Psychology 101: Social Reasoning

This flashcard set covers key concepts related to social reasoning, including definitions of important psychological terms and theories discussed in the lecture.

Social Reasoning

The ability to analyze and reason about the social situations we encounter.

Internal Attributions

Explanations in terms of something about the individual (e.g., personality, beliefs, emotions).

External Attributions

Explanations in terms of something outside the person (e.g., circumstances, situational factors).

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)

A tendency to believe that a person's behavior is due to their disposition rather than the situational context.

Cognitive Dissonance

Mental stress or discomfort experienced when one detects an inconsistency between their beliefs, values, and actions.

Self-serving Bias

A tendency to make dispositional attributions for positive events and situational attributions for negative events.

Chameleon Effect

The tendency to unconsciously mimic others’ facial expressions, postures, gestures, and speech patterns.

Theory of Mind

The ability to explicitly reason about what others are thinking and feeling, using knowledge and logic.

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

A measure of automatic associations, assessing the ease with which two concepts are associated.

Prosociality

Motivation to be prosocial: cooperate, collaborate with, and help others.