Social Psych Chapters 2-4 Vocab

Terms for social thinking, social beliefs and judgements, and behaviors and attitudes

Illusion of Transparency

The illusion that our emotions can easily be read by others

Self-concept

What we know and believe about ourselves

Self-schema

The specific beliefs by which we define ourselves

Impact Bias

Overestimating the emotional impact of events

Self-efficacy

A sense that one is competent and effective

Self-serving Bias

The tendency to perceive oneself favorably

Self-serving Attributions

Attributing positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors

False Consensus Effect

Overestimating how much others agree

Self-handicapping

Protecting themselves through self-sabotage that will explain future failure

Self-monitoring

Adjusting one’s appearance to get desired impression

Priming

Activating certain associations in memory

Automatic Thinking

Implicit thinking that is habitual

Controlled Thinking

Explicit thinking that is deliberate

Confirmation Bias

Searching for information that confirms one’s opinions/preconceptions

Heuristics

A thinking strategy that enables quick judgement

Representativeness Heuristic

Presuming someone/something belongs to a specific group

Availability Heuristic

Judging the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory

Counterfactual Thinking

Imagining alternate scenarios that could’ve happened, but didn’t

Illusory Correlation

Associating random events when we expect to find significant relationships

Belief Perseverance

People’s initial conceptions persist even if basis for the belief is discredited

Misinformation Effect

Misinformation is incorporated into memory after witnessing an event

Attribution Theory

How people explain others’ behavior

Dispositional Attribution

Someone’s behavior is from their traits/personality

Situational Attribution

Someone’s behavior is based on environmental factors

Misattribution

Attributing behaviors to the wrong source

Fundamental Attribution Error

Underestimating external factors and overestimating internal factors in behavior

Behavioral Confirmation

People’s social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations

Attitude

Beliefs and feelings towards a person/event

Implicit Attitudes

Our unconscious attitudes

Role

A set of norms that defines how people in a given social position ought to behave

Cognitive Dissonance

Our thoughts and behaviors don’t align

Selective Exposure

Seeking info/media that agree with one’s views to avoid dissonance

Insufficient Justification

Engaging in behavior not justified by a notable external reward

Self-perception Theory

Our behaviors guide our attitudes about our beliefs

Facial Feedback Effect

Facial expressions can trigger corresponding feelings

Overjustification Effect

The result of bribing people to do what they already like doing

Self-affirmation Theory

People often experience self-image threat after engaging in undesirable behavior