Social Psychology Exam 2

Front 1

Depressive Realism

Back 1

The tendency of mildly depressed people to make accurate rather than self-serving judgements, attributions, and predictions.

Front 2

Explanatory Style

Back 2

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

Front 3

Natural Selection

Back 3

The evolutionary process by which nature selescts traits that best enable organisms to survive and reproduce in particular environmental niches.

Front 4

Evolutionary Psychology

Back 4

The study of the evolution of behavior using principles of natural selection.

Front 5

Culture

Back 5

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

Front 6

Norms

Back 6

Rules for accepted and expected behavior.

Front 7

Personal Space

Back 7

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

Front 8

Gender

Back 8

The characteristics, whether biological or socially influenced, by which people define male and female.

Front 9

Empathy

Back 9

The vicarious experience of another's feelings; putting oneself in another's shoes.

Front 10

Aggression

Back 10

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 11

Gender Role

Back 11

A set of behavior expectations (normas) for males and females.

Front 12

Interaction

Back 12

The effect of one factor (such as biology) depends on another factor (such as environment).

Front 13

Conformity

Back 13

A change in behavior or belief to accord with others.

Front 14

Obedience

Back 14

Acting in accord with a direct order.

Front 15

Persuasion

Back 15

The process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors.

Front 16

Central Route to Persuasion

Back 16

Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.

Front 17

Peripheral Route to Persuasion

Back 17

Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness.

Front 18

Credibility

Back 18

Believability

Front 19

Sleeper Effect

Back 19

A delayed impact of a message occurs when an initially discounted message becomes effective, as we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it.

Front 20

Attractiveness

Back 20

Having qualities that appeal to an audiences. An appealing communicator is most persuasive on matters of subjective preference.

Front 21

Cult (also called New Religious Movement)

Back 21

A group typically characterized by:

1) distinctive ritual and believes related to its devotion to a god or person,

2) isolation from the surrounding "evil" culture,

3) a charismatic leader

[[A sect, by contrast, is a spin-off from a major religion]]

Front 22

Attitude Inoculation

Back 22

Exposing people to weak attacks upon their attitudes so that when stronger attacks come, they will have refutations available.

Front 23

Co-actors

Back 23

Co-participants working individually on a noncompetitive activity.

Front 24

Social Facilitation

Back 24

1) Original meaning--the tendency of people to perform simple or well-learned tasks better when others are present.

2) Current meaning--the strengthening of dominant responses in the presence of others.

Front 25

Evaluation Apprehension

Back 25

Concern for how others are evaluating us.

Front 26

Social Loafing

Back 26

The tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts toward a common goal than when they are individually accountable.

Front 27

Free Riders

Back 27

People who benefit from the group but give little in return.

Front 28

Deindividuation

Back 28

Loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension; occurs in group situations that foster responsiveness to group norms, good or bad.