Glossary N, O, & P Flashcards
An aspect of personality; persons high in narcissism have unjustified overinflated self-esteem, which leads them to focus on themselves while largely ignoring the needs and feelings of others.
narcissism
Intense anger experienced by narcissistic persons who have doubts about the accuracy of their exaggerated self-image when someone calls these views into question.
narcissistic rage
The basic motive to seek and maintain interpersonal relationships.
need for affiliation
A situation where if one person obtains a desired outcome, others cannot obtain it.
negative interdependence
The proposal that prosocial behavior is motivated by the bystander’s desire to reduce his or her own uncomfortable negative emotions or feelings.
negative-state relief model
Effects produced by a particular cause that
could not be produced by any other apparent cause.
noncommon effects
Communication between individuals that does not involve the content of spoken language. It relies instead on an unspoken language of facial expressions, eye contact, and body language.
nonverbal communication
A theory suggesting that norms will influence behavior only to the extent that they are focal for the people involved at the time the behavior occurs.
normative focus theory
Social influence based on the desire to be
liked or accepted by other people
normative social influence
Rules or expectations within a group concerning how its
members should (or should not) behave.
norms
A form of social influence in which one person simply
orders one or more others to perform some action(s).
obedience
Those with measurement units that are tied to
external reality so that they mean the same thing regardless of
category membership (e.g., dollars earned, feet and inches, chosen
or rejected)
objective scales
A basic form of learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behavior as a result of observing others.
observational learning
Our predisposition to expect things to turn out well overall.
optimistic bias
A theory suggesting that for
any specific task there is an optimum level of subjective well-being. Up to this point, performance increases, but beyond it, performance on the task declines
optimum level of well-being theory
The tendency to have more confidence in the
accuracy of our own judgments than is reasonable.
overconfidence bias
In Sternberg’s triangular model of love, the sexual motives
and sexual excitement associated with a couple’s relationship.
passion
An intense and often unrealistic emotional response to another person. When this emotion is experienced, it is usually
perceived as an indication of true love, but to outside observers it appears to be infatuation.
passionate love
Attitude change that occurs in response to peripheral persuasion cues, which is often based on information concerning the expertise or status of would-be persuaders.
peripheral route to persuasion
The tendency for beliefs and schemas to remain unchanged even in the face of contradictory information.
perseverance effect
At the personal level, the self is thought of as a unique individual, whereas at the social identity level, the self is seen as a member of a group.
personal-versus-social identity continuum
Efforts to change others’ attitudes through the use of various kinds of messages.
persuasion
The combination of characteristics that are
evaluated as beautiful or handsome at the positive extreme and as unattractive at the negative extreme.
physical attractiveness
The tendency to make optimistic predictions concerning how long a given task will take for completion.
planning fallacy
A technique that can be used for increasing
compliance by suggesting that a person or object is scarce and hard
to obtain.
playing hard to get
When we collectively misunderstand what
attitudes others hold and believe erroneously that others have different attitudes than us
pluralistic ignorance
Recognizing shared grievances and
engaging in a power struggle on behalf of one’s devalued group.
politicized collective identity
The tendency to eat more when a larger portion of food is received than if a smaller portion is received. Portion size acts as a starting point (anchor) for how much food is perceived to be appropriate to eat. Since portion sizes have steadily increased
over time, this effect is believed to play an important role in overeating in western societies.
portion size effect
Image of how we might be in the future—either a “dreaded” potential to be avoided or “desired” potential that can be
strived for.
possible selves
A psychological condition caused by experiencing or witnessing an extremely frightening, often life-threatening, ordeal or event.
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Negative emotional responses based on group
membership.
prejudice
A style characterized by low self-esteem and high interpersonal trust. This is a conflicted and somewhat insecure style in which the individual strongly desires a close
relationship but feels that he or she is unworthy of the partner and is
thus vulnerable to being rejected.
preoccupied attachment style
A situation that occurs when stimuli or events increase the availability in memory or consciousness of specific types of information held in memory
priming
Judgments concerning the fairness of the procedures used to distribute available rewards among group members.
procedural justice
The number of topics on which two people
express similar views is divided by the total number of topics on which those two people have communicated, resulting in a proportion that can be used to predict attraction.
proportion of similarity
Actions by individuals that help others with no
immediate benefit to the helper.
prosocial behavior
Summary of the common attributes possessed by members of a category.
prototype
Actions by others that tend to trigger aggression in the recipient, often because they are perceived as stemming from malicious intent.
provocation
In attraction research, the physical closeness between two individuals with respect to where they live, where they sit in a classroom, where they work, and so on. The smaller the physical
distance, the greater the probability that the two people will come into repeated contact experiencing repeated exposure to one another, positive affect, and the development of mutual attraction.
proximity
Procedures in which aversive consequences are delivered to individuals when they engage in specific actions
punishment
