AP Psych U4A
Term | definition |
Person Perception | How we form impressions of people |
Attribution theory | The theory that we explain someone’s behaviour by crediting the situation or their traits |
Situational attribution | Explaining someone’s behaviour by crediting the situtaition |
Dispositional attribution | Explaining someone’s behaviour by crediting their enduring traits |
Fundamental attribution error | The tendency to underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition when analyzing others behavior (ie blaming them). |
Actor-observer bias | As an actor, we explain our behaviour by external causes but as an observer, we blame internal causes. |
disposition | Personal character |
Prejudice | Unjustifiable and negative attitude towards a group and its members |
steroetypes | Generalized beliefs about a group of people |
Explicit prejudice | Prejudice that we are aware of |
Implicit prejudice | Unconscious prejudice that leaves us unaware of how our atittidues are influencing our behaviour |
Just world phenomenon | The tendency for people to believe that the world is just and that people get what they deserve (ie homeless man deserves being homeless because he is lazy) |
Social identity | Answer to “who am I” in terms of group membership |
Ingroup | The groups we are in |
Outgroup | The groups we are not in |
In group bias | Bias to favour our own group |
Scapegoat theory | Blaming an outgroup when something goes wrong as an outlet for anger (ie Asian hate during Covid) |
Other-race effect | The effect of recognizing our own race faces better |
Ethonocentrism | The tendency to view our own ethnic group as superior |
Attitudes | Feelings that may impact our response to events or people |
Foot in the door phenomenon | The tendency for people to first agree with a smaller request to later comply with a larger request |
Door in the face | When asked to do a large task, people will reject. But when asked to do a smaller task, people wil say yes. |
Cognitive dissonance | When our attitudes or actions clash, we reduce the dissonance by changing our attitudes or actions to match. |
Elaboration likelihood model | When we mentally elaborate/process a message, we more often retain it |
Peripheral route persuasion | Attention getting cues (like attractiveness, fame, or vivid photos) to trigger speedy emotion-based judgements |
Central route persuasion | Offers evidence/arguments that aim to trigger critical thinking (statistics/logic based) |
Halo effect | When positive feelings attributed to a person or brand make us feel more positively towards a project/idea (like a celebrity endorsing smth) |
Social norms | Accepted behavioru or rules |
Social contagion | Spontaneous spread of behaviours (like mood contagion) |
conformity | Conforming to society with behaiour |
Solomon Asch and conformitiy | When people give a wrong answer but all agree, we tend to agree with the wrong answer |
Normative social influence | Conform to avoid rejection or to gain social approval |
Informational social influence | Influence resulting form a person’s willingness to accept others opinions about reality |
obedience | Complying with an order or command |
Stanley Milgram | Assigned as a teacher, have to shock someone. |
Minority influence | The power of one or two individuals to sway majorities |
Social facilitation | Strengthened performance in others presence for simple or well-learned tasks but worsened performance on difficult tasks |
Social loafing | The tendency to do less on a group project than on an individual |
deindividuation | Process of losing self-awarenss and restrianst when group participation makes people aroused and anounymous |
Group polarization | Beliefs grow stronger and more polarized when we discuss them with like-minded others |
Group think | When overconfidence, conformity, group polarization etc. lead a group of people to make an obviously dumb decision because they want to avoid disharmony |
Tight cultures | Strictly obey social norms |
Loose cultures | Loosely obey social norms and expect variability (jay walking, lottery etc.) |
Aggression | Physical or verbal behavior intended to harm |
Aggression influences | Electrodes in brains in amygdala can encourage aggression |
Frustration-aggression principle | When people are frustrated (like hungry) they are more prone to aggression |
Social script | Culturally provided scripts of how to act in certain situations (like violent video games) |
Prosocial | Behaviour that intends to help or benefit someone |
attraction | Being attracted to someone or something |
Mere exposure effect | Being closer to someone (proximity) can cause increases in attraction |
Reward theory of attraction | We like those whose behaviour is rewarding to us |
Passionate love | An aroused state of intense positive love ussually at the beginning of a romantic relationship. Seeing our partner stimulate blood flow to a brain region linked to craving and obsession |
Two factor theory of emotion | Emotions have two ingredients (phsyical arousal + cognitive appraisal) |
Companionate love | A deep affectionate attachment we feel after being intertwined with someones life (after passionate love) |
equity | Two partners putting in as much as the other is |
self-disclosure | Revealing intimate details about ourselves |
Altruism | Unselfish regard for the welfare of others |
Diffusion of responsibility | When more people shared responsibility for helping fewer people take action to help |
Bystander effect | The belief that someone else will take action and help as a bystander |
Social exchange theory | Social behaviour is an exchange process where we maximize the benefits and minimize the costs |
Reciprocity norm | The expectation that we should return help and not harm those who have helped us |
Social-responsibility norm | The expectation that we should hep those who need our help even if the costs outweigh the benefits for us |
conflcit | Incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas |
Social traps | When two parties pursue their own self-interests rather than the good of the group become caught in mutually destructive behaviour (like people contributing to climate change because they prefer a gas car or whatever) |
Mirror image perceptions | Mutual views held by conflicting parties where one side sees itself as ethical and peaceful but think that the other side is evil and aggresive. (but both sides think the same ting about the other) |
Self-fulfilling prophecies | Beliefs that confirm themselves by influencing the other country to react in ways that seem to justify those beleifs |
Superordinate goals | Shared goals that are only achieved through cooperation |
GRIT | An international method to reduce tensions by one or more small conciliatory acts that soon is reciprocated. |
personality | Unique and persistent patterns of thinking feeling and behaving |
Psychodynamic theories | human behaviour is an interaction btwen the concious and uncouncious mind |
psychoanalysis | freuds theory of personality and associated treatment techniques |
unconscious | superego and id, underneath the iceberg |
free association | the person relaxes and says whatever is on their mind no matter how trivial or embarrasssing in psychoanalysis |
Id | child like beahvior, natural needs, sexuality |
super ego | higher beliefs in the world, contribution to society, morality |
ego | the concious behaviour that mediates the two. The "ich". Operates on the reality principle that seeks to graify id's impulses in releastic ways |
defense mechanisms | the ego protects itself with tactics that reduce or redirect anxiety by distorting reality |
repression | retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage (often rare even in response to terrible trauma |
reaction formation | switching unacceptble impuleses into their opposites (rather than crying about disappointing news, switches and says that that news was the best thing to ever happen) |
Projection | disguising ones own threatening impuleses by attributing them to others (tells everyone how mad his parents are at the coach) |
Rationalization | Offering self-justifyng explainations to explain the real and more threatenign unconscious reasons for ones action |
displacement | shifting sexual or aggressive impulses towards someone or something else (yelling at a friend who didnt do anything) |
sublimation | transferring unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives |
denial | refusing to beleive that what happened happended |
collective unconcious | a common reservoir of archteypes and memories (explains why some myths are the same across cultures) |
terror management theory | thinking about one's mortality provokes terror-management defenses like increased aggression towards rivals and heightended self-esteem |
Thematic apperception Test (TAT) | people view ambiguous pictures and then make up stories about thme |
projective test | personality test where people are shown images to tirgger projection of one's inner dynamics and pre/unconcious mind |
Roschach inkblot tests | a type of projective test with ink blots |
Maslows hierachy of needs | psychological needs, safety, love, self-esteem, self-actuaization and transcendence all build on eachother |
Humanism | emphasized the ways that people strive for self-determination and self-actualization. People are basically good |
Self-actualization | the process of fulfiilling our potential |
Self-transcendence | meaning, purpose, and identity beyond the self |
Unconditional positive regard | a caring, accepting and nonjudgemental attitude which Carl Rogers beleived would help clients develop self awarenss and acceptance |
self-concept | all the thoughs and feelings we have in response to the question, "who am I?" |
Trait | peeople's characterisitcs behaviours and conscious motives |
Personality inventory | longer questionarres covering a wide range of feelings and behaviours that assess several traits at once |
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) | the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests that was og used to identify emotional disorders |
Empirically derived test | from a large pool of items researchers select thsoe on which particular diagnostic groups differed |
Big Five Factors | tests where you are on the 5 dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN) |
Social-cognitive perspective | emphasizes the interaction of our traits with our situations |
Behavioral approach | emphasize the effects of learning (conditioning etc.) |
Reciprocal determinism | the interacting influences of behaviour, internal cognition, and the enviornment |
Self | the center of personality and the organizer of our thoughts feeligns and actions |
Spotlight effect | overestimating other's noticing and evaluating our appearance, perfomrance and bludners (we think that there is a spotlight on us when really ppl dont gaf) |
Self-esteem | our feelings of high or low self worth |
Self-efficacy | our sense of competence on a task |
Self-serving bias | a readiness to percieve ourselves favorably |
Narcissism | excesive self love and self-focus |
Individualism | encourage people to be independent to celebrate unqiue personal convictions and values |
Collectivism | prioritizeing the goals of impartant groups (like extended family) |