LECTURES 5, 6, 7, 8 / SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY FINAL

Social Impression

A person's initial perception, judgment, or mental image of another person, often formed immediately based on direct encounters, physical cues, and behavioral traits .

Evolutionary Necessity of Impressions

The need to rapidly evaluate safety, trustworthiness, and social compatibility within milliseconds to act as an anchor for future interactions .

Attractiveness Bias

The expectation that highly attractive people are more interesting, warm, outgoing, and socially skilled than less attractive people .

Gender-Specific Competence Effect

The assessment of an individual's skill and effectiveness influenced by societal stereotypes rather than actual performance .

Baby Face Syndrome

Physical features like a round face and smaller eyes that lead to perceptions of kindness, honesty, and warmth .

Trait Conclusions from Faces

Rapid judgments made about specific traits like competence or threat level based on facial features (e.g., Khamenei or Trump) .

Nonverbal Liking Cues

Behaviors such as orienting the body directly toward someone, leaning in, and nodding while they speak .

Dilated Pupils

A physiological nonverbal sign indicating interest and focused attention .

Human Lie Detection Accuracy

The general accuracy rate is around 50 percent, with people relying on cues from faces, words, voice, and limbs .

Polygraph Error Rates

A tool that has a 75% correct hit rate but a high 40% false alarm rate .

Mere Exposure Effect

The psychological phenomenon where people develop a preference for things or people simply because they are familiar with them .

Implicit Personality Theories

Mental "if/then" rules used to build complex impressions, such as assuming a kind person is also smart .

The Halo Effect

A cognitive bias where one positive trait, such as beauty, creates an effect that makes the person seem perfect in all other areas .

Trait Linking

The process where behaviors demonstrating the same trait are "clumped" together in memory .

Valence Clusters

The brain's method of storing positive and negative traits in separate mental "folders" .

The Impression Package

The combination of traits into a single mental representation where negativity usually counts more than positivity .

Motive for Connectedness

The drive to assume positive qualities about collaborators to seek better social support .

Motivation for Accuracy

Trying harder to be "right" about someone when needing them for a goal or when needing to explain your reasoning to others

Superficial Information Processing

Unmotivated and automatic processing that relies on accessibility (what is easy) rather than logic .

Systematic Information Processing

A high-energy mode of thinking triggered by unexpected situations or threatened goals, linked to the "Mastery" motivation .

Asch's Impression Theory

The idea that we fit information into a whole image where elements influence each other's meaning .

Cognitive Conservatism

The tendency to defend formed mental representations because we do not want to change them and they serve a purpose .

The Primacy Effect

A cognitive bias where the first items or traits learned in a sequence disproportionately influence decisions and memory .

Perseverance Bias

The tendency to stubbornly hold onto a belief even when strong counter-evidence shows it is false .

Olivia Benson Example (Perseverance)

A situation where one remains convinced of guilt or suspiciousness even after DNA evidence clears a suspect .

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A concept coined by Robert Merton where a false belief causes behavior that makes that expectation come true.

Limits on Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Factors that stop the cycle, such as a target's strong self-concept or their awareness of the perceiver's expectations .

Strategic Attribution

A method of dealing with inconsistent information by ignoring, forgetting, or explaining away negative traits (e.g., justifying a leader's faults) .

Reconciling Inconsistencies

The process of spending extra time and mental energy trying to explain unexpected behaviors compared to expected ones .

Cultural Differences in Social Context

The tendency for collectivists to be more likely than individualists to view behavior as changing with circumstances and social context

Self-Concept

Self-concept refers to what we know about ourselves, including our physical and psychological roles, characteristics, and traits

Function of Self-Concept

The self-concept regulates our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

Sources of Self-Concept

The sources include our own behavior, thoughts, and feelings, others' reactions to us, social comparison, and knowledge about ourselves versus others

Self-Perception Theory

Proposed by Daryl Bem, this theory suggests that people develop attitudes by observing their own behavior and the context it occurs in rather than through internal introspection

When Self-Perception Occurs

Self-perception occurs primarily when internal cues are weak, ambiguous, or unformed, leading individuals to infer beliefs from their actions

Looking-Glass Self

Developed by Cooley, this describes how we imagine ourselves by making conclusions about how other people react to our behavior

Social Comparison Theory

Festinger proposed that to accurately measure our opinions or skills, we compare ourselves to people who are more or less similar to us

Reference Group

A reference group is a social entity or group used as a standard for evaluating one's own attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and values

Contrast Effect

This is a cognitive bias where the perception of something is magnified or diminished because it is compared immediately to something else

Assimilation Effect

This cognitive bias occurs when an individual's judgments or behaviors shift to align more closely with a standard or social norm

Uniqueness

The importance of unique characteristics that distinguish us from others is a central part of self-concept

Actor-Observer Effect

This is a twist on the Fundamental Attribution Error explaining why we judge ourselves differently than we judge others.

Multiple Selves

This concept reflects how our typical behaviors and feelings depend on our current actions and roles

Self-Aspect

These are summaries of a person's beliefs about the self in specific domains, roles, or activities

Self-Complexity

This refers to the quantity of self-aspects and social roles a person needs to fulfill

High vs Low Self-Complexity

High complexity means having many self-aspects, while low complexity means having fewer

Complexity and Success

When self-complexity is high, it is harder to notice successes; when it is low, successes are more noticeable

Situational Accessibility

In specific situations, only certain elements of our self-concept are accessible in our minds

Self-Esteem

This is the positive and negative evaluation of the self and how we feel about it

Trait Self-Esteem

This is an individual's stable, long-term evaluation of their own worth as an enduring personality characteristic

State Self-Esteem

This refers to a temporary, fluctuating level of self-worth influenced by specific situations and mood

Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model

Tesser's SEM model explains how people manage self-esteem when comparing themselves to others to feel good about themselves

SEM Reflection

This is the process of feeling pride in a close other's success

SEM Comparison

This is the process of feeling threatened by a close other's success

SEM Influencers

These processes are affected by the closeness of the other person and the relevance of the domain to one's self-concept

Motivated Comparison Target

The choice of a comparison target is often motivated by choosing someone less successful or more unfortunate

Collectivist Self-Criticism

Self-criticism in these cultures is linked to fulfilling obligations and domain-specific self-enhancement through adaptability

Modern Cognitive Psychology view on Emotion

Researchers suggest that emotions are inseparable from thoughts.

The Botox Experiment (Havas)

Participants had a harder time comprehending sad sentences after Botox because restricted biological reactions impaired cognitive comprehension.

James-Lange Theory

A biological basis theory stating emotions are generated in response to bodily or autonomic reactions (e.g., we fear because we run).

Cognitive Appraisal of Emotions

Emotional responses are shaped by interpreting an event's valence, cause, and controllability.

Schachter & Singer's Experiment

Suggested that the conscious experience of emotions relies on analyzing both the environment and bodily sensations.

Collectivist Cultures & Emotions

These cultures experience connectedness and indebtedness more frequently, prioritizing politeness and avoiding confrontation.

Self-Expression (Motive)

The desire to act according to one's True Self, guided by self-awareness and personal attitudes.

Self-Presentation (Motive)

The desire to project a specific image to be liked, guided by self-monitoring and social norms.

Self-Guides

Personal standards for different kinds of selves.

The Ideal Self (Promotion Focus)

Represents the aspirational version of an individual, including personal goals and hopes for the future.

The Ought Self (Prevention Focus)

Represents an individual's perception of duties, obligations, and responsibilities based on internalized societal standards.

Self-Regulation

An evolutionary battle between immediate concrete gains (like a donut) and long-term abstract goals (like health).

Strategies Against Temptation

Includes self-administered rewards/penalties, making goal-related behaviors central to your identity, and "cooling down" temptations by viewing them as dry, abstract concepts.

Ego Depletion

The concept that willpower is like a battery; using self-control drains it, making it harder to resist future temptations until you rest and recharge.

Self-Affirmation

An action reminding you of your core values and personal integrity, which can actually restore the effects of ego-depletion.

Learned Helplessness (Seligmann)

Experiencing repeated stress and concluding you cannot change it, which leads you to stop trying.

Depressive Attributional Style

The belief that our failures are internal, stable, and uncontrollable.

Emotion-Focused Coping

Managing our emotional distress rather than actually trying to solve the problem.

Escape (Coping)

Quitting or running away from a situation, with self-awareness being an important moderator of whether you realize you are doing it.

Terror Management Theory (Solomon)

The idea that humans cling to cultural beliefs or values to escape the terror of knowing they will eventually die.

Downplaying Significance & Self-Affirmation (Coping)

Minimizing a failure's importance to your long-term goals and reminding yourself of your strengths.

Self-Expression (Coping)

"Letting it out" through talking, journaling, or crying to reduce an emotion's intensity so it doesn't stay bottled up.

Tend & Befriend

A predominantly female biobehavioral response prioritizing safety, nurturing, and seeking social support over the traditional "fight or flight".

Problem-Focused Coping

Attempting to tackle the situation directly or systematically protecting the ego.

Excuses & External Attributions

Blaming outside factors for a failure.

Self-Handicapping

Proactively creating obstacles so future failures can be blamed on external circumstances instead of a lack of ability.

Control (Coping mechanism)

Believing we have control, even if we don't, which helps keep us motivated and prevents learned helplessness.

Self-Efficacy

Your confidence that you possess the skills necessary to achieve a certain result.

Counterfactual Thinking

Analyzing how a situation could have turned out differently ("What if").

Upward Counterfactual Thinking

Thinking about how things could have been better, which helps you learn for next time.

Downward Counterfactual Thinking

Thinking about how things could have been worse, which makes you feel better in the moment

Prejudice

Positive or negative evaluations of a social group and its members (Affective). It can be "Hot" (direct, aggressive hatred) or "Cold" (indirect, dismissive ignorance).

Discrimination

Positive or negative behavior directed toward a social group and its members.

Stereotype (Cognitive)

A mental representation or a schema we form by linking specific characteristics to a group.

Social Group

Two or more people who share some common characteristics that are socially meaningful for themselves or for others.

Perception of Group Membership

This happens automatically; people belong to a group if others perceive them as sharing traits, even if the individuals do not hold that view themselves.

Social Categorization

The process of identifying individual people as members of a social group because they share certain features that are typical of the group (usually age, gender, and nationality).

Results of Social Categorization

Overestimation of similarity and underestimation of diversity within the outgroup, OR underestimation of similarity and overestimation of diversity across groups.

Lippman (1922)

An American journalist who emphasized media created concepts regarding how to think and react to war; he created the concept "picture in the head," describing stereotypes about things we lack direct experience with.

Alternative Stereotype Definition

A fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality and may cause hurt and offense.

Problems with Positive Stereotypes

They ignore diversity within the ingroup, can set high standards for individuals in the group, and can be a pattern of paternalistic attitudes where negative traits are framed as positive ones (e.g., ambivalent sexism) .

Intrapersonal Conflicts (Authoritarianism)

Theory from the Frankfurt School suggesting strict, repressive parenting forces a child to suppress anger; this repressed aggression is later displaced onto marginalized outgroups, resulting in adults submissive to authority but prejudiced against "others" .

Mastery Motivation for Stereotyping

People seek to understand and predict social behavior to gain control over their environment, using stereotypes as cognitive shortcuts to simplify complex information.