Social Psych Ch.2 Vocab

Front 1

spotlight effect

Back 1

the belief that others are paying more attention to one's appearance & behavior than they really are

Front 2

illusion of transparency

Back 2

the illusion that our concealed emotions leak out & can be easily read by others

Front 3

self-concept

Back 3

a person's answers to the question, "Who am I?'

Front 4

self-schema

Back 4

beliefs about self that organize & guide the processing of self-relevant information

Front 5

possible selves

Back 5

images of what we dream of or dread becoming in the future

Front 6

social comparison

Back 6

evaluating one's abilities & opinions by comparing oneself with others

Front 7

individualism

Back 7

the concept of giving priority to one's own goals over group goals & defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications

Front 8

collectivism

Back 8

giving priority to the goals of one's groups (often one's extended family or work group) & defining one's identity accordingly

Front 9

interdependent self

Back 9

construing one's identity in relation to others

Front 10

planning fallacy

Back 10

the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task

Front 11

impact bias

Back 11

overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events

Front 12

immune neglect

Back 12

the human tendency to underestimate the speed & the strength of the "psychological immune system," which enables emotional recovery & resilience after bad things happen

Front 13

dual attitudes

Back 13

differing implicit (automatic) & explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same object. verbalized explicit attitudes may change with education & persuasion; implicit attitudes change slowly, with practice that forms new habits

Front 14

self-esteem

Back 14

a person's overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth

Front 15

self-efficacy

Back 15

a sense that one is competent & effective, distinguished from self-esteem, which is one's sense of self-worth. a bombardier might feel high self-efficacy & low self-esteem

Front 16

locus of control

Back 16

the extent to which people perceive outcomes as internally controllable by their own efforts or as externally controlled by chance or outside forces

Front 17

learned helplessness

Back 17

the sense of hopelessness & resignation learned when a human or animal perceives no control over repeated bad events

Front 18

self-serving bias

Back 18

the tendency to perceive oneself favorably

Front 19

self-serving attributions

Back 19

a form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself & negative outcomes to other factors

Front 20

defensive pessimism

Back 20

the adaptive value of anticipating problems & harnessing one's anxiety to motivate effective action

Front 21

false consensus effect

Back 21

the tendency to overestimate the commonality of one's opinions & one's undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors

Front 22

false uniqueness effect

Back 22

the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's abilities & one;s desirable or successful behaviors

Front 23

group-serving bias

Back 23

explaining away outgroup members' positive behaviors; also attributing negative behaviors to their dispositions (while excusing such behavior by one's own group)

Front 24

self-handicapping

Back 24

protecting one's self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure

Front 25

self-presentation

Back 25

the act of expressing oneself & behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one's ideals

Front 26

self-monitoring

Back 26

being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations & adjusting one's performance to create the desired impression