LOLA social psychology exam 1 (ch.1-4)

social thinking

we construct our social reality. attitudes shape, and are shaped by behavior.

social influences

social influences shape behavior. dispositions shape behavior.

social relations

social behavior is also biological behavior. feelings and actions toward people are sometimes negative and sometimes positive.

hindsight bias

aka: I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon. makes people overconfident about the validity of their judgements and predictions.

theory

integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events.

random sampling

one in which every person in the population being studied has an equal changed of inclusion.

low response rate

sample is unrepresentative if few people respond to a poll.

sample size

the size of the sample determines how closely the results are likely to resemble the whole population, no matter the size of the population.

correlation

asking whether two or more factors are naturally associated.

experimental

manipulating dome factor to see ots effect on another.

random assignment

process of assigning participates to the conditions of an experiment so that everyone has the same chance of being in a given condition.

spotlight effect

seeing ourselves at center stage, thus intuitively overestimating the extent to which others' attention is aimed at us.

illusion of transparency

the illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others.

social surroundings affect our self-awareness

when we are the only member of our race, gender, or nationality in a group, we notice how we differ and how others are reacting to our difference.

self-interest colors our social judgement

when problems arise in a close relationship, we usually blame our partners instead of ourselves.

self-concern motivates our social behavior

in hopes of making a positive impression, we agonize about our appearance.

self-concept

what we know and believe about ourselves.

self-schema

beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant info.

social comparison

evaluating one's opinions and abilities by comparing oneself with others.

collectivist cultures

eastern cultures (asia, africa, central america, south america). self-esteem tends to be malleable (context specific).

individualist cultures

western cultures (U.S.). self-esteem is more personal and less relational.

planning fallacy

the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task.

impact bias

overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events.

dual attitude system

differing implicit(automatic) and explicit(consciously controlled) attitudes towards the same object.

self-esteem

a person's overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth

self-efficacy

a sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem.

self-serving bias

tendency to perceive oneself favorably.

self-serving attributions

the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and regulate outcomes to other factors.

defensive pessimism

the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one's anxiety to motivate effective action.

false consensus effect

tendency to overestimate the commonality of one's opinions and one's undesirable/unsuccessful behaviors.

false uniquness effect

tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's abilities and one's desirable/successful behaviors.

self-handicapping

protecting one's self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure.

self-presentation

act of expressing oneself and behaving on ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one's ideals.

self-monitoring

being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one's performance to create the desired impression.

system one

aka: automatic processing. the intuitive, automatic, unconscious, and fast way of thinking.

system two

aka: controlled processing. the deliberate, controlled, conscious, and slower way of thinking.

priming

activating particular associations in memory.

embodied cognition

the mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgements.

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions.

ideological echo chamber

phenomenon where people often choose their news sources to align with their beliefs.

heuristics

a thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgements.

representative heuristic

tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone/something belongs to a particular group if resembling a typical member.

availability heruirstic

cognitive rule tat judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory.

counterfactual thinking

imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened but didn't.

illusory correlation

perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists.

regression toward the average

the statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behavior to return toward their average.

belief perserverance

persistence of one's initial conceptions, such as when the basis for one's belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives.

misinformation effect

incorporating misinformation into one's memory of the event after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it.

rosy retrospection

recalling mildly pleasant events more favorably than they experienced them.

attribution theory

how people explain others' behavior.

dispositional attribution

attributing behavior to the person's disposition and traits.

situational attritbution

attributing behavior to the environment.

misattribution

mistakenly attributing a behavior to the wrong source.

spontaneous trait interference

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

fundamental attribution error

the tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon others' behavior.

self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment.

behavioral confirmation

a type of self-fufilling prophecy whereby people's social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations.

attitude

feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond favorably or unfavorably to objects, people, and events.

ABC's of attitude

a-affect(feelings. b-behavior(tendency). c-cognition(thoughts).

moral hypocracy

appearing moral while avoiding the costs of being so.

principle of aggregation

the effects of an attitude become more apparent when we look at a person's aggregate pr average behavior.

theory of planned behavior

knowing people's intended behaviors and their perceived self-efficacy and control.

role

a set of norms that defines how people in a given social position ought to beahve.

self-presentation theory

for strategic reasons, we express attitudes that make us appear consistent.

cognitive dissonance theory

to reduce discomfort, we justify our actions to ourselves.

self-perception theory

our actions are self-revealing. when uncertain about our feelings or beliefs, we look to our behavior, much as anyone else would.

cognitive dissonance

tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions.

selective exposure

tendency to seek information and media that agree with one's views and tend to avoid dissonant information.

insufficient justification

reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one's behavior when external justification is insufficient.

facial feedback effect

tendency of facial expressions to trigger corresponding feelings.

overjustification effect

result of bribing people to do what they already liked doing. they may see their actions as externally controlled rather than intrinsically appealing.

self-affirmation theory

(a) people often experience a self-image threat after engaging in an undesirable behavior (b) they can compensate by affirming another aspect of the self.