Discovering Psychology

Question 0

sense of self

Answer 0

an individual’s unique sense of identity that has been influenced by social, cultural, and psychological experiences; your sense of who you are in relation to other people.

Question 1

Social Psychology

Answer 1

branch of psychology that studies how a person’s thoughts, feelings and behavior are influenced by the presence of other people and by the social and physical environment.

Question 2

social cognition

Answer 2

mental processes people use to make sense of their social environments.

Question 3

social influence

Answer 3

the effects of situational factors and other people on an individual’s behaviors

Question 4

person perception

Answer 4

the mental processes we use to form judgements and draw conclusions about the characteristics and motives of other people

Question 5

social norms

Answer 5

the “rules” or expectations, for appropriate behavior in a particular social situation.

Question 6

social categorizations

Answer 6

the mental processes of categorizing people into groups (or social categories) on the basics of their shared characteristics.

Question 7

explicit cognition

Answer 7

deliberate, conscious mental processes involved in perceptions, judgements, decisions, and reasoning.

Question 8

implicit cognition

Answer 8

automatic, non conscious mental processes that influence perceptions, judgements, decisions, and reasoning.

Question 9

implicit personality theory

Answer 9

a network of assumptions or beliefs about the relationships among various types of people, traits, and behaviors.

Question 10

attribution

Answer 10

the mental process of inferring the causes of people’s behavior, including one’s own. Also refers to the explanation made for a particular behavior.

Question 11

fundamental attribution error

Answer 11

the tendency to attribute the behavior of others to internal, personal characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the effects of external, situational factors: an attributional bias that is common in individualistic cultures.

Question 12

blaming the victim

Answer 12

tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for having somehow caused the problem or for not having taken steps to avoid of prevent it.

Question 13

hindsight bias

Answer 13

tendency to over estimate one’s ability to have foreseen or predicted the outcome of an event

Question 14

just-world hypothesis

Answer 14

the assumption that the world is fair and that therefore people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

Question 15

self-serving bias

Answer 15

tendency to attribute successful outcomes of one’s own behavior to internal causes and unsuccessful outcomes to external, situational causes.

Question 16

attitude

Answer 16

learned tendency to evaluate some object, person, or issue in a particular way; such as evaluations may positive, negative, or ambivalent.

Question 17

cognitive dissonance

Answer 17

unpleasant state of psychological tension or arousal (disonance) that occurs when two thoughts or perceptions are inconsistent; typically results from the awareness that attitudes and behavior are in conflict

Question 18

prejudice

Answer 18

negative attitude toward people who belong to a specific social group.

Question 19

stereotype

Answer 19

cluster of characteristics that are associated with all members of a specific social group, often including qualities that are unrelated to objective criteria that define the group.

Question 20

in-group

Answer 20

A social group to which one belongs.

Question 21

out-group

Answer 21

a social group to which one does not belong

Question 22

out-group homogeneity effect

Answer 22

tendency to see members of out-groups as very similar to one another.

Question 23

in-group bias

Answer 23

the tendency to judge the behavior of in-group members favorably and out-group members unfavorably.

Question 24

ethnocentrism

Answer 24

belief that one’s own culture or ethnic group is superior to all others and the related tendency to use one’s own culture as a standard by which to judge other cultures.

Question 25

implicit attitudes

Answer 25

preferences and biases toward particular groups that are automatic, spontaneous, unintentional, and often unconscious; measured with the Implicit Associations Test

Question 26

conformity

Answer 26

Adjusting your opinions, judgments, or behavior so that it matches the opinions, judgements, or behavior of other people, or the norms of a social group or situation

Question 27

normative social influence

Answer 27

behavior that is motivated by the desire to gain social acceptance and approval

Question 28

informational social influence

Answer 28

behavior that is motivated by the desire to be correct

Question 29

obedience

Answer 29

the performance of a behavior in response to a direct command.

Question 30

altruism

Answer 30

helping another person with no expectation of personal reward or benefit

Question 31

prosocial behavior

Answer 31

any behavior that helps another, whether the underlying motive is self-serving or selfless.

Question 32

bystander effect

Answer 32

a phenomenon in which the greater number of people present, the less likely each individual is to help someone in distress

Question 33

diffusion of responsibility

Answer 33

A phenomenon in which the presence of other people makes it less likely that any individual will help someone in distress because the obligation to intervene is shared among all the onlookers