4.1-4.3 vocab - AP Psych

Attribution Theory

The theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.

Dispositional Attributions

Attributing behavior to the person's internal characteristics (e.g., personality, traits).

Situational Attributions

Attributing behavior to external factors or the environment.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency for observers to overestimate the influence of disposition and underestimate the influence of situation when analyzing others' behavior.

Actor-Observer Bias

The tendency to attribute our own actions to situational causes while attributing others' actions to their dispositions.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to attribute our successes to disposition and our failures to situation.

Explanatory Style

A person's habitual way of explaining events (optimistic vs. pessimistic).

Optimistic Explanatory Style

Attributing failures to external, unstable, and specific causes.

Pessimistic Explanatory Style

Attributing failures to internal, stable, and global causes.

Locus of Control

The extent to which people perceive they have control over events.

Internal Locus of Control

The belief that you control your own destiny.

External Locus of Control

The belief that chance or outside forces determine your fate.

Mere Exposure Effect

The phenomenon that repeated exposure to a stimulus increases our liking for it.

Social Comparison

Evaluating one's abilities and opinions by comparing oneself to others.

Downward Social Comparison

Comparing yourself to someone you perceive as inferior/worse off.

Upward Social Comparison

Comparing yourself to someone you perceive as superior/better off.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A belief that leads to its own fulfillment.

Relative Deprivation

The perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself.

Attitude

Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.

Stereotype

A generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people.

Prejudice

An unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members.

Discrimination

Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members.

Implicit Attitudes

Attitudes that are involuntary, uncontrollable, and sometimes unconscious.

Belief Perseverance

Clinging to one's initial beliefs even after they have been discredited.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to search for information that confirms our preconceptions.

Cognitive Dissonance

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when our thoughts (cognitions) and actions are inconsistent.

Cognitive Load

The amount of mental effort being used in working memory. High cognitive load can reduce the ability to process new information.

Ingroup

"Us"—people with whom we share a common identity.

Outgroup

"Them"—those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup.

Ingroup Bias

The tendency to favor our own group.

Outgroup Homogeneity Bias

The perception that outgroup members are more similar to each other than ingroup members are to each other.

Ethnocentrism

Evaluating other cultures according to the standards and customs of one's own culture.

Just-World Phenomenon

The tendency to believe that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

Role

The set of expectations about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.

Social Norms

Understood rules for accepted and expected behavior in a given culture or group.

Social Influence Theory

The study of how individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are affected by the presence of others.

Normative Social Influence

Conformity based on a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.

Informational Social Influence

Conformity that occurs when people accept evidence about reality provided by others.

Persuasion

The process of changing attitudes.

Central Route Persuasion

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

Peripheral Route Persuasion

Persuasion that occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues (e.g., speaker's attractiveness).

Halo Effect

The tendency for an impression in one area to influence opinion in another area (e.g., thinking an attractive person is also kind).

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

Door-in-the-Face Technique

A persuasion strategy where a large, unreasonable request is made first (and refused) to increase compliance with a subsequent, smaller request.

Conformity

Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Obedience

Complying with a direct command, often from an authority figure.

Culture

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group and transmitted.

Individualism

Giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining identity in personal terms.

Collectivism

Giving priority to goals of one's group and defining identity accordingly.

Multiculturalism

An emphasis on the unique cultural backgrounds of individuals.

Group Polarization

The enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion, making the group's attitude more extreme.

False Consensus Effect

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

Industrial-Organizational (I/O) Psychology

The application of psychological concepts to optimize human behavior in workplaces.

Burnout

Physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion from prolonged stress, often work-related.

Groupthink

The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.

Diffusion of Responsibility

In a group, the tendency for individuals to feel diminished personal responsibility for acting, often contributing to the bystander effect.

Social Loafing

The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward a common goal.

Deindividuation

The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.

Social Facilitation

Improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.

Social Trap

A situation in which conflicting parties, each pursuing self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.

Superordinate Goals

Shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation.

Prosocial Behavior

Positive, constructive, helpful behavior.

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

Social Responsibility Norm

An expectation that people will help those needing their help.

Bystander Effect

The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.

Social Reciprocity Norm

The expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them.

Social Debt

The perceived obligation to return a favor or kindness.

Personality

An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Psychodynamic Theory

Views personality as the result of unconscious psychological conflicts (Freud and his followers).

Psychoanalysis

Freud's therapeutic technique and theory of personality, focusing on unconscious conflicts.

Id

The unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives (operates on the pleasure principle).

Ego

The largely conscious "executive" part that mediates among the id, superego, and reality (operates on the reality principle).

Superego

The part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience).

Defense Mechanisms

The ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

Denial

Refusing to believe or perceive painful realities.

Displacement

Shifting aggressive impulses to a more acceptable/less threatening target.

Projection

Disguising one's own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.

Rationalization

Offering self-justifying explanations for unacceptable behavior.

Reaction Formation

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites.

Regression

Retreating to an earlier, more infantile stage of development.

Repression

The basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts from consciousness.

Sublimation

Channeling unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable activities.

Projective Tests

Personality tests that provide ambiguous stimuli to trigger projection of inner dynamics (e.g., Rorschach inkblot test).

Preconscious

Information that is not conscious but is retrievable into conscious awareness.

Unconscious

According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories.

Humanistic Psychology

An approach that focuses on human potential, self-actualization, and the present.

Unconditional Positive Regard

According to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person.

Self-Actualizing Tendency

The innate drive to realize one's full potential and capabilities