Communications Chapter 2 Vocabulary

Stereotype threat

Process in which reminding individuals of stereotypical expectations regarding important identities can impact their performance.

Categorization

A cognitive process used to organize information by placing it into larger groupings of information.

Label

A name assigned to a category based on one's perception of the category.

Interpersonal script

A relatively fixed sequence of events that functions as a guide or template for communication or behavior.

Frame

A structure that shapes how people interpret their perceptions.

Prototype

An idealized schema.

Selective attention

Consciously or unconsciously attending to just a narrow range of the full array of sensory information available.

Stereotyping

Creating schemas that overgeneralize attributes of a specific group.

Prejudice

Experiencing aversive or negative feelings towards a group as a whole or toward an individual because she or he belongs to a group.

Attribution theory

Explanation of the processes we use to judge our own and others' behavior.

Mindfulness

Having a clear focus on the activity you are engaged in, with attention to as many specifics of the event as you can.

Secondary identities

Identities such as occupation and marital status that are changeable over the life span and from situation to situation.

Primary identities

Identities such as race, ethnicity, and age that have a consistent and enduring impact on your life.

Sensory model

Model that explains how an individual culture emphasizes a few of the five senses.

Self-esteem

Part of one's self-concept; arises out of how one perceives and interprets reflected appraisals and social comparisons.

Cognitive representation

The ability to form mental models of the world.

Interpretation

The act of assigning meaning to sensory information.

Generalized other

The collection of roles, rules, norms, beliefs, and attitudes endorsed by the community in which a person lives.

Reflected appraisals

The idea that people's self-images arise primarily from the ways in which others view them and from the many messages they have received from others about who they are.

Looking-glass self

The idea that self-image results from the images others reflect back to an individual.

Particular others

The important people in an individual's life whose opinions and behavior influence the various aspects of identity.

Organization

The process by which one recognizes what sensory input represents.

Selection

The process of choosing which sensory information to focus on.

Perception

The processes of selection, organization, and interpretation of the information you collect through your senses: what you see, hear, taste, smell, and touch.

Social identity

The specific identities an individual holds in a society.

Attributional bias

The tendency to attribute one's own negative behavior to external causes and one's positive actions to internal states.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to attribute others' negative behavior to internal causes and their positive behaviors to external causes.

Self-serving bias

The tendency to give one's self more credit than is due when good things happen and to accept too little responsibility for those things that go wrong.

Self-concept

The understanding of one's unique characteristics as well as the similarities to, and differences from, others.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

When an individual expects something to occur, the expectation increased the likelihood that it will.

Identity

Who a person is, composed of individual and social categories a person identifies with, as well as the categories that others identify with that person.