also study the phenomenon of deindividuation, but the level of analysis is somewhat different.
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discrimination
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the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.
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empathetic arousal
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refers to an emotional Arousal that occurs when you feel some of another person's pain, fear, or anguish.
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group cohesiveness
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can be more specifically defined as the tendency for a group to be in unity while working towards a goal or to satisfy the emotional needs of its members. This definition includes important aspects of cohesiveness, including its multidimensionality, dynamic nature, instrumental basis, and emotional dimension.
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group productivity
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a successful element to any person's business. This essentially means harnessing the power of teams to multiply the individual efforts of the people who are serving with the organization.
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group prejudice
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the biases that a group experiences together.
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intimacy
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close familiarity or friendship; closeness.
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interpersonal attraction
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the attraction between people which leads to friendships and to platonic or romantic relationships. Interpersonal attraction, the process, is distinct from perceptions of physical attractiveness which involves views of what is and is not considered beautiful or attractive.
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internal attributes
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attributes that are internal
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norm
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normal social things that people do like customs
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passionate love
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love that is very emotional and passionate
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physical attractiveness
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attractiveness that is physical
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prosocial behavior
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any action intended to help others. One motivation for prosocial behavior is altruism, or the desire to help others with no expectation of reward. In this lesson, we explore prosocial behavior and the elements that social psychologists have identified as predicting it.
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romantic love
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is a deep emotional, sexual and spiritual recognition and regard for the value of another person and relationship. Romantic love can generate many powerful feelings. It can provide a profound ecstasy, and a deep suffering when frustrated.
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self-perception
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posits that people determine their attitudes and preferences by interpreting the meaning of their own behavior. Critcher and Gilovich looked at whether people also rely on the unobservable behavior that is their mindwandering when making inferences about their attitudes and preferences.
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social loafing
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the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable.
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social schemas
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a mental concept that informs a person about what to expect from a variety of experiences and situations. Schemas are developed based on information provided by life experiences and are then stored in memory.
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stereotypes
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a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.
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attitude
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a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person's behavior.
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cognitive dissonance
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a tension or clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitable elements.
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companionate love
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between partners or spouses as equal companions. (of a person) acting as a companion.
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desensitization
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make less sensitive
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door-in-the-face effect
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technique is a compliance method commonly studied in social psychology. The persuader attempts to convince the respondent to comply by making a large request that the respondent will most likely turn down, much like a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader's face.
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elaboration likelihood model
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of persuasion is a dual process theory describing the change of attitudes form. The ELM was developed by Richard E. Petty and John Cacioppo in the mid-1980s. The model aims to explain different ways of processing stimuli, why they are used, and their outcomes on attitude change.
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foot-in-the-door effect
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technique is a compliance tactic that involves getting a person to agree to a large request by first setting them up by having that person agree to a modest request. The foot-in-the-door technique succeeds owing to a basic human reality that social scientists call "successive approximations".
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fundamental attribution error
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also known as the correspondence bias or attribution effect, is the tendency for people to place an undue emphasis on internal characteristics (personality) to explain someone else's behavior in a given situation rather than considering the situation's external
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groupthink
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a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.
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illusory correlation
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the phenomenon of perceiving a relationship between variables (typically people, events, or behaviors) even when no such relationship exists.
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individualism
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the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant.
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matching hypothesis
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is derived from the discipline of social psychology and was first proposed by Elaine Hatfield and her colleagues in 1966, which suggests why people become attracted to their partner.
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obedience
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compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another's authority.
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prejudice
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preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.
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peripheral rout persuasion
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occurs when the listener decides whether to agree with the message based on other cues besides the strength of the arguments or ideas in the message.
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reciprocity norm
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the expectation that people will respond favorably to each other by returning benefits for benefits, and responding with either indifference or hostility to harms. The social norm of reciprocity often takes different forms in different areas of social life, or in different societies.
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scapegoating
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make a scapegoat of.
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self-fulfilling prophecy
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a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior.
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social facilitation
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the tendency for people to perform differently when in the presence of others than when alone. Compared to their performance when alone, when in the presence of others, they tend to perform better on simple or well-rehearsed tasks and worse on complex or new ones.
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social learning theory
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posits that learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context and can occur purely through observation or direct instruction, even in the absence of motor reproduction or direct reinforcement.
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cult
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a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object.
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soloman asch
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a Polish gestalt psychologist and pioneer in social psychology in the United States. He created seminal pieces of work in impression formation, prestige suggestion, conformity, and many other topics in social psychology.
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david buss
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a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, known for his evolutionary psychology research on human sex differences in mate selection
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leon festinger
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an American social psychologist, perhaps best known for cognitive dissonance and social comparison theory
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fritz heider
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an Austrian psychologist whose work was related to the Gestalt school. In 1958 he published The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, which expanded upon his creations of balance theory and attribution theory.
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harold kelly
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an American social psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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stanley milgram
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an American social psychologist, best known for his controversial experiment on obedience conducted in the 1960s during his professorship at Yale.
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philip zimbardo
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a psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University.
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bernard weiner
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an American social psychologist known for developing a form of attribution theory which explains the emotional and motivational entailments of academic success and failure.
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cindy hazen
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A career sales professional, Cindy Hazen enjoys over 35 years of involvement in the sales field. Starting at 8 years old selling Girl Scout cookies and graduating to working as a sales representative in commercial furnishings products to professional services, she has truly worked in all aspects of the selling world.
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philip shaver
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invented razor blades
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elaine hatfield
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an American social psychologist. She has been credited, alongside Ellen S. Berscheid, as one of the pioneers of relationship science. She is employed as a professor in the psychology department of the University of Hawaii.
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kurt lewin
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a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. Kurt Lewin, exiled from the land of his birth, made a new life for himself.
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irving janis
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a research psychologist at Yale University and a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley most famous for his theory of "groupthink"
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