Social Psychology 3317

Front 1

Observers tend to attribute actors' behavior to the actors' internal characteristics, whereas actors see their own behavior as due more to characteristics of the external situation.

Back 1

Actor-Observer Difference

Front 2

Perceivers form an overall evaluation by summing the values of all the single traits. (Example: when we add traits with a positive value, we increase the favorableness of our overall impression, whereas when we add traits with a negative value, we decrease its favorableness)

Back 2

Additive Model

Front 3

Process by which people make inferences about the causes of behavior or attitudes. (Intentions, abilities, traits, motives, & situational pressures)

Back 3

Attribution

Front 4

Perceivers form an overall evaluation by averaging the values of all the single traits (not as ideal compared to weighted averaging model)

Back 4

Averaging Model

Front 5

Our tendency to perceive stimuli as members of groups or classes rather than as isolated, unique entities.

Back 5

Categorization

Front 6

Observer attributes a behavior to the internal state of the person who performed it.

Back 6

Dispositional Attribution

Front 7

Common tendency to overestimate the causal impact of whomever or whatever we focus our attention on. (Ex: 6 participants listening to same conversation from differing focal points)

Back 7

Focus of Attention Bias

Front 8

The tendency to overestimate the importance of personal (dispositional) factors and to underestimate situational influences as causes of behavior. (Heider said that most observers ignore or minimize the impact of role pressures and situational constraints and interpet behavior as caused by people's intentions, motives, or attitudes)

Back 8

Fundamental Attribution Error

Front 9

The tendency of our general or overall liking for a person to influence our subsequent assessment of more specific traits of that person.

Back 9

Halo Effect

Front 10

A type of mental shortcut that allows individuals to quickly select and apply schemas to new or ambiguous situations. (Mental shortcut)

Back 10

Heuristic

Front 11

A set of unstated assumptions about which personality traits are correlated with one another. (I.E. Beliefs about behaviors associated with various personality traits)

Back 11

Implicit Personality Theory

Front 12

Observers forming an impression of a person give more weight to information received early in a sequence than to information received later.

Back 12

Primacy Effect

Front 13

We attribute the behavior to the factor that is both present when the behavior occurs and absent when the behavior fails to occur - the cause that covaries with the behavior.

Back 13

Principle of Covariation

Front 14

An abstraction that represents the "typical" or quintessential instance of a class or group.

Back 14

Prototype

Front 15

A specific cognitive structure that organizes the processing of complex information about other persons, groups, and situations. (Organizes info in memory and guides judgment we make about people and things)

Back 15

Schema

Front 16

People tend to take credit for acts that yield positive outcomes, whereas they deflect blame for bad outcomes and attribute them to external causes.

Back 16

Self-serving Bias

Front 17

Observer attributes a behavior to factors in that person's environment.

Back 17

Situational Attribution

Front 18

Constructing an understanding of the social world from the data we get through our senses. (Process by which we form impressions)

Back 18

Social Perception

Front 19

Indicates the attributes and behaviors considered are typical of members of that group or social category. (A.K.A. Group Schemas)

Back 19

Stereotype

Front 20

When a member of a group suspects that he or she will be judged based on a common stereotype that is held of that group.

Back 20

Stereotype Threat

Front 21

When making attributions about personal dispositions, the observer subtracts the perceived impact of situational forces from the personal disposition implied by the behavior itself.

Back 21

Subtractive Rule

Front 22

A personality trait has a high level of trait centrality when information about a person's standing on that trait has a large impact on the overall impression that others form of that person (Cold/Warm Theory)

Back 22

Trait Centrality

Front 23

Perceivers average the values of the traits to form an impression, but they also give more weight to some information and less to other information.( Credible sources necessary; negative attributes weigh heavier than positive attributes)

Back 23

Weighted Averaging Model