Social Psychology and Personality (Unit 4)

Attribution

A process by which people use information to make inferences about the causes of behaviors or events.

Locus of control

An individual's perception about the underlying main causes of events in his/her life.

Mere exposure effect

The idea that people tend to like thinks or even people they are familiar with/ exposed to more often.

Self fulfilling prophecy

When a person unknowingly causes a prediction to come true due to the simple fact that he or she expects it to come true.

Stereotype

Belief about people based on their membership in a particular group.

Prejudice

A negative attitude toward another person or group formed in advance of any experience with that person or group.

Ethnicentrism

The prejudicial belief that one’s culture is superior to all other cultures.

Belief Perseverance

The tendency to hold onto a belief even if it has lost its credibility

Cognitive dissonance

An uncomfortable state of mind arising when you recognize inconsistencies in your beliefs and/or behaviors

Persuasion

The process by which a person's attitude or behavior are without duress (force), influenced by communications from other people

Conformity

Adjusting our behaviors or attitudes to mold a group standard

Obedience

A form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of power/authority

Individualism

Giving priority to one’s own goals over a group goal and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identification.

Collectivism

Value the needs of the group as a whole over the needs or desires of each individual

Industrial organizational psychologist

Apply psychological theories and principals to organizations

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare to others

Unconscious

Thoughts, desires, and urges, that are actively repressed from consciousness and that affect mental activity outside of active awareness

Defense mechanisms

A way for the mind to cope with stress or difficult feelings. (They are unconscious mechanism meaning you don’t realize you are doing them)

Projective tests

A personality test in which subject are shown ambiguous images and asked to interpret them

Humanistic psychology

A wat of evolutionary and individual as a whole rather than looking at them only through a smaller aspect of their person

Social cognitive theory

Theory tgat maintains personality both shapes and is shaped by environment

Big Five theory of personality

A theory is psychology that identifies five broad dimensions used by some psychologists to describe the human personality and psyche

Motivation

Process that initiate, direct, and sustain behavior

Emotion

A response of the whole organism, involving physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experiences.