Acat Study 4: Social Psychology

Front 1

Above-average effect

Back 1

The tendency for people to rate themselves as above the average on most positive social attributes.

Front 2

Abusive supervision

Back 2

Behavior in which supervisors direct frequent hostile verbal and nonverbal behavior toward their subordinates.

Front 3

Actor-observer effect

Back 3

The tendency to attribute our own behavior mainly to situational causes but the behavior of others mainly to internal (dispositional) causes.

Front 4

Adaptive response

Back 4

Any physical characteristic or behavioral tendency that enhances the odds of reproductive success for an individual or for other individuals with similar genes.

Front 5

Affect

Back 5

A person’s emotional state—positive and negative feelings and moods; our current feelings and moods.

Front 6

Affect-centered model of attraction

Back 6

A conceptual framework in which attraction is assumed to be based on positive and negative emotions. These emotions can be aroused directly by another person or simply associated with that person. The emotional arousal can also be enhanced or mitigated by cognitive processes.

Front 7

Aggression

Back 7

Behavior directed toward the goal of harming another living being, who is motivated to avoid such treatment.

Front 8

Altruism

Back 8

Behavior that is motivated by an unselfish concern for the welfare of others.

Front 9

Altruistic personality

Back 9

A combination of dispositional variables associated with prosocial behavior. The components are empathy, belief in a just world, acceptance of social responsibility, having an internal locus of control, and not being egocentric.

Front 10

Anchoring and adjustment heuristic

Back 10

A heuristic that involves the tendency to use a number or value as a starting point, to which we then make adjustments.

Front 11

Appearance anxiety

Back 11

Apprehension or worry about whether one’s physical appearance is adequate and about the possible negative reactions of other people.

Front 12

Assumed similarity

Back 12

The extent to which two people believe they are similar with respect to specific attitudes, beliefs, values, and so forth, as opposed to the extent to which they are actually similar.

Front 13

Attachment style

Back 13

The degree of security experienced in interpersonal relationships. Differential styles initially develop in the interactions between infant and caregiver when the infant acquires basic attitudes about self-worth and interpersonal trust.

Front 14

Attitude accessibility

Back 14

The ease with specific attitudes can be remembered and brought into consciousness.

Front 15

Attitude similarity

Back 15

The extent to which two individuals share the same attitude about a range of topics. In practice, the term also includes similarity of belies, values, and interests—as well as attitudes

Front 16

Attitude

Back 16

Evaluation of various aspects of the social world.

Front 17

Attitude-to-behavior process model

Back 17

A model of how attitudes guide behavior that emphasizes the influence of attitudes and stored knowledge of what is appropriate in a given situation on an individual’s definition of the present situation. This definition, in turn, influence overt behavior.

Front 18

Attribution

Back 18

The process through which we seek to identify the causes of others’ behavior and so gain knowledge of their stable traits and dispositions.

Front 19

Augmenting principle

Back 19

The tendency to attach greater importance to a potential cause of behavior if the behavior occurs despite the presence of other, inhibitory causes.

Front 20

Authentic dissent

Back 20

A technique for improving the quality of group decisions in which one or more group members actively disagree with the group’s initial preference without being assigned this role.

Front 21

Automatic processing

Back 21

After extensive experience with a task or type of information, the stage at which we can perform the task or process the information in a seemingly effortless, automatic, and nonconscious manner.

Front 22

Availability heuristic

Back 22

A strategy for making judgments on the basis of how easily specific kinds of information can be brought to mind.

Front 23

Balance theory

Back 23

The formulations of Heider and of Newcomb that specify the relationships among (1) an individual’s liking for another person, (2) his or her attitude about a given topic, and (3)the other person’s attitude about the same topic. Balance (liking plus agreement) results in a positive emotional state. Imbalance (liking plus disagreement) results in a negative state and desire to restore balance. Nonbalance (disliking plus either agreement or disagreement) leads to indifference.

Front 24

Bargaining (negotiation)

Back 24

A process in which opposing sides exchange offers, counteroffers, and concessions, either directly or through representatives.

Front 25

Benevolent sexism

Back 25

Views suggesting that women are superior to men in various ways and are truly necessary for men’s happiness.

Front 26

Bilateral symmetry

Back 26

The alikeness of the left and the right sides of the body (or parts of the body).

Front 27

Black sheep effect

Back 27

When a member of the ingroup behaves in a way that threatens the value of the group identity and is intensely derogated as a means of protecting the group identity.

Front 28

Body language

Back 28

Cues provided by the position, posture, and movement of others’ bodies or body parts.

Front 29

Bona fide pipeline

Back 29

A technique that uses priming to measure implicit racial attitudes.

Front 30

Bullying

Back 30

A pattern of behavior in which one individual is chosen as the target of repeated aggression by one or more others; the target person (the victim) generally has less power than those who engage in aggression (the bullies).

Front 31

Bystander effect

Back 31

The fact that the likelihood of a prosocial response to an emergency is affected by the number of bystanders who are present.

Front 32

Catharsis hypothesis

Back 32

The view that providing angry persons with an opportunity to express their aggressive impulses in relatively safe ways will reduce their tendencies to engage in more harmful forms of aggression.

Front 33

Central route (to persuasion)

Back 33

Attitude change resulting from systematic processing of information presented in persuasive messages.

Front 34

Classical conditioning

Back 34

A basic form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to evoke reactions through repeated pairing with another stimulus. In a sense, one stimulus becomes a signal for the presentation of occurrence of the other.

Front 35

Close friendship

Back 35

A relationship in which two people spend a great deal of time together, interact in a variety of situations and provide mutual emotional support.

Front 36

Cognitive dissonance

Back 36

An internal state that results when individuals notice inconsistency among two or more attitudes or between their attitudes and their behavior.

Front 37

Cohesiveness

Back 37

All forces (factors) that cause group members to remain in the group; all of the factors that bind group members together into a coherent social entity.

Front 38

Common in-group identity model

Back 38

A theory suggesting that to the extent to which individuals in different groups view themselves as members of a single social entity, intergroup bias will be reduced.

Front 39

Communal behavior

Back 39

Benevolent acts in a relationship that “cost” the one who performs those acts and “benefit” the partner and the relationship itself.

Front 40

Companionate love

Back 40

Love that is based on friendship, mutual attraction, shared interest, respect, and concern for one another’s welfare.

Front 41

Compliance

Back 41

A form of social influence involving direct requests from one person to another.

Front 42

Conflict

Back 42

A process in which individuals or groups perceive that others have taken or will soon take actions incompatible with their own interests.

Front 43

Conformity

Back 43

A type of social influence in which individuals change their attitudes or behaviors in order to adhere to existing social norms.

Front 44

Consensus

Back 44

The extent to which other persons react to some stimulus or event in the same manner as the person we are considering.

Front 45

Consistency

Back 45

The extent to which an individual responds to a given stimulus or situation in the same way on different occasions (i.e., across time).

Front 46

Consummate love

Back 46

In Sternberg’s triangular model of love, a complete and ideal love that combines intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment.

Front 47

Contact hypothesis

Back 47

The view that increased contact between members of various social groups can be effective in reducing prejudice among them.

Front 48

Cooperation

Back 48

Behavior in which groups work together to attain shared goals.

Front 49

Correlational method

Back 49

A method of research in which a scientist systematically observes two or more variables to determine whether changes in one are accompanied by changes in the other.

Front 50

Correspondence bias (fundamental attribution error)

Back 50

The tendency to explain others’ actions as stemming from dispositions, even in the presence of clear situational causes.

Front 51

Correspondent inference (theory of)

Back 51

A theory describing how we use others’ behavior as a basis for inferring their stable dispositions.

Front 52

Counterfactual thinking

Back 52

The tendency to imagine other outcomes in a situation than the ones that actually occurred (“what might have been”).

Front 53

Cultures of honor

Back 53

Cultures in which there are strong norms indicating that aggression is an appropriate response to insults to one’s honor.

Front 54

Deadline technique

Back 54

A technique for increasing compliance in which target persons are told that they have only limited time to take advantage of some offer or to obtain some item.

Front 55

Debriefing

Back 55

Procedures at the conclusion of a research session in which participants are given full information about the nature of the research and the hypothesis or hypotheses under investigation.

Front 56

Deception

Back 56

A technique whereby researchers withhold information about the purposes or procedures of a study from persons participating in it.

Front 57

Decision making

Back 57

Processes involved in combining and integrating available information in order to choose one out of several possible courses of action.

Front 58

Decision/commitment

Back 58

In Sternberg’s triangular model of love, these are the cognitive processes involved in deciding that you love another person and are committed to maintaining the relationship.

Front 59

Deindividuation

Back 59

A psychological state characterized by reduced self-awareness and reduced social identity, brought on by external conditions, such as being anonymous member of a large crowd.

Front 60

Dependent variable

Back 60

The variable that is measured in an experiment.

Front 61

Descriptive norms

Back 61

Norms that simply indicate what most people do in a given situation.

Front 62

Devil’s advocate technique

Back 62

A technique for improving the quality of group decisions in which one group member is assigned the task of disagreeing with and criticizing whatever plan or decision is under consideration.

Front 63

Diffusion of responsibility

Back 63

The idea that the amount of responsibility assumed by bystanders in an emergency is shared among them.

Front 64

Discounting principle

Back 64

The tendency to attach less importance to one potential cause of some behavior when other potential causes are also present.

Front 65

Discrimination

Back 65

Differential (usually negative) behaviors directed toward members of different social groups.

Front 66

Dismissing attachment style

Back 66

A style characterized by high self-esteem and low interpersonal trust. This is a conflicted and somewhat insecure style in which the individual feels that he or she “deserves” a close relationship but is frustrated because of mistrust of potential partners. The result is the tendency to reject the other person at some point in the relationship in order to avoid being the one who is rejected.

Front 67

Displaced aggression

Back 67

Aggression against someone other than the source of strong provocation; displaced aggression occurs because the persons who perform it are unwilling or unable to aggress against the initial source of provocation.

Front 68

Distinctiveness

Back 68

The extent to which an individual responds in the same manner to different stimuli or events.

Front 69

Distraction-conflict theory

Back 69

A theory suggesting that social facilitation stems from the conflict produced when individuals attempt, simultaneously, to pay attention to other persons and to the task being preformed.

Front 70

Distributive justice (equity)

Back 70

Refers to individuals’ judgments about whether they are receiving a fair share of available rewards—a share proportionate to their contributions to the group or any social relationship.

Front 71

Door-in-the-face technique

Back 71

A procedure for gaining compliance in which requesters being with a large request and then, when this is refused, retreat to a smaller one (the one they actually desire all along).

Front 72

Downward social comparison

Back 72

A comparison with someone who does less well than the self.

Front 73

Drive theories (of aggression)

Back 73

Theories suggesting that aggression stems from external conditions that arouse the motive to harm or injure others. The most famous of these is the frustration-aggression hypothesis.

Front 74

Drive theory of social facilitation

Back 74

A theory suggesting that the mere presence of others is arousing and increases the tendency to perform dominant responses.

Front 75

Ego-defensive function

Back 75

Protecting ourselves from unwanted or unflattering views of ourselves by claiming particular attitudes.

Front 76

Egoism

Back 76

An exclusive concern with one’s own personal needs and welfare rather than with the needs and welfare of others.

Front 77

Elaboration-likelihood model (of persuasion)

Back 77

A theory suggesting that persuasion can occur in either of two distinct ways—systematic versus heuristic processing, which differ in the amount of cognitive effort or elaboration they require.

Front 78

Empathetic joy hypothesis

Back 78

The proposal that prosocial behavior is motivated by the positive emotion a helper anticipates experiencing as the result of having a beneficial impact on the life of someone in need.

Front 79

Empathy

Back 79

A complex affective and cognitive response to another person’s emotional distress. Empathy includes being able to feel the other person’s emotional state, feeling sympathetic and attempting to solve the problem, and taking the perspective of others.

Front 80

Empathy-altruism hypothesis

Back 80

The proposal that prosocial behavior is motivated solely by the desire to help someone in need and by the fact that it feels good to help.

Front 81

Entiativity

Back 81

The extent to which a group is perceived as being a coherent entity.

Front 82

Evaluation apprehension

Back 82

Concern over being evaluated by others. Such concern can increase arousal and so contribute to social facilitation.

Front 83

Evolutionary psychology

Back 83

A new branch of psychology that seeks to investigate the potential role of genetic factors in various aspects of human behavior.

Front 84

Excitation transfer theory

Back 84

A theory suggesting that arousal produced in one situation can persist and intensify emotional reactions occurring in later situations.

Front 85

Experimentation (experimental method)

Back 85

A method of research in which one or more factors (the independent variables) are systematically changed to determine whether such variations affect one or more other factors (dependent variables).

Front 86

External validity

Back 86

The extent to which the findings of an experiment can be generalized to real-life social situations and perhaps to persons different from those who participated in the research.

Front 87

Fearful-avoidant attachment style

Back 87

A style characterized by low self-esteem and low interpersonal trust. This is the most insecure and least adaptive attachment style.

Front 88

Foot-in-the-door technique

Back 88

A procedure for gaining compliance in which requesters being with a small request and then, when this is granted, escalate to a larger one (the one they actually desire all along).

Front 89

Forewarning

Back 89

Advance knowledge that one is about to become the target of an attempt at persuasion. Forewarning often increases resistance to the persuasion that follows.

Front 90

Forgiveness

Back 90

Giving up the desire to punish those who have hurt us, and seeking instead to act in kind, helpful ways toward them.

Front 91

Frustration-aggression hypothesis

Back 91

The suggestion that frustration is a very powerful determination of aggression.

Front 92

Fundamental attribution error (correspondence bias)

Back 92

The tendency to overestimate the impact of dispositional cues on others’ behavior.

Front 93

Gender stereotypes

Back 93

Stereotypes concerning the traits possessed by females and males, and that distinguishing the two genders from each other.

Front 94

General aggression model

Back 94

A modern theory of aggression suggesting that aggression is triggered by a wide range of input variables that influence arousal, affective stages, and cognitions.

Front 95

Generativity

Back 95

An adult’s concern for and commitment to the well-being of future generations.

Front 96

Genetic determinism model

Back 96

The proposal that behavior is driven by genetic attributes that evolved because they enhanced the probability of transmitting one’s genes to subsequent generations.

Front 97

Glass ceiling

Back 97

Barriers based on attitudinal or organizational bias that prevent qualified women from advancing to top-level positions.

Front 98

Group

Back 98

A collection of persons who are perceived to be bonded together in a coherent unit to some degree.

Front 99

Group polarization

Back 99

The tendency of group members to shift toward more extreme positions than those they initially held as a result of group discussion.

Front 100

Groupthink

Back 100

The tendency of the members of highly cohesive groups to assume that their decisions can’t be wrong, that all members must support the groups’ decisions strongly, and that information contrary to these decisions should be ignored.

Front 101

Heroism

Back 101

Actions that involve courageous risk taking to obtain a socially valued goal. An example would be a dangerous act undertaken to save the life of a stranger.

Front 102

Heuristic processing

Back 102

Processing of information in a persuasive message that involves the use of simple rules of thumb or mental shortcuts.

Front 103

Heuristics

Back 103

Simple rules for making complex decisions or drawing inferences in a rapid and seemingly effortless manner.

Front 104

Hostile aggression

Back 104

Aggression in which the prime objective is inflicting some kind of harm on the victim.

Front 105

Hostile attributional bias

Back 105

The tendency to perceive hostile intentions or motives in others’ actions when these actions are ambiguous.

Front 106

Hostile sexism

Back 106

The view that women are a threat to men’s position.

Front 107

Hypocrisy

Back 107

The public advocating of some attitudes or behaviors and then acting in a way that is inconsistent with these attitudes or behaviors.

Front 108

Hypothesis

Back 108

An as-yet-unverified prediction.

Front 109

Identity interference

Back 109

When two important social identities are perceived as being in conflict, such that acting on the basis of one identity interferes with performing well based on the other identity.

Front 110

Identity or self-expression function

Back 110

Attitudes can permit the expression of central values and beliefs and thereby communicate who we are.

Front 111

Illusory correlation

Back 111

The perception of a stronger association between two variables than actually exists.

Front 112

Implicit associations

Back 112

Links between group membership and trait associations or evaluations of which the perceiver may be unaware. They can be activated automatically when the target is categorized as a group member.

Front 113

Implicit bystander effect

Back 113

The decrease in helping behavior brought about by simply thinking about being in a group.

Front 114

Implicit personality theories

Back 114

Beliefs about what traits or characteristics tend to go together.

Front 115

Impression formation

Back 115

The process through which we form impressions of others.

Front 116

Impression management (self-presentation)

Back 116

Efforts by individuals to produce favorable first impressions on others.

Front 117

Impression motivation function

Back 117

Using attitudes to lead others to have a positive view of us. When motivated to do so, the attitudes we express can shift in order to create the desired impression on others.

Front 118

Incidental feelings

Back 118

Those feelings induced separately or before a target is encountered—so they are irrelevant to the group being judged, but can still affect judgment of the target.

Front 119

Inclusive fitness

Back 119

The concept that natural selection not only applies to individuals, but also involves behaviors that benefit other individuals with whom we share genes. Sometimes referred to as kin selection.

Front 120

Independent self-concept

Back 120

In individualistic cultures, the expectation is that people will develop a self-concept as separate from or independent of others. Men are expected to have an independent self-concept more so than women.

Front 121

Independent variable

Back 121

The variable that is systematically changed (i.e., varied) in an experiment.

Front 122

Individuation

Back 122

The need to be distinguishable from others in some respects.

Front 123

Induced or forced compliance

Back 123

Situations in which individuals are somehow induced to say or do things inconsistent with their true attitudes.

Front 124

Inferential statistics

Back 124

A special form of mathematics that allows us to evaluate the likelihood that a given pattern of research results occurred by chance alone.

Front 125

Information overload

Back 125

Instances in which our ability to process information is exceeded.

Front 126

Informational social influence

Back 126

Social influence based on the desire to be correct (i.e., to process accurate perceptions of the social world).

Front 127

Informed consent

Back 127

A procedure in which research participants are provided with as much information as possible about a research project before deciding whether to participate in it.

Front 128

Ingratiation

Back 128

A technique for gaining compliance in which requesters first induce target persons’ behavior in some desired manner; the attempt to make others like us by praising them.

Front 129

In-group

Back 129

The social group to which an individual perceives herself or himself as belonging (“us”).

Front 130

In-group differentiation

Back 130

The tendency to perceive members of our own group as showing much larger differences from one another (as being more heterogeneous) than members of other groups.

Front 131

In-group homogeneity

Back 131

In-group members are seen as more similar to each other than out-group members are. This tends to occur most among minority-group members.

Front 132

Injunctive norms

Back 132

Norms specifying what ought to be done—what is approved or disapproved behavior in a given situation.

Front 133

Instrumental aggression

Back 133

Aggression in which the primary goal is not harm to the victim but attainment of some other goal—for example, access to valued resources.

Front 134

Instrumental conditioning

Back 134

A basic form of learning in which responses lead to positive outcomes or that permit avoidance of negative outcomes are strengthened.

Front 135

Interdependence

Back 135

The characteristics that is common to all close relationships. Interdependence refers to an interpersonal association in which two people influence each others’ lives. They often focus their thoughts on one another and regularly engage in joint activities.

Front 136

Interdependence self-concept

Back 136

In collectivist cultures, the expectation is that people will develop a self-concept in terms of their connections or relationships with others. Women are expected to have an interdependent self-concept more so than men.

Front 137

Intergroup comparisons

Back 137

Judgments that result from comparisons between our group and another group.

Front 138

Interpersonal attraction

Back 138

A person’s attitude about another person. Attraction expressed along a dimension that ranges from strong liking to strong feelings of dislike.

Front 139

Interpersonal trust

Back 139

An attitudinal dimension underlying attachment styles that involves the belief that other people are generally trustworthy, dependable, and reliable as opposed to the belief that others are generally untrustworthy, undependable, and unreliable.

Front 140

Intimacy

Back 140

In Sternberg’s triangular model of love, the closeness felt by two people—the extent to which they are bonded.

Front 141

Intragroup comparisons

Back 141

Judgments that result from comparisons between individuals who are members of the same group.

Front 142

Introspection

Back 142

Attempts to understand the self by self-examination; turning inward to assess one’s motives.

Front 143

Kin selection

Back 143

Another term for inclusive fitness—the concept that natural selection not only applies to individuals, but also involves behaviors that benefit other individuals with whom we share genes.

Front 144

Knowledge function

Back 144

Attitudes aid in the interpretation or new stimuli and enable rapid responding to attitude-relevant information.

Front 145

Less-leads-to-more effect

Back 145

The fact that offering individuals small rewards for engaging in counterattitudinal behavior often produced more dissonance, and so more attitude change, than offering them larger rewards.

Front 146

Linguistic style

Back 146

Aspects of speech apart from the meaning of the words employed.

Front 147

Loneliness

Back 147

The unpleasant emotional and cognitive state based on desiring close relationships but being unable to attain them.

Front 148

Love

Back 148

A combination of emotions, cognitions, and behaviors that often plays a crucial role in intimate relationships.

Front 149

Lowball procedure

Back 149

A technique for gaining compliance in which an offer or deal is changed to make it less attractive to the target person after this person has accepted it.

Front 150

Magical thinking

Back 150

Thinking involving assumptions that don’t hold up to rational scrutiny—for example, the belief that things that resemble one another share fundamental properties.

Front 151

Media violence

Back 151

Depictions of violent actions in the mass media.

Front 152

Mere exposure effect

Back 152

Another term for the repeated exposure effect, emphasizing the fact that exposure to a stimulus is all that is necessary to enhance the positive evaluation of that stimulus.

Front 153

Mere exposure

Back 153

By having seen an object previously, but not necessarily remembering having done so, attitudes toward an object can become more positive.

Front 154

Meta-analysis

Back 154

A statistical technique for combining data from independent studies in order to determine whether specific variables (or interactions among variables) have significant effects across these studies.

Front 155

Microexpressions

Back 155

Fleeting facial expressions lasting only a few tenths of a second.

Front 156

Mimicry

Back 156

The automatic tendency to imitate those with whom we interact. Being mimicked increases one’s prosocial tendencies.

Front 157

Minimal groups

Back 157

When people are categorized into different groups based on some “minimal” criteria, they tend to favor others who are categorized in the same group as themselves, compared with those categorized as members of a different group.

Front 158

Modern racism

Back 158

More subtle beliefs than blatant feelings of superiority. Modern racism consists primarily of thinking that minorities are seeking and receiving more benefits than they deserve and a denial that discrimination affects their outcomes.

Front 159

Mood congruence effects

Back 159

Effects that we are more likely to store or remember positive information when in a positive mood and negative information when in a negative mood.

Front 160

Mood-dependent memory

Back 160

The effect that what we remember while in a given mood may be determined, in part, by what we learned when previously in that mood.

Front 161

Moral hypocrisy

Back 161

The motivation to appear moral while doing one’s best to avoid the costs involved in actually being moral.

Front 162

Moral integrity

Back 162

The motivation to be moral and to actually engage in moral behavior.

Front 163

Multicultural perspective

Back 163

A focus on understanding the cultural and ethnic factors that influence social behavior.

Front 164

Narcissism

Back 164

A personality disposition characterized by unreasonable high self-esteem, a feeling of superiority, a need for admiration, sensitivity to criticism, a lack of empathy, and exploitative behavior.

Front 165

Need for affiliation

Back 165

The basic motive to seek and maintain interpersonal relationships.

Front 166

Negative-state relief model

Back 166

The proposal that prosocial behavior is motivated by the bystander’s desire to reduce his or her own uncomfortable negative emotions.

Front 167

Negativity bias

Back 167

A greater sensitivity to negative information than to positive information.

Front 168

Noncommon effects

Back 168

Effects produced by a particular cause that could not be produced by any other apparent cause.

Front 169

Nonverbal communication

Back 169

Communication between individuals that does not involve the content of spoken language. It relies instead on an unspoken language of facial expressions, eye contact, and body language.

Front 170

Normative focus theory

Back 170

A theory suggesting that norms will influence behavior only to the extent that they are focal for the persons involved at the time the behavior occurs.

Front 171

Normative social influence

Back 171

Social influence based on the desire to be liked or accepted by other persons.

Front 172

Norms

Back 172

Rules within a group indicating how its members should (or should not) behave.

Front 173

Obedience

Back 173

A form of social influence in which one person simply orders one or more others to perform some action(s), and the persons then comply.

Front 174

Objective scales

Back 174

Scales with measurement units that are tied to external reality so that they mean the same thing regardless of category membership.

Front 175

Objective self-awareness

Back 175

The organism’s capacity to be the object of its own attraction—to know that it is seeing its own self in a mirror, for example.

Front 176

Observational learning

Back 176

A basic for of learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behavior as a result of observing others.

Front 177

Optimistic bias

Back 177

Our predisposition to expect things to turn out well overall.

Front 178

Out-group

Back 178

Any group other than the one to which individuals perceive themselves as belonging.

Front 179

Out-group homogeneity

Back 179

The tendency to perceive members of an out-group as “all-alike” or more similar to each other than members of the in-group.

Front 180

Overconfidence barrier

Back 180

The tendency to have more confidence in the accuracy of our judgments than is reasonable.

Front 181

Passion

Back 181

In Sternberg’s triangular model of love, the sexual motives and sexual excitement associated with a couple’s relationship.

Front 182

Passionate love

Back 182

An intense and often unrealistic emotional response to another person. When this emotion is experienced, it is usually perceived as an indication of “true love,” but to outside observers it appears to be “infatuation.”

Front 183

Peripheral route (to persuasion)

Back 183

Attitude change that occurs in response to peripheral persuasion cues, often based on information concerning the expertise and status of would-be persuaders.

Front 184

Perseverance effect

Back 184

The tendency for beliefs and schemas to remain unchanged, even in the face of contradictory information.

Front 185

Personality disposition

Back 185

A characteristic behavioral tendency that is based on genetics, learning experiences, or both. Such dispositions tend to be stable over time and across situations.

Front 186

Personal-social identity continuum

Back 186

The two distinct ways that the self can be categorized. At the personal level, the self can be thought of as a unique individual, whereas at the social identity level, the self is thought of as a member of a group.

Front 187

Persuasion

Back 187

Efforts to change others’ attitudes through the use of various kinds of messages.

Front 188

Physical attractiveness

Back 188

The combination of characteristics that are evaluated as beautiful or handsome at the positive extreme and as unattractive at the negative extreme.

Front 189

Planning fallacy

Back 189

The tendency to make optimistic predictions concerning how long a given task will take for completion.

Front 190

Playing hard to get

Back 190

A technique that can be used for increasing compliance by suggesting that a person or object is scarce and hard to obtain.

Front 191

Pluralistic ignorance

Back 191

The tendency of bystanders in an emergency to reply on what other bystanders do and say, even though none of them is sure about what is happening or what to do about it. Very often, all of the bystanders hold back and behave as if there is no problem. Each individual uses this “information” to justify the failure to act; when we collectively misunderstand what attitudes others hold, and believe erroneously that others have different attitudes than ourselves.

Front 192

Possible selves

Back 192

Images of how the self might be in the future—either “dreaded” possible selves to be avoided or “desired” potential selves that can be strived for.

Front 193

Prejudice

Back 193

Negative attitudes toward the members of specific social groups.

Front 194

Preoccupied attachment style

Back 194

A style characterized by low self-esteem and high interpersonal trust. This is a conflicted and somewhat insecure style in which the individual strongly desires a close relationship but feels that he or she is unworthy of the partner and is thus vulnerable to being rejected.

Front 195

Priming

Back 195

Increased availability in memory or consciousness of specific types of information held in memory due to exposure to specific stimuli or events; using a stimulus to make accessible related information in memory.

Front 196

Procedural justice

Back 196

Judgments concerning the fairness of the procedures used to distribute available rewards among group members.

Front 197

Proportion of similarity

Back 197

The number of specific indicators that two people are similar divided by the number of specific indicators that two people are similar plus the number of specific indicators that they are dissimilar.

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Prosocial behavior

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A helpful action that benefits other people without necessarily providing any direct benefits to the person performing the act, and that may even involve a risk for the person who helps.

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Provocation

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Actions by others that tend to trigger aggression in the recipient, often because these actions are perceived as stemming from malicious intent.

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Proximity

Back 200

In attraction research, the physical closeness between two individuals with respect to where they live, where they sit in a classroom, where they work, and so on. The smaller the physical distance, the greater the probability that the two people will come into repeated exposure to one another, positive affect, and the development of mutual attractions.

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Punishment

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Procedures in which aversive consequences are delivered to individuals when they engage in specific actions.

Front 202

Random assignment of participants to experimental conditions

Back 202

A basic requirement for conducting valid experiments. According to this principle, research participants must have an equal chance of being exposed to each level of the independent variable.

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Reactance

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Negative reactions to threats to one’s personal freedom. Reactance often increases resistance to persuasion and can even produce negative attitude change or that opposite to what was intended.

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Realistic conflict theory

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The view that prejudice stems from direct competition between various social groups over scarce and valued resources.

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Recategorization

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Shifts in the boundaries between an individual’s in-group (“us” and some out-group (“them”). As a result of such recategorization, persons formerly viewed as out-group members may now be viewed more positively.

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Reciprocal altruism

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A theory suggesting that by sharing resources such as food, organisms increase their chances of survival, and thus the likelihood that they will pass their genes on to the next generation.

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Reciprocity

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A basic rule of social life, suggesting that individuals should treat others as these persons have treated them.

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Repeated exposure

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Zajonc’s finding that frequent contact with any mildly negative, neutral, or positive stimulus results in an increasingly evaluation of that stimulus.

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Representativeness heuristic

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A strategy for making judgments based on the extent to which current stimuli or events resemble other stimuli or categories.

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Repulsion hypothesis

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Rosenbaum’s provocative proposal that attraction is not increased by similar attitudes but is simply decreased by dissimilar attitudes. This hypothesis is incorrect as stated, but it is true that dissimilar attitudes tend to have negative effects that are stronger than the positive effects of similar attitudes.

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Respect

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The quality of being seen positively and as having worth.

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Roles

Back 212

The set of behaviors that individuals occupying specific positions within a group are expected to perform.

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Schemas

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Cognitive frameworks developed through experience that affect the processing of new social information; mental frameworks centering around a specific theme that help us to organize social information.

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Secure attachment style

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A style characterized by high self-esteem and high interpersonal trust. This is the most successful and most desirable attachment style.

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Selective altruism

Back 215

When a large group of individuals is in need and only one individual is helped.

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Selective avoidance

Back 216

A tendency to direct attention away from information that challenges existing attitudes. Such as avoidance increases resistance to persuasion.

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Self-complexity

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How the self-concept is organized. For those whose self-concepts are organized complexly, important aspects of the self are distinct from one another. For those whose self concept is low in complexity, there is greater overlap in different components of the self.

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Self-efficacy

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The belief that one can achieve a goal as a result of one’s own actions. Collective self-efficacy is the belief that by working together with others, a goal can be achieved.

Front 219

Self-esteem

Back 219

The degree to which the self is perceived positively or negatively; one’s overall attitude toward the self; the self-evaluation made by each individual. It represents one’s attitude about one-self along a positive-negative dimension.

Front 220

Self-esteem function

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Function in which holding particular attitudes can help maintain or enhance feelings of self-worth.

Front 221

Self-evaluation maintenance model

Back 221

The perspective that suggests that in order to maintain a positive view of the self, we distance ourselves from others who perform better than we do on valued dimensions, but move closer to others who perform worse. This view suggests that doing so will protect our self-esteem.

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Self-fulfilling prophecies

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Predictions that, in a sense, make themselves come true.

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Self-interest

Back 223

The motivation to engage in whatever behavior provides the greatest satisfaction for oneself.

Front 224

Self-monitoring

Back 224

The monitoring by people of their behavior in response to others’ expectancies. Low self-monitors are not very effective at doing this and instead prefer to act consistently according to their personal views. High self-monitors are quite effective at monitoring their behavior and adjust their actions according to others’ expectations or the situation.

Front 225

Self-reference effect

Back 225

People’s orientation toward stimuli that are associated with the self. People show a preference for objects owned by and reflective of the self.

Front 226

Self-serving bias

Back 226

The tendency to attribute positive outcomes to internal causes (e.g., one’s own traits or characteristics) but negative outcomes or events to external causes (e.g., chance, task difficulty).

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Sexism

Back 227

Prejudice based on gender; it typically refers to biases and negative responses toward women.

Front 228

Sexual harassment

Back 228

Unwanted contact or communication of a sexual nature.

Front 229

Shifting standards

Back 229

When people use one group as the standard but shift to another group as the comparison standard when judging members of a different group.

Front 230

Similarity-dissimilarity effect

Back 230

The consistent finding that people respond positively to indications that another person is similar to themselves and negatively to indications that another person is dissimilar from themselves.

Front 231

Slime effect

Back 231

A tendency to form negative impressions of others who play up to their superiors but who treat subordinates with disdain.

Front 232

Social categorization

Back 232

The tendency to divide the social world into separate categories: our in-group (“us” ) and various groups (“them”).

Front 233

Social cognition

Back 233

The manner in which we interpret, analyze, remember, and use information about the social world.

Front 234

Social comparison theory

Back 234

Festinger (1954) suggested that people compare themselves to others because, for many domains and attributes, there is no objective yardstick with which to evaluate the self, so other people are therefore highly informative.

Front 235

Social comparison

Back 235

The process through which we compare ourselves to others in order to determine whether our views are social reality are or are not correct.

Front 236

Social creativity responses

Back 236

When low-status groups attempt to achieve positive distinctiveness for their group or alternative dimensions that do not threaten the high-status group (e.g., benevolent sexism).

Front 237

Social decision schemas

Back 237

Rules relating initial distribution of member views to final group decisions.

Front 238

Social dilemmas

Back 238

Situations in which each person can increase his or her individual gains by acting in one way; but if all (or most) persons do the same thing, the outcomes experienced by all are reduced.

Front 239

Social exclusion

Back 239

Social rejection of an individual by an entire group of people, not on the basis of what he or she has done, but on the basis of prejudice, stereotypes, and biases.

Front 240

Social facilitation

Back 240

Effects on performance resulting from the presence of others.

Front 241

Social identity theory

Back 241

A theory concerned with consequences of perceiving the self as a member of a social group and indentifying with it; our response when our group identity is salient. Suggests that we will move closer to positive others with whom we share identity, but distance ourselves from other ingroup members who perform poorly or otherwise make our social identity negative.

Front 242

Social influence

Back 242

Efforts by one or more individuals to change the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, or behaviors of one or more others.

Front 243

Social learning view (of prejudice)

Back 243

The view that prejudice is acquired through direct and vicarious experiences in much the same manner as other attitudes.

Front 244

Social learning

Back 244

The process through which we acquire new information, forms of behavior, or attitudes from other persons.

Front 245

Social loafing

Back 245

Reductions in motivation and effort when individuals work collectively in a group, compared with when they work individually or as independent cofactors.

Front 246

Social neuroscience

Back 246

An area of research in social psychology that seeks knowledge about the neural and biological bases of social processes.

Front 247

Social norms

Back 247

expectations about how people will or should behave in a particular context; rules indicating how individuals are expected to behave in specific situations; rules within particular social group concerning what actions and attitudes are appropriate.

Front 248

Social perception

Back 248

The process through which we seek to know and understand other persons.

Front 249

Social psychology

Back 249

The scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behavior and thought in social situations.

Front 250

Social rejection

Back 250

Rejection by one individual of another individual, not on the basis of what he or she has done, but on the basis of prejudice, stereotypes, and biases.

Front 251

Spreading of alternatives

Back 251

When individuals make a decision between two options, they tend to reduce the rating of the item they did not choose and increase the rating of the item they did choose.

Front 252

Staring

Back 252

A form of eye contact in which one person continues to gaze steadily at another regardless of rand in a group.

Front 253

Status

Back 253

An individual’s position or rank in a group.

Front 254

Stereotype threat

Back 254

People’s belief that they might be judged in light of a negative stereotype about their group or that they may, because of their performance, in some way confirm a negative stereotype of their group.

Front 255

Stereotypes

Back 255

Beliefs about social groups in terms of the traits or characteristics that they are deemed to share. Stereotypes are cognitive frameworks that influence the processing of social information.

Front 256

Subjective scales

Back 256

Response to scales that are open to interpretation and lack an externally grounded referent, including scales labeled from good to bad or weak to strong. They are said to be subjective because they can take on different meanings, depending on the group membership of the person being evaluated.

Front 257

Subjective self-awareness

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The first level of self to emerge. It is recognition that the self is separate from other objects in one’s physical environment.

Front 258

Subliminal conditioning

Back 258

Classical conditioning of attitudes by exposure to stimuli that are below individuals’ threshold of conscious awareness.

Front 259

Subliminal levels

Back 259

Stimuli shown to participants so rapidly that the stimuli cannot be recognized or identified by them.

Front 260

Subtype

Back 260

A subset of a group that is not consistent with the stereotype of the group as a whole.

Front 261

Superordinate goals

Back 261

Goals that both sides of a conflict seek and that tie their interests together rather than drive them apart; goals that can be achieved only by cooperation between groups.

Front 262

Survey method

Back 262

A method of research in which large numbers of persons answer questions about their attitudes or behavior.

Front 263

Symbolic social influence

Back 263

The uniquely human capacity to form an abstract representation of the self through language.

Front 264

Systematic observation

Back 264

A method of research in which behavior is systematically observed and recorded.

Front 265

Systematic processing

Back 265

Processing information in a persuasive message that involves careful consideration of message content and ideas.

Front 266

That’s-not-all technique

Back 266

A technique for gaining compliance in which requesters offer additional benefits to target persons before these persons have decided whether to comply with or reject specific requests.

Front 267

Theories

Back 267

Efforts by scientists in any field to answer the question “why?” Theories involve attempts to understand why certain events or processes occur as they do.

Front 268

Theory of planned behavior

Back 268

An extension of the theory of reasoned action, that in addition to attitudes toward a given behavior and subjective norms about it, individuals also consider their ability to perform the behavior.

Front 269

Theory of reasoned action

Back 269

A theory suggesting that the decision to engage in a particular behavior is the result of a rational process in which behavioral options are considered, consequences or outcomes of each are evaluated, and a decision is reached to act or not to act. That decision is then reflected in behavioral intentions, which strongly influence overt behavior.

Front 270

Third-person effect

Back 270

Effect that occurs when the impact of media exposure on others’ attitudes and behaviors is overestimated and the impact on the self is underestimated.

Front 271

Thought suppression

Back 271

Efforts to prevent certain thoughts from entering consciousness.

Front 272

Threat

Back 272

Threat can take different forms, but it primarily concerns fear that one’s group interests will be undermined or that one’s self-esteem is in jeopardy.

Front 273

Tokenism

Back 273

Tokenism can refer to hiring based on group membership. It also can concern instances in which individuals perform trivial positive actions for members or out-groups that are later used as an excuse for refusing more meaningful beneficial actions for members of these groups.

Front 274

Transactional (interpersonal justice)

Back 274

Refers to the extent to which persons who distribute rewards explain or justify their decisions and show considerations ad courtesy to those who receive the rewards.

Front 275

Triangular model of love

Back 275

Sternberg’s conceptualization of love relationships consisting of three basic components: intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment.

Front 276

Trivialization

Back 276

A technique for reducing dissonance in which the importance or attitudes or behaviors that are inconsistent with each other is cognitively reduced.

Front 277

Type A behavior pattern

Back 277

A pattern consisting primarily, of high levels or competitiveness, time urgency, and hostility.

Front 278

Type B behavior pattern

Back 278

A pattern consisting of the absence of characteristics associated with the Type A behavior pattern.

Front 279

Ultimate attribution error

Back 279

The tendency to make more favorable and flattering attributions about members of one’s own group than about members of other groups. In effect, it is the self-serving attributional bias at the group level.

Front 280

Unrequited love

Back 280

Love felt by one person for another who does not feel love in return.

Front 281

Upward social comparison

Back 281

A comparison with someone who does better than the self.

Front 282

Within-group comparisons

Back 282

Comparisons made between a target and other members of that same category only.

Front 283

Workplace aggression

Back 283

Any form of behavior through which individuals seek to harm others in their workplace.