Chapter 4 Percieving Persons

Question 0

Central traits

Answer 0

Traits that exert a powerful influence on overall impressions.

Question 1

Base rate fallacy

Answer 1

The finding that people are relatively insensitive to consensus information presented in the form of numerical base rate.

Question 2

Situational attribution

Answer 2

Attribution to factors external to an actor such as the task, other people, luck.

Question 3

Belief in a just world

Answer 3

The belief that individuals get what they deserve in life, an orientation that leads people to disparage victims.

Question 4

Primacy effect

Answer 4

The tendency for information presented early in a sequence to have more impact on impressions than information presented later.

Question 5

False consensus effect

Answer 5

The tendency for people to overestimate the extent to which others share their opinions, attributes, and behavior.

Question 6

Social perception

Answer 6

A general term for the processes by which people come to understand one another.

Question 7

Correspondent inference theory

Answer 7

A theory holding that we make Inferences about a person when his/her actions are freely chosen, are unexpected, and result in a small number of desirable effects.

Question 8

Information integration theory

Answer 8

The theory that impressions are based on: 1. Perceived dispositions and 2. A weighted average of a target persons traits.

Question 9

Availability Heuristic

Answer 9

A tendency to estimate the likely hood that an event will occur by how easily instances of it come to mind.

Question 10

Personal attribution

Answer 10

Attribution to internal characteristics of an actor, such as ability, personality, mood, or effort.

Question 11

Implicit personality theory

Answer 11

A network of assumptions people make about the relationships among traits and behaviors.

Question 12

Covariation principle

Answer 12

A principle of attribution theory holding that attribute behavior to factors that are present when a behavior occurs and absent when it does not.

Question 13

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 13

The tendency to focus on the role of personal causes and underestimate the impact of situations on other peoples behavior.

Question 14

Confirmation bias

Answer 14

The tendency to seek, interpret, and create information that verifies existing beliefs.

Question 15

Impression formation

Answer 15

The process of integrating information about a person to form a coherent impression.

Question 16

Actor observer effect

Answer 16

The tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational causes and behavior of others to personal factors.

Question 17

Nonverbal behavior

Answer 17

Behavior that reveals a persons feelings through facial expressions, body language, and vocal cues.

Question 18

Counter factual thinking

Answer 18

A tendency to imagine alternative events or outcomes that might have occurred but didn’t.

Question 19

Priming

Answer 19

The tendency for recently used words or ideas to come to mind easily and influence the interpretation of new information.

Question 20

Self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 20

The process by which ones expectations about a person eventually lead that person to behave in ways that confirm those expectations.

Question 21

Attribution theory

Answer 21

A group if theories that describe how people explain the causes of behavior.

Question 22

Belief perseverance

Answer 22

The tendency to maintain beliefs even after they happen discredited.

Question 23

Need for closure

Answer 23

A desire to reduce cognitive uncertainty, which heightens the importance of first impressions.