Social Psychology: Causal Attributions and Emotion

Vocabulary flashcards covering causal attributions, attribution errors, emotion components, nonverbal communication, display rules, and social functions of emotions.

Internal Attribution

An explanation of behavior that attributes the cause to a characteristic of the person who is behaving.

External Attribution

An explanation of behavior that attributes the cause to a characteristic of the social situation.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to make internal, dispositional attributions about other people's behavior while being less likely to consider external, situational factors.

Perceptual Salience

A reason for the Fundamental Attribution Error where situational factors are difficult to notice unless they are visually or contextually prominent.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to use external, situational attributions to explain one's own bad behavior and internal, dispositional attributions to explain one's own good behavior.

Emotion

A brief, specific response to a stimulus, such as an event, object, or person.

Five Components of Emotion

The five elements comprising an emotional response: appraisal of stimulus, physiological response, expression, subjective feeling, and action tendency.

Real Smile

A genuine smile engaging distinct facial muscles, characterized by eyes squinting slightly and visible crow's feet.

Six Basic Facial Expressions

The set of primary facial expressions universally recognized across cultures: happiness, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear.

Ekman & Friesen (1971) Study

Research demonstrating high accuracy (68–92% among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea) in identifying basic facial expressions regardless of exposure to Western culture.

Touch in Nonverbal Communication

A nonverbal signal that builds social bonds and intimacy, raises oxytocin levels, supports parent-child attachment, and promotes team coordination.

Power-Related Body Language

Nonverbal postures ('high power' vs. 'low power') that influence how an individual is perceived by others as well as how powerful or confident they feel internally.

Emotional Display Rules

Social, cultural, or gender-based norms that define which emotions are masked and which are expressed boldly in specific contexts.

Expressive vs. Stoic Cultures

A cultural difference in display rules where expressive cultures boldly demonstrate emotions, whereas stoic cultures favor subdued emotional displays, especially for negative feelings.

Toxic Positivity

A cultural pressure in the U.S. to constantly display excited happiness and suppress negative emotions, which can cause emotional avoidance and mental health stigma.

Social Function of Emotions

The way emotional action tendencies (such as pride, anger, and guilt) motivate people to interact with others, enforce fairness, build social ties, and repair relationships.