psych

Hostile Aggression

Impulsive, emotional, and unplanned behavior driven by anger or physiological arousal, where the primary objective is to cause physical or psychological harm.

Instrumental Aggression

Premeditated, proactive, and goal-directed actions where inflicting harm serves as a calculated means to secure an external reward or objective rather than an end in itself.

Deindividuation

A psychological state marked by reduced self-awareness, personal identity, and social accountability when submerged in a crowd or under conditions of anonymity, increasing antisocial behavior. (IMPORTANT)

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A dynamic where an observer's pre-existing expectation or stereotype leads them to treat a target in ways that cause the target to confirm that original expectation.

Intergroup Contact Hypothesis

A social intervention that brings opposing groups together to reduce prejudice, operating most effectively under equal status conditions and cooperative superordinate goals.

Intimacy (Sternberg's Theory)

The emotional component of love characterized by feelings of closeness, connectedness, bonding, and mutual sharing of personal experiences.

Passion (Sternberg's Theory)

The motivational and drive-related component of love that fuels romance and physical attraction.

Decision/Commitment (Sternberg's Theory)

The cognitive component of love involving the short-term choice to love someone and the long-term dedication to maintain that relationship over time.

Pratfall Effect

The social phenomenon where a minor blunder enhances the perceived attractiveness and likability of an exceptionally competent person, but reduces the likability of an average individual.

Gain-Loss Effect

The principle stating that interpersonal liking is stronger when relational evaluations transition from negative to positive over time compared to consistently positive feedback. (IMPOR.)

Misattribution of Arousal

A process where unexplained physiological arousal produced by non-romantic stimuli (such as exercise, fear, or caffeine) is mistakenly interpreted as romantic attraction toward a nearby individual.

Cognitive Dissonance

An uncomfortable state of psychological tension produced when actions contradict pre-existing beliefs, prompting a shift in personal attitude when external justification is insufficient.

Diffusion of Responsibility

A socio-psychological phenomenon in which witnesses feel less personal obligation to intervene during an emergency as the number of perceived bystanders increases. (IMPOR.)

Model Similarity Effect

The tendency for observers to imitate or adopt the prosocial actions of an observed individual when they identify with or share attributes with that person.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The cognitive bias where observers overestimate internal dispositional factors and underestimate external situational influences when evaluating another person's actions.

Idiosyncrasy Credits

Interpersonal capital accumulated within a group through past conformity and competence, permitting an individual to deviate from group norms without facing severe penalties. (iMPORT.)

Statistical Determinism

The assumption that human behavior is shaped by preceding causes, enabling above-chance probabilistic predictions across groups rather than absolute individual certainty. (IMPOR.)

Operational Definition

The specification of an abstract scientific construct in concrete, observable, and measurable terms for empirical study.

Idiographic Approach

A research orientation focused on the individual person, emphasizing unique personal histories, qualitative case studies, and subjective experiences.

Nomothetic Approach

A research orientation focused on identifying universal principles, general laws, and standardized patterns across broad populations.

Interactionism

The psychological framework asserting that behavior is a joint product of internal person-level characteristics and external environmental influences, expressed as $B = f(P, E)$. (this unit is on there)

Foot-in-the-Door Technique (Cialdini)

asking small request first before larger target request increases subsequent compliance due to consistency pressures.

Bobo Doll Experiment (Bandura)

children directly imitate observed novel physical and verbal aggression from adult social models rather than acting solely on internal instinct. (you learn the behavior from adults)

Superordinate Goals (Robbers Cave Study)

Shared, cooperative objectives that require joint effort between opposing factions, effectively mitigating intergroup conflict and prejudice.

Self-Perception Theory (Bem)

The framework asserting that individuals determine their internal attitudes and preferences by observing their own outward behavior, offering a parsimonious alternative to cognitive dissonance.

Pluralistic Ignorance

A bystander inhibition where witnesses look to others in an ambiguous situation, interpret outward passivity as evidence that no crisis exists, and mistakenly fail to act.

Unresponsive Bystander

The precise psychological term replacing 'bystander apathy,' highlighting that failure to intervene stems from situational ambiguity and social forces rather than emotional indifference.

Time Pressure Effect (Good Samaritan Study)

The finding by Darley and Batson showing that being in a hurry drastically reduces prosocial intervention regardless of personal religious or ethical beliefs.

Shared Fate Effect (Piliavin Subway Study)

The observation that prosocial intervention remains exceptionally high in confined settings where witnesses share a common physical environment and cannot easily flee.

Self-Determinism

The psychological framework recognizing human agency, intentional choice, and personal direction operating within biological, environmental, and historical constraints.

Romantic Love (Sternberg)

intimacy + passion. no long-term commitment.

Companionate Love (Sternberg)

high levels of intimacy + commitment, no passion

Fatuous Love (Sternberg)

passion + commitment, no foundation of intimacy

Consummate Love (Sternberg)

complete, integrates all three core dimensions: intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment.

Infatuated Love (Sternberg)

purely passion, no intimacy + long-term commitment.

Empty Love (Sternberg)

solely commitment, no intimacy or passion.