Social Psychology & Individual Differences - Exam 3

prejudice

A preconceived negative judgment of a group and its individual members.

stereotype

A belief about the personal attributes of a group of people. Stereotypes are sometimes overgeneralized, inaccurate, and resistant to new information (and sometimes accurate).

discrimination

Unjustified negative behavior toward a group or its members.

social dominance orientation

A motivation to have one’s group dominate other social groups.

authoritarian personality

A personality that is disposed to favor obedience to authority and intolerance of outgroups and those lower in status.

realistic group conflict theory

The theory that prejudice arises from competition between groups for scarce resources.

social identity

The “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships.

ingroup

“Us”: a group of people who share a sense of belonging, a feeling of common identity.

outgroup

“Them”: a group that people perceive as distinctively different from or apart from their ingroup.

ingroup bias

The tendency to favor one’s own group.

outgroup homogeneity effect

Perception of outgroup members as more similar to one another than are ingroup members. Thus “they are alike; we are diverse.”

own-race bias

The tendency for people to more accurately recognize faces of their own race. (Also called the cross-race effect or other-race effect.)

group-serving bias

Explaining away outgroup members’ positive behaviors; also attributing negative behaviors to their dispositions (while excusing such behavior by one’s own group).

just-world phenomenon

The tendency of people to believe that the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

subtyping

Accommodating individuals who deviate from one’s stereotype by thinking of them as “exceptions to the rule.”

subgrouping

Accommodating individuals who deviate from one’s stereotype by forming a new stereotype about this subset of the group.

stereotype threat

A disruptive concern, when facing a negative stereotype, that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype. Unlike self-fulfilling prophecies that hammer one’s reputation into one’s self-concept, stereotype threat situations have immediate effects.

need to belong

A motivation to bond with others in relationships that provide ongoing, positive interactions.

proximity

Geographical nearness. Proximity (more precisely, “functional distance”) powerfully predicts liking.

mere-exposure effect

The tendency for novel stimuli to be liked more or rated more positively after the rater has been repeatedly exposed to them.

matching phenomenon

The tendency for men and women to choose as partners those who are a “good match” in attractiveness and other traits.

physical-attractiveness stereotype

The presumption that physically attractive people possess other socially desirable traits as well: What is beautiful is good.

complementarity

The popularly supposed tendency, in a relationship between two people, for each to complete what is missing in the other.

ingratiation

The use of strategies, such as flattery, by which people seek to gain another’s favor.

reward theory of attraction

The theory that we like those whose behavior is rewarding to us or whom we associate with rewarding events.

passionate love

A state of intense longing for union with another. Passionate lovers are absorbed in each other, feel ecstatic at attaining their partner’s love, and are disconsolate on losing it.

two-factor theory of emotion

Arousal × its label = emotion.

companionate love

The affection we feel for those with whom our lives are deeply intertwined.

secure attachment

Attachments rooted in trust and marked by intimacy.

avoidant attachment

Attachments marked by discomfort over, or resistance to, being close to others. An insecure attachment style.

anxious attachment

Attachments marked by anxiety or ambivalence. An insecure attachment style.

equity

A condition in which the outcomes people receive from a relationship are proportional to what they contribute to it. Note: Equitable outcomes needn’t always be equal outcomes.

self-disclosure

Revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others.

disclosure reciprocity

The tendency for one person’s intimacy of self-disclosure to match that of a conversational partner.

conformity

A change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure.

acceptance

Conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure.

compliance

Conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with an implied or explicit request while privately disagreeing.

obedience

A type of compliance involving acting in accord with a direct order or command.

autokinetic phenomenon

Self (auto) motion (kinetic). The apparent movement of a stationary point of light in the dark.

mass hysteria

Suggestibility to problems that spreads throughout a large group of people.

cohesiveness

A “we feeling”; the extent to which members of a group are bound together, such as by attraction to one another.

normative influence

Conformity based on a person’s desire to fulfill others’ expectations, often to gain acceptance.

informational influence

Conformity occurring when people accept evidence about reality provided by other people.

reactance

A motive to protect or restore one’s sense of freedom. Reactance arises when someone threatens our freedom of action.

group

Two or more people who, for longer than a few moments, interact with and influence one another and perceive one another as “us.”

social facilitation

(1) Original meaning: the tendency of people to perform simple or well-learned tasks better when others are present.

(2) Current meaning: the strengthening of dominant (prevalent, likely) responses in the presence of others.

evaluation apprehension

Concern for how others are evaluating us.

social loafing

The tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts toward a common goal than when they are individually accountable.

free riders

People who benefit from the group but give little in return.

deindividuation

Loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension; occurs in group situations that foster responsiveness to group norms, good or bad.

self-awareness

A self-conscious state in which attention focuses on oneself. It makes people more sensitive to their own attitudes and dispositions.

group polarization

Group-produced enhancement of members’ preexisting tendencies; a strengthening of the members’ average tendency, not a split within the group.

social comparison

Evaluating one’s opinions and abilities by comparing oneself with others.

pluralistic ignorance

A false impression of what most other people are thinking or feeling, or how they are responding.

groupthink

“The mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive in-group that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.”

leadership

The process by which certain group members motivate and guide the group.

task leadership

Leadership that organizes work, sets standards, and focuses on goals.

social leadership

Leadership that builds teamwork, mediates conflict, and offers support.

transformational leadership

Leadership that, enabled by a leader’s vision and inspiration, exerts significant influence.