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Actor-Observer Effect

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In causal attribution, the tendency for an observer to overestimate the effects of dispositional (internal) factors when making attributions about an actor's behavior (e.g., a person is rude and you attribute this to their personality) but to overestimate the effects of situational factors when making self-attributions (e.g., attribute a bad grade on a test to the teacher's test making instead of one's studying).

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Attribution (Dimensions)

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Casual attributions are often described in terms of three dimensions - internal/external (dispositonal/situational), stable/unstable, and specific/global.

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Central Traits

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These are characteristics that have a greater impact than others on impression formation.

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Fundamental Attribution Bias

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The attribution error in which an observer tends to overestimate dispostional causes and underestimate situational causes when making attributions about an actor's behavior.

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Learned Helplessness

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A learned expectation that one cannot control negative life events, which leads to apathy and depression; associated with internal, stable, and global attributions.

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Pseudopatient Study (Rosenhan)

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Research that demonstrated the roles of the social context and labeling on impression formation. Once admitted to a mental hospital, they were viewed, especially by hospital staff, as mental patients even though they did not exhibit any abnormal behaviors.

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Schemata (Schemas)

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Cognitive structures that organize past information and experience and provide a framework for processing and understanding new information and experiences.

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Self-Serving Bias

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In causal attributions, the tendency to attribute one's successes to internal factors and one's failures to external factors.

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Emotion-in-Relationship Model

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This proposes that there is an innate mechanism that generates emotion in response to unexpected events that disrupt ongoing sequences of behaviors.

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Equity Theory

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The theory of motivation that predicts that motivation (e.g., motivation to remain in a relationship) is affected by the comparison of input/output ratios.

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Gain-Loss Effect

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This predicts that liking is related to the pattern rather than the amount of rewards - specifically people tend to be most attracted to individuals who show increasing liking from them and to be least attracted to individuals who show decreasing liking for them.

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Gender Differences in Affiliation

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The research shows that females ordinarily spend more time than males engaged in conversation, are more likely to talk to people of the same sex, and may affiliate more than males do in public places.

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Misery Loves Miserable Company

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Refers to Schachter's conclusion that people like to affiliate with those in similar circumstances (i.e., miserable people prefer to affiliate with other miserable people).

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Social Exchange Theory

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A theory of interpersonal relationships that focuses on the magnitude of costs and rewards.

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Confirmation Bias

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This is the tendency to seek or pay attention to information that confirms one's hypothesis or current beliefs and to ignore disconforming information.

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Overjustification Hypothesis

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The notion that, when people are externally rewarded for a task they previously found intrinsically interesting, their intrinsic interest in the task will decrease.

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Barnum Effect

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This is the tendency to accept vague, general descriptions of oneself (e.g., one's horoscope) as accurate.

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Schachter and Singer's Epinephrine Study

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Research on the perception of emotion showed that there are no physiological differences between emotions and that the perception of emotion depends on a combination of physiological arousal and a cognitive label for that arousal.

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Self-Monitoring

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This refers to the need for and ability to manage the impression that others form of us. High in this are most concerned about their "public self" and, consequently, strive to match their attitudes and behaviors to the situation. In contrast, low on this are guided primarily by their own beliefs and values and attempt to alter the situation to match their "private self."

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Self-Perception Theory

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The theory that individual make attribution about heir own attitudes and behaviors on the basis of observations of their behaviors and other external cues.

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Self-Verification Theory

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This predicts that people prefer accurate information (i.e., information that is consistent with one's self-evaluations).

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Social Comparison Theory

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The theory that individual use other (usually similar) people as sources of comparison to evaluate their own attitudes and behaviors.

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Autokinetic Effect

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Sherif used this (the appearance that a stationary point of light is moving) to study conformity to group norms.

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Bases of Social Power

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Methods used to induce compliance in another person. French and Raven have identified six bases o social power: Coercive, reward, expert, legitimate, referent, and informational.

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Minority Influence

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The research shows that a minority can influence the majority by maintaining a consistent (but not dogmatic) position.

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Obedience to Authority (Milgram)

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Controversial research which evaluated participant's willingness to obey a high-status individual even when doing so seemed to harm another person.

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Psychological Reactance

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The tendency to resist being influenced or manipulated by others, usually by doing the opposite of what is desired or expected.

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Attitude Inoculation

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A method of reducing the effectiveness of a persuasive message that is based on the medical model; involves giving the recipient of the message arguments against his/her own position and weak counterarguments (refutation against those arguments). Inoculation has been found to be a particularly effective method for reducing persuasibility.

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Characteristics of the Communication

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Several characteristics of a communication affect its persuasiveness - e.g., the level of discrepancy between the positions of the recipient and the message, the order in which the two sides of an argument are presented (primacy/recent effects), and whither the message is intentionally delivered or is overheard.

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Characteristics of the Communicator

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Research on attitude change has confirmed that credible communicators are more persuasive. One factor that contributes to credibility is trustworthiness.

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Cognitive Dissonance Theory

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Festinger's theory of attitude change that proposes that inconsistencies inn cognitions produce discomfort (dissonance), which motivates the individual to reduce the dissonance by changing his/her cognitions.

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Social Judgment Theory

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A theory of attitude change that predicts that we have three "categories of judgment" by which we evaluation persuasive messages - a latitude of acceptance, a latitude of non-commitment, and a latitude of rejection - and that we are most likely to be persuaded when the message is with our latitude of acceptance.

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Theory of Planned Behaviors

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Theory predicts that attitudes are accurate predictors when the attitude measure assesses all three components of the behavioral intention - the person's attitude toward engaging in the behavior; what the prison believes other people think he or she should do; and the person's perceived behavioral control.

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Catharsis Hypothesis

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This predicts that an act of aggression reduces an individual's arousal level which then decreases the likelihood that he/she will act aggressively again in the near future. The research has not been very supportive of this claim.

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Effects of Media Violence

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The controversy about this have been fueled by research on observational (social) learning. Although evidence to support each side -- that that violence either increase or decreases violence -- can be found in the literature, in general, media violence does not seem to have a cathartic effect but, instead, increases viewer aggressiveness.

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Effects of Pornography

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Research assessing exposure to violent pornography has generally found that it not only increases aggressive behavior but also promotes a greater acceptance of violence against women.

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Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

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The theory that aggression is always motivated by frustration. Revised version predicts that frustration lead to aggression in the presence of aggressive cues.

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Prison Study (Zimbardo)

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Prison simulation study which demonstrates that people alter their behaviors to fit their assigned roles.

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Social Learning Theory

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The type of learning that occurs simply as the result of observing the behavior of a model; used to explain the acquisition of aggressive behaviors (e.g., the effects of media violence).

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Threat of Retaliation

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This often reduces aggressiveness, especially when it comes from a person with high status and power.

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Contact Hypothesis

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This proposes that prejudice may be reduced through contact between members of the majority and minority groups as long as the following conditions are met - e.g., members of the different groups have equal status and power and are provided with opportunities to discomfort their negative stereotypes about members of the other group.

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Heterosexism

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An ideological system that denies, denigrates, and stigmatizes among nonheterosexual forms of behavior, identify, relationships, or community.

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Seuxual Prejudice

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Negative attitudes based on sexual origination, which there target is homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual.

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Symbolic (Modern) Racism

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A theory about current, less blatant forms of racism that reflect a combination of anti-African-American attitudes, strong support for traditional American values (e.g., the work ethic), and a belief that African-Americans violate those rules.

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Bystander Apathy

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The tendency of people to not intervene in emergency situations when others are present. This has been attributed to three factors: social comparison, evaluations apprehension, and diffusion of responsibility.

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Jigsaw Method

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A method of learning in which assignments must be completed by teams with each team member being assigned a different piece of the project. It has been found to improve intergroup relationship, cooperation, and self-esteem; also improves academic achievement, especially for members of minority groups.

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Robber's Cave Study (Sherif)

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This research at a boy's camp that demonstrated that the most effective way to reduce intergroup hostility is having the members of the groups cooperate to achieve a mutual (superordinate) goal.

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Subordinate Goals

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Goals that can be achieved only when individuals or members of different groups work together cooperatively; they have been found useful for reducing intergroup conflict.

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Base Rate Fallacy

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The tendency to under utilize or ignore relevant statistical data and to rely, instead, on irrelevant information when making probabilistic judgements about an event or characteristic.

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Deindividuation Model

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A state of relative anonymity that allows an individual to feel unidentifiable. This has been associated with increases in antisocial behaviors, apparently because the deindividuated person's behavior is not longer controlled by guilt, fear of evaluation, or other inhibitory controls.

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Effects of Crowding

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Crowded conditions tend to enhance positive experiences and increase the unpleasantness of negative experiences. Males seem to more stressed by crowded conditions than females and are more likely to react with increased aggressiveness. This is apparently because males require more personal space.

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Elaboration Likelihood Model

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This is a cognitive theory of attitude change that distinguishes between information processing routes -- central and peripheral. Reliance on the central route requires greater mental effort and produces longer-lasting attitude change.

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Field Theory

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Lewin's theory of human behavior that describes it as a procedure to interdependent factors int he person and his or her physical and social environment.

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Illusory Correlation

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This refers to the tendency to see a relationship between variables that are not actually related.

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Intraindividual Conflict

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Lewin and Miller distinguished between four intraindividual (motivational) conflicts: approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, approach-avoidance, and double approach-avoidance.

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Zeigarnik Effect

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The tendency to remember interrupted and unfinished tasks better than completed ones due to "psychic tension."

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