Chapter 4

Question 1

Social perception

Answer 1

The study of how we form
impressions of and make
inferences about other people

Question 2

Nonverbal communication

Answer 2

The way in which people
communicate, intentionally or
unintentionally, without words;
nonverbal cues include facial
expressions, tone of voice,
gestures, body position and
movement, the use of touch,
and gaze

Question 3

Encode

Answer 3

To express or emit nonverbal
behavior, such as smiling or
patting someone on the back

Question 4

Decode

Answer 4

To interpret the meaning of the
nonverbal behavior other people
express, such as deciding that a
pat on the back was an expression
of condescension and not kindness

Question 5

Affect blend

Answer 5

A facial expression in which one
part of the face registers one
emotion while another part of the
face registers a different emotion

Question 6

Display rules

Answer 6

Culturally determined rules about
which nonverbal behaviors are
appropriate to display

Question 7

Emblems

Answer 7

Nonverbal gestures that have
well-understood definitions within
a given culture; they usually have
direct verbal translations—such as
the OK sign

Question 8

Implicit personality theory

Answer 8

A type of schema people use to
group various kinds of personality
traits together; for example, many
people believe that someone who
is kind is generous as well

Question 9

Attribution theory

Answer 9

A description of the way in which
people explain the causes of their
own and other people’s behavior

Question 10

Internal attribution

Answer 10

The inference that a person is
behaving in a certain way because
of something about the person,
such as attitude, character, or
personality

Question 11

External attribution

Answer 11

The inference that a person is
behaving a certain way because of
something about the situation he
or she is in; the assumption is that
most people would respond the
same way in that situation

Question 12

Covariation theory

Answer 12

A theory that states that to
form an attribution about what
caused a person’s behavior, we
systematically note the pattern
between the presence or absence
of possible causal factors and
whether or not the behavior occurs

Question 13

Consensus information

Answer 13

Information about the extent
to which other people behave
the same way toward the same
stimulus as the actor does

Question 14

Distinctiveness information

Answer 14

Information about the extent to
which one particular actor behaves
in the same way to different stimuli

Question 15

Consistency information

Answer 15

Information about the extent to
which the behavior between one
actor and one stimulus is the same
across time and circumstances

Question 16

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 16

The tendency to overestimate the
extent to which people’s behavior
is due to internal, dispositional
factors and to underestimate the
role of situational factors

Question 17

Perpetual salience

Answer 17

The seeming importance of
information that is the focus of
people’s attention

Question 18

Two-step process of attribution

Answer 18

Analyzing another person’s
behavior first by making an
automatic internal attribution
and only then thinking about
possible situational reasons for
the behavior, after which one
may adjust the original internal
attribution

Question 19

Self-serving attributions

Answer 19

Explanations for one’s successes
that credit internal, dispositional
factors and explanations for
one’s failures that blame external,
situational factors

Question 20

Defensive attributions

Answer 20

Explanations for behavior that
avoid feelings of vulnerability and
mortality

Question 21

Bias blind spot

Answer 21

The tendency to think that other
people are more susceptible
to attributional biases in their
thinking than we are

Question 22

Belief in a just world

Answer 22

A form of defensive attribution
wherein people assume that bad
things happen to bad people and
that good things happen to good
people