Psychology 2e: Social Psychology, Personality, Lifespan Development, Motivation and Emotion

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards generated from Psychology 2e lecture material, covering Social Psychology, Personality, Lifespan Development, and Motivation and Emotion.

Situationism

The view, favored by social psychologists, that our behavior and actions are determined by our immediate environment and surroundings.

Dispositionism

The view, favored by personality psychologists, that behavior is determined by internal factors such as personality traits and temperament.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overemphasize internal factors as explanations or attributions for the behavior of others while underestimating the power of the situation.

Actor-Observer Bias

The phenomenon of attributing other people's behaviors to internal dispositional factors while attributing our own behaviors to situational forces.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency of an individual to take credit by making dispositional attributions for positive outcomes, but situational attributions for negative outcomes.

Just-World Hypothesis

The belief that the world is a fair place where people get the outcomes they deserve, leading to victim blaming when bad things happen to people.

Social Role

A pattern of behavior that is expected of a person in a given setting or group, defined by culturally shared knowledge.

Social Norm

A group's expectation regarding what is appropriate and acceptable behavior, thought, speech, and appearance for its members.

Script

A person's knowledge about the exact sequence of events expected in a specific setting or situation.

Stanford Prison Experiment

A 1971 study conducted by Philip Zimbardo demonstrating the profound power of social roles, norms, and scripts in shaping behavior in a mock prison setting.

Cognitive Dissonance

Leon Festinger's theory describing the psychological discomfort arising from holding two or more inconsistent attitudes, behaviors, or cognitions.

Justification of Effort

The phenomenon demonstrated by Aronson and Mills (1959) where undergoing a difficult or embarrassing initiation into a group causes a person to like the group more.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Petty and Cacioppo's persuasion model outlining two routes: the logic-driven central route leading to lasting attitude change, and the cue-driven peripheral route leading to temporary change.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

A persuasion strategy where a persuader gets a person to agree to a small favor first, only to later request a larger favor.

Conformity

The change in a person's behavior to go along with a group, even if he or she does not agree with the group, as demonstrated in Solomon Asch's line judgment studies.

Normative Social Influence

Conformity to a group norm motivated by the desire to fit in, feel good, and gain social approval or acceptance.

Informational Social Influence

Conformity stemming from the belief that the group is competent and possesses correct information, particularly in ambiguous situations.

Obedience

The change of an individual's behavior to comply with a direct demand by an authority figure, as investigated in Stanley Milgram's shock experiments.

Groupthink

The modification of group members' opinions to align with perceived group consensus, often stifling dissenting views and causing faulty decision-making.

Group Polarization

The strengthening and intensification of a group's original attitude following discussion within the group.

Social Facilitation

Improved performance on an easy or well-rehearsed task when an audience is watching compared to when performing alone.

Social Loafing

The exertion of less effort by an individual when working together in a group setting where individual performance cannot be evaluated separately.

Prejudice

A negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on their membership in a particular social group.

Stereotype

A specific belief or assumption held about individuals based solely on their membership in a particular social group.

Discrimination

Negative action or behavior directed toward an individual as a result of their membership in a specific group.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

An expectation held by a person that alters their behavior in a way that causes the expectation to come true.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to seek out and recall information that supports our existing stereotypes while ignoring inconsistent information.

Hostile Aggression

Aggressive behavior motivated by feelings of anger with the specific intent to cause pain or harm.

Instrumental Aggression

Aggressive behavior motivated by achieving a specific goal, which does not necessarily involve intent to cause physical pain.

Bystander Effect

A phenomenon where a witness or bystander does not volunteer to help a victim in distress due to the presence of other onlookers.

Diffusion of Responsibility

The tendency for no one in a group to offer help because the responsibility to intervene is spread across all group members.

Altruism

A pure, selfless desire to help others even when the personal costs outweigh any potential benefits of helping.

Homophily

The tendency for individuals to form social networks and close relationships with others who are similar to them.

Matching Hypothesis

The proposition that people tend to pick romantic partners whom they view as their equals in physical attractiveness and social desirability.

Social Exchange Theory

The model proposing that individuals weigh the costs and benefits of forming and maintaining a relationship, maintaining only those where benefits exceed costs.

Personality

The long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways.

Phrenology

Franz Gall's discredited 1780 theory asserting that distances between bumps on the human skull reveal an individual's personality traits and mental abilities.

Id

Freud's primitive personality structure present at birth containing instinctual urges for hunger, thirst, and sex, operating entirely on the pleasure principle.

Superego

Freud's moral compass that develops through social interaction, learning social rules of right and wrong, striving for perfection, and causing pride or guilt.

Ego

Freud's rational structure operating on the reality principle that attempts to balance the instinctual desires of the id with the moral demands of the superego.

Defense Mechanisms

Unconscious protective behaviors utilized by the ego to reduce anxiety and restore internal balance between the id and superego.

Inferiority Complex

Alfred Adler's concept describing an individual's deep-seated feelings that they lack worth and fail to measure up to societal or personal standards.

Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung's concept of a universal layer of the unconscious mind shared across the human species containing inherited mental patterns and memory traces.

Archetypes

Universal mental patterns or themes present in the collective unconscious reflected across global cultures, folklore, and dreams.

Persona

Carl Jung's term for the conscious mask an individual presents to society to strike a compromise between their true self and societal expectations.

Reciprocal Determinism

Albert Bandura's concept stating that cognitive processes, behavior, and situational context all continuously interact and influence one another.

Locus of Control

Julian Rotter's cognitive construct describing an individual's belief regarding the power and control they have over their life outcomes (internal versus external).

Self-Concept

Carl Rogers's humanistic construct referring to our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, categorized into the ideal self and the real self.

Five Factor Model

The personality trait theory asserting that personality can be described across five continuous dimensions represented by the mnemonic OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

MMPI

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, a widely used objective self-report inventory comprising true/false questions scored on 10 clinical scales.

Projective Tests

Personality assessment tools relying on projection to evaluate unconscious processes by asking subjects to interpret ambiguous images or complete sentence stems.

Normative Approach

A developmental study method determining average ages or norms at which most children reach specific physical, cognitive, and social milestones.

Continuous Development

The view that development is a cumulative, gradual process of steadily improving existing skills over time.

Discontinuous Development

The view that human development occurs in distinct, unique stages at specific times or ages.

Schemata

Mental concepts or categories used by children to organize, interpret, and understand incoming information from the world.

Assimilation

Jean Piaget's term for the cognitive process of fitting new information into pre-existing schemata.

Accommodation

Jean Piaget's term for the cognitive process of modifying existing schemata or creating new ones based on conflicting new information.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's first stage ($0-2\,\text{years}$) where infants experience the world directly through senses and motor actions, developing object permanence.

Object Permanence

The developmental understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are hidden from direct sight.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's second stage ($2-6\,\text{years}$) where children use language and symbols in pretend play, but lack logical reasoning and display egocentrism.

Egocentrism

The cognitive inability of a child in the preoperational stage to take the physical or mental perspective of others.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage ($7-11\,\text{years}$) where children think logically about concrete events and master mathematical transformations and conservation.

Conservation

The understanding that changing the appearance or container of a substance does not change its total mass, volume, or quantity.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's final stage ($12+\text{years}$) characterized by the ability to utilize abstract logic, hypothetical reasoning, and moral principles.

Germinal Stage

The initial prenatal period spanning weeks 1 and 2, beginning at conception when sperm fertilizes an ovum to form a single-cell zygote.

Embryonic Stage

The prenatal period spanning weeks 3 through 8, during which the implanted embryo forms basic heart, head, chest, and placenta structures.

Fetal Stage

The long prenatal period spanning weeks 9 through 40, characterized by rapid brain expansion, organ function, and growth to full-term development.

Teratogen

Any biological, chemical, or physical environmental agent that causes structural or functional damage to a developing embryo or fetus.

Blooming Period

A period of rapid neural development during infancy and toddlerhood in which neural pathways form thousands of new connections.

Pruning Period

The process throughout childhood and adolescence where redundant neural connections are systematically eliminated to increase brain efficiency.

Contact Comfort

The feeling of emotional comfort and security provided by soft tactile contact, identified by Harry Harlow as the primary driver of maternal-infant attachment.

Secure Base

John Bowlby's term for a primary caregiver's presence that provides an infant with safety while exploring surroundings.

Strange Situation

Mary Ainsworth's observational assessment measuring infant attachment styles through systematically staged separations and reunions with the mother.

Adrenarche

The physiological maturation of the adrenal glands occurring at the onset of puberty.

Gonadarche

The physiological maturation of the sex glands occurring during puberty.

Cognitive Empathy

The capacity to take the perspective of others and express genuine concern, also referred to as theory of mind, which increases significantly during adolescence.

Emerging Adulthood

A newly recognized lifespan stage from age 18 to the mid-20s characterized by identity exploration centered around career and romantic commitments.

Crystallized Intelligence

Accumulated knowledge, vocabulary, and skills gathered through life experience that remain steady or improve into late adulthood.

Fluid Intelligence

Information processing speed, spatial reasoning, and abstract memory capacities that steadily decline beginning in middle adulthood.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

The theory stating that as people age, their social networks shrink in quantity while remaining personal relationships become deeper and more meaningful.

Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by internal factors that direct behavior for personal satisfaction and enjoyment.

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation stemming from external factors, such as receiving rewards or avoiding punishment.

Overjustification Effect

The phenomenon where intrinsic motivation for an activity diminishes after extrinsic rewards are introduced for performing it.

Drive Theory

The motivational theory stating that deviations from bodily homeostasis create physiological needs that generate psychological drive states to restore balance.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

The principle stating that task performance is optimal at moderate arousal levels, requiring lower arousal for complex tasks and higher arousal for simple tasks.

Self-Efficacy

Albert Bandura's construct defining an individual's belief in their own capability to execute the actions required to complete a task.

Satiation

The feeling of fullness and satisfaction that causes eating behavior to cease, triggered by gastrointestinal stretching, blood glucose increases, and leptin release.

Set-Point Theory

The theory asserting that each individual possesses a genetically determined ideal body weight that the body defends through metabolic adjustments.

Bulimia Nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by recurrent binge eating followed by compensatory purging behaviors such as vomiting, laxatives, or excessive exercise.

Anorexia Nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by maintaining body weight significantly below average through starvation and excessive exercise, accompanied by distorted body image.

Sexual Response Cycle

Masters and Johnson's 4-phase physiological model of human sexual response comprising excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.

Gender Dysphoria

A diagnostic classification describing significant distress lasting at least 6 months caused by incongruence between one's biological sex and gender identity.

James-Lange Theory

The theory proposing that emotions result directly from physiological arousal (Stimulus $\rightarrow$ Physiological Arousal $\rightarrow$ Emotional Experience).

Cannon-Bard Theory

The theory proposing that physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously and independently in response to an event.

Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory

The theory asserting that emotion consists of physiological arousal paired with cognitive appraisal and labeling of the arousal in context.

Lazarus' Cognitive-Mediational Theory

The theory asserting that an immediate, unconscious cognitive appraisal of a stimulus precedes both physiological arousal and emotional experience.

Basolateral Complex

A dense sensory subnucleus of the amygdala critical for classical conditioning and attaching emotional value to memory processes.

Central Nucleus

A subnucleus of the amygdala that connects to the hypothalamus and brainstem to regulate autonomic nervous system and endocrine responses.

Cultural Display Rules

Culturally specific standards governing the types and frequencies of emotional expressions that are acceptable in public settings.

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

The hypothesis asserting that facial expressions are capable of directly influencing and altering an individual's emotional experience.