Social Psych Exam 2

University of Iowa

self esteem

a person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth

narcissism

an inflated sense of self; self-centeredness

self-serving bias

the tendency to perceive oneself favorably

self-serving attributions

taking credit for successes and blaming others or the situation for failures

better-than-average-effect

tendency to believe that one’s own abilities, attributes, and personality traits are better than their average peer

defensive pessimism

the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action

false consensus

overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and behavior

false uniqueness

underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and behavior

bias blind spot

tendency to believe other people more susceptible to attributional biases compared to self

self-presentation

behaving in ways to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one’s ideals

self-monitoring

being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situation and adjusting one’s performance to create the desired impression

self-handicapping

protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that create an excuse for later failure

automatic thinking (system 1)

unconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless; shapes our perceptions, judgments, and behaviors

controlled thinking (system 2)

conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful

snap judgments

forming impressions based on the slightest of cues

priming

stimulus in environment activities information in memory

schemas

mental structures used to organize knowledge about the world and guide how we notice, think about, and remember the world

self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment

behavioral confirmation

the process by which an expectation about a person eventually leads that person to behave in ways the confirm the expectation

heuristics

a thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgments

avaiblability heuristic

basing a judgment of likelihood on the ease with which we can bring the information to mind

representative heuristic

classifying something or someone as belonging to a group based on how similar it is to a typical case despite contrary odds

base rate information

information about the frequency of members in a group

when does the representative heuristic apply?

• classifying a variety of stimuli

• similarity is based on prior knowledge

overconfidence phenomenon

the tendency to be more confident than correct

dunning-krueger effect

incompetence feeds overconfidence

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions

counterfactual thinking

mentally changing some aspect of the past as a way of imaging what might have been; the “if I had only…” effect

illusory correlation

perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists

how are mood and judgments related?

negatively correlated

misattribution

mistakenly attributing a behavior to the wrong source

types of attribution

• internal/dispositional

• external/situational

fundamental attribution error

tendency for observers to overestimate internal and underestimate external causes of behavior

perceptual salience

the seeming importance of information that is the focus of people’s attention

two-step process of attribution

1. spontaneous trait inference

2. make an effortful situational correction only when

   1. information about the situation is salient

   2. we have enough mental energy

attitudes

a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of objects, people, and events

ABCs of attitudes

• affect: emotional reactions

• behavior: actions or observable

• cognition: thoughts and beliefs

when do attitudes predict behavior

• other influences on behavior are minimal

• social desirability is low

• attitudes are specific to the behavior

• attitudes are potent

explicit attitudes

attitudes that we consciously endorsed and can easily report; measured through self-report

implicit attitudes

attitudes that are involuntary, uncontrollable, and at times unconciously measured through implicit association test

implicit association test

reaction time in sorting attitude objects and valanced stimuli

theory of planned behavior

intentions are the best predictors of deliberate behaviors

factors that shape intentions

• attitude toward the behavior

• subjective norms

• perceived control

roles

norms about how people in a particular position are supposed to behave

self-presentation

expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression

self-perception theory

when out attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs

facial feedback

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

intrinsic motivation

engaging in an activity because of enjoyment and interest

extrinsic motivation

engaging in an activity because of external reasons

overjustification effect

when rewarding someone for doing something they like, people may view their behavior as caused by compelling extrinsic reasons, making them underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic reasons

self-esteem

a person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth

longitudinal study

research in which the same people are studied over an extended period of time

self-efficacy

a sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, which is one’s sense of self-worth

self-serving bias

the tendency to perceive oneself favorably

self-serving attributions

the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors

defensive pessimism

the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action

false consensus effect

the tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors

false uniqueness effect

the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors

self-handicapping

protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure

self-presentation

the act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one’s ideals

self-monitoring

being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one’s performance to create the desired impression

priming

activating particular associations in memory

embodied cognition

the mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgments

overconfidence phenomenon

the tendency to be more confident than correct; to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs

confirmation bias

tendency to search for information that confirm one’s preconceptions

heuristics

a thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgments

representativeness heuristic

tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling a typical member

availability heursitic

cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory

counterfactual thinking

imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn’t

illusory correlation

perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists

regression toward the average

the statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behavior to return toward their average

belief perserverence

persistence of one’s initial conceptions, such as when the basis for one’s belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives

misinformation effect

incorporating “misinformation” into one’s memory of the event after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it

attribution theory

theory of how people explain others’ behavior, attributing it either to internal dispositions or to external situations

dispositional attribution

attributing behavior to the person’s disposition and traits

situational attribution

attributing behavior to the environment

misattribution

mistakenly attributing a behavior to the wrong source

spontaneous trait inference

an effortless, automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone’s behavior

fundamental attribution error

the tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon others’ behavior

self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment

behavioral confirmation

type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people’s social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations

role

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

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

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”

self-perception theory

theory that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs

facial feedback effect

tendency of facial expressions to trigger corresponding feelings

overjustification effect

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

theory that (a) people often experience a self-image threat after engaging in an undesirable behavior; and (b) they can compensate by affirming another aspect of the self