Social Psychology - Social Self, Social Cognition, and Social Attributions

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts from lecture notes on the Social Self, Social Cognition, Decision Heuristics, and Social Attributions.

Physical Self-Concept

Physical qualities that describe an individual without implying social interaction (e.g., "I am tall", "I am a brunette").

Social Self-Concept

Social roles, institutional memberships, or important identity/cultural groups that define an individual (e.g., "I am a college student", "I am Dominican").

Attribute Self-Concept

Psychological or physiological states or traits that describe a person (e.g., "I am intelligent", "I am caring", "I am tired").

Global Self-Concept

Broad or vague descriptions that do not distinguish an individual from other people (e.g., "I am a human being", "I am alive").

Independent Culture

An individualistic culture where people emphasize distinctiveness, view the self as a distinct social entity with voluntary social bonds, and view personal attributes as stable.

Interdependent Culture

A collectivistic culture where people desire harmonious social relations, view the self as inextricably linked to others, and adjust personal attributes based on the situation.

Independent View of Self

A self-schema in which the self is bounded and distinct from others, with solid lines indicating firm boundaries around individual identity and clear separation from ingroup members.

Interdependent View of Self

A self-schema in which the self's boundaries are permeable (dotted lines) and overlap significantly with ingroup members such as family and friends.

"Better-Than-Average" Effect

The tendency to overestimate one's own positive abilities and traits while underestimating negative ones; commonly associated with good mental health and self-esteem.

Dunning-Kruger Effect

A cognitive bias in which people with low expertise in a domain overestimate their knowledge or skills because they lack the expertise necessary to recognize their own mistakes.

Self-Esteem

An overall positive or negative evaluation an individual holds about themselves, based on contingencies of self-worth, social acceptance, and social identities.

Contingencies of Self-Worth

Specific domains in which an individual evaluates their successes or failures to determine their self-esteem.

Sociometer Theory

A theory proposing that self-esteem acts as an internal monitor or gauge of how well an individual is accepted into a social group.

Social Identity Theory

A framework stating that group identification serves as a key source of self-esteem through mechanisms such as positive distinctiveness, basking in reflected glory, and favoring ingroup members.

Positive Distinctiveness

Focusing on the unique, positive aspects of one's ingroup to foster a positive personal identity and higher self-esteem.

Basking in Reflected Glory

Experiencing an increase in self-esteem and pride when one's ingroup accomplishes something successful or prestigious.

Social Cognition

The subfield of psychology focused on how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations.

Controlled Processes

Conscious, effortful, purposeful, and intentional cognitive operations.

Automatic Processes

Unconscious, relatively effortless, and habitual cognitive operations that act as a "mental autopilot."

Schema

An organized knowledge structure containing general information and expectations about a specific category of people, objects, or events.

Prototype

The most typical or representative example of a category or schema.

Script (Event Schema)

A type of schema that dictates the expected sequence of events and behaviors in a specific situational context (e.g., dining at a restaurant or responding to a fire alarm).

Gender Schemas

Organized structures of social expectations, traits, interests, and roles associated with gender categories.

Priming

The activation of specific concepts or schemas in memory that influences subsequent interpretation, processing, or behavior.

Decision Heuristics

Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb used to make decisions quickly and efficiently, which can sometimes lead to systematic biases.

Availability Heuristic

Estimating the likelihood or frequency of an event based on how easily examples or instances of it come to mind.

Anchoring Heuristic

A bias where judgment and quantitative estimations are heavily influenced by an initial starting value or frame of reference.

False Consensus Effect

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people share one's own opinions, values, and behaviors.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, and recall information in a way that confirms pre-existing beliefs while ignoring counter-evidence.

Counterfactual Thinking

Mentally simulating alternative scenarios or outcomes that could have happened (especially when close to occurring) but did not.

Internal Attribution (Dispositional Attribution)

Explaining behavior as being caused by stable and controllable personal traits, such as personality or ability.

External Attribution (Situational Attribution)

Explaining behavior as being caused by temporary and uncontrollable environmental or social situational factors.

Consensus Information

In Kelley's covariation model, information about whether other people react in the same way to the same stimulus or situation.

Distinctiveness Information

In Kelley's covariation model, information about whether an individual behaves differently in distinct situations versus showing the same behavior across all situations.

Consistency Information

In Kelley's covariation model, information about whether an individual performs the same behavior in the exact same situation across time.

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)

The tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences when evaluating another person's behavior.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to attribute one's own successes to internal dispositional factors while attributing failures to external situational factors.

Just World Hypothesis

The belief that the world is inherently fair and that individuals get what they deserve, providing a sense of control but potentially leading to victim-blaming.

Actor-Observer Bias

The tendency to attribute one's own behavior to external situational causes while attributing others' identical behavior to internal dispositional causes.