Module 4.1 AP Psych
Person perception — the way we form impressions of ourselves and other people, including how we explain behavior.
Attribution theory — the idea that we explain someone’s behavior by linking it either to the situation or to stable personal traits.
Situational attribution — explaining behavior by pointing to outside circumstances or the setting.
Dispositional attribution — explaining behavior by pointing to someone’s lasting traits or character.
Fundamental attribution error — the tendency to underestimate the role of the situation and overestimate the role of personal traits when judging other people.
Actor-observer bias — the tendency to explain your own behavior with outside causes, while explaining other people’s behavior with inner causes.
Social comparison — judging yourself and others by comparing abilities, success, appearance, or other traits with people around you.
Prejudice — an unjustifiable, usually negative attitude toward a group and its members.
Stereotype — a general belief about a group of people that can be partly accurate but is often exaggerated or overly broad.
Discrimination — unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members.
Explicit prejudice — open, conscious bias that people are aware of and can usually report.
Implicit prejudice — automatic, unconscious bias that happens below awareness and can still affect behavior.
Social identity — the part of your self-concept that comes from the groups you belong to.
Ingroup — the group you see as “us” or as sharing your identity.
Outgroup — the group you see as “them” or as different from your own group.
Ingroup bias — the tendency to favor your own group over others.
Just-world phenomenon — the belief that the world is fair and that people get what they deserve.
Scapegoat theory — the idea that people direct anger or frustration toward someone they blame for their problems.
Ethnocentrism — the tendency to view your own ethnic or racial group as superior.
Outgroup homogeneity — the belief that people in another group are all basically alike.
Other-race effect — the tendency to remember faces from your own race better than faces from other races.
Availability heuristic — the tendency to judge how common something is by how easily examples come to mind.
System justification — the tendency to believe that the current social system is fair, natural, and should stay the way it is.