PSYC6 - Chapter3

Social Psychology (14th Edition) - Myers, D., & Twenge, J. (2022)

Social Beliefs

Cognitive frameworks encompassing expectations and interpretations about social interactions, individuals, and groups.

Priming

The activation of certain associations in memory, influencing perceptions and actions without conscious awareness.

Motivated Reasoning

The tendency to process information in a way that aligns with one's desires and pre-existing beliefs.

System 1

The automatic, intuitive, and fast mode of thinking that operates unconsciously.

System 2

The deliberate, reflective, and slower mode of thinking that requires conscious effort.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A belief or expectation that leads to its own fulfillment, influencing behavior to confirm the belief.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's pre-existing beliefs.

Embodied Cognition

The mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgments.

Illusory Correlation

The perception of a relationship where none exists, or a perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists.

Attribution Theory

A framework for understanding how individuals explain others' behavior, attributing it to internal or external causes.

Dispositional Attribution

Attributing behavior to the person's internal characteristics or traits.

Situational Attribution

Attributing behavior to external circumstances or situational factors.

Cultural Differences

Variations in attributions based on cultural perspectives, affecting how behaviors are interpreted across different cultures.

Overconfidence Phenomenon

The tendency to be more confident than correct, often leading to overestimation of one's abilities or knowledge.

Behavioral Confirmation

A process where people's social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm those expectations.

Heuristic

A mental shortcut or simple, efficient strategy for making judgments and decisions, often based on past experiences.

Counterfactual Thinking

Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have occurred but did not, influencing feelings and judgments.

The Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences when interpreting others' behavior.

Rosy Retrospection

The tendency to recall mildly pleasant events more favorably than experienced.