PSCL 315 Exam 1

social psychology

scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of others

hindsight bias

a projection of new knowledge into the past accompanied by a denial that the outcome information has influenced judgment

implicit egotism

the unconscious tendency to prefer things that resemble the self

social cognition

how we interpret, analyze, remember, and use information about the social world

motivated tactician

when a person slowly and deliberately weighs all the available information before coming to a decision

cognitive miser

when a person will use heuristics and mental “shortcuts” to conserve cognitive resources

schema

a knowledge structure consisting of any organized body of stored information that is used to help in understanding events

priming

increased availability of information in our memory or consciousness resulting from subconscious exposure to stimuli or events

poverty of introspection

people have an essential lack of understanding how cognition works and why they made the decisions that they did

halo effect

people tend to use their knowledge of a single characteristic to form global impressions of someone

importance of inconsistent information

people tend to assume that all information must be calculated into the decision, and that all information is presented for a reason

heuristics

intuitive thinking that provides efficient answers to common judgment problems

representativeness heuristic

a shortcut in which people judge things by how closely they resemble a prototype or a generic example; people do process how statistically likely the match is

availability heuristic

a shortcut in which people judge the likelihood of something happening by how easily it is recalled

anchoring and adjustment

a shortcut in which people make an estimate by choosing a starting point (anchor) and then compensating for the perceived difference between the starting point and the most likely answer (adjustment)

order effect

people can be affected by the ordering in which options occur; especially likely is a recency effect

framing effect

the way information is presented (order, etc.) can frame the way it’s processed and understood

risk analysis

people avoid risk when trying to gain, but are risk-seeking when trying to avoid a sure loss

overconfidence effect

the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments

counterfactual

the tendency to imagine other outcomes in a situation than the ones that actually occurred - to think about “might-have-beens”

attribution

the process by which we seek to identify the causes of others’ behavior and to understand their stable traits and dispositions

lay theory/folk theory

people use naive psychology to explain behaviors

correspondent inference

the belief that we learn about internal traits by watching external behaviors

fundamental attribution error

people have a strong tendency to overestimate the importance of internal traits and underestimate the importance of situation

actor-observer effect

explanations of our own behavior differ in dramatic ways from how we explain others’ behaviors

self-serving bias

we tend to explain our positive behaviors with personality and negative behaviors as situationally driven

primacy effect

the tendency for information presented early in a sequence to have more impact on impressions than information presented later

self-concept

the set of beliefs we have about ourselves and about what we are like

possible selves

the different selves or roles that a person plays, similar to an actor might in a play; these selves prescribe particular types of behaviors in certain social situations

actual self

the self that people believe they are

ideal self

the self that embodies people’s wishes and aspirations

ought self

the self that is concerned with the duties, obligations, and external demands people feel they are compelled to honor

feared self

the self you fear becoming

discrepancy

a mismatch between our actual self and a self-guide

individual self

thinking about the self and who you are

positive illusion

we tend to view the world in a slightly more positive light than we should

growth mindset

the belief that we are able to increase (incrementally) the amount of ability that we have

fixed mindset

the belief that we are born with a fixed amount of ability that will never change

self-awareness

the ability to look at what you are doing and interpret what you are like based on your actions

reflected appraisal

we view ourselves through the eyes of others and incorporate their perceptions of us into our self-concept

self-presentation

presenting the person we would like others to believe we are

self-esteem

the overall positive or negative evaluation people have of themselves

executive self

people have a strong desire to control events

locus of control

the degree outcomes are viewed internally controlled or externally controlled

gestalt psychology

an approach that stresses the fact that people’s perception of objects involves active, usually nonconscious interpretation of what the object represents as a whole

construal

one’s interpretation or inference about the stimuli or situations that one confronts

stereotype

a belief that certain attributes are characteristic of members of a particular group

naturalistic fallacy

the claim that the way things are is the way they should be

looking-glass self

you decide what you’re like based on the responses of the people around you

thin slice

a few seconds of seeing what someone is like

recency effect

the information presented last exerts the most influence

spin framing

the changing of the content of what is presented

positive/negative framing

90% success rate vs 10% failure rate

construal level theory

the temporal perspective from which people view events has important and predictable implications for how they construe them

confirmation bias

the tendency to test a proposition by searching for evidence in support of it

bottom-up processing

forming conclusions based on stimuli encountered in the environment

top-down processing

filtering and interpreting new information in light of pre-existing knowledge and expectations

subliminal

below the threshold of conscious awareness

fluency

the feeling of ease associated with processing information

base-rate information

information about the relative frequency of events or members of different categories in a population

illusory correlation

the belief that two variables are correlated when in fact they are not

regression effect

the statistical tendency when two variables are imperfectly correlated for extreme values of one of them to be associated with less extreme values of the other

regression fallacy

the failure to recognize the influence of the regression effect and to instead offer a causal theory for what is really a simple statistical regularity

mere ownership

having a preference for things that relate to yourself

negativity bias

people focus more on negative than positive

self-schema

a cognitive structure derived from past experience that represents a person’s beliefs and feelings about the self in both general and specific situations

working self-concept

a subset of self-knowledge that is brought to mind in a particular context

social comparison theory

the idea that people compare themselves to other people to obtain an accurate assessment of their own opinions, abilities, and internal states

social identities

the parts of a person’s sense of self that are derived from group memberships

self-stereotyping

the phenomenon whereby people come to define themselves in terms of traits, norms, and values that they associate with a social group when their identity as a member of that group is salient

contingencies of self-worth

the thesis that people’s self-esteem is contingent on their successes and failures in domains they deem important to their self-worth

sociometer hypothesis

the idea that self-esteem is an internal, subjective index or marker of the extent to which a person is included or looked on favorably by others

self-enhancement

the desire to maintain, increase, or protect one’s positive self-views

better-than-average effect

the finding that most people think they are above average on various personality trait and ability dimensions

self-affirmation theory

the idea that people can maintain an overall sense of self-worth after being exposed to psychologically threatening information by affirming a valued aspect of themselves unrelated to the threat

self-verification theory

the theory that people strive for others to view them as they view themselves - such verification of one’s views of the self helps people maintain a sense of coherence and predictability

self-regulation

processes by which people initiate and control their behavior in the pursuit of goals, including the ability to resist short-term rewards that thwart the attainment of long-term goals

self-discrepancy theory

a theory that behavior is motivated by standards reflecting ideal and ought selves - falling short of those standards elicits specific emotions and may lead to efforts to get closer to them

promotion focus

self-regulation of behavior with respect to ideal-self standards - a focus on attaining positive outcomes through approach-related behaviors

prevention focus

self-regulation of behavior with respect to ought-self standards - a focus on avoiding negative outcomes through avoidance-related behaviors

implementation intention

an “if-then” plan to engage in a goal-directed behavior (“then”) whenever a particular cue (“if”) is encountered

face

the public image of ourself that we want others to believe

self-monitoring

the tendency to monitor one’s behavior to fit the current situation

self-handicapping

the tendency to engage in self-defeating behavior in order to have an excuse ready should one perform poorly or fail

reflexive self

thinking about who you are

forced choice paradigm

a person’s perceived choice is constrained by the experimenter

discounting principle

judgment to assign reduced weight to cause of behavior if other plausible causes might have produced it

augmenting principle

judgment to assign greater weight to cause of behavior if other causes present would normally product the opposite outcome