Social Psychology Lecture Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from a Social Psychology study guide, including research methods, self-perception, persuasion, and cognitive biases.

Social Psychology

The scientific study primarily concerned with how individuals behave in social contexts.

Schema

A mental representation of a category or concept.

Independent Variable

The variable in experimental research that is manipulated by the researcher.

Embodied Cognition

The phenomenon where physical sensations, such as holding a warm drink, increase feelings of social warmth toward others.

Self-serving Bias

The tendency to attribute successes internally to oneself and failures externally to outside factors.

Elaboration Likelihood Model (Central Route)

A persuasion route that occurs when people engage in thoughtful evaluation of arguments.

Social Desirability Bias

A bias that influences self-report methods where participants respond in ways they believe are socially acceptable.

BIRGing

Basking In Reflected Glory; associating oneself with the success of others, such as saying "we won" despite no involvement.

Spotlight Effect

The belief that others notice us more than they actually do.

Self-monitoring

The ability to regulate one's behavior based on social cues; high self-monitors adjust their language and posture to match the setting.

Cognitive Dissonance

Occurs when a person acts inconsistently with their beliefs or attitudes, leading them to potentially change their attitudes to fit their behavior.

IAT (Implicit Association Test)

A tool used to measure subconscious associations and automatic attitudes.

Foot-in-the-door Technique

A consistency-based compliance technique that relies on starting with a small request.

Observational Research

A research method that observes behavior without interference, which has limited causal inference.

Sleeper Effect

A phenomenon where people remember the message but forget the source over time.

Self-handicapping

The act of creating obstacles to performance to protect self-esteem.

Social Comparison

Evaluating oneself using similar others as a benchmark.

Self-complexity

Having multiple independent self-domains (e.g., student, musician, friend); high self-complexity reduces vulnerability to failure.

Subject Variable

A variable that exists within participants and cannot be manipulated by the researcher.

Construct Validity

A form of validity reflecting whether a measure accurately represents the underlying theoretical construct.

Theory of Planned Behavior

A theory that includes subjective norms as a factor in predicting behavior.

Mere Exposure Effect

The phenomenon where repeated exposure to a stimulus increases liking for it.

EAR (Electronically Activated Recorder)

A method used to collect ambient conversation snippets.

Confounding Variable

A third variable that causes a correlation between two other variables.

Demand Characteristics

Changes in behavior because one is being observed or is trying to please the researcher.

Peripheral Route

A persuasion route used when a person is rushed or distracted, often relying on cues like the speaker's expert appearance.

Downward Social Comparison

Evaluating oneself by comparing one's situation to others who are worse-off.

Beneficence

A Belmont principle focused on protecting research participants from harm.

Psychological Reactance

Opposing persuasion because one's sense of freedom feels threatened.

Bogus Pipeline

A technique used to reduce social desirability bias in responses.

CORFing

Cutting Off Reflected Failure; the act of distancing oneself from another's failure.

Behavioral Measurement

Measuring psychological states via observable actions, such as quantifying happiness by the number of smiles.

Deception

Misleading participants about the true purpose of a study.

Hindsight Bias

The belief that one knew the outcome of an event all along.

Self-perception Theory

The theory that individuals infer their attitudes by observing their own behavior.

Supplication

Appearing helpless so that others will provide help.

Inoculation

Building resistance to persuasion after being warned with a weak counterargument.

Self-regulation

The process of regulating one's emotions, impulses, and actions.

Motivated Memory

The tendency to recall memories that support a positive self-view.

Informed Consent

A Nuremberg principle that requires voluntary participation in research.

Door-in-the-face Technique

A compliance technique based on reciprocity, starting with a large request followed by a smaller one.

Archival Research

A research method analyzing historical records, big data, or social media posts.

Ironic Process Theory

The phenomenon where trying not to think about something causes you to think about it more.

Cognitive Accessibility

The ease or speed with which stimuli are categorized.

Illusion of Control

Overestimating the amount of influence one has over external events.

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

The hypothesis that facial expressions shape emotional experience.

Self-discrepancy Theory

A theory exploring the inconsistencies between the actual and ideal self.

Halo Effect

A cognitive bias where a trait like attractiveness affects hiring decisions or other evaluations.

Backward Telescoping

Misjudging the amount of elapsed time since an event occurred.

Triangulation

The use of self-report, behavioral, and physiological measures together in social psychology research.