Chapter 4 SocPsyc Terms

Attitude

Beliefs and feelings to a person or an event (often rooted in one’s beliefs, and exhibited in one’s feelings and intended behavior)

Implicit Association Test

A computer-driven assessment of implicit attitudes. The test uses reaction times to measure people’s automatic associations between attitude objects and evaluative words.

Easier pairings (and faster responses) are taken to indicate stronger unconscious associations.

Role

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

Self-presentation theory

assumes that for strategic reasons we express attitudes that make us appear more consistent

Cognitive dissonance theory

assumes that to reduce discomfort, we justify our actions to ourselves

Self-perception theory

assumes that our actions are self-revealing: when uncertain about our feelings or beliefs, we look to our behavior, much as anyone else would

The theory that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them as much as would someone observing us—by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs.

Cognitive dissonance

tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions. For example, dissonance may occur when we realize that we have, with little justification, acted contrary to our attitudes or made a decision favoring one alternative despite reasons favoring another

Selective exposure

The tendency to seek information and media that agree with one’s views and to avoid dissonant information

Insufficient justification

Reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one’s behavior when external justification is “insufficient”.

Facial feedback effect

The tendency of facial expressions to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness

Overjustification effect

The result of bribing people to do what they already like doing; they may then see their actions as externally controlled rather than intrinsically appealing

Self-affirmation theory

A theory that (a) people often experience as a self-image threat after engaging in an undesirable behavior; and (b) they can compensate by affirming another aspect of the self. Threaten people’s self-concept in one domain, and they will compensate either by refocusing or by doing good deeds in some other domain.