AP Psychology Unit 4: Social Psychology, Personality, Motivation, and Emotion

Complete vocabulary definitions review covering 126 key terms across Social Psychology, Personality, Motivation, and Emotion for AP Psychology Unit 4.

Attributions

Explaining why someone acts a certain way.

Dispositional attributions

Explaining behavior using someone's personality or traits.

Situational attributions

Explaining behavior using the situation or surroundings.

Explanatory style

Your usual way of explaining good and bad events.

Optimistic explanatory style

Seeing setbacks as temporary and limited.

Pessimistic explanatory style

Seeing setbacks as lasting and affecting many parts of life.

Actor/observer bias

Blaming our actions on situations, but others' actions on personality.

Fundamental attribution error

Overlooking situations and blaming others' behavior on personality.

Self-serving bias

Taking credit for success but blaming failure on outside factors.

Internal locus of control

Believing your choices and effort control what happens.

External locus of control

Believing luck, fate, or outside forces control what happens.

Mere exposure effect

Liking something more because you see it often.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

An expectation that leads you to act in ways that make it happen.

Social comparison

Judging yourself by comparing yourself with others.

Upward social comparison

Comparing yourself with someone doing better than you.

Downward social comparison

Comparing yourself with someone doing worse than you.

Relative deprivation

Feeling unfairly worse off when comparing yourself with others.

Stereotype

A general belief about people in a certain group.

Cognitive load

How much information your brain is working on at once.

Prejudice

An unfair attitude or feeling toward a group.

Discrimination

Treating people unfairly because they belong to a group.

Implicit attitudes

Automatic attitudes you may not consciously notice.

Just-world phenomenon

Believing people get what they deserve.

Out-group homogeneity bias

Seeing people outside your group as mostly alike.

In-group bias

Favoring people who belong to your own group.

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures by your own culture's standards.

Belief perseverance

Keeping a belief even after its supporting evidence is disproved.

Confirmation bias

Noticing information that supports what you already believe.

Cognitive dissonance

Discomfort when your actions and beliefs do not match.

Social norms

Unwritten rules for how people are expected to act.

Social influence theory

How other people affect our thoughts and actions.

Normative social influence

Following a group to fit in or avoid rejection.

Informational social influence

Following a group because you think it knows better.

Persuasion

Trying to change someone's attitude or behavior through messages.

Elaboration likelihood model

Two paths to persuasion: central (facts) and peripheral (cues).

Central route

Being persuaded by strong facts and careful thinking.

Peripheral route

Being persuaded by appearance, emotions, or other surface cues.

Halo effect

Assuming someone has other good traits because of one good trait.

Foot-in-the-door technique

Getting a big yes by first asking for a small favor.

Door-in-the-face technique

Getting a smaller yes by first making a huge request.

Conformity

Changing your behavior to match a group.

Obedience

Following orders from an authority figure.

Individualism

Valuing personal freedom and individual goals.

Collectivism

Putting the group's needs and goals first.

Multiculturalism

Respecting and including people from different cultures.

Group polarization

Group discussion makes members' views more extreme.

Groupthink

Choosing agreement over good decisions in a group.

Diffusion of responsibility

Feeling less responsible when other people are present.

Social loafing

Working less hard because others share the group task.

Deindividuation

Losing self-awareness and restraint when part of a group.

Social facilitation

Others' presence helps easy tasks but can hurt difficult ones.

False consensus effect

Overestimating how many people agree with you.

Superordinate goals

Shared goals that require different groups to cooperate.

Social traps

Short-term selfish choices that hurt everyone over time.

Industrial-organizational (I/O) psychologists

Psychologists who study people and behavior at work.

Burnout

Feeling exhausted and detached after prolonged stress.

Altruism

Helping others without expecting anything in return.

Prosocial behavior

Actions meant to help other people.

Social debt

Feeling that you owe someone for a favor.

Social reciprocity norm

The expectation that you should return a favor.

Social responsibility norm

The expectation that you should help people in need.

Bystander effect

Being less likely to help when more bystanders are around.

Situational variables

Features of a situation that can change behavior.

Attentional variables

What you notice or pay attention to in a situation.

Psychodynamic theory

Personality is shaped by unconscious conflicts and early experiences.

Unconscious processes

Thoughts and feelings that affect us without our awareness.

Ego defense mechanisms

Unconscious ways of protecting ourselves from anxiety.

Denial

Refusing to accept something painful or true.

Displacement

Taking feelings out on a safer person or object.

Projection

Seeing your own unwanted feelings in someone else.

Rationalization

Making excuses to justify your actions.

Reaction formation

Acting the opposite of how you really feel.

Regression

Returning to younger behavior when stressed.

Repression

Unconsciously blocking upsetting thoughts or memories.

Sublimation

Channeling socially unacceptable urges into positive activities.

Projective tests

Personality tests using unclear images or situations.

Preconscious mind

Memories outside awareness that you can easily recall.

Unconscious mind

Thoughts and desires outside conscious awareness.

Humanistic psychology

Focusing on personal growth, free choice, and human potential.

Unconditional regard

Accepting and caring for someone without conditions.

Self-actualizing tendency

The natural desire to grow and reach your potential.

Social-cognitive theory

Personality comes from thoughts, actions, and surroundings.

Reciprocal determinism

Our thoughts, behavior, and environment all influence each other.

Self-concept

How you see and describe yourself.

Self-efficacy

Believing you can succeed at a specific task.

Self-esteem

How much you value or like yourself.

Trait theories

Describing personality using lasting characteristics.

Big Five theory

Five major traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism.

Agreeableness

Being kind, cooperative, and trusting.

Openness to experience

Being curious, creative, and open to new ideas.

Extraversion

Being outgoing, sociable, and energetic.

Conscientiousness

Being organized, responsible, and dependable.

Emotional stability

Staying calm under stress; opposite of neuroticism.

Personality inventories

Questionnaires that measure personality traits.

Factor analysis

A method that groups related traits or test answers.

Affect

Your general feelings or emotional state.

Internal and external factors

Emotions can come from inside you or from outside events.

Physiological vs cognitive experiences

Physical = body reactions; cognitive = thoughts about a situation or sensation.

Cognitive label

Naming an emotion, such as fear or excitement.

Facial-feedback hypothesis

Your facial expression can affect how you feel.