Unit 2-4 AP Psych

Person Perception

How we form impressions of people

Attribution theory

The theory that we explain someone's behaviour by crediting the situation or their traits

Situational attribution

Explaining someone's behaviour by crediting the situation

Dispositional attribution

Explaining someone's behaviour by crediting their enduring traits

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition when analyzing others behavior (ie blaming them)

Actor-observer bias

As an actor, we explain our behaviour by external causes but as an observer, we blame internal causes

Disposition

Personal character

Prejudice

Unjustifiable and negative attitude towards a group and its members

Stereotypes

Generalized beliefs about a group of people

Explicit prejudice

Prejudice that we are aware of

Implicit prejudice

Unconscious prejudice that leaves us unaware of how our attitudes are influencing our behaviour

Just world phenomenon

The tendency for people to believe that the world is just and that people get what they deserve (ie homeless man deserves being homeless because he is lazy)

Social identity

Answer to 'who am I' in terms of group membership

Ingroup

The groups we are in

Outgroup

The groups we are not in

In group bias

Bias to favour our own group

Scapegoat theory

Blaming an outgroup when something goes wrong as an outlet for anger (ie Asian hate during Covid)

Other-race effect

The effect of recognizing our own race faces better

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to view our own ethnic group as superior

Attitudes

Feelings that may impact our response to events or people

Foot in the door phenomenon

The tendency for people to first agree with a smaller request to later comply with a larger request

Door in the face

When asked to do a large task, people will reject. But when asked to do a smaller task, people will say yes.

Cognitive dissonance

When our attitudes or actions clash, we reduce the dissonance by changing our attitudes or actions to match.

Elaboration likelihood model

When we mentally elaborate/process a message, we more often retain it

Peripheral route persuasion

Attention getting cues (like attractiveness, fame, or vivid photos) to trigger speedy emotion-based judgements

Central route persuasion

Offers evidence/arguments that aim to trigger critical thinking (statistics/logic based)

Halo effect

When positive feelings attributed to a person or brand make us feel more positively towards a project/idea (like a celebrity endorsing smth)

Social norms

Accepted behavior or rules

Social contagion

Spontaneous spread of behaviours (like mood contagion)

Conformity

Conforming to society with behaviour

Solomon Asch and conformity

When people give a wrong answer but all agree, we tend to agree with the wrong answer

Normative social influence

Conform to avoid rejection or to gain social approval

Informational social influence

Influence resulting from a person's willingness to accept others opinions about reality

Obedience

Complying with an order or command

Stanley Milgram

Assigned as a teacher, have to shock someone.

Minority influence

The power of one or two individuals to sway majorities

Social facilitation

Strengthened performance in others presence for simple or well-learned tasks but worsened performance on difficult tasks

Social loafing

The tendency to do less on a group project than on an individual

Deindividuation

Process of losing self-awareness and restraint when group participation makes people aroused and anonymous

Group polarization

Beliefs grow stronger and more polarized when we discuss them with like-minded others

Group think

When overconfidence, conformity, group polarization etc. lead a group of people to make an obviously dumb decision because they want to avoid disharmony

Tight cultures

Strictly obey social norms

Loose cultures

Loosely obey social norms and expect variability (jay walking, lottery etc.)

Aggression

Physical or verbal behavior intended to harm

Aggression influences

Electrodes in brains in amygdala can encourage aggression; Animals are bred to be more aggressive; Hormones (like testosterone) make people more aggressive

Frustration-aggression principle

When people are frustrated (like hungry) they are more prone to aggression

Social script

Culturally provided scripts of how to act in certain situations (like violent video games)

Prosocial

Behaviour that intends to help or benefit someone

Attraction

Being attracted to someone or something

Mere exposure effect

Being closer to someone (proximity) can cause increases in attraction

Reward theory of attraction

We like those whose behaviour is rewarding to us

Passionate love

An aroused state of intense positive love usually at the beginning of a romantic relationship. Seeing our partner stimulate blood flow to a brain region linked to craving and obsession

Two factor theory of emotion

Emotions have two ingredients (physical arousal + cognitive appraisal)

Companionate love

A deep affectionate attachment we feel after being intertwined with someone's life (after passionate love)

Equity

Two partners putting in as much as the other is

Self-disclosure

Revealing intimate details about ourselves

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others

Diffusion of responsibility

When more people shared responsibility for helping fewer people take action to help

Bystander effect

The belief that someone else will take action and help as a bystander

Social exchange theory

Social behaviour is an exchange process where we maximize the benefits and minimize the costs

Reciprocity norm

The expectation that we should return help and not harm those who have helped us

Social-responsibility norm

The expectation that we should help those who need our help even if the costs outweigh the benefits for us

Conflict

Incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

Social traps

When two parties pursue their own self-interests rather than the good of the group become caught in mutually destructive behaviour (like people contributing to climate change because they prefer a gas car or whatever)

Mirror image perceptions

Mutual views held by conflicting parties where one side sees itself as ethical and peaceful but thinks that the other side is evil and aggressive. (but both sides think the same thing about the other)

Self-fulfilling prophecies

Beliefs that confirm themselves by influencing the other country to react in ways that seem to justify those beliefs

Superordinate goals

Shared goals that are only achieved through cooperation

GRIT

An international method to reduce tensions by one or more small conciliatory acts that soon is reciprocated.

personality

Unique and persistent patterns of thinking feeling and behaving

Psychodynamic theories

human behaviour is an interaction between the conscious and unconscious mind

psychoanalysis

freud's theory of personality and associated treatment techniques

unconscious

superego and id, underneath the iceberg

free association

the person relaxes and says whatever is on their mind no matter how trivial or embarrassing in psychoanalysis

Id

child like behavior, natural needs, sexuality

super ego

higher beliefs in the world, contribution to society, morality

ego

the conscious behaviour that mediates the two. The 'ich'. Operates on the reality principle that seeks to gratify id's impulses in realistic ways

defense mechanisms

the ego protects itself with tactics that reduce or redirect anxiety by distorting reality

regression

retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage (often rare even in response to terrible trauma)

reaction formation

switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites (rather than crying about disappointing news, switches and says that that news was the best thing to ever happen)

Projection

disguising one's own threatening impulses by attributing them to others (tells everyone how mad his parents are at the coach)

Rationalization

Offering self-justifying explanations to explain the real and more threatening unconscious reasons for one's action

displacement

shifting sexual or aggressive impulses towards someone or something else (yelling at a friend who didn't do anything)

sublimation

transferring unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives

denial

refusing to believe that what happened happened

collective unconscious

a common reservoir of archetypes and memories (explains why some myths are the same across cultures)

terror management theory

thinking about one's mortality provokes terror-management defenses like increased aggression towards rivals and heightened self-esteem

Thematic apperception Test (TAT)

people view ambiguous pictures and then make up stories about them

projective test

personality test where people are shown images to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics and pre/unconscious mind

Rorschach inkblot tests

a type of projective test with ink blots

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

psychological needs, safety, love, self-esteem, self-actualization and transcendence all build on each other

Humanism

emphasized the ways that people strive for self-determination and self-actualization

Self-actualization

the process of fulfilling our potential

Self-transcendence

meaning, purpose, and identity beyond the self

Unconditional positive regard

a caring, accepting and nonjudgmental attitude which Carl Rogers believed would help clients develop self-awareness and acceptance

Self-concept

all the thoughts and feelings we have in response to the question, 'who am I?'

Trait

people's characteristics, behaviors and conscious motives

Personality inventory

longer questionnaires covering a wide range of feelings and behaviors that assess several traits at once

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests that was originally used to identify emotional disorders

Empirically derived test

from a large pool of items researchers select those on which particular diagnostic groups differed

Big Five Factors

tests where you are on the 5 dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN)