AP Psychology Social Psychology and Personality

Conformity

Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Normative Social Influence

Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.

Social Norms

Expected standards of conduct, which influence behavior.

Social Comparison

Evaluating one's abilities and opinions by comparing oneself to others.

Relative Deprivation

The perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself.

Upward Social Comparison

Comparing oneself with others who are better off.

Downward Social Comparison

Comparing oneself with others who are worse off.

Informational Social Influence

Influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality.

Obedience

Following the directives of authority.

Social Facilitation

Improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.

Group Polarization

The enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group.

Groupthink

The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.

Bystander Effect

The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.

Diffusion of Responsibility

Diminished sense of responsibility among group members to act because others are seen as equally responsible.

Social Loafing

The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable.

Deindividuation

The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.

Attribution Theory

The theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.

Dispositional Attributions

Attributing behavior to the person's disposition and traits.

Situational Attributions

Attributing behavior to the environment.

Explanatory Style

A person's habitual way of explaining events, typically assessed along three dimensions: internal/external, stable/unstable, and global/specific.

Optimistic Explanatory Style

Explaining bad events as results of temporary, external causes.

Pessimistic Explanatory Style

Explaining bad events as results of stable, internal causes.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency for observers, when analyzing others' behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

Actor-Observer Bias

The tendency to attribute one's own actions to external causes while attributing other people's behaviors to internal causes.

Self-Serving Bias

A readiness to perceive oneself favorably.

Internal Locus of Control

The perception that one controls one's own fate.

External Locus of Control

The perception that chance or outside forces beyond one's personal control determine one's fate.

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

Social Responsibility Norm

An expectation that people will help those needing their help.

Stereotype

A generalized belief about a group of people.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.

Belief Perseverance

Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A belief that leads to its own fulfillment.

Prejudice

An unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members.

Discrimination

Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.

Implicit Attitudes

Attitudes that influence a person's feelings and behavior at an unconscious level.

Just-World Phenomenon

The tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve.

Out-Group Homogeneity Bias

Perception of out-group members as more similar to one another than are in-group members.

In-Group Bias

The tendency to favor one's own group.

Mere Exposure Effect

The phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them.

Ethnocentrism

Evaluating other cultures according to the standards and customs of one's own culture.

Collectivism

Giving priority to the goals of one's group and defining one's identity accordingly.

Multiculturalism

The practice of valuing and respecting differences in culture.

Superordinate Goals

Shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation.

Social Traps

A situation in which conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.

Persuasion

The process of creating, reinforcing, or changing people's beliefs or actions.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

A theory of how persuasive messages lead to attitude changes.

Central Route of Persuasion

Attitude change path in which interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.

Peripheral Route of Persuasion

Attitude change path in which people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness.

Halo Effect

The tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

Door-in-the-Face Technique

The strategy of getting someone to agree to a modest request by first asking them to agree to a much larger request that they will likely turn down.

False Consensus Effect

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

Cognitive Dissonance

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent.

Industrial-Organizational (I/O) Psychologists

Psychologists who apply psychology's principles to the workplace.

Instincts

A complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned.

Drive-Reduction Theory

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need.

Homeostasis

The tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level.

Ghrelin

Hormone secreted by an empty stomach; sends 'I'm hungry' signals to the brain.

Leptin

Hormone secreted by fat cells; when abundant, causes brain to increase metabolism and decrease hunger.

Hypothalamus

A neural structure lying below the thalamus; directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temperature), helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion and reward.

Pituitary Gland

The endocrine system's most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands.

Belongingness

The human emotional need to be an accepted member of a group.

Arousal Theory

The theory that people are motivated to maintain an optimal level of alertness and physical and mental activation.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases.

Sensation-Seeking Theory

The search for experiences and feelings that are varied, novel, complex, and intense.

Thrill Seeking

Pursuing activities that provide a rush of adrenaline.

Adventure Seeking

Engaging in unusual and exciting activities.

Disinhibition

Acting impulsively, without considering the consequences.

Boredom Susceptibility

Tendency to experience boredom and frustration when not engaged in stimulating activities.

Incentive Theory

A theory that states that behavior is motivated by a desire for reinforcement or incentives.

Extrinsic Motivation

A desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.

Self-Determination Theory

A theory of motivation that is concerned with the beneficial effects of intrinsic motivation and the harmful effects of extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic Motivation

A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.

Lewin's Motivational Conflicts Theory

A theory that describes situations in which conflicting motivations produce indecision and difficulty.

Approach-Approach Conflicts

Conflict that results from having to choose between two attractive alternatives.

Avoidance-Avoidance Conflicts

Conflict that results from having to choose between two distasteful alternatives.

Approach-Avoidance Conflicts

Conflict that results when a single action or event has both attractive and unattractive features.

Emotion

A response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience.

Affect

A broad range of feelings that people experience.

Facial-Feedback Hypothesis

The idea that facial expressions can influence emotions as well as reflect them.

Display Rules

Culturally determined rules about which nonverbal behaviors are appropriate to display.

Elicitors

Stimuli that trigger emotional responses.

Broaden-and-Build Theory of Emotion

Theory proposing that happiness predisposes us to think more openly.

Universal Emotions

Basic emotions that are expressed by all cultures around the world such as happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, and surprise.

Psychodynamic Theory

A view that explains personality in terms of conscious and unconscious forces, such as unconscious desires and beliefs.

Preconscious Mind

The level of consciousness that is not currently in focal awareness.

Unconscious Mind

A reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories.

Denial

Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people refuse to believe or even to perceive painful realities.

Displacement

Defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person.

Projection

Defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.

Rationalization

Defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one's actions.

Reaction Formation

Defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites.

Regression

Defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage.

Repression

Defense mechanism by which anxiety-provoking thoughts and feelings are forced to the unconscious.

Sublimation

Defense mechanism by which people re-channel their unacceptable impulses into socially approved activities.

Humanistic Psychology

A historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people.

Unconditional Regard

An attitude of total acceptance toward another person.

Self-Actualizing Tendency

The human motive toward realizing our inner potential.

Social-Cognitive Theory

Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people's traits (including their thinking) and their social context.