Psychology Ch.12 Vocab

Front 1

The branch of psychology that studies how people think, feel, and behave in social situations.

Back 1

social psychology

Front 2

The mental processes people use to make sense out of their social environment.

Back 2

social cognition

Front 3

The effects of situational factors and other people on an individual's behavior.

Back 3

social influence

Front 4

The mental process we use to form judgements and draw conclusions about the characteristics and motives of other people.

Back 4

person perception

Front 5

The "rules," or expectations, for appropriate behavior in a particular social situation.

Back 5

social norms

Front 6

The mental process of categorizing people into groups (or social categories) on the basis of their shared characteristics.

Back 6

social categorization

Front 7

A network of assumptions or beliefs about the relationships among various types of people, traits, and behaviors.

Back 7

implicit personality theory

Front 8

The mental process of inferring the causes of people's behavior, including one's own. Also refers to the explanation made for a particular behavior.

Back 8

attribution

Front 9

The tendency to attrubute the behavior of others to internal, personal characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the effects of external, situational factors; an attributional bias that is common in individualistic cultures.

Back 9

fundamental attribution error

Front 10

The tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for having somehow caused the problem or for not having taken steps to aviod or prevent it.

Back 10

blaming the victim

Front 11

The assumption that the world is fair and that therefore people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

Back 11

just-world hypothesis

Front 12

The tendency to attribute one's own behavior to external, situational causes, while attributing the behavior of others to internal, personal causes; especially likely to occur with regard to behaviors that lead to negative outcomes.

Back 12

actor-observer discrepancy

Front 13

The tendency to attribute succesful outcomes of one's own behavior to internal causes and unsuccessful outcomes to external, situational causes.

Back 13

self-serving bias

Front 14

A learned tendency to evaluate some object, person, or issue in a particular way; such evaluations may be positive, negative, or ambivalent.

Back 14

attitude

Front 15

An unpleasant state of psychological tension or arousal (dissonance) that occurs when two thoughts or perceptions (cognitions) are inconsistent; typically results from the awareness that attitudes and behavior are in conflict.

Back 15

cognitive dissonance

Front 16

A negative attitude toward people who belong to a specific social group.

Back 16

prejudice

Front 17

A cluster of characteristics that are associated with all members of a specific social group, often including qualities that are unrelated to the objective criteria that define the group.

Back 17

stereotype

Front 18

A social group to which one belongs.

Back 18

in-group

Front 19

A social group to which one does not belong.

Back 19

out-group

Front 20

The tendency to see members of out-groups as very similar to one another.

Back 20

out-groups homogeniety effect

Front 21

The tendency to judge the behavior of in-group member favorably and out-group members unfavorably.

Back 21

in-group bias

Front 22

The belief that one's own culture or ethnic group id superior to all others and the related tendency to use one's own culture as a standard by which to judge other cultures.

Back 22

ethnocentrism

Front 23

The tendency to adjust one's behavior, attitudes, or beliefs to group norms in response to real or imagined group pressure.

Back 23

conformity

Front 24

Behavior that is motivated by the desire to gain social acceptance and approval.

Back 24

normative social influence

Front 25

Behavior that is motivated by the desire to be correct.

Back 25

informational social influence

Front 26

The performance of an action in response to the direct orders of an authority or person of higher status.

Back 26

obedience

Front 27

Helping another person with no expectation of personal reward or benefit.

Back 27

altruism

Front 28

Any behavior that helps another, whether the underlying motive is self-serving or selfless.

Back 28

prosocial behavior

Front 29

A phenomenon in which the greater the number of people present, the less likely each individual is to help someone in distress.

Back 29

bystander effect

Front 30

A phenomenon in which the presence of other people makes it less likely that any individual will help someone in distress because the obligation to intervene is shared among all the onlookers.

Back 30

diffusion of responsibility

Front 31

The tendency to expend less effort on a task when it is a group effort.

Back 31

social loafing

Front 32

The tendency for the presence of other people to enhance individual performance.

Back 32

social facilitation

Front 33

The reduction of self-awareness and inhibitions that can occur when a person is part of a group whose members feel anonymous.

Back 33

deindividuation