Chapter 16 psych 111

Just world hypothesis

The idea that people need to believe one will get what one deserves so strongly that they will rationalize an inexplicable injustice by naming things the victim might have done to deserve it.

Matching hypothesis

the idea that people are more likely to form successful relationships with and express liking for people whose level of physical attractiveness roughly equals their own.

Testosterone

a sex hormone produced by the testes that encourages the development of male sexual characteristics, stimulates the activity of the male secondary sex characteristics, and prevents changes in them following castration.

Actor observer bias

a term in social psychology that refers to a tendency to attribute one's own actions to external causes while attributing other people's behaviors to internal causes.

Attribution theory

a theory that supposes that one attempts to understand the behavior of others by attributing feelings, beliefs, and intentions to them.

Altruism

acting out of concern for the well-being of others, without regard to your own self-interest.

Serotonin

an important chemical and neurotransmitter in the human body. It is believed to help regulate mood and social behavior, appetite and digestion, sleep, memory, and sexual desire and function.

External attribution

people infer that a person's behavior is due to situational factors.

Internal attribution

people infer that an event or a person's behavior is due to personal factors such as traits, abilities, or feelings.

Fundamental attribution error

people tend to emphasize the agent's internal characteristics, rather than external factors, in explaining other people's behavior.

Social roles

set of connected behaviors, rights, obligations, beliefs, and norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation.

Normative social influence

social influence that leads to conformity. It is defined in social psychology as "...the influence of other people that leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted by them

Role

theory is a perspective in sociology and in social psychology that considers most of everyday activity to be the acting out of socially defined categories (e.g., mother, manager, teacher).

Cathartic

relief through the open expression of strong emotions

Central route to persuasion

occurs when a person is persuaded by the content of the message

Attribution

Humans are motivated to assign causes to their actions and behaviors. In social psychology, attribution is the process by which individuals explain the causes of behavior and events. Models to explain this process are called attribution theory.

Informational social influence

When we do not know how to behave, we copy other people.

Social norm

are informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society. Social psychology recognizes smaller group units, such as a team or an office, may also endorse norms separately or in addition to cultural or societal expectations.

False consensus effect

bias is an attributional type of cognitive bias whereby people tend to overestimate the extent to which their opinions, beliefs, preferences, values, and habits are normal and typical of those of others (i.e., that others also think the same way that they do) ...

Persuasion

can attempt to influence a person's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviors. ... Or it can also be interpreted as using one's personal or positional resources to change people's behaviors or attitudes.

Schéma

describes a pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them.

Social loafing

describes the tendency of individuals to put forth less effort when they are part of a group. Because all members of the group are pooling their effort to achieve a common goal, each member of the group contributes less than they would if they were individually responsible.

Door in the face technique

is a compliance method commonly studied in social psychology. The persuader attempts to convince the respondent to comply by making a large request that the respondent will most likely turn down, much like a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader's face.

Foot in the door technique

is a compliance tactic that aims at getting a person to agree to a large request by having them agree to a modest request first.

Deindividuation

is a concept in social psychology that is generally thought of as the loss of self-awareness in groups, although this is a matter of contention (

Availability heuristic

is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method or decision.

Reciprocity of liking

is a particular type of reciprocity that refers to the tendency for people to like others who express lik- ing for them.

In-group bias

is a pattern of favoring members of one's in-group over out-group members. This can be expressed in evaluation of others, in allocation of resources, and in many other ways.

Groupthink

is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.

Social responsibility norm

is a societal rule that tells people they should help others who need help even if doing so is costly.

Diffusion of responsibility

is a sociopsychological phenomenon whereby a person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when others are present.

Instrumental aggression

is a term that refers to a premeditated aggressive action that is carried out in order to achieve a specific goal. A simple example of this is a "playground bully" who forces other children to give him or her their lunch money.

Amygdala

is an almond-shaped section of nervous tissue located in the temporal (side) lobe of the brain. ... They are thought to be a part of the limbic system within the brain, which is responsible for emotions, survival instincts, and memory.

Stereotypes

is an over-generalized belief about a particular category of people.

Self serving bias

is any cognitive or perceptual process that is distorted by the need to maintain and enhance self-esteem, or the tendency to perceive oneself in an overly favorable manner.

Obedience

is compliance with commands given by an authority figure. In the 1960s, the social psychologist Stanley Milgram did a famous research study called the obedience study. It showed that people have a strong tendency to comply with authority figures.

Out group homogenity

is one's perception of out-group members as more similar to one another than are in-group members, e.g. "they are alike; we are diverse

Cognitive dissonance theory

is the mental discomfort experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or value

Social categorization

is the process of classifying people into groups based on similar characteristics, whether it be nationality, age, occupation, diagnosis, or some other trait.

Social facilitation

is the tendency for people to perform differently when in the presence of others than when alone. Compared to their performance when alone, when in the presence of others, they tend to perform better on simple or well-rehearsed tasks and worse on complex or new ones

Social influence

occurs when a person's emotions, opinions or behaviors are affected by others intentionally or unintentionally. Social influence takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing.

Peripheral route to persuasion

occurs when the listener decides whether to agree with the message based on other cues besides the strength of the arguments or ideas in the message. For example, a listener may decide to agree with a message because the source appears to be an expert, or is attractive.

Bystander effect

or bystander apathy, is a social psychological phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present. The greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that one of them will help.

Mere exposure effect

psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. In social psychology, this effect is sometimes called the familiarity principle.

Person perception

refers to a general tendency to form impressions of other people.

Ethnocentrism

refers to a tendency to use your own culture as the standard by which to judge and evaluate other cultures

Reciprocity norm

refers to how positive actions bring about more positive actions while negative actions bring about more negative actions. For example, if a person receives a gift for their birthday, they are more likely to give a gift back to that person on their birthday.

Group polarization

refers to the tendency for a group to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members.

Hostile aggression

refers to violent attitudes or actions that are associated with anger and a desire to dominate a situation or others. Its displays itself in verbal, non-verbal and physical ways and holds the intention of causing harm.

Social cognition

that focuses on how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations. It focuses on the role that cognitive processes play in social interactions

Self-perception theory

that people determine their attitudes and preferences by interpreting the meaning of their own behavior.

Social psychology

the branch of psychology that deals with social interactions, including their origins and their effects on the individual.

Cognitive dissonance

the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.