Reading Terms Flashcards
spotlight effect
the belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are
illusion of transparency
the illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others
interplay between our sense of self and our social worlds
social surroundings affect our self-awareness
self-interest colors our social judgment
self-concern motivates our social behavior
social relationships help define our sense of self
self-concept
what we know and believe about ourselves
self-schema
beliefs about self the organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information
possible selves
images of what we dream of or dread of becoming in the future
studies of twins point genetic influences on personality and self-concept but social experience also plays a part in the following ways
the roles we play, the social identities we form, the comparisons we make with others, how other people judge us, the surrounding culture
social comparison
evaluating one’s abilities and opinions by comparing oneself with others
individualism
the concept of giving priority to one’s own goal over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributions rather than group identifications
independent self
construing one’s identity as the autonomous self
collectivism
giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly
interdependent self
construing one’s identity in relation to others
planning fallacy
the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task
impact bias
overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events
dual attitude system
differing implicit (automatic) and explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same object. verbalized explicit attitudes may change with education and persuasion; implicit attitudes change slowly, with practice that forms new habit
self-esteem
a person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth
high self-esteem people usually react to self-esteem threat by
compensating for it
low self-esteem people usually react to self-esteem threat by
“breaking” by blaming themselves or giving up
terror management theory
proposes that people exhibit self-protective emotional and cognitive responses (including adhering more strongly to their cultural worldviews and prejudices) when confronted with reminders of their mortality
self-efficacy
a sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, which is one’s sense of self-worth. a sharpshooter in the military might feel high self-efficacy and low self-esteem
locus of control
the extent to which people perceive outcomes as internally controllable by their own efforts or as externally controlled by change or outside forces
learned helplessness
the sense of hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or animal perceives no control over repeated bad events
self-serving bias
the tendency to perceive oneself favorably
self-serving attributions
a form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors
defensive pessimism
the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action
false uniqueness effect
the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behavior
group-serving bias
explaining away outgroup members’ positive behaviors; also attributing negative behaviors to their dispositions (while excusing such behavior by one’s own group)
self-handicapping
protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure
self-presentation
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-monitoring
being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one’s performance to create the desired impression
spontaneous trait tranference
when we say something good or bad about another, people spontaneously tend to associate that trait with us
belief perserverance
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
misinformation effect
incorporating “misinformation” into one’s memory of the event, after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it
controlled processing
“explicit” thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and conscious
automatic processing
“implicit” thinking that is effortless, habitual, and without awareness; roughly corresponds to “intuition”
overconfidence phenomenon
the tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of one’s belief
heuristic
a thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgements
counterfactual thinking
imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn’t
illusory correlation
perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception off a stronger relationship than actually exists
illusion of control
perception of uncontrollable events as subject to one’s control or as more controllable than they are
regression toward the average
the statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behavior to return toward one’e average
misattribution
mistakenly attributing a behavior to the wrong source
attribution theory
the theory of how people explain other’s behavior - for example, by attributing it either to internal dispositions (enduring traits, motives, and attitudes) or to external situations
dispositional attribution
attributing behavior to the person’s disposition and traits
situational attribution
attributing behavior to the environment
spontaneous trait inference
effortless, automate inference of a trait after exposure to someone’s behavior
self-fulfilling prophecy
a belief that leads to its own fulfillment
behavioral confirmation
a type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people’s social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations
implicit association test (IAT)
a computer-driven assessment of implicit attitudes. the test uses reaction times to measure people’s automatic associations between attitude objects and evaluative words
easier pairings (and faster responses) are taken to indicate stronger unconscious associations
role
a set of norms that defines how people in a given social position ought to behave
foot-in-the-door phenomenon
the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
lowball technique
a tactic for getting people to agree with something
people who agree to an initial request with often still comply when the requester ups the ante
people who receive only the costly request are less likely to comply with it
selective exposure
the tendency to seek information and media that agree with one’s view and to avoid dissonant information
insufficient justification
reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one’s behavior when external justification is “insufficient”
facial feedback effect
the tendency of facial expression to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger and happiness
overjustification effect
the result of bribing people to do what they already like doing; they may then see their actions as externally controlled rather than intrinsically appealing
credibility
believability; a credible communicator is perceived as both trustworthy and expert
sleeper effect
a delayed impact of a message occurs when an initially discounted message becomes effective, such as we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it
attractiveness
having qualities that appeal to an audience; an appealing communicator is most persuasive on matters of subjective preference
primacy effect
other things being equal, information presented first usually has the most influence
recency effect
information presented last sometimes has the most influence; recency effects are less common than primacy effects
channel of communication
the way a message is delivered – whether face-to-face, in writing, on film or in some other way
two-step flow of communication
the process by which media influence often occurs through opinion leaders, who in turn influence others
need for cognition
the motivation to think and analyze. assessed by agreement with items such as, “the notion of thinking abstractly is appealing to me” and disagreement with items such as “i only think as hard as I have to”
cult
a group typically characterized by (1) distinctive rituals and beliefs related to its devotion to a god or person, (2) isolation from the surrounding “evil” culture, and (3) charismatic leader
attitude inoculation
exposing people to weak attacks upon their attitudes so that when smaller attacks come, they will have refutations available
