Exam 1 Study Cards

Question 0

culture

Answer 0

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, ad traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

Question 1

social psychology

Answer 1

the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another

Question 2

hindsight bias

Answer 2

the tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one`s abiliy to have forseen how something turned out.
also known as the “i-knew-it-all-along phenomenon”

Question 3

field research

Answer 3

research done in real-life, natural settings outside the laboratory

Question 4

correlational research

Answer 4

the study of the naturally occurring relationships among variables

Question 5

experimental research

Answer 5

studies that seek clues to cause-effect relationships by manipulating one or more factors (independent variables) while controlling others (holding them constant)

Question 6

random sampling

Answer 6

survey procedure in which every person in the population being studied has an equal chance of inclusion

Question 7

random assignment

Answer 7

the process of assigning participants to the conditions of an experiment such that all persons have the same chance of being in a given condition
helps us infer cause and effect

Question 8

independent variable

Answer 8

the experimental factor that a researcher manipulates

Question 9

dependent variable

Answer 9

the variable being measured, so called because it may depend on manipulations of the independent variable

Question 10

internal validity

Answer 10

this occurs when a researcher controls all extraneous variables and the only variable influencing the results of a study is the one being manipulated by the researcher. this ensures that the variable the researcher intended to study is indeed the one affecting the results and not some other, unwanted variables.

Question 11

external validity

Answer 11

This refers to the extent to which the results of a study can be generalized or extended to others.

Question 12

self esteem

Answer 12

A person`s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth.

Question 13

terror management theory

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

self serving bias

Answer 14

the tendency to perceive oneself favorably

Question 14

self-presentation

Answer 14

the act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one`s ideals.

Question 14

literal immortality beliefs

Answer 14

beliefs that we will literally live on: in an afterlife, after reincarnation, etc.

Question 14

symbolic immortality beliefs

Answer 14

belief that some cultural values (some seemingly unrelated to death) offer us a way to live on symbolically: through our children, accomplishments, money…

people want to be remembered somehow: in books and history, etc

Question 14

cultural worldview

Answer 14

shared senses of reality that help give meaning to life

Question 14

mortality salience hypothesis

Answer 14

if FAITH IN A CULTURAL WORLDVIEW buffers people from death related concerns, then reminders of death should increase defense of cultural worldviews

Question 14

worldview defense

Answer 14

the outcome of thinking about death

it is the process of determining how favorably you rate others based on their worldview in comparison to yours

more positive evaluations of those who help validate one’s worldview and more negative evaluations of those who challenge the validity of that worldview.-

Question 15

self esteem striving

Answer 15

outcome of thinking about death
1. we work to increase our self esteem
2. since SE serves as a buffer, having high SE should protect us from typical mortality salience responses (increased worldview defense)
= high SE should makes us less worldview defensive

Question 16

priming

Answer 16

activating particular associations in memory

Question 17

embodied cognition

Answer 17

the mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgements.

Question 18

belief perserverence

Answer 18

persistence of ones initial conceptions, such as when the basis for ones belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives.

Question 19

overconfidence phenomenon

Answer 19

the tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of one`s beliefs

Question 20

unconscious social judgment (spontaneous trait inference???)

Answer 20

an effortless automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone’s behavior

Question 21

heuristic

Answer 21

a thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgments

Question 22

representative heuristic

Answer 22

the tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling (representing) a typical member.

Question 23

availability heuristic

Answer 23

a cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory. If instances of something come readily to mind, we presume it to be commonplace.

Question 24

counterfactual thinking

Answer 24

imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but did not.

Question 25

illusory correlation

Answer 25

perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists.

Question 26

attribution theory

Answer 26

the theory of how people explain others` behavior - for example, by attributing it either to internal dispositions (enduring traits, motives, and attitudes) or to external situations.

Question 27

fundamental attribution error

Answer 27

the tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon others` behavior.
(also called correspondence bias because we so often see behavior as corresponding to a disposition.)

Question 28

dispositional attribution

Answer 28

attributing behavior to the person`s disposition and traits

Question 29

situational attribution

Answer 29

attributing behavior to the environment

Question 30

covariation model of attributions

Answer 30

we use three types of info to determine attributions:

1. consensus info
2. distinctive info
3. consistency info

Question 31

discounting principle

Answer 31

the theory that we discount a dispositional cause for behavior if other plausible causes are known

Question 32

perceptual salience

Answer 32

this helps to explain actor/observer bias

when we focus on others, we see their actions as caused by their dispositions

when we focus on ourselves, situational causes become more salient

Question 33

actor/observer bias

Answer 33

the tendency to see others` behavior as caused by disposition but focusing more on the role of situational influences when explaining our own behavior.

Question 34

motivation

Answer 34

an internal process that directs and maintains behavior. it can cause someone to move towards a certain goal.

Question 35

secure self-esteem

Answer 35

Secure high self-esteem is characterized by self-esteem that is positive, both implicitly and explicitly

Question 36

implicit self esteem

Answer 36

our more unconscious, visceral (instinctive), immediate feelings about our self worth

driven by self-evals that are activated AUTOMATICALLY without conscious self reflection

Question 37

contingent self-esteem

Answer 37

feelings about oneself that are dependent on achieving some standard or living up to certain standards/expectations

Question 38

unstable self-esteem

Answer 38

feelings of self-worth fluctuate across time and situations

Question 39

explicit self esteem

Answer 39

our more conscious reactions and thought processes when evaluating our self worth

kind of linked to self presentation: it’s what we portray

Question 45

consensus info

Answer 45

do others respond in the same way toward the same stimulus?

Question 46

distinctive info

Answer 46

does that particular person respond in the same way to all sorts of stimuli?

Question 48

consistency info

Answer 48

does that particular person always respond in the same way to the stimulus all the time?

Question 49

social comparison theory

Answer 49

we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to others

downward or upward comparison

Question 51

self perception theory

Answer 51

when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain/ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our own behavior and situation in which it occurs

we look at ourselves as someone else might look at us

Question 52

self awareness theory

Answer 52

serves to keep people in line with their goals/standards

when people focus on themselves, they compare their behavior to their own internal standards

Question 54

fragile self esteem

Answer 54

characterized by narcissism, the dependence of high self esteem on desired outcomes, an unwillingness to admit the possession of some negative self-feelings, and the fluctuation of feelings of self-worth

In the case of fragile high self-esteem, individuals’ positive explicit self-esteem does not match their implicit self-esteem, but rather masks the fact that their implicit self-esteem is not positive.

Question 55

alternative mortality salience hypothesis

Answer 55

if HAVING SELF ESTEEM acts as a buffer against death related concerns, reminders should increase the strength with which they pursue self esteem

Question 56

emotion regulation

Answer 56

strategies people use to influence their own emotional experience

ex:
- avoid situations that will trigger unwanted emotion
- think about happy memories
- change the way we think about stimuli that cause the unwanted emotion