exam 3

Question 1

social psychology

Answer 1

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

Question 2

bystander effect

Answer 2

the tendency of an individual who observes and emergency to be less likely to help when other people are presents than when the observer is alone

Question 3

social cognition

Answer 3

area of social psychology exploring how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information

Question 4

person perception

Answer 4

the processes by which an individual uses social stimuli to form impressions of others

Question 5

stereotype

Answer 5

a generalization about a group’s characteristics that does not consider any variations from one individual to another

Question 6

self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 6

social expectations that cause an individual to act in such a way that the expectations are realized

Question 7

stereotype threat

Answer 7

an individual’s fast-acting, self-fulfilling fear of being judged based on a negative stereotype about their group

Question 8

attribution theory

Answer 8

the view that people are motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior as part of their effort to make sense of the behavior

Question 9

fundamental attribution error

Answer 9

observers overestimation of the importance of internal traits and underestimation of the importance of external situations when they seek explanations of another person’s behavior

Question 10

self serving bias

Answer 10

the tendency to take credit for one’s successes and to deny responsibility for one’s failures

Question 11

false consensus effect

Answer 11

observers overestimation of the degree to which everybody else thinks or acts the way they do

Question 12

positive illusions

Answer 12

favorable views of the self that are not necessarily rooted in reality

Question 13

social comparison

Answer 13

the process by which individuals evaluate their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and abilities in relation to others

Question 14

attitudes

Answer 14

an individuals opinions and beliefs about people, objects, and ideas- how the person feels about the world

Question 15

cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 15

the psychological discomfort caused by 2 inconsistent thoughts

Question 16

self-perception theory

Answer 16

how behavior influences attitudes, individuals make inferences about their attitudes by perceiving their behavior

Question 17

altruism

Answer 17

giving to another person with the ultimate goal of benefiting that person, even if It incurs a cost to oneself

Question 18

egoism

Answer 18

helping another person for personal gain

Question 19

empathy

Answer 19

a person’s feeling of oneness with the emotional state of another

Question 20

aggression

Answer 20

social behavior whose objective is to harm someone, physically or verbally

Question 21

conformity

Answer 21

a change in a person’s behavior to coincide more closely with a group standard

Question 22

informational social influence

Answer 22

the influence other people have on us because we want to be right

Question 23

normative social influence

Answer 23

the influence other people have on us because we want them to like us

Question 24

obedience

Answer 24

behavior that complies with the explicit demands of the individual in authority

Question 25

deindividuation

Answer 25

the reduction in personal identity and erosion of the sense of personal responsibility when one is part of a group

Question 26

social contagion

Answer 26

imitative behavior involving the spread of behavior, emotions, and ideas

Question 27

social facilitation

Answer 27

improvement in an individual's performance because of the presence of others

Question 28

social loafing

Answer 28

each person's tendency to exert less effort in a group because of reduced accountability for individual effort

Question 29

risky shift

Answer 29

the tendency for a group decision to be riskier than the average decision made by the individual group members

Question 30

group polarization effect

Answer 30

the solidification and further strengthening of an individual's position as a consequence of a group discussion or interaction

Question 31

groupthink

Answer 31

the impaired group decision making that occurs when making the right decision is less important than maintaining group harmony

Question 32

social identity

Answer 32

the way individuals define themselves in terms of their group membership

Question 33

social identity theory

Answer 33

the view that social identity is a crucial part of self-image and a valuable source of positive feelings about oneself

Question 34

ethnocentrism

Answer 34

the tendency to favor one's own ethnic group over other groups

Question 35

prejudice

Answer 35

an unjustified negative attitude toward an individual based on the individual's membership in a group

Question 36

systemic racism

Answer 36

systems, structures, and procedures in a society that disadvantage a racial group and privilege another