Midterm #3 Introduction to Psychology 110

Social Cognition

The ways that people perceive, attend to, store, make inferences about, remember, and use information and feelings about other people and the social world.

Implicit Processes

Cognitive processing that occurs without awareness, without conscious intent, and with limited ability to be controlled or prevented once triggered; also called automatic processes

Attitude

An overall evaluation of some aspect of the world-people, issues, or objects.

Explicit Attitude

an attitude that a person is consciously aware of and can report

Implicit Attitude

an attitude, such as prejudice, that one is not aware of having (gut reaction)

Affective Attitude

Refers to your feelings about people, issues, or objects.

Behavioral Attitude

Refers to your predisposition to act in a particular way toward people, an issue, or an object.

Cognitive Attitude

Refers to what you believe or know about people, issues, or objects.

Cognitive Dissonance

The uncomfortable state that arises from a discrepancy between two attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors

Indirect Strategies

Try to feel good about ourselves in other areas of life

Direct Strategies

Involve actually changing our attitude or behavior

Trivialize an Inconsistency

Between two conflicting attitudes as being unimportant and thereby make it less likely to cause cognitive dissonance

Persuasion

Attempts to change people's attitudes.

Central Route Persuasion

occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts

Peripheral Route Persuasion

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness

Mere Exposure Effect

The change-generally favorable-in an attitude that results from simply becoming familiar with something or someone.

Identity Persuasion

An attractive person or an expert can be persuasive via the peripheral route

Fast Talking Persuasion

People who speak quickly are generally more persuasive than people who speak slowly.

Seems honest Persuasion

People perceived as being honest are generally more persuasive

Social Cognitive Neuroscience

The area of psychology that attempts to understand social cognition by specifying the cognitive mechanisms that underlie it and by discovering how those mechanisms are rooted in the brain.

Stereotype

A belief (or set of beliefs) about people from a particular category

Prejudice

An attitude (generally negative) toward members of a group.

Discrimination

Negative behavior toward individuals from a specific group that arises from unjustified negative attitudes about that group

Realistic Conflict Theory

Prejudice exists because of competition for scarce resources such as good housing, jobs, and schools.

Social Categorization

The cognitive operation that leads people to sort others automatically into categories of "us" versus "them"

Ingroup

A person's own group.

Outgroup

A group other than a person's own.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

The process by which the expectation that a person will behave a certain way affects the pattern of interaction such that the person behaves as expected.

Social Learning Theory

we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished. Prejudice is passed down through generations according to this theory.

Stereotype Threat

The threat that occurs when people believe that a negative stereotype addresses characteristics important to them, and that others will see them as conforming to that stereotype.

Contact Hypothesis

Holds that increased contact between different groups will decrease prejudice between them.

Recatergorization

A means of reducing prejudice by shifting the categories of "us" and "them" so that the two groups are no longer viewed as distinct entities

Attributions

An explanation for the cause of an event or behavior

Internal Attribution

An explanation of someone's behavior that focuses on the person's beliefs, goals, traits, or other characteristics; also called dispositional attribution.

External Attribution

An explanation of someone's behavior that focuses on the situation; also called situational attribution.

Attributional Bias

A tendency to make certain types of attributions; this sort of bias generally occurs outside of conscious awareness.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The strong tendency to interpret other people's behavior as arising from internal causes rather than external ones; also referred to as the correspondence bias.

Spontaneous Trait Inference

an effortless, automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone's behavior

Self-serving Bias

A person's inclination to attribute his or her own failures to external causes and own successes to internal causes, but to attribute other people's failures to internal causes and their successes to external causes.

Belief in a Just World

An attributional bias that assumes that people get what they deserve.

Social Exchange Theory

the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs

Companionate Love

An altruistic type of love characterized by expending time, attention, and resources on behalf of another person

Passionate Love

The intense, often sudden feeling of being "in love," which typically involves sexual attraction, a desire for mutual love and physical closeness, arousal, and a fear that the relationship will end.

Triangular model of love

The theory that love has three dimensions: passion, intimacy and commitment

Attachment Style

The manner of behaving and thinking about a partner

Secure Attachment Style

Adults seek closeness and interdependence in relationships and are not worried about possibly losing the relationship because they feel secure in it.

Avoidant Attachment Style

Adults are uncomfortable with intimacy and closeness.

Anxious-ambivalent style

Adults want but simultaneously fear a relationship

Group

A social entity characterized by regular interaction among members, some emotional connection, a common frame of reference, and a degree of interdependence.

Norms

A rule that implicitly or explicitly governs members of a group.

Roles

Behaviors that a member in a given position in a group is expected to perform

Conformity

A change in behavior in order to follow a group's norms

Informational Social Influence

We conform to other because we believe that their views are current or their behavior is appropriate for the situation

Normative Social Influence

We conform because we want to be liked or thought of positively

Compliance

A change in behavior brought about by a direct request rather than by social norms.

Foot-in-the-door Technique

A technique that achieves compliance by beginning with an insignificant request, which is then followed by a larger request

Lowball Technique

A compliance technique that consists of getting someone to make an agreement and then increasing the cost of that agreement

Door-in-the-face Technique

A compliance technique in which someone makes a very large request and then when it is denied (as expected) makes a smaller request - for what is actually desired.

Obedience

Compliance with an order

Group Polarization

The tendency of a group members' opinions to become more extreme (in the same direction as their initial opinions) after group discussion

Groupthink

The group process that arises when people who try to solve problems together accept one another's information and ideas without subjecting them to critical analysis

Social Loafing

The group process that occurs when some members don't contribute as much to a shared group task as do others, and instead let other members work proportionally harder than they do

Social Facilitaition

The increase in performance that can occur simply as a result of being part of a group or in the presence of other people

Altruism

The motivation to increase another person's welfare

Prosocial Behavior

Acting altruistically, which includes sharing, cooperating, comforting, and helping others

Bystander Effect

The decrease in offers of assistance that occurs as the number of bystanders increases.

Diffusion of Responsibility

The diminished sense of responsibility to help that each person feels as the number of bystanders grow

Stress

The general term that describes the psychological and physical response to a stimulus that alters the body's equilibrium

Stressor

A stimulus that throws the body's equilibrium out of balance

Stress Response

The bodily response to a stressor that occurs to help a person cope with the stressor; also called the fight or flight response.

Acute Stressor

A stressor that has a short-term duration.

Chronic Stressor

A stressor that has a long-term duration.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

The overall stress response that has three phases: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

Alarm Phase

The first phase of the GAS, in which a stressor is perceived and the fight-or-flight response is activated.

Glucocorticoids

A group of hormones that are released when the stress response is triggered.

Resistance Phase

The second phase of the GAS, in which the body mobilizes its resources to adapt to the continued presence of the stressor; also called the adaptation phase.

Exhaustion Phase

The final stage of the GAS, in which the continued stress response itself becomes damaging to the body.

Allostatic Load

The cumulative wear and tear on the body necessary to maintain homeostasis in the face of stressors.

Primary Appraisal

initial decision regarding whether an event is harmful

Secondary Appraisal

perceptions regarding our ability to cope with an event that follows primary appraisal

Coping

Thoughts and actions that address a stressor, counteract its effects, and maintain well-being

Internal Conflict

The emotional predicament that people experience when making difficult choices.

Approach-approach conflict

The internal conflict that occurs when competing alternatives are equally positive

Avoidance-avoidance conflict

The internal conflict that occurs when competing alternatives are equally unpleasant.

Approach-avoidance conflict

The internal conflict that occurs when a course of action has both positive and negative aspects

Microaggressions

Subtle forms of discrimination due to one's minority or socially disadvantaged status that people may or may not perceive.

B Cells

A type of white blood cell that matures in the bone marrow

T cells

A type of white blood cell that matures in the thymus

Natural Killer (NK) cell

A type of T cell that detects and destroys damaged or altered cells, such a precancerous cells.

Psychoneuroimmunology

the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health

Atherosclerosis

A medical condition characterized by the buildup of plaque on the inside walls of artieries

Hostility

The personality trait associated with heart disease and characterized by mistrust, an expectation of harm and provocation by others, and a cynical attitude.

Sleep

The naturally recurring experience during which normal consciousness is suspended

Hypnogogic Sleep

The initial stage of sleep, which lasts about 5 minutes and can include the sensation of gentle falling or floating or sudden jerking of the body; also referred to as Stage 1 sleep

Sleep Spindles

Brief bursts of brain activity

Delta Waves

the large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep

REM sleep

Stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, marked brain activity, and vivid dreaming

REM Rebound

The higher percentage of REM sleep that occurs following a night lacking the normal amount of REM

Activation-synthesis Hypothesis

The theory that dreams arise from random bursts of nerve cell activity that may affect brain cells involved in hearing and seeing; the brain attempts to make sense of this hodgepodge of stimuli, resulting in the experience of dreams.

Manifest Content

The obvious, memorable content of a dream