Social Psychology: The Self & Cognitive Dissonance Vocabulary

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering social psychological concepts of the Self and Cognitive Dissonance, including key theories, psychological biases, and empirical research findings.

Self-Perception Theory

The theory that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our outward behavior and the situation in which it occurs.

Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

Schachter and Singer's theory stating that emotional experience is the result of a two-step process: first experiencing physiological arousal, and then seeking an appropriate cognitive label/explanation for it in the environment.

Misattribution of Arousal

The process whereby people make mistaken inferences about what is causing them to feel physiological arousal, as demonstrated by Dutton and Aron's study where $65\%$ of men approached on a scary bridge called the female interviewer compared to $30\%$ who were rested after crossing.

Intrinsic Motivation

The desire to engage in an activity because we enjoy it or find it interesting, not because of external rewards or pressures.

Extrinsic Motivation

The desire to engage in an activity because of external rewards or pressures, rather than because we enjoy the task itself.

Overjustification Effect

The tendency for people to view their behavior as driven by compelling extrinsic reasons, leading them to overestimate extrinsic motivation and underestimate intrinsic motivation, as seen in Greene, Sternberg, and Lepper's (1976) math games study.

Growth Mindset

The belief that abilities, intelligence, and skills can be developed and improved through hard work, effort, and dedication.

Fixed Mindset

The idea that we have a set, unchangeable amount of ability or intelligence that cannot be developed over time.

Social Comparison Theory

The idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people, especially in the absence of an objective standard or when experiencing uncertainty.

Downward Social Comparison

Comparing ourselves to people who are worse off than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability, in order to feel better about ourselves.

Upward Social Comparison

Comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability, often used as a standard of excellence or motivation to strive.

Self-Control

The ability to subdue immediate desires and impulses in order to achieve long-term goals and execute long-term planning.

Implementation Intentions

People's specific plans about where, when, and how they will execute a goal behavior, which significantly increases success in maintaining self-control.

Impression Management

The conscious or unconscious attempt by people to get others to see them as they want to be seen.

Ingratiation

An impression management technique using flattery, praise, or agreement to make oneself likable to another person, especially one of higher status.

Self-Handicapping

The strategy whereby people create obstacles and excuses for themselves so that if they do poorly on a task, they can avoid blaming themselves.

Bias Blind Spot

The tendency to think that other people are far more susceptible to cognitive and social biases than oneself.

Introspective Illusion

The phenomenon where people judge their own susceptibility to bias by looking inward at their own introspections, while judging others' susceptibility based strictly on observable behavior.

Cognitive Dissonance

A state of psychological discomfort caused by holding two conflicting cognitions, or when behavior conflicts with attitudes, particularly when challenging one's self-esteem or sense of self-worth.

Postdecision Dissonance

Dissonance aroused after making a decision, typically reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and devaluing the rejected alternative.

Justification of Effort

The tendency for individuals to increase their liking for something they have worked hard to attain, especially when that effort was unpleasant or demanding.

Counterattitudinal Behavior

Acting in a way that is inconsistent with one's private attitudes, beliefs, or values.

Internal Justification

The reduction of dissonance by changing something about oneself (such as one's attitude or behavior) when external justification is insufficient.

External Justification

A reason or explanation for dissonant personal behavior that resides outside the individual, such as a large reward or a severe punishment.

Ben Franklin Effect

A phenomenon where performing a personal favor for someone causes you to like that person more, as demonstrated in Jecker and Landy's experiment where participants rated the experimenter highest after returning money as a personal favor.

Dehumanization

A psychological strategy used to reduce dissonance following acts of cruelty, in which the victim is viewed as less than human to justify the self's harmful actions.

Freedman (1965) Forbidden Toy Experiment

A classic study demonstrating that children given a mild threat of punishment avoided playing with a forbidden toy much more ($33\%$ played) than those given a severe threat ($78\%$ played), because the mild threat forced internal justification.

Self-Evaluation Maintenance Theory

Tesser's theory that dissonance occurs in close relationships when another person outperforms us in a domain highly relevant to our self-esteem, leading us to distance ourselves, alter the relevance, or undermine performance.

Self-Affirmation Theory

The idea that people can reduce threats to their self-esteem and dissonance by affirming themselves on a dimension unrelated to the threat.

Induced-Compliance Paradigm

An experimental method where participants are induced to perform a counterattitudinal behavior under conditions of varying choice or justification to observe attitude change.

Choice Dissonance Effect Replication Failure

The outcome of a multilab replication across 39 labs ($N = 4,898$) showing that while writing counterattitudinal essays induced dissonance, the degree of choice did not significantly affect subsequent attitudes.