FlashcardsChapter12
(39 cards)
Term
Description
Actor/observer discrepancy
People focus on situations to explain their own behavior while focusing on dispositions to explain other people’s behavior. (page 498)
Aggression
Any behavior that involves the intention to harm another. (page 482)
Altruism
Providing help when it is needed, without any apparent reward for doing so. (page 486)
Attitudes
People’s evaluations of objects, of events, or of ideas. (page 490)
Attributions
People’s explanations for why events or actions occur. (page 497)
Bystander intervention effect
The failure to offer help by those who observe someone in need when other people are present. (page 487)
Cognitive dissonance
An uncomfortable mental state resulting from a contradiction between two attitudes or between an attitude and a behavior. (page 493)
Companionate love
A strong commitment based on friendship, trust, respect, and intimacy. (page 507)
Compliance
The tendency to agree to do things requested by others. (page 478)
Conformity
The altering of one’s behaviors and opinions to match those of other people or to match other people’s expectations. (page 475)
Deindividuation
A state of reduced individuality, reduced self-awareness, and reduced attention to personal standards; this phenomenon may occur when people are part of a group. (page 474)
Discrimination
The inappropriate and unjustified treatment of people as a result of prejudice. (page 500)
Elaboration likelihood model
The idea that persuasive messages lead to attitude changes in either of two ways: via the central route or via the peripheral route. (page 495)
Explicit attitudes
Attitudes that a person can report. (page 491)
Fundamental attribution error
In explaining other people’s behavior, the tendency to overemphasize personality traits and underestimate situational factors. (page 497)
Group polarization
The process by which initial attitudes of groups become more extreme over time. (page 474)
Groupthink
The tendency of a group to make a bad decision as a result of preserving the group and maintaining its cohesiveness; especially likely when the group is under intense pressure, is facing external threats, and is biased in a particular direction. (page 475)
Implicit attitudes
Attitudes that influence a person’s feelings and behavior at an unconscious level. (page 491)
Inclusive fitness
An explanation for altruism that focuses on the adaptive benefit of transmitting genes, such as through kin selection, rather than focusing on individual survival. (page 486)
Informational influence
The tendency for people to conform when they assume that the behavior of others represents the correct way to respond. (page 476)
Ingroup favoritism
The tendency for people to evaluate favorably and privilege members of the ingroup more than members of the outgroup. (page 471)
Mere exposure effect
The idea that greater exposure to a stimulus leads to greater liking for it. (page 490)
Modern racism
Subtle forms of prejudice that coexist with the rejection of racist beliefs. (page 501)