Chapter 3: key terms Flashcards
Individual Differences
The differences in which totally distinguish one individual from another.
Attribution theory
A theory where one attempts to understand the behavior of others by attributing feelings, beliefs, and intentions to them.
Behavioral measures
Measuring behaviors threw the observation and test.
Interactional Psychology
Psychological approach to understanding human behavior. Involves knowing something about person/situation.
Personality
Characteristics that influences a persons behavior.
Trait Theory
A personality theory that breaks down behavior patterns into a collection of observable traits in order to understand human behavior.
Integrative approach
A broad theory that describes personality as various parts of an individuals physiological process.
Strong situation
Exerts pressure for a individual to behave in a certain way, which leads to similar behavior across people.
Locus of control
Is the degree to which people believe that they have control over the outcome of events in their lives, opposed to external forces beyond their control.
General Self-efficacy
One’s belief in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task.
Self-esteem
Confidence in one’s own worth or abilities; self-respect
Self-monitoring
A personality trait that refers to the ability to regulate behavior to accommodate social situations.
Positive Affect
Someones propensity to experience positive emotions and interact with others and life’s challenges in a positive way.
Negative Affect
A persons tendency to accentuate the negative aspects of their selves, other people and the world in general .
Protective test
A psychological test in which words, images, or situations are presented to a person and the responses analyzed for the unconscious expression of elements of a personality that they reveal.
Behavioral measures
Personality assessments that involve analyzing an individual’s behavior in a controlled situation.
Self-report questionnaire
A personality assessment that is based off of a individuals responses to a variety of questions.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instrument
A instrument developed to measure Carl Jung’s theory of a individual differences.
Extraversion
Getting energized by interactions with other people.
Introversion
Getting energized by spending time alone.
Sensing
Gathering info through the 5 senses and focusing on what actually exists.
Intuition
Gathering info through a 6 sense and focusing on what it could be.
Thinking
Making your decisions in a more logical and objective fashion.
Feeling
Making decisions in a personal, value-oriented way.
Judging
Preferring closure and completion in making decisions.
Perceiving
To recognize, discern, envision or understand.
Social Perception
The process of interpreting information about another person.
Discounting principle
The assumption that a persons behavior is justified by the situation.
Selective perception
Is a process in which individuals perceive what they want to while ignoring opposing viewpoints.
Stereotype
A generalization about a group of people.
First- impression
Forming a long lasting opinion about a person based off your initial perception.
Projection
One of the most common defensive mechanisms. Overestimating the amount of people who share our own same beliefs, values and behaviors.
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Allowing the expectations we have about someone to effect our interaction with theme in such a way that those exceptions are fulfilled.
Impression Management
When individuals try to control the impressions others have of them.
Attribution theory
A theory that supposes that one attempts to understand the behavior of others by attributing feelings, belief, and intentions to them.
Fundamental attribution error
Our tendency to explain someone’s behavior based on internal factors, such as personality or disposition.
Self serving bias
Serving positive events to ones own character and negative events to external factors.
