Psych 239: Bias and Inclusivity Study Guide

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering fundamental definitions, theoretical frameworks, models of prejudice and stereotyping, and research methodology for Psych 239: Bias and Inclusivity.

Attitude

An evaluation of an object, person, group, or idea that summarizes cognitive, affective, and behavioral information.

ABC Model of Attitudes

A framework structuring attitudes into three components: Affect (feelings), Behavior (actions), and Cognition (beliefs and thoughts).

Object Appraisal

An attitude function that helps an individual decide whether to approach or avoid something.

Social Adaptation

An attitude function that helps an individual decide whom to identify or affiliate with.

Value Expression

An attitude function that communicates an individual's values or helps defend against internal conflict.

Explicit Attitudes

Conscious, deliberate, and elaborate evaluations that often reflect stated values and intentions.

Implicit Attitudes

Automatic, associative, and rapid evaluations that may operate without conscious awareness and may not match stated values.

Evaluative Conditioning

The process of pairing an object with positive or negative feelings to alter how that object is evaluated.

Mere-Exposure Effect

The psychological phenomenon where repeated exposure often increases liking because familiarity makes cognitive processing easier.

Affective Primacy

The principle that affective evaluations can occur prior to conscious, deliberate thought.

Theory of Reasoned Action

A model positing that behavioral intentions, shaped by attitudes and subjective social norms, predict behavior.

MODE Model

A dual-process model proposing that motivation and opportunity determine whether accessible attitudes guide deliberate or spontaneous behavior.

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

An attitude change framework emphasizing how carefully individuals evaluate the quality and substance of arguments when motivation and opportunity permit.

Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM)

An information processing model accounting for reliance on mental shortcuts or cues when motivation or ability to process information is limited.

Balance Theory

A theory proposing that individuals seek harmony between their thoughts about an object and their thoughts about another person.

Prejudice

An evaluation of a social group, usually negative, corresponding to the affective component of bias.

Stereotype

A generalized belief about members of a social group, corresponding to the cognitive component of bias.

Discrimination

Unfair treatment of people based on group membership, corresponding to the behavioral component of bias.

Socialization

The lifelong process through which individuals learn and internalize the norms, expectations, and assumptions of their environments.

Social Dominance Orientation (SDO)

A generalized orientation reflecting a preference for group-based hierarchy, dominance, and inequality.

Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA)

A construct characterized by obedience, conformity to traditional or powerful authority, and willingness to aggress on behalf of authority.

System Justification (SJ)

The psychological motivation to defend, uphold, or justify existing social, economic, and political arrangements.

Individualization

Recognizing an individual's unique qualities, experiences, personality, and goals rather than treating them as interchangeable group members.

Stereotype Activation

The process by which concepts associated with a social category become mentally accessible to a perceiver.

Prototypicality

The extent to which someone is perceived as representative of a social category.

Stereotype Threat

A psychological state occurring when reminders of a negative stereotype relevant to an individual's identity and current task interfere with cognition and impair performance.

Segregation

The social separation of groups that limits contact and opportunities to learn about one another.

Dehumanization

Denying individuals positive human qualities or treating them as less than fully human.

Statistical Discrimination

Using group-level assumptions as shortcuts to estimate an individual's likely productivity, particularly when information is limited.

Taste-Based Discrimination

Preferring or disfavoring individuals directly because of their group membership.

Descriptive Stereotypes

Beliefs regarding how members of a social group supposedly are.

Prescriptive Stereotypes

Expectations regarding how members of a social group should behave.

Role Congruity Theory

A theory proposing that gender discrimination occurs when assumptions about gender roles conflict with expectations associated with a job or social role.

Racism

A system of racial advantage maintained through the interaction of psychological factors and sociopolitical factors, including biased laws, policies, and institutions.

Symbolic Racism

Racial resentment expressed through positions on social or political issues that are indirectly connected to racial groups.

Modern Racism

Contemporary racial prejudice that can coexist with a personal desire to appear fair or egalitarian.

Aversive Racism

A pattern where individuals who reject overt prejudice still experience discomfort or automatic negative associations, particularly influencing behavior in ambiguous settings.

Benevolent Sexism

Apparently positive beliefs about women—such as the notion that they require protection—that reinforce traditional gender roles and inequality.

Hostile Sexism

Overtly negative beliefs and evaluations that support gender inequality through blatant mistreatment.

Bias of the Crowd

The perspective that automatic responses are shaped by cultural and environmental associations rather than solely reflecting individual character.

Essentialism

The belief that social categories reflect a natural, fixed essence that determines people's characteristics.

Minimal Groups Phenomenon

The finding that even arbitrary or trivial group distinctions are sufficient to produce ingroup favoritism.

Realistic Threat

Concern or perceived competition over material resources, power, or tangible goals.

Symbolic Threat

Concern regarding perceived threats to the values, identity, or meaning system of one's ingroup.

Esteem Threat

A perceived threat directed toward an ingroup's status or self-image.

Hypodescent

The practice of categorizing a person of mixed racial ancestry into the socially subordinate racial category.

Passive Racism

Apathy toward racial inequality or denial that systems of racial advantage exist.

Diffusion of Responsibility

A bystander mechanism where each present person feels less individual personal responsibility to act or intervene.

Evaluation Apprehension

A bystander mechanism where individuals hesitate to act because they fear being judged negatively for intervening.

Pluralistic Ignorance

A bystander mechanism where individuals infer from the inaction of others that an unfolding situation is not an emergency.

Antiracism

A system of equity that is actively created and maintained through psychological and sociopolitical change.

Critical Theories

Theoretical approaches aimed at understanding and challenging the ways power and inequality are maintained through social systems.

Critical Race Theory (CRT)

A legal and theoretical framework examining the relationship between race, power, law, and institutions, recognizing that racism operates systemically.

Identity Centrality

The degree to which a particular social identity is important to an individual's overall sense of self.

Linked Fate

The belief that an individual's own life chances are tied to the status and circumstances of their broader identity group.

Microaggressions

Subtle, ambiguous, or unintended interactions that implicate a person's marginalized identity and convey unjustified assumptions.

Intersectionality

An analytical framework examining how multiple social identities interact to shape distinctive experiences of power, advantage, disadvantage, and discrimination.

Double Jeopardy

A phenomenon where specific intersecting identities expose individuals to compounded disadvantages or negative stereotypes.

Invisibility (Intersectional)

The condition of being overlooked or ignored because one does not match category prototypes or recognized intersections.

MOSAIC Model

The Model of Stereotyping Through Associated and Intersectional Categories, explaining how multiple demographic identities activate and combine during social evaluations.

Associated Demographic Categories

Social categories that are mentally linked to one another in perceivers' minds, sometimes inaccurately.

Stereotype Integration

The process of combining stereotypes from multiple demographic categories into an overall impression.

Amplification (MOSAIC)

A dynamic where stereotypes from distinct categories reinforce one another to produce a stronger combined impression.

Dilution (MOSAIC)

A dynamic where stereotypes from distinct categories conflict or weaken one another, yielding a less extreme impression.

Foundational Category

The identity category shared by individuals who are being compared within the MOSAIC model framework.

Intersection Category

The distinct identity category that differentiates individuals being compared within the MOSAIC model framework.

Associated Category

A category implicitly linked to another social identity that influences how an individual's behavior is interpreted in the MOSAIC model.

Independent Variable (IV)

The predictor or variable that is manipulated or utilized to explain an observed outcome in research.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The outcome variable being measured in an empirical investigation.

Moderator

A variable that changes the strength or direction of a relationship between an independent and a dependent variable.

Interaction Effect

Statistical evidence demonstrating that the relationship between variables differs across levels of another variable.

Perceiver Effect

How a specific evaluator systematically tends to judge other targets compared to other evaluators.

Target Effect

How a specific individual systematically tends to be judged across multiple evaluators.

Relationship Effect

The unique, idiosyncratic evaluation that a particular perceiver makes of a specific target.