Studied by 3 people
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.
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