Social Psychology, Stress and Health, and Psychological Disorders Flashcards

Flashcards covering vocabulary terms related to Social Psychology, Stress and Health, and Psychological Disorders.

Aggression

Behavior that changes over time and varies across locations.

Cooperation

Behavior by two or more individuals that leads to mutual benefit.

Group

Collection of people who have something in common that distinguishes them from others.

Prejudice

Positive or negative evaluation of another person based on group membership.

Common knowledge effect

Hinders decision-making in a group by not fully capitalizing on the expertise of its members.

Group polarization

How groups minimize the risks of cooperation.

Groupthink

How groups minimize the risks of cooperation.

Deindividuation

Groups underperform individuals when this takes place.

Diffusion of responsibility

Groups underperform individuals when this takes place.

Social loafing

Groups underperform individuals when this takes place.

Bystander intervention

Groups underperform individuals when this takes place.

Altruism

Intentional behavior that benefits another at a potential cost to oneself.

Kin selection

Process by which evolution selects for individuals who cooperate with their relatives.

Reciprocal altruism

Behavior that benefits another with the expectation that those benefits will be returned in the future.

Selectivity

Sexual partners are selected, and women tend to be choosier.

Attraction

Feeling of preference to another caused by situational, physical, and psychological factors.

Mere exposure effect

Indicates that the tendency for liking increases with frequency of exposure.

Homophily

The tendency of people to like people who are similar to themselves.

Passionate love

Experience involving feelings of euphoria, intimacy, and intense sexual attraction.

Companionate love

Experience involving affection, trust, and concern for a partner’s well-being.

Social psychology

Study of the causes and consequences of sociality.

Comparison level for alternatives

Cost-benefit ratio that people believe they deserve or could attain in another relationship.

Equity

State of affairs in which the cost-benefit ratios of the two partners are roughly equal.

Social cognition

Involves processes by which people come to understand others.

Stereotyping

Process of drawing inferences about individuals based on their category membership.

Behavioral confirmation (self-fulfilling prophecy)

Once formed, stereotypes are difficult to eradicate.

Stereotype threat

Once formed, stereotypes are difficult to eradicate.

Perceptual confirmation

Once formed, stereotypes are difficult to eradicate.

Subtyping

Once formed, stereotypes are difficult to eradicate.

Aggression

Behavior whose purpose is to harm another.

Frustration–aggression hypothesis

All animals aggress when their goals are frustrated.

Proactive aggression

A type of aggression.

Reactive aggression

A type of aggression.

Implicit Association Test

Used to measure unconscious stereotyping.

Attribution

Inference about the cause of a person’s behavior.

Dispositional attributions

Attribute someone’s internal disposition as cause.

Situational attributions

Attribute the external situation as cause.

Fundamental attribution error

Tendency to make a dispositional attribution when we should instead make a situational attribution.

Actor–observer effect

Tendency to make situational attributions for our behaviors while making dispositional attributions for the identical behavior of others.

Social influence

Ability to change or direct another person’s behavior.

Overjustification effect

Social influence often involves creating pleasurable situations.

Reactance

Social influence often involves creating pleasurable situations.

Norms

Doing what is appropriate.

Norm of reciprocity

Doing what is appropriate.

Normative influence

Doing what is appropriate.

Door-in-the-face technique

Doing what is appropriate.

Conformity

Doing what we see others do.

Persuasion

When a person’s attitudes or beliefs are influenced by a communication from another person.

Systematic persuasion

The process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to reason.

Heuristic persuasion

The process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to habit or emotion.

Foot-in-the-door technique

Technique that involves a small request followed by a larger request.

Cognitive dissonance

Unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of their actions, attitudes, or beliefs.

Telomeres

Facilitate cell division.

Telomerase

Facilitate cell division.

Glucocorticoids

Hormones that flood the brain due to stressors.

Immune system

Can be worn down by stress.

Lymphocytes

Part of the immune system.

Psychoneuroimmunology

The study of how stress affects the immune response.

Coronary heart disease (CHD)

The heart and circulatory system are sensitive to stress.

Atherosclerosis

The heart and circulatory system are sensitive to stress.

Type A behavior pattern

Research links this to increased rates of heart disease.

Burnout

State of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion created by long-term involvement in an emotionally demanding situation.

Primary appraisal

Part of the two-step process of stress interpretation.

Secondary appraisal

Part of the two-step process of stress interpretation.

Repression

A way to change thinking about stressors.

Rationalization

A way to change thinking about stressors.

Reframing

A way to change thinking about stressors.

Repressive coping

Avoiding situations or thoughts that are reminders of a stressor and maintaining an artificially positive viewpoint.

Rational coping

Facing a stressor and working to overcome it.

Stress inoculation training (SIT)

Reframing technique that helps people cope with stressful situations by developing positive ways to think about situations.

Meditation

Practice of intentional contemplation useful in stress management.

Electromyography (EMG)

Technique used to measure the subtle activity of muscles.

Relaxation therapy

Technique for reducing tension by consciously relaxing muscles of the body.

Relaxation response

Condition of reduced muscle tension, cortical activity, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure.

Biofeedback

Use of an external monitoring device to obtain information about a bodily function and possibly gain control over that function.

Stressors

Things that cause stress.

Health psychology

The study of the effect of stress on health.

Aerobic exercise

Exercise that increases heart rate and oxygen intake for a sustained period.

Social support

Aid gained through interacting with others.

Religiosity

Affiliation with or engagement in the practices of a particular religion.

Spirituality

Having a belief in and engagement with some higher power, not necessarily linked to any particular religion.

Procrastinating

Putting off a task for later.

Sickness response

Coordinated, adaptive set of reactions to illness organized by the brain.

Cytokines

Proteins that activate the vagus nerve and induce “I am sick” message.

Sick role

Socially recognized set of rights and obligations linked with illness.

Malingering

Feigning medical or psychological symptoms to achieve something one wants.

Medical model of mental disorder

Knowing a person’s diagnosis is useful because any given category of mental illness is likely to have a distinctive cause.

Specific etiology

Part of the medical model of mental disorder.

Common prognosis

Part of the medical model of mental disorder.

Biopsychosocial perspective

Mental disorders are the result of interactions among biological, psychological, and social factors.

Diathesis–stress model

Person may be predisposed to a mental disorder that remains unexpressed until triggered by stress.

Research Domain Criteria Project (RDoC)

New initiative to guide classification and understanding of mental disorders by revealing the basic processes that give rise to them.

Anxiety disorder

Class of mental disorders in which anxiety is the predominant feature.

Phobic disorders

Characterized by marked, persistent, and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities, or situations.

Specific phobia

A type of phobic disorder.

Social phobia

A type of phobic disorder.

Preparedness theory

Theory that explains phobias.

Panic disorder

Characterized by the sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to a feeling of stark terror; panic attacks.

Agoraphobia

Specific phobia involving fear of public places or fear something terrible will happen.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

Chronic excessive worry accompanied by three or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance.