question

Social Influence

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the effect that the words, actions, or mere presence of other people have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behavior

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Social Psychology

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the scientific study of the way in which people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the imagined presence of other people

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Construal

answer

the way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world

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Individual Differences

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the aspects of people's personalities that make them different from others

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Fundamental Attribution Error

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the tendency to explain our own and other people's behavior entirely in terms of personality traits, therefore eliminating the power of social influence

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Behaviorism

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a school of psychology maintaining that to understand human behavior, one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment; how positive and negative event in the environment are associated with specific behaviors

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Gestalt Psychology

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a school of psychology stressing the importance of studying the subjective way in which an object appears in people's minds, rather than the objective, physical attributes of the object

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Self-Esteem

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people's evaluations of their own self-worth; the extent to which they view themselves as good, competent, and decent

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Social Cognition

answer

how people thin about themselves and the social world; how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions

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Hindsight Bias

answer

tendency for people to exaggerate how much they could have predicted an outcome after knowing it occurred

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Observational Method

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technique whereby a researcher observes people and systematically records measurements or impressions of their behavior

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Ethnography

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method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by observing it from the inside without imposing any preconceived notions they might have

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Interjudge Reliability

answer

level of agreement between two or more people who independently observe and code a set of data

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Archival Analysis

answer

form of the observational method in which the researcher examines the accumulated archives of a culture

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Correlational Method

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technique whereby two or more variables are systematically measured and the relationships between them is assessed

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Correlation Coefficient

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a statistical technique that assesses how well you can predict one variable from another

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Surveys

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research in which a representative sample of people are asked questions about their attitudes or behavior

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Random Selection

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a way of ensuring that a sample of people is representative of a population by giving everyone in the population an equal chance of being selected for the sample

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Experimental Method

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method in which the researcher randomly assigns participants to different conditions and ensures that they're identical except for the independent variable

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Independent Variable

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variable a researcher changes or varies to see if it has an effect on some other variable

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Dependent Variable

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variable a researcher hypothesizes that the dependent variable will depend on the level of the independent variable

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Random Assignment to Condition

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process ensuring that all participants have an equal chance of taking part in any condition of an experiment

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Internal Validity

answer

ensuring that nothing besides the independent variable can affect the dependent variable

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External Validity

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extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other situations and to other people

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Psychological Realism

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extent to which the psychological processes triggered in a experiment are similar to psychological processes that occur in every life

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Cover Story

answer

description of the purpose of a study, given to participants, that is different from its true purpose, used to maintain psychological realism

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Field Experiments

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experiments conducted in natural settings rather than in the laboratory

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Replications

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repeating a study, often with different subject populations or in different settings

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Meta-Analysis

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statistical technique that averages the results of two or more studies to see if the effect of an independent variable is reliable

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Basic Research

answer

studies that are designed to find the best answer to the question of why people behave as they do and that are conducted purely for reasons of intellectual curiosity

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Applied Research

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studies designed to solve a particular social problem

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Cross-Cultural Research

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research conducted with members of different cultures to see whether the psychological processes of interest are present in both cultures or whether they're specific to the culture in which people were raised

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Natural Selection

answer

process by which heritable traits that promote survival in a particular environment are passed along to future generations

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Evolutionary Psychology

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attempt to explain social behavior in terms of genetic factors that evolved over time from natural selection

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Informed Consent

answer

agreement to participate in an experiment, granted in full awareness of the nature of the experiment, which was explained in advance

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Deception

answer

misleading participants about the true purpose of a study or events that will actually transpire

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Institutional Review Board (IRB)

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group made up of at least one scientist, one nonscientist, and one member not affiliated with the institution that reviews all psychological research at that institution and decides if it meets ethical guidelines

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Debriefing

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explaining to participants the true purpose/what transpired in the study at the end of an experiment

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Social Cognition (2)

answer

how people think about themselves and the social world; how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions

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Automatic Thinking

answer

nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless thought

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Schemas

answer

mental structures people use to organize their knowledge about the social world around themes or subjects and that influence the information people notice, think about, and remember

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Accessibility

answer

extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of people's minds and are therefore likely to be used when making judgments about the social world

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Priming

answer

process by which recent experiences increases the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept

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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

answer

the case whereby people have an expectation about what another person is like, which influences how they act toward that person, which expectations, making the expectations come true

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Judgmental Heuristics

answer

mental shortcuts people use to make judgments quickly and efficiently

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Available Heuristic

answer

mental rule of thumb whereby people base a judgment on the ease with which they can bring something to mind

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Representativeness Heuristic

answer

a mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case

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Base Rate Information

answer

information about the frequency of members of different categories in the population

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Analytic Thinking Style

answer

a type of thinking in which people focus on the properties of objects without considering their surrounding context

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Holistic Thinking Style

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a type of thinking in which people focus on the overall context, particularly the ways in which objects relate to each other

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Controlled Thinking

answer

mentally changing some aspect of the past as a way of imagining what might have been

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Counterfactual Thinking

answer

mentally changing some aspect of the past as a way of imagining what might have been

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Thought Suppression

answer

the attempt to avoid thinking about something we would prefer to forget

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Overconfidence Barrier

answer

people usually have too much confidence in the accuracy of their judgments

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Social Perception

answer

study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about other people

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Nonverbal Communication

answer

the way in which people communicate intentionally or unintentionally without words

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Encode

answer

to express or emit nonverbal behavior

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Decode

answer

to interpret the meaning of the nonverbal behavior other people express

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Affect Blend

answer

a facial expression in which one part of the face registers one emotion while another part of the face registers a different emotion

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Display Rules

answer

culturally determined rules about which nonverbal behaviors are appropriate to display

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Emblems

answer

nonverbal gestures that have well-understood definitions within a given culture that usually have direct verbal translations

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Implicit Personality Theory

answer

a type of schema people use to group various kinds of personality traits together

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Attribution Theory

answer

a description of the way in which people explain the causes of their own and others' behavior

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Internal Attribution

answer

the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in

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Covariation Model

answer

theory that states that to form an attribution about what caused a person's behavior, we systematically note the pattern between the presence or absence of possible causal factors and whether or not the behavior exists

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Consensus Information

answer

information about the extent to which other people behave the same way toward the same stimulus as the actor does

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Distinctiveness Information

answer

information about the extent to which one particular actor behaves in the same way to different stimuli

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Consistency Information

answer

information about the extent to which the behavior between one actor and one stimulus is the same across time and circumstances

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Correspondance Bias

answer

the tendency to infer that people's behavior corresponds to their disposition

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Perceptual Salience

answer

the seeming importance of information that is the focus of people's attention

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Two-Step Process of Attribution

answer

analyzing another person's behavior first by making an automatic internal attribution and only then thinking about possible situational reasons for the behavior, after which one may adjust the original internal attribution

question

Actor/Observer Difference

answer

the tendency to see other people's behavior as disposition ally caused but focusing more on the role of situational factors when explaining one's own behavior

question

Self-Serving Attributions

answer

explanations for one's successes that credit internal, dispositional factors and explanations for one's failures that blame external, situational factors

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Defensive Attributions

answer

explanations for behavior that avoid feelings of vulnerability and mortality

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Belief in a Just World

answer

a form of defensive attribution wherein people assume that bad things happen to bad people and good things to good people

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Self Concept

answer

content of the self/our knowledge about who we are

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Self Awareness

answer

the act of thinking about ourselves

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Independent View of the Self

answer

a way of defining oneself in terms of one's own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions and not in terms of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other people

question

Interdependent View of the Self

answer

a way of defining oneself in therms of one's relationships to other people and recognizing that one's behavior is often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others

question

Introspection

answer

process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives

question

Self-Awareness Theory

answer

idea that people focus their attention on themselves, they evaluate and compare their behavior to their internal standards and values

question

Causal Theories

answer

theories about the causes of one's own feelings and behaviors

question

Reasons-Generated Attitude Change

answer

attitude change resulting from thinking about the reasons for one's attitudes

question

Self-Perception Theory

answer

theory that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain and ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs

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Intrinsic Motivation

answer

desire to engage in an activity because we enjoy it

question

Extrinsic Motivation

answer

desire to engage in an activity because of external rewards or pressures

question

Overjustification Effect

answer

tendency for people to view their behavior as caused by the compelling extrinsic reasons, making them underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic reasons

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Task-Contingent Rewards

answer

rewards given for performing a task, regardless of how well it's done

question

Performance-Contingent Rewards

answer

rewards based on how well we perform a task

question

Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

answer

idea that emotional experience is the result of a two-step self-perception process in which people first experience physiological arousal and then seek an appropriate explanation for it

question

Misattribution

answer

process whereby people make mistaken inferences about what is causing them to feel the way they do

question

Appraisal Theories of Emotion

answer

theories holding that emotions result from people's interpretations and explanations of events even in the absence of physiological arousal

question

Fixed Mindset

answer

idea that we have a set amount of an ability that cannot change

question

Growth Mindset

answer

idea that our abilities are malleable qualities that we can cultivate and grow

question

Social Comparison Theory

answer

idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people

question

Downward Social Comparison

answer

comparing ourselves to people who are worse than we are on a particular trait or ability

question

Upward Social Comparison

answer

comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are on a particular trait or ability

question

Social Tuning

answer

process by which people adopt another person's attitudes

question

Impression Management

answer

attempt by people to get others to see them as they want to be seen

question

Ingratiation

answer

process whereby people flatter, praise, and generally try to make themselves likable to another person, often of higher status

question

Self-Handicapping

answer

strategy whereby people create obstacles and excuses for themselves so that if they do poorly on a task, they can avoid blaming themselves

question

Cognitive Dissonance

answer

drive or feeling of discomfort originally defined as being caused by holding two or more inconsistent cognitions and subsequently defined as being caused by performing an action that is discrepant from one's customary, typically positive self conception

question

Impact Bias

answer

tendency to overestimate the intensity and duration of our emotional reactions to future negative events

question

Postdecision Dissonance

answer

dissonance aroused after making a decision, typically reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and devaluing the rejected alternatives

question

Lowballing

answer

a strategy whereby a salesperson induces a customer to agree to purchase a product at a very low price, subsequently claim it was an error, and then raise the price. the customer will generally agree to make the purchase at the inflated price

question

Justification of Effort

answer

tendency for individuals to increase their liking for something they have worked hard to attain

question

External Justification

answer

reason or explanation for dissonant personal behavior that resides outside the individual

question

Internal Justification

answer

reduction of dissonance by changing something about oneself

question

Counterattitudinal Advocacy

answer

stating an opinion or attitude that counters one's private belief or attitude

question

Hypocrisy Induction

answer

arousal of dissonance by having individuals make statements that run counter to their behaviors and then reminding them of the inconsistency between what they advocated and their behavior

question

Insufficient Punishment

answer

dissonance aroused when individuals lack sufficient external justification for having resisted a desired activity or object, usually resulting in individuals devaluing the forbidden activity or object

question

Self-Persuasion

answer

long-lasting form of attitude change that results from attempts at self-justification

question

Attitudes

answer

evaluations of people, objects, and ideas

question

Cognitively Based Attitude

answer

based primarily on people's beliefs about the properties of an attitude subject

question

Affectively Based Attitude

answer

based more on people's feelings and values tan on their beliefs about the nature of an attitude object

question

Classical Conditioning

answer

phenomenon whereby a stimulus that elicits an emotional response is repeatedly paired with a neutral stimulus that doesn't, until the neutral stimulus takes on the emotional properties of the first stimulus

question

Operant Conditioning

answer

phenomenon whereby behaviors wer freely choose to perform become more or less frequent depending on whether they're followed by a reward or punishment

question

Behaviorally Based Attitude

answer

based on observations of how one behaves towards an attitude object

question

Explicit Attitudes

answer

attitudes we consciously endorse and can easily repeat

question

Implicit Attitudes

answer

attitudes that are involuntary, uncontrollable, and at times, unconscious

question

Persuasive Communication

answer

communication advocating a particular side of an issue

question

Yale Attitude Change Approach

answer

study of the conditions under which people are most likely to change their attitudes in response to persuasive messaging, focusing on "who said what to whom" - the source or nature of the communication and the nature of the audience

question

Elaboration Likelihood Modal

answer

explains two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change: centrally and peripherally

question

Central Route to Persuasion

answer

case whereby people elaborate on a persuasive communication, listening carefully to and thinking about the arguments, as occurs when people have both the ability and the motivation to listen carefully to a communication

question

Peripheral Route to Persuasion

answer

case whereby people don't elaborate on the arguments in a persuasive communication but are instead swayed by peripheral cues

question

Need for Cognition

answer

personality variable reflecting the extent to which people engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities

question

Heuristic-Systematic Model of Persuasion

answer

explanation of the two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change: 1. systematically processing the merits of the arguments, 2. using heuristics

question

Attitude Inoculation

answer

making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of the arguments against their position

question

Reactance Theory

answer

idea that when people feel their freedom to perform a certain behavior is threatened, an unpleasant state of reactance is aroused, which they can reduce by performing the threatened behavior

question

Attitude Accessibility

answer

strength of the association between an attitude object and a person's evaluation of that object, measured by the speed with which people can report how they feel about that object

question

Theory of Planned Behavior

answer

idea that the press predictors of a person's planned, deliberate behaviors are the person's attitudes toward specific behaviors, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control

question

Subliminal Messages

answer

words/pictures that aren't consciously perceived but may nevertheless influence people's judgments, attitudes, and behaviors

question

Group

answer

three or more people who interact and are interdependent in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to influence each other

question

Social Roles

answer

shared expectations in a group about how particular people are supposed to behave

question

Social Facilitation

answer

the tendency for people to do better on simple tasks and worse on complex tasks when they're in the presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluated

question

Social Loafing

answer

the tendency for people to relax when they're in the presence of others and their individual performance cannot be evaluated, such that they do worse on simple tasks and better on complex tasks

question

Deindividuation

answer

the loosening of normal constraints on behavior when people can't be identified

question

Process Loss

answer

any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good problem solving

question

Transactive Memory

answer

the combined memory of two people that's more efficient than the memory of either individual

question

Groupthink

answer

kind of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner

question

Group Polarization

answer

tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members

question

Great Person Theory

answer

idea that certain key personality traits make a person a good leader, regardless of the situation

question

Transactional Leaders

answer

leaders who set clear, short-term goals and reward people who meet them

question

Transformational Leaders

answer

leaders who inspire followers to focus on common, long-term goals

question

Contingency Theory of Leadership

answer

idea that leadership effectiveness depends both on how task-oriented or relationship-oriented the leader is and on the amount of control and influence the leader has over the group

question

Task-Oriented Leader

answer

leader who is concerned more with getting the job done than with workers' feelings and relationships

question

Relationship-Oriented Leader

answer

leader who is concerned primarily with workers' feelings and relationships

question

Social Dilemma

answer

conflict in which the most beneficial action for an individual will, if chosen by most people, have harmful effects on everyone

question

Tit-for-Tat Strategy

answer

a means of encouraging cooperation by at first acting cooperatively but then always responding the way your opponent did on the previous trial

question

Public Goods Dilemma

answer

social dilemma in which individuals must contribute to a common pool in order to maintain the public good

question

Commons Dilemma

answer

social dilemma in which everyone takes from a common pool of goods that will replenish itself if used in moderation, but will disappear if overused

question

Negotiation

answer

form of communication between opposing sides in a conflict in which offers and counteroffers are made and a solution occurs only when both parties agree

question

Integrative Solution

answer

solution to conflict whereby the parties make trade-offs on issues according to their different interests

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