PSY 206 Midterm Vocab

Social Psychology

the scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social situations

Dispositions

Internal factors, such as beliefs, values, personality traits, and abilities, that guide a person's behavior.

Fundamental Attribution  Error

The failure to recognize the importance of situational influences on behavior, along with the corresponding tendency to overemphasize the importance of dispositions on behavior.

Gestalt Psychology

Based on the German word Gestalt, meaning "form" or "figure," an approach that stresses the fact that people's perception of objects involves active, usually nonconscious interpretation of what the object represents as a whole.

Construal

 One's interpretation of or inference about the stimuli or situations that one confronts.

Schema

A knowledge structure consisting of any organized body of stored information that is used to help in understanding events.

Stereotype

A belief that certain attributes are characteristic of members of a particular group.

Natural Selection

An evolutionary process that molds animals and plants so that traits that enhance the probability of survival and reproduction are passed on to subsequent generations.

Naturalistic Fallacy

The claim that the way things are is the way they should be.

Independent (Individualistic)  culture

A culture in which people tend to think of themselves as distinct social entities, tied to each other by voluntary bonds of affection and organizational memberships but essentially separate from other people and having attributes that exist in the absence of any connection to others

Interdependent (Collectivistic) cultures

A culture in which people tend to define themselves as part of a collective, inextricably tied to others in their group and placing less importance on individual freedom or personal control over their lives.

Hindsight Bias

 People's tendency after learning about a given outcome to be overconfident about whether they could have predicted that outcome.

Hypothesis

a prediction about what will happen under particular circumstances

Theory

a set of related propositions intended to describe some phenomenon or aspect of the world.

Correlational Research

Research that involves measuring two or more variables and assessing whether there is a relationship between them

Third Variable

A variable, often unmeasured in correlational research, that can be the true explanation for the relationship between two other variables

Self-selection

In correlational research, the situation in which the participant, rather than the researcher, determines the participant's level of each variable (for example, how many hours per day they spend playing video games or whether or not they are married), thereby creating the problem that unknown other properties might be responsible for the observed relationship

Longitudinal Study

A study conducted at different points in time with the same participants.

Experimental Research

In social psychology, research that randomly assigns people to different conditions, or situations, enabling researchers to make strong inferences about why a relationship exists or how different situations affect behavior.

Independent variable

 In correlational research, this variable is measured. In experimental research, this variable is manipulated; it is hypothesized to be the cause of a particular outcome

Dependent Variable

In experimental research, the variable that is measured (as opposed to manipulated); it is hypothesized to be affected by manipulation of the independent variable

Control Condition

A condition comparable to the experimental condition in every way except that it lacks the one ingredient hypothesized to produce the expected effect on the dependent variable

Random Assignment

Assigning participants in experimental research to different conditions randomly, so they are as likely to be assigned to one condition as to another, with the effect of making the types of people in the different conditions roughly equal.

Natural experiment

A naturally occurring event or phenomenon with somewhat different conditions (e.g., before versus after) that can be compared with almost as much rigor as conditions manipulated by the investigator in an experiment.

External Validity

an indication of how well the results of a study pertain to contexts outside the conditions of the laboratory

Field Experiment

An experiment conducted in the real world (not a lab), usually with participants who are not aware that they are in a study of any kind

Internal Validity

the likelihood that only the manipulated variable--and no other external influence-- could have produced the results.

Reliability

the degree to which a measure gives consistent results on repeated occasions or the degree to which two measuring instruments (such as human observers) yield the same or very similar results

Measurement Validity

the correlation between a measure and some outcome the measure is supposed to predict

Statistical Significance

a measure of the probability that a given result could have occurred by chance alone.

Replication

 involves the reproduction of research results by the original investigator or by someone else. If a result is genuine or valid, it should be possible for scientists to replicate it

Open Science

Practices such as sharing data and research materials with anyone in the broader scientific community in an effort to increase the integrity and replicability of scientific research

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

a committee that examines research proposals and makes judgments about their ethical appropriateness; includes at least one scientist, one nonscientist, and one person who is not affiliated with the institution

Informed Consent

A person's signed agreement to participate in a procedure or research study after learning all of its relevant aspects

Deception Research

Research in which the participants are misled about the purpose of the research or the meaning of something that is done to them

Debriefing

 In preliminary versions of an experiment, asking participants directly if they understood the instructions, found the setup to be reasonable, and so on. After an experiment, debriefing is used to educate participants about the questions being studied.

Basic Science/Research

Science or research concerned with trying to understand some phenomenon in its own right, with a view toward using that understanding to build valid theories about the nature of some aspect of the world

Applied Science/Research

 Science or research concerned with solving important real-world problems

Interventions

An effort to change a person's behavior.

Self-schema

 A cognitive structure, derived from past experience, that represents a person's beliefs and feelings about the self, in both general and specific situations.

Reflected Self-Appraisals

A belief about what others think of one's self.

Working self-concept

A subset of self-knowledge that is brought to mind in a particular context.

Social Comparison Theory

The idea that people compare themselves to other people to obtain an accurate assessment of their own opinions, abilities, and internal states

Social Identities

The parts of a person's sense of self that are derived from group memberships.

Self-Stereotyping

a phenomenon whereby people come to define themselves in terms of traits, norms, and values that they associate with a social group when their identity as a member of that group is salient.

Self-Esteem

an overall positive or negative evaluation people have of themselves.

Contingencies of Self-Worth

The thesis that people's self-esteem is contingent on their successes and failures in domains they deem important to their self-worth

Sociometer Hypothesis

the idea that self-esteem is an internal, subjective index or marker of the extent to which a person is included or looked on favorably by others.

Self-Enhancement

the desire to maintain, increase, or protect one's positive self-views

Better-Than Average Effect

The finding that most people think they are above average on various personality traits and ability dimensions.

Self-Affirmation Theory

the idea that people can maintain an overall sense of self-worth after being exposed to psychologically threatening information by arming a valued aspect of themselves unrelated to the threat.

Self-Verification Theory

the theory that people strive for others to view them as they view themselves; such verification of one's views of the self helps people maintain a sense of coherence and predictability

Self-Regulation

Processes by which people initiate and control their behavior in the pursuit of goals, including the ability to resist short-term rewards that thwart the attainment of long-term goals.

Self-Discrepancy Theory

A theory that behavior is motivated by standards reflecting ideal and ought selves; falling short of these standards elicits specific emotions and may lead to efforts to get closer to them.

Actual Self

 the self that people believe they are

Ideal Self

the self that embodies people's wishes and aspirations

Ought Self

the self that is concerned with the duties, obligations, and external demands people feel they are compelled to honor.

Promotion Focus

Self-regulation of behavior with respect to ideal-self standards; a focus on attaining positive outcomes through approach-related behaviors

Prevention Focus

Self-regulation of behavior with respect to ought-self standards; a focus on avoiding negative outcomes through avoidance-related behaviors

Implementation Intentions

An "if-then" plan to engage in a goal-directed behavior ("then") whenever a particular cue ("i") is encountered

Self-Presentation

 Presenting the person we would like others to believe we are.

Face

the public image of ourselves that we want others to believe

Self-Monitoring

 the tendency to monitor one's behavior to fit the current situation.

Self-Handicaping

the tendency to engage in self-defeating behavior in order to have an excuse ready should one perform poorly or fail.

Emotions

 A brief, specific response, involving appraisals, experiences, expressions, and physiology, that helps people meet goals, including social goals

Appraisals

an interpretation an individual gives to a situation that gives rise to the experience of the emotion.

Focal Emotions

An emotion that is especially common within a particular culture

Emotional Regulation

 the ability to alter one's own emotional state. It may involve behaviors such as rethinking a challenging situation to reduce anger or anxiety, hiding visible signs of sadness or fear, or focusing on reasons to feel happy or calm

Reappraise

the process of reinterpreting the causes of an emotion and its meaning for the individual.

Accept

Adopting an open and welcoming attitude to one's emotions.

Suppression

 An emotion regulation strategy by which people attenuate the outward signs of the emotion.

Social Functional Theory

The broad idea that emotions coordinate social interactions in ways that enable people to meet social opportunities and challenges

Broaden-and-Build Hypothesis

The idea that positive emotions broaden thoughts and actions, helping people build social resources.

Affective Forecasting

Predicting future emotions, such as whether an event will result in happiness, anger, or sadness and for how long

Immune Neglect

the tendency for people to underestimate their capacity to be resilient in responding to difficult life events, which leads them to overestimate the extent to which life's problems will reduce their personal well-being.

Focalism

A tendency to focus too much on a central aspect of an event while neglecting the possible impact of peripheral considerations or extraneous events

Duration Neglect

the relative unimportance of the length of an emotional experience, whether pleasurable or unpleasant, in retrospective assessments of the overall experience.

Attitude

An evaluation of an object in a positive or negative fashion that includes three components: affect, cognition, and behavior

Likert Scale

A numerical scale used to assess people's attitudes; a scale that includes a set of possible answers with labeled anchors on each extreme.

Response Latency

the amount of time it takes to respond to a stimulus, such as an attitude question.

Implicit Attitude Measures

An indirect measure of attitudes that doesn't involve a self-report.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

a theory that inconsistency between a person's thoughts, sentiments, and actions creates an aversive emotional state (dissonance) that leads to efforts to restore consistency.

Effort Justification

the tendency to reduce dissonance by justifying the time, effort, or money devoted to something that turned out to be unpleasant or disappointing.

Induced (Forced) Compliance

Subtly compelling people to behave in a manner that is inconsistent with their beliefs, attitudes, or values in order to elicit dissonance and therefore a change in their original attitudes and values.

Self-Perception Theory

a theory that people come to know their own attitudes by looking at their behavior and the context in which it occurred and then inferring what their attitudes must be.

System Justification Theory

a theory that people are motivated to see the existing sociopolitical system as desirable, fair, and legitimate.

Terror Management Theory (TMT)

the theory that people deal with the potentially crippling anxiety associated with the inevitability of death by striving for symbolic immortality through preserving valued cultural worldviews and by believing they have lived up to their culture's standards

Covariation Principle

 the idea that behavior should be attributed to potential causes that occur along with the observed behavior.

Consensus

A type of covariation information: whether most people would behave the same way or differently in a given situation.

Distinctiveness

A type of covariation information: whether a behavior is unique to a particular situation or occurs in many or all situations

Discounting Principle

the idea that people will assign reduced weight to a particular cause of behavior if other plausible causes might have produced the same behavior.

Counterfactual Thinking

 thoughts of what might have, could have, or should have happened "if only" something had occurred differently.

Emotional Amplification

 An increase in an emotional reaction to an event that is proportional to how easy it is to imagine the event not happening

Self-Serving Attributional Bias

the tendency to attribute failure and other bad events to external circumstances and to attribute success and other good events to oneself.

Actor-Observer Difference

A difference in attribution based on who is making the causal assessment: the actor (who is relatively inclined to make situational attributions) or the observer (who is relatively inclined to make dispositional attributions).

Framing Effect

Influence on judgment resulting from the way information is presented, including the words used to describe the information or the order in which it is presented.

Primacy Effect

 A type of order effect whereby the information presented first in a body of evidence has a disproportionate influence on judgment

Recency Effect

A type of order effect whereby the information presented last in a body of evidence has a disproportionate influence on judgment.

Construal Level Theory

A theory about the relationship between temporal distance (and other kinds of distance) and abstract or concrete thinking: Psychologically distant actions and events are thought about in abstract terms; actions and events that are close at hand are thought about in concrete terms.

Confirmation Bias

 the tendency to test a proposition by searching for evidence in support of it.