Social Psych Textbook Vocab

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 in lower status

realistic group conflict theory

the theory that prejudice arises from competition between groups for scare resources

own-race bias

the tendency for people to more accurately recognize faces of their own race

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

matching phenomenon

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

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

two-factor theory of emotion

arousal x its label = emotion

equity

a condition in which the outcomes people receive from a relationship are proportional to what they contribute to it

disclosure reciprocity

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

acceptance

conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure

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

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

free riders

people who benefit from the group but give little in return

self-awareness

a self-conscious state in which attention focuses on oneself

• It makes people more sensitive to their own attitudes and dispositions

pluralistic ignorance

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

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 a significant influence