Culture 5

Question 1

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

Answer 1

• Is a social psychology theory developed by Fritz Heider, Harold Kelley, Edward E. Jones, and Lee Ross.
• The theory is concerned with the ways in which people explain (or attribute) the behaviour of others or themselves (self-attribution) with something else.
• It explores how individuals “attribute” causes to events and how this cognitive perception affects their usefulness in an organization.

Question 2

AUGMENTATION PRINCIPLE

Answer 2

In Kelley’s attribution theory, the idea that the existence of difficulties in performing a behaviour results in a stronger conclusion that the actor is the cause of the event.

Question 3

AUTOETHNOGRAPHY

Answer 3

An ethnographic description written by a member of the culture.

Question 4

AUTOKINETIC EFFECT

Answer 4

A stationary light, when viewed in an otherwise completely dark room, would appear to be moving.

Question 5

AVAILABILITY HEURISTIC

Answer 5

The tendency to be biased by events readily accessible in our memory.

Question 6

BAAK GWAI

Answer 6

A derogatory term meaning “White devil” or “white ghost” used by the Chinese in Mainland China and Hong Kong to refer to Caucasians.

Question 7

BALANCE THEORY

Answer 7

• A theory of attitude change based on the principle of consistency among elements in a relationship.
• Psychologist Fritz Heider, proposer of this model suggested that unbalanced states create tension, so people try to reduce tension by changing some attitude.

Question 8

BALANCED RECIPROCITY

Answer 8

A mode of equal value exchange in which the worth of a good or service and time for its delivery is known.

Question 9

BANANA

Answer 9

Derogatory term for an East Asian person who is “yellow on the outside, white on the inside” used by other Asian Americans to indicate someone who has lost touch with their cultural identity and have over-assimilated in white, American culture.

Question 10

BAND

Answer 10

Basic unit of social organization among foragers. A band includes fewer than 100 people; it often splits up seasonally.

Question 11

BARGAINING

Answer 11

The process by which two or more parties attempt to settle what each shall give and take in their mutual transactions.

Question 12

BEHAVIORISM

Answer 12

A theoretical perspective, also called learning perspective, made famous by Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, B.F.Skinner, Edward Lee Throndike, in which behaviour is explained by external stimuli and learning processes.

Question 13

BEHAVIOURAL CUE

Answer 13

• A stimulus, either consciously or unconsciously perceived, that elicits or signals a type of behaviour.
• In other words it is a stimulus that provides information about what to do in a particular situation.

Question 14

BELIEF IN A JUST WORLD

Answer 14

• The tendency of people to want to believe that the world is “just” so that when they witness an otherwise inexplicable injustice they will rationalize it by searching for things that the victim might have done to deserve it.
• Also called the just-world theory, just-world fallacy, just-world effect, or just-world hypothesis.
• Famous proponent is Melvin Lerner.