Social Psychology Chapter 4

Front 1

Social Perception

Back 1

The study of how we form impressions of and make inferencesabout other people.

Front 2

Nonverbal communication

Back 2

The way in which people communicate, intentionally orunintentionally, without words; nonverbal cues include facial expressions, toneof voice, gestures, body position, and movement, the use of touch and gaze

Front 3

Encode

Back 3

To express or emit nonverbal behavior, such as smiling orpatting someone on the back

Front 4

Decode

Back 4

To interpret the meaning of nonverbal behaviorother people express, such as deciding that a pat on the back was an expressionof condescension and not kindness.

Front 5

Affect Blend

Back 5

A facial expression in which one part of the face registersone emotion while another part of the face registers a different emotion.

Front 6

Display Rules

Back 6

Culturally determined rules about which nonverbal behaviorsare appropriate to display.

Front 7

Emblems

Back 7

Nonverbal gestures that have well-understooddefinitions within a given culture; they usually have direct verbaltranslations—such as the OK sign

Front 8

Implicit Personality Theory

Back 8

A type of schema people use to group variouskinds of personality traits together; for example, many people believe thatsomeone who is kind is generous as well.

Front 9

Attribution Theory

Back 9

A description of the way in which people explainthe cause of their own and other people’s behaviors

Front 10

Internal attribution

Back 10

The inference that a person is behaving in acertain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character,or personality

Front 11

External attribution

Back 11

The inference that a person is behaving in acertain way because of something about the situation he or she is in; theassumption is that most people would respond the same way in that situation.

Front 12

Covariation model

Back 12

A theory that states that to form an attributionabout what caused a persons behavior, we systematically note the patternbetween the presence or absence of possible causal factors and whether or notthe behavior occurs.

Front 13

Consensus Information

Back 13

Information about the extent to which otherpeople behave the same way toward the same stimulus as the actor does.

Front 14

Distinctive Information

Back 14

Information about the extent to which oneparticular actor behaves in the same way to different stimuli

Front 15

Consistency Information

Back 15

Information about the extent to which thebehavior between one actor and one stimulus is the same across time andcircumstances

Front 16

Fundamental Attribution Error

Back 16

The tendency to overestimate the extent to whichpeoples behaviors are due to internal, dispositional factors and tounderestimate the role of situational forces.

Front 17

Perceptual Salience

Back 17

The seeming importance of information that isthe focus of people’s attention

Front 18

Two step process of Attribution

Back 18

Analyzing another person’s behavior first bymaking an automatic internal attribution and only then thinking about possiblesituational reasons for the behavior, after which ones may adjust the originalinternal attribution

Front 19

Self-Serving Attributions

Back 19

Explanations for one’s successes that creditinternal, dispositional factors and explanations for one’s failures that blameexternal situational factors.

Front 20

Defensive Attributions

Back 20

Explanations for behavior that avoid feelings ofvulnerability and mortality

Front 21

Bias Blind Spot

Back 21

The tendency to think that other people are moresusceptible to attritional biases in their thinking then we are

Front 22

Belief in a Just World

Back 22

A form of defensive attribution wherein peopleassume that bad things happen to bad people and that good things happen to goodpeople