AP Psych Chapter 17- Social Cognition
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the scientific study of how people's thoughts and feelings influence their behavior toward others and how the behavior of others influences people's own thoughts, feelings, and behavior
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social psychology
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the mental processes associated with the ways in which people perceive and react to other individuals and groups
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social cognition
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how social factor affect individuals, helping to shape behaviors from aggression to self-sacrifice
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social influence
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the beliefs we hold about who we are and what characteristics we have
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self-concept
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the evaluations we make about how worthy we are as human beings
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self-esteem
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we consider the way we are now in relation to how we were in the past
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temporal comparison
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using other people as a basis of comparison for evaluating oneself
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social comparison
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categories of people to which people compare themselves
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reference groups
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to protect one's self esteem, one would use this method to compare themselves to those who are not as good as they are
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downward social comparison
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comparing oneself with people who do much better, used to protect one's self esteem by creating optimism about what is possible (if they can do it, so can I)
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upward social comparison
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the belief that no matter how much you are getting in terms of recognition, status, money, and so forth, it is less than you deserve
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relative deprivation
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proposed by Jeff Greenberg, Tom Psyzcynski, and Sheldon Solomon that human beings are the only creatures capable of thinking about the future. Includes realization that we will all eventually die, and the sense of terror it may bring. Humans develop protective psychological strategies to manage this terror (self esteem)
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terror management theory
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our beliefs about the groups to which we belong
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social identity
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humans as a species want high self esteem because it shows that they are accepted by their peers, may date back to early clan life when those who were ostracized from the group had little chance of surviving and reproducing
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sociometer theory
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people's beliefs about themselves and the attributes they possess
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self-schemas
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the process through which people interpret information about others, form impressions of them, and draw conclusions about the reasons for that behavior
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social perception
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a process through which an initial impression of someone leads that person to behave in accordance with that impression
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self-fulfilling prophecy
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the process of explaining the causes of people's behavior, including our own
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attribution
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attributing behavior to a personality trait or tendency
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internal attribution
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attributing behavior to outside circumstances or events
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external attribution
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part of Harold Kelly's attribution theory, this is the degree to which other people's behavior is similar to the actors (people who perform actions that cause other people to make attributions
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consensus
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part of Kelly's attribution theory, this is the degree to which the behavior is the same across time and/or situations.
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consistency
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part of Kelly's attribution theory, this is the extent to which the actor's response to one situation stands out from the responses to similar situations
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distinctiveness
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a tendency to over-attribute the behavior of others to internal factors, such as personality traits
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fundamental attribution error
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when members of a social or ethnic out-group (people we see as different) do something positive, we attribute this behavior to luck or some external causes. However, negative behavior is attributed to internal causes. For the in-group (people we see as being like ourselves) it is vice versa
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ultimate attribution error
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the tendency to attribute other people's behavior to internal causes while attributing our own behavior (especially errors and failures) to external causes
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actor-observer bias
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the tendency to take personal credit for success but to blame external causes for failure
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self-serving bias
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the tendency to believe that positive events are more likely to happen to yourself than others and that negative events are more likely to happen to others than yourself
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unrealistic optimism
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driving forced behind unrealistic optimism
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unique invulnerability
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the tendency to think, feel, or act positively or negatively toward objects in our environment
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attitude
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a set of beliefs about the attitude object
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cognitive component of attitude
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emotional feelings about the attitude obejct
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affective component of attitude
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the way people act toward the attitude object
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behavioral component of attitude
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our view of how important people in our lives want us to act
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subjective norm
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the belief that someone can actually perform a behavior
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perceived control
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all else being equal, attitudes towards an object will become more positive the more frequently people are exposed to it
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mere-exposure effect
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a model suggesting that attitude change can be driven by evaluation of the content of a persuasive message (central route) or by irrelevant persuasion cues, such as confidence or attractiveness (peripheral route)
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elaboration likelihood model
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1. the person communicating the message, 2. the content of the message, and 3. the audience who receives it
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three factors of persuasion
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people who like to engage in thoughtful mental activities and are therefore more likely to use the central route to attitude change
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need for cognition
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people who are uncomfortable with uncertainty, more likely to use the peripheral route
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need for closure
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theory of Leon Festinger, attitude change is driven by efforts to reduce tension caused by inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviors
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cognitive dissonance theory
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theory of Claude Steele, people will not change their attitudes after recognizing their own attitude-behavior inconsistency if they can do something else that makes them look good and feel good about themselves
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self-affirmation
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theory of Daryl Bem, attitudes can change as people consider their behavior in certain situations and then infer what their attitude must be
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self-perception theory
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the perceptions, beliefs, and expectations a person has about members of some group. Usually make the false assumption that all members of a group have the same characteristics
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stereotypes
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a positive or negative attitude toward an individual simply based on membership in some group
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prejudice
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differing treatment of individuals who belong to different groups
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discrimination
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a personality trait that includes an acceptance of conventional or traditional values, a willingness to unquestioningly follow the orders of authority figures, and an inclination to act aggressively toward individuals or groups identified by these authority figures as threatening the values held by one's in-group
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authoritarianism
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The perception of a relationship where none exists
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illusory correlation
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a hypothesis that states that stereotypes and prejudice toward a group will diminish as contact with that group increases
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contact hypothesis
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small desegregated groups dependent on each member to learn the material or complete the task---effective at reducing prejudice
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jigsaw technique
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even when people know and promote the idea that racism is wrong, they still show characteristics of racial prejudice without knowing it
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aversive racism
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the notion that people are most likely to form relationships with those who are similar to themselves in physical attractiveness
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matching hypothesis
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when the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of one person affect the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of the other
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interdependent
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the extent to which each party is psychologically attached to the relationship and wants to remain in it
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commitment
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theory of Robert Sternberg, the three basic components of love are passion, intimacy, and commitment. Various combinations of these three concepts result in different types of love. Consummate love is the perfect balance of all three components
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triangular theory