Readings

A set of 50 vocabulary flashcards reviewing key concepts, research methods, and theoretical constructs from social psychology and self-identity readings.

Social Categorization

Identifying people with a social group based on features.

Self-Categorization

Seeing yourself as a member of a group.

Social Identity

An individual's self-concept that comes from belonging to a social group, characterized by thinking in terms of "We" instead of "I".

Social Identity Theory

A theoretical perspective stating that people define their self-concept and self-esteem from group membership.

Minimal Group Paradigm

A research situation where people are categorized into a group arbitrarily to study ingroup versus outgroup dynamics.

BIRGing

Basking in Reflected Glory; associating yourself with a successful group to raise your self-esteem and status.

CORFing

Cutting Off Reflected Failure; dissociating yourself from unsuccessful groups to protect your ego.

Outgroup Homogeneity Effect

The tendency to see outgroup members as more homogeneous and less diverse than members of one's ingroup.

Social Psychology

The branch of psychological science mainly concerned with understanding how the presence of others affects our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Need to Belong

A powerful, universal psychological drive wherein people in all cultures have a strong need to make friends, start families, and spend time together.

Levels of Analysis

The complementary framework in psychology ranging from chemistry/DNA and physiology up to behavior, relationships/groups, and culture/environment used to understand psychological events.

Hypothesis

A specific, testable prediction generated by scientists based on observations of the world.

Attraction

A major area of social psychology research covering first impressions, courtship, commitment, beauty, evolution, and signals of health or reproductive fitness.

Blind to the Research Hypothesis

An experimental control condition where research assistants or observers are kept unaware of the study's specific hypothesis to prevent bias.

Attitudes

Opinions, feelings, and beliefs about a person, concept, or group.

Stereotyping

A way of using information shortcuts about a group to effectively navigate social situations or make decisions.

Prejudice

How a person feels about an individual based on their group membership rather than getting to know them as an individual.

Discrimination

Biased action or behavior against an individual simply because of the individual's membership in a social category.

Stigmatized Groups

Social categories of people facing negative societal attitudes or stereotypes, such as homeless individuals or military veterans.

Culture of Honor

A cultural background that emphasizes personal or family reputation and social status, leading to heightened physiological and emotional responses to insult.

Research Confederate

An individual working for the experimenter who plays a specific assigned role in a research study while pretending to be an ordinary participant or bystander.

Research Participant

An individual who takes part in a psychological study as a subject being observed or tested.

Social Influence

The heart and soul of social psychology, referring to the ways in which other people affect an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Conformity

Being persuaded to give up our own opinions and go along with the group.

Obedience

Following orders or requests from people in authority.

Persuasion

The act of delivering a particular message so that it influences a person's behavior in a desired way.

Reciprocity

The psychological principle that receiving a gift or favor puts people in a frame of mind to give a little something back.

Social Cognition

The term for the way we think about the social world and how we perceive others.

Social Attribution

Making educated guesses about the efforts, motives, or underlying causes of other people's behavior.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The consistent mental tendency to attribute other people's actions to personality traits while overlooking situational influences.

Social Facilitation

The phenomenon where performance on simple or well-rehearsed tasks tends to be enhanced in the presence of others.

Operationalize

The process of defining and measuring abstract concepts into specific, observable variables in scientific research.

Independent Variable

The variable representing the cause that is systematically manipulated by the researcher in an experiment.

Dependent Variable

The variable representing the effect that is measured by the researcher to collect outcome data.

Field Experiment

An experimental research design conducted in real-world situations where unsuspecting subjects act naturally.

Naturalistic Observation

Unobtrusively watching and recording people's behaviors as they go about their daily lives without experimental manipulation.

Experience Sampling Methods

A group of techniques used to collect in-the-moment or close-to-the-moment self-report data directly from participants repeatedly throughout their daily lives.

Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR)

A naturalistic observation tool consisting of a portable audio recorder or smartphone app that automatically records brief snippets of ambient sound throughout the day.

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

A computer-based task measuring nonconscious attitudes and implicit stereotypes by evaluating reaction times when sorting stimuli into categories.

Priming

A nonconscious research method used to subtly manipulate behavior by activating or making more accessible certain concepts or beliefs.

Terror Management Theory (TMT)

A psychological theory proposing that humans possess an unconscious terror of their mortality and cope by clinging firmly to cultural and religious belief systems.

Archival Research

A correlational research methodology that examines existing records, documentation, public statistics, or historical data to study real-world social behavior.

Ecological Validity

The degree to which an experimental effect has been obtained under conditions that are typical for what happens in everyday life.

Internal Validity

The degree to which a research study allows unambiguous causal inferences by tightly controlling potential confounding factors.

External Validity

The degree to which a study's potential findings reliably apply to settings and samples other than the specific ones being tested.

Day Reconstruction Method (DRM)

A methodology where participants report daily experiences retrospectively by systematically breaking the previous day down into sequential episodes.

Social Actor

A standpoint of selfhood emerging around $18\,months$ of age, wherein the self enacts social roles and displays dispositional traits in everyday social environments.

Motivated Agent

A standpoint of selfhood emerging during the age $5\text{-to-}7$ shift, where the self acts with intention in pursuit of valued goals, plans, and identity commitments.

Autobiographical Author

A standpoint of selfhood emerging in adolescence and early adulthood that constructs a temporal life story to explain personal development over time.

Narrative Identity

An internalized and evolving personal story that selectively reconstructs the past and anticipates the future to provide a life with unity, meaning, and purpose.