Midterm Flashcards
science that studies the influences of our situations, with special attention to how we view and affect one another
social psychology
central themes of social psychology
- how we construe our social worlds
- how our social intuitions guide and sometimes deceive us
- how our social behavior is shaped by other people’s attitudes and personalities, and by our biology
- how social psychology’s principles apply to our everyday lives and to various other fields of study
the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next
culture
- a society’s widely held ideas and values, including assumptions and cultural ideologies
- help us make sense of our world
social representations
the tendency to exaggerate after learning an outcome, one’s ability to have foreseen how something turned out
hindsight bias
hindsight bias is also knows as the ________ phenomenon
“I-knew-it-all-along”
the belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are
spotlight effect
we suffer an ______ because we are keenly aware of our own emotions
illusion of transparency
the illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others
illusion of transparency
what we know and believe about ourselves
self-concept
beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information
self-schema
- images of what we dream or dread becoming in the future
- “who we might be”
possible self
evaluating one’s abilities and opinions by comparing oneself with others
social comparison
what matters for our self-concepts is not how others usually see us but the way we ____ they see us
imagine
the concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications
individualism
constructing one’s identity as an autonomous self
independent self
giving priority to the goals of one’s group and defining one’s identity accordingly
collectivism
the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task
planning fallacy
overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events
impact bias
differing implicit (automatic) and explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same object
dual attitude system
2 elements of self-concept
- self-schema
- possible selves
a person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth
self-esteem
self-esteem is the ____ of all our self
sum
joy at another’s misfortune
schadenfreude
proposes that people exhibit self-protective emotional and cognitive responses when confronted with reminders of their mortality
terror management theory
belief that one is effective and competent and can do something
self-efficacy
the tendency to perceive oneself favorably
self-serving bias
attributing positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to something else
self-serving attributions
differentiate self-serving bias and self-serving attribution
- self-serving bias: perceiving oneself favorably
- self-serving attribution: attributing positive outcomes to the self and negative outcomes to external factors
biased against seeing our own bias
bias blind spot
dash of realism that can sometimes save us from the perils of unrealistic optimism
defensive pessimism
the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action
defensive pessimism
- tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors
- overestimating how much others agree
false consensus effect
tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behavior
false uniqueness effect
“I got A in History because I studied hard. I got D in Sociology because the exams were unfair”
a. Self-serving bias
b. Self-serving attributions
c. Illusory optimism
d. False consensus effect
B. self-serving attributions
“I do more for my parents than my sister does”
a. Self-serving bias
b. Self-serving attributions
c. Illusory optimism
d. False consensus effect
A. self-serving bias
“Even though 50% of marriages fail, I know mine will be enduring joy”
a. Self-serving bias
b. Self-serving attributions
c. Illusory optimism
d. False consensus effect
C. illusory optimism
“I know most people agree with me that global warming threatens our future”
a. Self-serving bias
b. Self-serving attributions
c. Illusory optimism
d. False consensus effect
D. false consensus effect
protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure
self-handicapping
the act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one’s ideals
self-presentation
being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one’s performance to create the desired impression
self-monitoring
Having attuned to their behavior, those who practice self-monitoring are more likely to express attitudes they don’t really hold and less likely to express or act on their own attitudes
True or False
true
displaying lower self-esteem than we privately feel
false modesty phenomenon
2 brain systems:
- system 1
- system 2
system 1 is often called ____ or a _____
- intuition
- gut feeling
the intuitive, automatic, unconscious, and fast way of thinking
system 1
the deliberate, controlled, conscious, and slower way of thinking
system 2
activating particular associations in memory
priming
the mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgments
embodied cognition
implicit thinking
automatic processing
explicit thinking
controlled processing
tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs
overconfidence phenomenon
a tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions
confirmation bias
a thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgments
heuristic
tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling a typical member
representative heuristic
a cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory
availability heuristic
imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn’t
counterfactual thinking
perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exist
illusory correlation
the statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behavior to return toward one’s average
regression toward the average
perception that we can predict or control chance events
illusion of control
persistence of one’s initial conceptions, such as when the basis for one’s belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives
belief perseverance
incorporating “misinformation” into one’s memory of the event, after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it
misinformation effect
the spotlight effect refers to the belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance than they actually are
True or False
True
self-concept answers the question “WHO AM I?”
True or False
True
individualistic cultures emphasize self-reliance and personal achievement more than collectivistic culture
True or False
True
people often have a clear and accurate understanding of their own self-knowledge
True or False
False
people in collectivist cultures tend to have an interdependent self-concept
True or False
True
self-esteem is based solely on how others perceive us
True or False
False
people with high self-esteem tend to be more successful in life than those with low self-esteem
True or False
True
self-efficacy refers to an individual’s belief and their ability to achieve goals
True or False
True
self-serving bias is when people attribute their success to themselves and their failures to external factors
True or False
True
unrealistic optimism can lead people to underestimate risks in their lives
True or False
True
False consensus occurs when people overestimate how much others agree with them
True or False
True
self-handicapping refers to creating obstacles to excuse potential failures
True or False
True
impression management is how people attempt to control the ways others perceive
True or False
True
self-control refers to the ability to regulate one’s action and impulses
True or False
True
people often engage in self-presentation to appear favorable to others
True or False
True
self-handicapping can be used to protect one’s self-esteem in case of failure
True or False
True
self-serving bias can contribute to an inflated sense of self
True or False
True
people with low self-esteem tend to engage in self-presentation more than those with high self-esteem
True or False
False
self-efficacy and self-esteem are the same thing
True or False
False
false uniqueness refers to the belief that one’s abilities are more unique than they actually are
True or False
True
counterfactual thinking involves imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that could have happened but did not
True or False
True
heuristics are cognitive shortcuts that help people make quick decisions but can lead to errors in judgments
True or False
True
the fundamental attribution error is the tendency to overestimate personality traits and underestimate situational factors when explaining others behaviors
True or False
True
belief perseverance refers to the tendency to claim initial beliefs even after they have been discredited
True or False
True
illusory correlation occurs when people believe there is a relationship between two variables when none exists
True or False
True
prime refers to subtle activation of certain associations in memory that can influence perceptions and behaviors
True or False
True
people are generally aware of the overconfidence phenomenon and overestimate their accuracy in judgment
True or False
False
“saying becomes believing” refers to how our attitudes can change to align with statements that people make even if they did not originally believe them
True or False
True
cognitive dissonance occurs when there’s inconsistency between attitudes and behavior leading to discomfort and attitude change
True or False
True
self-fulfilling prophecy is when someone’s expectations about the person lead the person to believe in ways to confirm these expectations
True or False
True
people recall mildly pleasant events more favorably than they experienced them
rosy retrospection
theory of how people explain others’ behaviors: by attributing it either to internal dispositions or to external situations
attribution theory
attributing behavior to the person’s disposition and traits
dispositional attribution
attributing behavior to the environment
situational attribution
an effortless, automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone’s behavior
spontaneous trait inference
type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people’s social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations
behavioral confirmation
a computer-driven assessment that uses reaction times to measure people’s automatic associations between attitude objectives and evaluative words
implicit association test (IAT)
tensions that arise when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions
cognitive dissonance
tendency to seek information and media that agree with one’s views and to avoid dissonant information
selective pressure
theory that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them as someone observing us by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs
self-perception theory
result of bribing people to do what they already like doing
overjustification effect
mistakenly attributing a behavior to the wrong source
misattribution
tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon others’ behavior
fundamental attribution error
