Ap Psycholgy Unit 4

Actor-observer bias

The tendency for one to blame their actions on the situation, but blaming people's action on their personality.

Attribution theory

Explains whether people decide if someone's action is on them or their situation. An example of this would be someone cutting you off, they could have someone who has to go to the hospital or they are just a jackass on the road and most likely you would assume they are a jackass though that may not be the case.

Fundamental attribution theory

Tendency for one to blame actions on their personality rather than their situation. The example used before can be used in this situation where one would assume the driver is a jackass.

Dispositional Attribution

Tendency to blame the person rather than situation

situational attribution

Tendency to blame the situation one is in rather than the person.

Social Comparison

Process of evaluating oneself by comparing with others, often to assess's one's abilities, status, or opinion. Examples of these could be one comparing what they got on a test with someone else, or comparing which colleges you've been accepted to.

Downward social comparison

Comparing yourself to someone who is seen as worse off, or less skilled which can cause a false boost in ego, and may lead to complacency(feeling too comfortable with how you have done and not wanting to improve)

Upward Social comparison

Comparing yourself to someone who is above them and are much more skilled than them which can either lead to boost self-improvement, or it may decrease your self-esteem.

Explanatory style

How one explains the reasons behind the events, and whether they blame themselves, or outside factors.

Optimistic Explanatory style

The habit of explaining good things as events which will occur again, and bad things as events which will typically only happen once. An example could be when one gets a good grade in a subject they don't specialize in and being optimistic in it happening again, and those bad grades he had were only one time things.

Pessimistic Explanatory style

The habit of explaining bad things as things which will happen again, and good things as one time events. An example of this could be winning the lottery as one would only expect themselves to lose ticket after ticket, but when they win that one time they never expect to happen again.

Locus of control

Locus of control is the degree to which one that they have control over the outcome of their events which occur in their lives.

Internal locus of control

Belief that one's own actions will influence the outcomes and events which occur in their lives.

External locus of control

Belief that one's life is not controlled by them and they are guided by fate.

Mere exposure effect

Phenomenon where repeated exposure to a stimulus will cause an increase in that individuals preference for that stimulus.

Person perception

the process of forming impressions of others

Relative deprivation

Feeling of dissatisfaction on an injustice experience when individuals compare themselves to others and think themselves as worse. Examples of this are how others may have better cars than you or a better cellphone than you which may lead to you thinking your stuff is just worse.

Self Fulfilling Bias

When a belief about situation or person leads to that action being taken. An example of this could be how has a belief that some random person is bully that people up, he ends up getting beat which lead to that belief coming true.

Self serving bias

Tendency for one to attribute one's success to their personal characteristics and their failures to external factors. This can lead to a self esteem boost. A example of this is getting a good grade on a test ad you telling your self this because I am a hard worker, but when you fail a test you blame on the test being "too difficult" or "they never announced it".

Attitude formation

The process by which an individual develop their opinions toward a particular subject.

Belief perseverance

Tendency to hold on to one's initial belief even after they have been shown to be false, often ignoring any contradictions. An example of this could be be if you get sent to jail for stealing and your parents don't want to believe that you stole even though there is video evidence you did.

Discrimination

When one does not include a certain group of people or things, in an unjustifiable way. An example of this is the star bellied sneetches not allowing the plain bellied to eat with them, because of their belly.

Ethnocentrism

Belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group over another, often with a feeling of contempt for other groups. An example of this is how the star bellied saw themselves as better than the plain bellied.

Implicit attitudes

Unconscious beliefs which may alter ones behavior and perceptions without realizing.

In group bias

Tendency to favor and extend loyalty to member's of one's own group rather than those in other groups, which often leads to preferential treatment and judgement. AN example of this is if your friend group invited you out, but another group also invited you out but your not as close with them as your first friend group you would most likely accept the first because of this bias.

Out group homogenous bias

Tendency to see members of an outgroup as more similar to each other than they really are, often perceiving them as someone who is less varied than member's of your own group

Just world phenomenon

Belief that the world is fundamentally fair, which leads people to believe injustice, or misfortune as righteous.

Stereotypes

Generalized belief one has about a particular category of people, which are often oversimplified and not based of direct experience. An example of this is believing that when one doesn't do their homework, it often leads to bad grades.

Altruism

Selfless concern for the wellbeing of others leading to a type of behavior which that benefits at a personal cost.

Attentional variable

Variables which play apart in our ability to concentrate on many tasks.

Situational variable

Variables which are factors in one's environment which could affect their performances on things such as tests or quizzes.

Authority figure

Someone who is seen as a large figure who holds power against them.

Burnout

When one feels "burnt out" meaning they are physically, and emotionally exhausted from their work, typically caused by stress. An example of this could be spenind a night studying for an exam and feeling burnt out after you've taken it.

Bystander effect

Phenomenon where individuals are less likely to help an individual when other people are present, but as this number rises this less likely that person will be helped and people will just stand around watching or walking by. An example of this could be when one ends up dropping their papers in the hallway but no one stops to help him because of the amount of people who are in that hallway.

Central route of persuasion

A method of persuasion that involves deeply engaging with the other that involves deeply engaging with the continent of a message, often leading to deep analysis and thoughtful consideration.

Peripheral route of persuasion

Method of persuasion where one's bases their answer of how trustworthy this person is rather than the actual content they are giving out.

Collectivism

Culture value that emphasizes the importance of of the group or community over individual desires or goals, which leads to prioritizing group cohesion and inheritance.

Conformity

Process by which individuals alter their thoughts or feeling to align their selves with a group rather than being alone. AN example of this is where a group picks a wrong answer but you have a different answer from that group and the teacher asks you go to side you may pick the side with a lot more people because you'll feel pressured if you don't.

Deindividuation

Psychological state where individuals lose their self-awareness and sense of individuality in group setting, often leading to impulsive and deviant behaviors. An example of this recently was Philadelphia fans laying ruin to Philadelphia after they won the super bowl.

Diffusion of responsibility

Tendency for individuals to feel less responsible for taking action or helping in a situation when others are present, typically leading to less interventions.

Door in the face approach

Persuasion strategy where one makes a large request initially and knows that it will be denied but lowring it little by little to make it seem a little better than the first offer until they yes. An example of this could be buying something the vendor says something is 70$ but you say it's to expensive so the vendor lower its to 50$ and you think your getting it for a good price when honestly they knew it was a poor product.

Foot in the door technique

Persuasive strategy where one agrees to a small agreement but then extend that agreement by little bits, rather than just asking for a massive agreement.

Elaboration likelihood model

Theory that describes how people perceive persuasive messages, in either a deep and thoughtful manner(central) or based of their appearance and ho trustworthy they seem(peripheral)

False consensus model

Cognitive bias where people overestimate how much others agree with their takes, behaviors, and attitudes. An example of this is when one thinks that their opinion in a room of a hundred is the only answer.

Group polarization

When people in a group talk about an idea, they often end up agreeing with each other and this leads to making their group opinion extremely strong.

Group think

When people in a group opt to just go along with the consensus instead of giving any critical ideas and think alongside them.

Halo effect

Cognitive bias where a positive impression in one area leads to you thinking they are most likely good in all areas, often influencing overall judgement of one. An example of this could be thinking someone looks attractive and thinking they are also good in other areas as well.

Individualism

The ways which one identify themselves and prioritizes individual goals over group goals.

Industrial/organizational psychologists

Psychologist who apply psychological principles and research methods to their workplace to improve productivity.

Informational social influence

The influence to accept info from others as evidence about reality often occurring in situations where the correct action or belief is uncertain.

Normative social influence

Influence to conform to the positive expectations of others, often driven by the desire to be liked or accepted into this group.

Multiculturism

View that promotes the acknowledgement and respect of diverse cultural backgrounds and traditions often encouraging the coexistence and value of various cultural identities.

Negative affect

State of mind which is characterized by negative emotions.

Obedience

How one receives and follows commands given to them by an authoritative figure.

Social Debt

Accumulation of guilt from unpleasant social interactions.

Social facilitation

Tendency for people to perform differently when in the presence of others, typically showing improved performance on simple or well-practiced tasks and worse performance on complex or new tasks.

Social loafing

Tendency for individuals to exert less effort on group assignments, rather than them working alone.

Social norms

Unwritten rule which dictates acceptable behavior in society ,which influences an individual may act.

Social responsibility norm

Societal expectation that people should help others who need assistance, without regard to future exchanges.

Social reciprocity norm

An expectation that one will reciprocate help when they helped them out.

Social situation

External factor one has when dealing with a social situation

Social traps

Situations in which individuals or groups pursue immediate rewards that later prove to have negative consequences for the larger community.

Medulla

Part of the brain which is located in the bottom most part of your brain and is what controls vital processes like heartbeat, breathing and blood pressure

Limbic system

Is what processes and regulates emotion, memory, and social processing.

Sympathetic nervous system

Carries signals which put your bodies system's on alert and ready and is what allows your body to respond to dangerous situations.

Parasympathetic nervous system

Calms the body down from the "fight or flight" situation it was in.

Central nervous system

Consists of the brain and spinal cord and serves as the command center of the body responsible for processing info and coordinating responses and regular bodily functions.