Social Psych Test 1

Front 1

theory

Back 1

an integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events; it's the "why" when something happens. ex: law of gravity- why are keys fall to the ground when dropped

Front 2

hypothesis

Back 2

a testable proposition that describes a relationship that may exist between events

Front 3

field research

Back 3

research done in natural, real-life settings outside the laboratory

Front 4

correlational research

Back 4

the study of the naturally occurring relationships among variables

Front 5

experimental research

Back 5

studies that seek clues to cause-effect relationships by manipulating one or more factors (independent variables) while controlling others (holding them constant)

Front 6

independent variable

Back 6

the experimental factor that a researcher manipulates

Front 7

dependent variable

Back 7

the variable being measured, so-called because it may depend on manipulations of the independent variable

Front 8

random assignment

Back 8

the process of assigning participants to the conditions of an experiment such that all person have the same chance of being in a given condition

Front 9

mundane realism

Back 9

degree to which an experiment is superficially similar to everyday situations

Front 10

experimental realism

Back 10

degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves its participants

Front 11

informed consent

Back 11

an ethical principle requiring that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate

Front 12

hindsight bias

Back 12

the tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one's ability to have foreseen how something turned out. Also known as the I-knew-it-all-along-phenomenon

Front 13

self-concept

Back 13

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

Front 14

self-schema

Back 14

Beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information

Front 15

individualism

Back 15

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

Front 16

collectivism

Back 16

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

Front 17

planning fallacy

Back 17

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

Front 18

dual attitudes

Back 18

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

Front 19

self-serving bias

Back 19

the tendency to perceive oneself favorably

Front 20

false consensus effect

Back 20

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

Front 21

false uniqueness effect

Back 21

the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's ability and one's desirable or successful behaviors

Front 22

locus of control

Back 22

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

Front 23

learned helplessness

Back 23

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

Front 24

fundamental attribution error

Back 24

the tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences on others' behavior (also called correspondence bias, because we so often see behavior as corresponding to a disposition)

Front 25

overconfidence phenomenon

Back 25

the tendency to be more confident than correct- to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs

Front 26

confirmation bias

Back 26

a tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions

Front 27

availability heuristic

Back 27

a cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory. if instances of something come readily to mind, we presume it to be commonplace.

Front 28

illusory correlation

Back 28

perception of a relationship where non exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists

Front 29

illusion of control

Back 29

perception of uncontrollable events as subject to one's control or as more controllable than they are

Front 30

regression toward the average

Back 30

the statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behavior to return toward one's average

Front 31

self-fulfilling prophecy

Back 31

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment

Front 32

behavioral confirmation

Back 32

a type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people's social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations

Front 33

attitude

Back 33

a belief and feeling that can predispose our response to something or someone

Front 34

role

Back 34

a set of norms that defines how people in a given social position ought to behave

Front 35

foot-in-the-door phenomenon

Back 35

the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later w/ a larger request

Front 36

low-ball technique

Back 36

a tactic for getting people to agree to something. people who agree to an initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante. people who receive only the costly request are less likely to comply w/ it

Front 37

cognitive dissonance

Back 37

tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions. for example, dissonance may occur when we realize that we have, with little justification, acted contrary to our attitudes or made a decision favoring one alternative despite reasons for favoring another

Front 38

self-perception theory

Back 38

the theory that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them much as would someone observing us- by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs

Front 39

depressive realism

Back 39

the tendency of mildly depressed people to make accurate rather than self-serving judgments, attributions, and predictions

Front 40

explanatory style

Back 40

one's habitual way of explaining life events. a negative, pessimistic, depressive explanatory style attributes failure to stable, global, and internal causes

Front 41

natural selection

Back 41

the evolutionary process by which heritable traits that best enable organisms to survive and reproduce in particular environments are passed to ensuing generations

Front 42

evolutionary psychology

Back 42

the study of the evolution of cognition and behavior using principles of natural selection

Front 43

culture

Back 43

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

Front 44

norms

Back 44

standards for accepted and expected behavior. norms prescribe "proper" behavior. (In a different sense of the word, norms also describe what most others do- what is normal)

Front 45

personal space

Back 45

the buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies. its size depends on our familiarity with whoever is near us.

Front 46

gender

Back 46

in psychology, the characteristics, whether biological or socially influenced, by which people define male and female

Front 47

empathy

Back 47

the vicarious experience of another's feeling; putting oneself in another's shoes

Front 48

aggression

Back 48

physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone. in laboratory experiments, this might mean delivering electric shocks or saying something likely to hurt another's feelings

Front 49

gender role

Back 49

a set of behavior expectations (norms) for males and females

Front 50

interaction

Back 50

a relationship in which the effect of one factor (such as biology) depends on another factor (such as environment)

Front 51

conformity

Back 51

a change in behavior or belief to accord with others

Front 52

obedience

Back 52

acting in accord with a direct order