AP Psych: 4.4.2

Social norms

Any of the socially determined consensual standards that indicate (a) what behaviors are considered typical in a given context (descriptive norms) and (b) what behaviors are considered proper in the context (injunctive norms).

Social influence theory

Any change in an individual’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviors caused by other people, who may be actually present or whose presence is imagined, expected, or only implied.

Normative social influence

The personal and interpersonal processes that cause individuals to feel, think, and act in ways that are consistent with social norms, standards, and conventions.

Informational social influence

Those interpersonal processes that challenge the correctness of an individual’s beliefs or the appropriateness of their behavior, thereby promoting change.

Persuasion

An active attempt by one person to change another person’s attitudes, beliefs, or emotions associated with some issue, person, concept, or object.

Elaboration likelihood model

A theory of persuasion postulating that attitude change occurs on a continuum of elaboration and thus, under certain conditions, may be a result of relatively extensive or relatively little scrutiny of attitude-relevant information.

Central route

The process by which attitudes are formed or changed as a result of carefully scrutinizing and thinking about the central merits of attitude-relevant information.

Peripheral route

The process by which attitudes are formed or changed as a result of using peripheral cues rather than carefully scrutinizing and thinking about the central merits of attitude-relevant information.

Halo effect

a rating bias in which a general evaluation (usually positive) of a person, or an evaluation of a person on a specific dimension, influences judgments of that person on other specific dimensions.

Foot-in-the-door technique

A two-step procedure for enhancing compliance in which a minor initial request is presented immediately before a more substantial target request.

Door-in-the-face technique

A two-step procedure for enhancing compliance in which an extreme initial request is presented immediately before a more moderate target request.

Conformity

The adjustment of one’s opinions, judgments, or actions so that they become more consistent with (a) the opinions, judgments, or actions of other people or (b) the normative standards of a social group or situation.

Obedience

Behavior in compliance with a direct command, often one issued by a person in a position of authority.

Individualism

A social or cultural tradition, ideology, or personal outlook that emphasizes the individual and their rights, independence, and relationships with other individuals.

Collectivism

The tendency to view oneself as a member of a larger (family or social) group, rather than as an isolated, independent being. ​​A social or cultural tradition, ideology, or personal outlook that emphasizes the unity of the group or community rather than each person’s individuality.

Multiculturalism

The quality or condition of a society in which different ethnic and cultural groups have equal status and access to power but each maintains its own identity, characteristics, and mores.

Group polarization

The tendency for members of a group discussing an issue to move toward a more extreme version of the positions they held before the discussion began.

Groupthink

A strong concurrence-seeking tendency that interferes with effective group decision making.

Diffusion of responsibility

The diminished sense of responsibility often experienced by individuals in groups and social collectives.

Social loafing

The reduction of individual effort that occurs when people work in groups compared to when they work alone.

Deindividuation

An experiential state characterized by loss of self-awareness, altered perceptions, and a reduction of inner restraints that results in the performance of unusual and sometimes antisocial behavior.

Social facilitation

The improvement in an individual’s performance of a task that often occurs when others are present.

False consensus effect

The tendency to assume that one’s own opinions, beliefs, attributes, or behaviors are more widely shared than is actually the case.

Superordinate goal

A goal that takes precedence over one or more other, more conditional goals. A goal that can be attained only if the members of two or more groups work together by pooling their skills, efforts, and resources

Social trap

A social dilemma in which individuals, groups, organizations, or whole societies initiate a course of action or establish a set of relationships that lead to negative or even lethal outcomes in the long term, but that once initiated are difficult to withdraw from or alter.

Industrial-organizational (I/O) psychologist

The branch of psychology that studies human behavior in the work environment and applies general psychological principles to work-related issues and problems, notably in such areas as personnel selection, personnel training, employee evaluation, working conditions, accident prevention, job analysis, job satisfaction, leadership, team effectiveness, and work motivation.

Burnout

Physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance, and negative attitudes toward oneself and others.

Altruism

An apparently unselfish behavior that provides benefit to others at some cost to the individual.

Prosocial behavior

Denoting or exhibiting behavior that benefits one or more other people, such as providing assistance to an older adult crossing the street.

Social debt

Inability, unwillingness, or poor judgment in the performance of social activities commensurate with chronological age, intelligence, or physical condition.

Social reciprocity norm

A form of helping behavior that is sustained when one individual (A) helps another (B) and at some future time B helps A or A’s offspring.

Social responsibility norm

The socially determined standard that one should assist those in need when possible.

Bystander effect

A phenomenon in which people fail to offer needed help in emergencies, especially when other people are present in the same setting.

Situational variables

external, environmental factors—such as noise, lighting, temperature, or the presence of others—that influence an individual’s behavior, emotions, or research outcomes.

Attentional variables

The specific factors related to a person's focus, alertness, and cognitive processing that influence whether they notice a situation, such as an emergency, and choose to respond to it.

Psychodynamic theory

A constellation of theories of human functioning that are based on the interplay of drives and other forces within the person, especially (and originating in) the psychoanalytic theories developed by Sigmund Freud and his colleagues and successors, such as Anna Freud, Carl Jung, and Melanie Klein.

Unconscious processes

In cognitive psychology, a mental process that occurs without a person being explicitly aware of it and largely outside of conscious control.

Ego defense mechanisms

In psychoanalytic theory, the use of defense mechanisms to protect the ego against anxiety arising from threatening impulses and conflicts as well as external threats.

Denial

A defense mechanism in which unpleasant thoughts, feelings, wishes, or events are ignored or excluded from conscious awareness. Refusal to aknowledge

Displacement

A defense mechanism in which the individual discharges tensions associated with, for example, hostility and fear by taking them out on a less threatening target. Redirect impulse to something less bad.

Projection

In psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theories, the process by which one attributes one’s own individual positive or negative characteristics, affects, and impulses to another person or group.

Rationalization

An ego defense in which apparently logical reasons are given to justify unacceptable behavior that is motivated by unconscious instinctual impulses. Justification.

Reaction formation

In psychoanalytic theory, a defense mechanism in which unacceptable or threatening unconscious impulses are denied and are replaced in consciousness with their opposite.

Regression

A return to a prior, lower state of cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning. Returning to childlike behavior.

Repression

In classical psychoanalytic theory and other forms of depth psychology, the basic defense mechanism that excludes painful experiences and unacceptable impulses from consciousness.

Sublimation

In classical psychoanalytic theory, a defense mechanism in which unacceptable sexual or aggressive drives are unconsciously channeled into socially acceptable modes of expression and redirected into new, learned behaviors, which indirectly provide some satisfaction for the original drives. Redirect to positive.

Projective tests

Any assessment procedure that consists of a series of relatively ambiguous stimuli designed to elicit unique, sometimes highly idiosyncratic, responses that reflect the personality, cognitive style, and other psychological characteristics of the respondent.

Preconscious mind

The level of the psyche that contains thoughts, feelings, and impulses not presently in awareness but that can be more or less readily called into consciousness.

Unconscious mind

The region of the psyche containing memories, emotional conflicts, wishes, and repressed impulses that are not directly accessible to awareness but that have dynamic effects on thought and behavior.

Humanistic psychology

An approach to psychology that flourished between the 1940s and the early 1970s and that is most visible today as a family of widely used approaches to psychotherapy and counseling.

Unconditional regard

An attitude of caring, acceptance, and prizing that others express toward an individual irrespective of their behavior and without regard to the others’ personal standards.

Self-actualizing tendency

The complete realization of that of which one is capable, involving maximum development of abilities and full involvement in and appreciation for life, particularly as manifest in peak experiences.