Exam 1 Flashcards
Social perception is the study of how we form __ of other people and make __ about them
Impressions; inferences
The way in which people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words is known as __
Nonverbal communication
What are some examples of nonverbal cues?
- Facial expressions
- Tone of voice - Gestures
- Body position and movement
- The use of touch
- Eye gaze
What are the primary uses of nonverbal behavior?
- Expressing emotion
- Conveying attitudes
- Communicating personality
- Substitution for verbal messages
According to Charles Darwin, nonverbal communication is universal and not __ specific but __ specific
Culturally; species
Recent research in neuroscience has found that humans (and our close relatives, primates) have a special kind of brain cell called __
Mirror neurons
What are mirror neurons?
Respond when we perform an action and when we see someone else perform the same action
What functions do nonverbal cues serve in terms of communication?
They help people express their emotions, their attitudes, and their personality
Much of nonverbal behavior is perceived __
Automatically
__ are the most significant channel of
nonverbal communication
Facial expressions
Cross-cultural research by Ekman support the universality of at least 6 basic facial expressions of emotion:
1) Anger
2) Happiness
3) Surprise
4) Fear
5) Disgust
6) Sadness
- Contempt, embarrassment, heroism, pride & shame, and pain have also been added to the list
A facial expression in which one part of the face registers one emotion while another part of the face registers a different emotion is known as __
Affect blend
Culturally determined rules about which emotional expressions are appropriate to show is known as __
Display rules
i.e. It may be more acceptable for men to display anger than women
In __ cultures, the expression of strong negative emotions is discouraged because doing so can disrupt group harmony
Collectivist
A recent study confirms that the more __ a culture, the more likely it is that the expression of emotion is encouraged
Individualistic
Nonverbal gestures that have well-understood definitions within a given culture; they usually have direct verbal translations i.e. “okay” sign, is known as __
Emblems
- Are not universal; each culture has devised its own emblems
A type of schema people use to group various kinds of personality traits together is known as __
i.e. many people believe that if someone is kind, he or she is generous as well
Implicit personality theory
A description of the way in which people explain the causes of their own and other people’s behavior is known as __
Attribution theory
The inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about him or her is known as __
i.e. his or her attitude, character, or personality
Internal attribution
The inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in is known as __
i.e. the assumption that most people would respond the same way in that situation
External attribution
All humans encode or __ emotions in the same way
Express
All humans can decode or __ emotions with equal accuracy
Interpret
What is the covariation model?
It states that you will systematically examine multiple instances of behavior, occurring at different times and in different situations
i.e. You ask friend A to lend you their car, they say no, naturally you wonder why: Do they lend it to other people? Have they refused to lend you their car in the past? etc.
What are the three key types of information when we are forming an attribution?
1) Consensus
2) Distinctiveness
3) Consistency
Information about the extent to which other people behave the same way as the actor does toward the same stimulus is known as __
Consensus information
i.e. Subject = Tom. Behavior = Laughter
Everybody in the audience is laughing; consensus is high. If only Tom is laughing, consensus is low
Information about the extent to which one particular actor behaves in the same way to different stimuli is known as __
Distinctiveness information
i.e. Subject = Tom. Behavior = Laughter
Tom only laughs at this comedian; distinctiveness is high. If Tom laughs at everything, distinctiveness is low
Information about the extent to which the behavior between one actor and one stimulus is the same across time and circumstances is known as __
Consistency information
i.e. Subject = Tom. Behavior = Laughter
Tom always laughs at this comedian; consistency is high. If Tom rarely laughs at this comedian, consistency is low
People are most likely to make a(n) __ attribution, when the consensus and distinctiveness of the act are low, but consistency is high
Internal
People are most likely to make a(n) __ attribution if consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency are all high
External
When consistency is low, we cannot make a clear OR external attribution and so resort to a special kind of external or __ attribution
Situational
The tendency to infer that people’s behavior corresponds to or matches their disposition (personality) is known as __
Correspondence bias
Information that is the focus of people’s attention; people tend to overestimate the causal role of perceptually salient information is known as __
Perceptual salience
__ is when we make an internal attribution; we assume that a person’s behavior was due to something about that person. Then, in the second step, we attempt to adjust this attribution by considering the situation the person was in (but we don’t often make enough of an adjustment in this second step)
Two-step process of attribution
__ cultures emphasize group membership, interdependence, and conformity to group norms
Collectivist
The tendency to see other people’s behavior as dispositionally caused, while focusing more on the role of situational factors when explaining one’s own behavior is know as __
Actor/observer difference
Explanations for one’s successes that credit internal, dispositional factors and explanations for one’s failures that blame external, situational factors is known as __
Self-serving attributions
Explanations for behavior that avoid feelings of vulnerability and mortality is known as __
Defensive attributions
i.e. When a woman blames another women who was raped. A person may place responsibility on the victim in order to reduce the worry that the same situation could happen to them “She was asking for it because she was dressed inappropriately”
A form of a defensive attribution wherein people assume that bad things happen to bad people and that good things happen to good people is known as __
Belief in a just world
__, is to express or emit nonverbal behavior, such as smiling or patting someone on the back
Encode
__, is to interpret the meaning of the nonverbal behavior other people express
Decode
i.e. deciding that a pat on the back is an expression of condescension and not kindness
What is meant by social emotions? How do they differ from some of the basic emotions?
i.e. contempt, shame, embarrassment, jealousy, envy
Why might facial expressions sometimes be hard to interpret accurately?
- People try to appear less emotional than they are
- People may display blends of multiple affects simultaneously
__ norms can influence display of emotions
Cultural
People from Western cultures tend to have a(n) __ thinking style
Analytic
People from East Asian cultures tend to have a(n) __ thinking style
Holistic
Focusing on the properties of objects/people without considering the surrounding context is known as __
Analytic thinking style
Focusing on the whole picture, i.e., the person/object AND the surrounding context is known as __
Holistic thinking style
Picture of a happy facial expression: spontaneously activity of the __ muscles
Zygomaticus major
Picture of an angry facial expression: spontaneously activity of the __ muscle
Currugator supercilli
Exposure to emotional facial results in __ activity of emotion relevant facial musles (as measured by EMG)
Spontaneous
__ EMG activity (without conscious cognitive control) supports argument for a biological basis for facial expressions of emotion
Automatic
The contents of the self; that is, our knowledge about who we are is known as __
Self-concept
The act of thinking about ourselves is known as __
Self-awareness
Miscontruals regarding the thoughts and motives of others is known as __
i.e. perceive another as unfriendly, therefore don’t attempt friendliness
Pluralistic ignorance
Researchers have used a variation of the rouge test with humans and found that self-recognition develops at around __ years of age
Two
An organized body of knowledge about the self (i.e., attitudes, preferences, traits) that influences what people notice, think about, and remember about themselves is known as __
Self-schemas
The tendency for people to remember information better if they relate it to themselves is known as __
Self-reference effect
__, which is defining oneself in terms of one’s relationships to other people and recognizing that one’s behavior is often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others
Interdependent view of the self
__ is defined as the extent to which knowledge about the self is stable, and clearly and consistently defined
Self-concept clarity
Women’s self-concepts reflect more __ interdependence, meaning that they focus more on their close relationships
Relational
Men tend to define themselves in terms of social groups, such as the sports teams to which they belong, is known as __ interdependence
Collective
__ is known as looking inward, examining the “inside information”, only you have about your thoughts, feelings, and motives
Introspection
The idea that when people focus their attention on themselves, they evaluate and compare their behavior with their internal standards and values
Self-awareness theory
__ is viewing themselves through the eyes of other people, whereas __ is focusing on their own private experiences without considering how other people see them
Outside perspective on the self; insider perspective on the self
__ is the theories about the causes of one’s own feelings and behaviors; typically, we learn such theories from our culture i.e. “absence makes the heart grow fonder”
Causal theories
__ is the theory that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs
Self-perception theory
__, is the idea that we see ourselves through the eyes of other people and incorporate their views into our self-concept
Looking-glass self
The idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves with other people is known as __
Social comparison theory
The process whereby we compare ourselves with people who are worse than we are in a particular trait or ability is known as __
Downward social comparison
The process whereby we compare ourselves with people who are better than we are in a particular trait or ability is known as __
Upward social comparison
The theory that we become distressed when our sense of who we truly are (our actual self) is discrepant from our personal standards or desired self-conceptions is known as __
Self-discrepancy theory
An unrealistically positive view of oneself is known as __
Self-enhancement
The tendency is to hold a negative view of oneself is a phenomenon known as __
Self-effacement
__ is a theory suggesting that people have a need to seek confirmation of their self-concept, whether that self-concept is positive or negative
Self-verification theory
Any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person is known as __
Prosocial behavior
What is the purpose of mimicry?
Shared state, alignment facilitates communication, and social bonding -> prosocial behavior
__ is when perception causes similar behavior, and perception of similar behavior creates shared feelings of empathy and rapport
Chameleon effect
What is construal?
The way in which people perceive, comprehend and interpret their social world
__, is a tendency to overestimate the extent to which people’s behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors
Fundamental attribution error
Snap judgments are okay for others, but not for self, is known as __
Interpersonal knowledge
What is social psychology?
The scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people
What is construal?
The way in which people pereive, comprehend and interpret their social world
The aspects of people’s personalities that make them different from other people is known as __
Individual differences
People’s evaluations of their own self-worth is known as __
Self-esteem
__ is when we may alter our recollections of past actions of which we are unhappy or ashamed, in order to feel good about our past actions and decisions
Self-justification
How people think about themselves and the social world; more specifically, how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information is known as __
Social cognition
__, is the case whereby people have an expectation about what another person is like, which influences how they act toward that person, which in turn, causes that person to behave consistently with their original expections
Self-fulfilling prophecy
What are the two major construals?
1) The need to maintain a positive view of ourselves
2) The need to view the world accurately
What is the social cognition approach?
The incorporation of human cognitive abilities into theories of social behavior
i.e. reasoning abilities, decision-making, judgments about others, explanations of others’ behavior etc.
What is the evolutionary approach?
Incorporates Darwin’s theory of natural selection into explanations of behavior and mental processes
What is evolutionary psychology?
Attempts to explain social behavior and cognitive abilities in terms of genetically-based traits (adaptations) that were naturally selected in our distant past
i.e. theories of prosocial and aggressive behavior, and of interpersonal attraction
What are the three types of methods (in research methods)?
1) Observational (descriptive)
2) Correlational (description)
3) Experimental (causality)
A testable statement about the relationship between two or more variables is known as a(n) __
Hypothesis
__ is the tendency for people to exaggerate how much they could have predicted the outcome after knowing that it occurred
Hindsight bias
i.e. “I knew it all along”
The precise specification of how variables are measured or manipulated is known as a(n) __
Operational definition
What are the three types of methods (in research methods)?
1) Observational (descriptive)
2) Correlational (description)
3) Experimental (causality)
The need to be accurate and the need to feel good about ourselves is known as __
Human motives
__ is the tendency for people to exaggerate how much they could have predicted the outcome after knowing that it occurred
Hindsight bias
__ is the technique whereby a researcher observes people and systematically records measurements of their behavior
Observational method
__ is the method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by observing it from the inside without imposing any preconceived notions they might have
Ethnography
__, which is the level of agreement between two or more people who independently observe and code a set of data. By showing that two or more judges independently come up with the same observations, researchers ensure that the observations are not the subjective impressions of one individual
Interjudge reliability
A form of the observational method whereby the researcher examines the accumulated documents, or archives, of a culture
i.e. diaries, novels, etc.
Archival analysis
__ is the technique whereby researchers systematically measure two or more variables and assess the relation between them
i.e. how much one can be predicted from the other
Correlational method
__ is a statistic that assesses how well you can predict one variable based on another
i.e. how well you can predict people’s weight from their height
Correlation coefficient
__ correlations indicate that an increase in one variable is associated with an increase in the other
Positive
__ correlations indicate that an increase in one variable is associated with a decrease in the other
Negative
Research in which a representation sample of people are asked questions about their attitudes or behavior is known as __
Surveys
__ is the method in which the researcher randomly assigns participants to different conditions and ensures that these conditions are identical except for the independent variable (the one thought to have the causal effect on people’s responses)
Experimental method
__ is ensuring that nothing other than the independent variable can affect the dependent variable; by controlling all extraneous variables and by randomly assigning people to different experimental conditions
Internal validity
__ is the extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other situations and to other people
External validity
__ is the extent to which an experiment is similar to real-life situations
Mundane realism
__ is the extent to which the psychological processes triggered in an experiment are similar to psychological processes that occur in everyday life
Psychological realism
__ is a(n) statistical technique that averages the results of two or more studies to see if the effect of an independent variable is reliable
Meta analysis
__ is investigation based on intellectual curiosity - to understand reasons “why” or “how” for a type of behavior
Basic research
__ involves studies designed to solve a particular social problem. Building a theory of behavior is usually secondary to solving the problem
Applied research
__ motivation is the desire to engage in activity because one finds it interesting
Intrinsic
- internal: associated with persistence, maintained interest, greater satisfaction
__ is the desire to engage in activity because of reward of pressures
Extrinsic
- external: greater tendency to lose interest, satisfaction
__ are mental structures used to organize knowledge about the social world
Schemas
__ is the extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of people’s minds and are therefore likely to be used when making judgments about the social world
Accessibility
__ is the process by which recent experiences increase a schema or trait’s accessibility
Priming
Mental shortcuts people use to make judgments quickly and efficiently is known as __
Judgmental heuristics
A mental shortcut whereby people base a judgment on the ease with which they can bring something to mind
Availability heuristic
A mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case
Representativeness heuristic
Information about the frequency of members of different categories in the population is known as __
Base rate information
__ is mentally changing some aspect of the past as a way of imagining what might have been
Counterfactual thinking
__ is the attempt to avoid thinking about something a person would prefer to forget
Thought suppression
