Social Psych Flashcard Notes (Vocabulary) Midterm 2

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; 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 measure

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

Cognitive dissonance theory

The theory that inconsistency between a person's thoughts, sentiments, and actions creates an aversive emotional state 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 or attitudes to elicit dissonance and change their original attitudes.

Self-perception theory

The theory that people come to know their own attitudes by looking at their behavior and inferring their attitudes from the context.

System justification theory

The 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 anxiety associated with death by striving for symbolic immortality through cultural worldviews.

Elaboration likelihood model (ELM)

A model of persuasion that maintains there are two routes: the central route and the peripheral route.

Central route

A route to persuasion where people think carefully about the content of a persuasive message.

Peripheral route

A route to persuasion where people focus on superficial cues related to a persuasive message.

Source characteristics

Characteristics of the person who delivers a persuasive message, such as attractiveness and credibility.

Sleeper effect

An effect where a persuasive message from an unreliable source initially has little influence but later causes attitude shifts.

Message characteristics

Aspects or content of a persuasive message, including the quality and explicitness of its conclusions.

Identifiable victim effect

The tendency to be more moved by the plight of a single individual than by abstract numbers.

Audience characteristics

Characteristics of those who receive a persuasive message, such as mood and need for cognition.

Agenda control

Efforts by the media to emphasize certain events and shape public perception of importance.

Hostile media phenomenon

The tendency for people to see media coverage as biased against their side.

Thought polarization hypothesis

The hypothesis that extended thought about an issue produces more extreme attitudes.

Attitude inoculation

Small attacks on people's beliefs that prepare them to resist larger attacks on their attitudes.

Social influence

The ways people affect one another, including changes in attitudes or behaviors due to others.

Conformity

Changing one's beliefs or behavior to align with those of others due to pressure.

Compliance

Responding favorably to an explicit request from another person.

Obedience

Submitting to the demands of a person in authority in an unequal power relationship.

Informational social influence

Influence that results from taking others' comments as a source of correct information.

Normative social influence

Influence that comes from the desire to avoid disapproval or social sanctions.

Internalization

Private acceptance of a proposition or ideology.

Foot-in-the-door technique

A compliance method involving an initial small request followed by a larger request.

Pluralistic ignorance

A phenomenon where people act against their true attitudes because they believe others don't share them.

Descriptive norm

The behavior exhibited by most people in a given context.

Prescriptive norm

The expected behavior in a given context; also known as injunctive norm.

Norm of reciprocity

A norm dictating that people should provide benefits to those who benefit them.

Reciprocal concessions technique

A compliance approach involving an initial large request followed by a smaller one that seems like a concession.

Negative state relief hypothesis

The idea that people act to relieve their negative feelings, such as agreeing to a request.

Reactance theory

The idea that people reassert their freedoms when they feel their prerogatives are threatened.