Social Thinking (10)

Interpersonal attraction

what makes people like each other and is influenced by multiple factors

Physical attractiveness

increased with symmetry and proportions close to the golden ratio

Self-disclosure

includes sharing fears, thoughts, and goals with another person and being met with empathy and nonjudgment

Reciprocity

we like people who we think like us

Proximity

being physically close to someone

Aggression

a physical, verbal, or nonverbal behavior with the intention to cause harm or increase social dominance.

Attachment

an emotional bond to another person, and usually refers to the bond between a child and a caregiver. There are four types of this.

Secure attachment

requires a consistent caregiver so the child is able to go out and explore, knowing there is a secure base to return to; the child will show strong preference for the caregiver.

Avoidant attachment

occurs when a caregiver has little or no response to a distressed, crying child; the child shows no preference for the caregiver compared to strangers.

Ambivalent attachment

occurs when a caregiver has an inconsistent response to a child's distress, sometimes responding appropriately, sometimes neglectfully; the child will become distressed when the caregiver leaves and is ambivalent when the caregiver returns.

Disorganized attachment

occurs when a caregiver is erratic or abusive; the child shows no clear pattern of behavior in response to the caregiver's absence or presence and may show repetitive behaviors.

Social support

the perception or reality that one is cared for by a social network.

Emotional support

includes listening to, affirming, and empathizing with someone's feelings.

Esteem support

affirms the qualities and skills of the person.

Material support

providing physical or monetary resources to aid a person.

Informational support

providing useful information to a person.

Network support

providing a sense of belonging to a person.

Foraging

searching for and exploiting food resources.

Mating system

describes the way in which a group is organized in terms of sexual behavior.

Monogamy

consists of exclusive mating relationships.

Polygamy

consists of multiple exclusive relationships, including polygyny and polyandry

Polygyny

Exclusive relationships with multiple females

Polyandry

Exclusive relationships with multiple males

Promiscuity

means mating without exclusivity.

Mate choice (intersexual selection)

the selection of a mate based on attraction and traits.

Altruism

a form of helping behavior in which peoples intent is to benefit someone else at some cost to themselves.

Game theory

attempts to explain decision making between individuals as if they are participating in a game.

Inclusive fitness

a measure of an organism's success in the population. This is based on the number of offspring, success in supporting offspring, and the ability of the offspring to then support others.

Social perception or social cognition

the way by which we generate impressions about people in our social environment. It contains a perceiver, a target, and the situation or social context of the scenario.

Implicitly personality theory

states that people make assumptions about how different types of people, their traits, and their behavior are related.

Primary effect

refers to when first impressions are more important than subsequent impressions.

Recency effect

when the most recent information we have about an individual is most important in forming our impressions.

Reliance on central traits

the tendency to organize the perception of others based on traits and personal characteristics that matter to the perceiver.

Halo effect

when judgments of an individual's character can be affected by the overall impression of the individual.

Just-world hypothesis

the tendency of individuals to believe that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.

Self-serving bias

refers to the fact that individuals will view their own successes as being based on internal factors, while viewing failures as being based on external factors.

Attribution theory

focuses on the tendency for individuals to infer the causes of other peoples behavior.

Dispositional (internal) causes

those that relate to the features of the person whose behavior is being considered.

Situational (external) causes

are related to features of the surroundings or social context.

Correspondent inference theory

used to describe attributions made by observing the intentional (especially unexpected) behaviors performed by another person.

Fundamental attribution error

the bias toward making dispositional attributions rather than situational attributions in regard to the actions of others.

Attribute substitution

occurs when individuals must make judgments that are complex but instead substitute a simpler solution or heuristic.

Attributions

highly influenced by the culture in which one resides.

Stereotypes

occur when attitudes and impressions are made based on limited and superficial information about a person or a group of individuals. These can lead to expectations of certain groups, which can create conditions that lead to confirmation of this, a process referred to as self-fulfilling prophecy.

Stereotype threat

concern or anxiety about confirming a negative stereotype about one's social group.

Prejudice

defined as an irrational positive or negative attitude toward a person, group, or thing prior to an actual experience.

Ethnocentrism

refers to the practice of making judgments about other cultures based on the values and beliefs of one's own culture.

Cultural relativism

refers to the recognition that social groups and cultures should be studied on their own terms.

Discrimination

when prejudicial attitudes cause individuals of a particular group to be treated differently from others.

Individual discrimination

refers to one person discriminating against a particular person or group.

Institutional discrimination

refers to the discrimination against a particular person or group by an entire institution.