Chapter 7: Positive And Negative Elements Of Social Interactions Flashcards
Dispositional Attribution
Behavior that is attributed to internal causes
Situational Attribution
Behavior that is attributed to external causes
What three factors determine whether we attribute behavior to internal or external causes?
Consistency (Is this how the person usually acts?)
Distinctiveness (Is the person only acting towards you a certain way or everyone?)
Consensus (Is only that one person angry or is everyone angry?)
fundamental attribution error
when we tend to underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate the impact of a person’s character on their behavior
Example: Someone cuts us off, so he must be a jerk
the actor-observer bias
the tendency to blame our actions on the situation and blame the actions of others on their personalities
Example: We cut someone off, we’re in a hurry
the self-serving bias
the tendency to attribute our successes to ourselves and our failures to others or the external environment
the optimism bias
the belief that bad things happen to other people, not us
the just world phenomenon
the tendency to believe that the world is fair and people get what they deserve (when bad things happen to others, we tend to believe that it is the result of their actions; when good things happen to us, it is because we deserve it)
the halo effect (halo error)
a tendency to believe that people have good or bad natures, rather than looking at an individual’s characteristics
the physical attractiveness stereotype
a specific type of halo effect; people tend to rate attractive people more favorable for personality traits and characteristics
social perception
the initial information we process about other people in order to try and understand their mindsets and intentions
social cognition
the ability of the brain to store and process information regarding social perceptions
false consensus
occurs when we assume everyone agrees with us
projection bias
occurs when we assume others have the same beliefs we do
stereotypes
oversimplified ideas about groups of people based on characteristics
prejudice
thoughts, attitudes, and feelings someone holds about a group that are not based on actual experience
discrimination
unjust treatment of a group based on characteristics
racism
prejudices and actions that discriminate based on race or hold that one race is inferior to another
institutional discrimination
discriminatory practices employed by large organizations that have been codified into operating procedures, processes, or institutional objectives
illusory correlation
occurs when someone with a unique characteristic is seen as a representative of a group
Example: All blacks must be good at basketball because Michael Jordan is good at basketball
self-fulfilling prophecy
when stereotypes lead a person to behave a certain way as to affirm the original stereotype
stereotype threat
the fear that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype they know a person has towards the group to which they belong
ethnocentrisism
the tendency to judge people from another culture by the standards of one’s own culture
cultural relativism
judging another culture based on its own standards
group
a collection of any number of people who regularly interact and identify with each other, sharing similar norms, values, and expectations; split into primary groups (those with whom a person engages with in person, in long-term, emotional ways) and secondary groups (those with whom a person interacts for a specific reason, for a short period of time)
aggregate
people who exist in the same space but do not interact or share a common sense of identity
category
people who share similar characteristics, but are not otherwise tied together
in-group
a group that an individual belongs to and believes to be an integral part of who he is
out-group
a group that an individual does not belong to