Glossary N, O, & P

Question 1

An aspect of personality; persons high in narcissism have unjustified overinflated self-esteem, which leads them to focus on themselves while largely ignoring the needs and feelings of others.

Answer 1

narcissism

Question 2

Intense anger experienced by narcissistic persons who have doubts about the accuracy of their exaggerated self-image when someone calls these views into question.

Answer 2

narcissistic rage

Question 3

The basic motive to seek and maintain interpersonal relationships.

Answer 3

need for affiliation

Question 4

A situation where if one person obtains a desired outcome, others cannot obtain it.

Answer 4

negative interdependence

Question 5

The proposal that prosocial behavior is motivated by the bystander’s desire to reduce his or her own uncomfortable negative emotions or feelings.

Answer 5

negative-state relief model

Question 6

Effects produced by a particular cause that
could not be produced by any other apparent cause.

Answer 6

noncommon effects

Question 7

Communication between individuals that does not involve the content of spoken language. It relies instead on an unspoken language of facial expressions, eye contact, and body language.

Answer 7

nonverbal communication

Question 8

A theory suggesting that norms will influence behavior only to the extent that they are focal for the people involved at the time the behavior occurs.

Answer 8

normative focus theory

Question 9

Social influence based on the desire to be
liked or accepted by other people

Answer 9

normative social influence

Question 10

Rules or expectations within a group concerning how its
members should (or should not) behave.

Answer 10

norms

Question 11

A form of social influence in which one person simply
orders one or more others to perform some action(s).

Answer 11

obedience

Question 12

Those with measurement units that are tied to
external reality so that they mean the same thing regardless of
category membership (e.g., dollars earned, feet and inches, chosen
or rejected)

Answer 12

objective scales

Question 13

A basic form of learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behavior as a result of observing others.

Answer 13

observational learning

Question 14

Our predisposition to expect things to turn out well overall.

Answer 14

optimistic bias

Question 15

A theory suggesting that for
any specific task there is an optimum level of subjective well-being. Up to this point, performance increases, but beyond it, performance on the task declines

Answer 15

optimum level of well-being theory

Question 16

The tendency to have more confidence in the
accuracy of our own judgments than is reasonable.

Answer 16

overconfidence bias

Question 17

In Sternberg’s triangular model of love, the sexual motives
and sexual excitement associated with a couple’s relationship.

Answer 17

passion

Question 18

An intense and often unrealistic emotional response to another person. When this emotion is experienced, it is usually
perceived as an indication of true love, but to outside observers it appears to be infatuation.

Answer 18

passionate love

Question 19

Attitude change that occurs in response to peripheral persuasion cues, which is often based on information concerning the expertise or status of would-be persuaders.

Answer 19

peripheral route to persuasion

Question 20

The tendency for beliefs and schemas to remain unchanged even in the face of contradictory information.

Answer 20

perseverance effect

Question 21

At the personal level, the self is thought of as a unique individual, whereas at the social identity level, the self is seen as a member of a group.

Answer 21

personal-versus-social identity continuum

Question 22

Efforts to change others’ attitudes through the use of various kinds of messages.

Answer 22

persuasion

Question 23

The combination of characteristics that are
evaluated as beautiful or handsome at the positive extreme and as unattractive at the negative extreme.

Answer 23

physical attractiveness

Question 24

The tendency to make optimistic predictions concerning how long a given task will take for completion.

Answer 24

planning fallacy

Question 25

A technique that can be used for increasing compliance by suggesting that a person or object is scarce and hard to obtain.

Answer 25

playing hard to get

Question 26

When we collectively misunderstand what attitudes others hold and believe erroneously that others have different attitudes than us

Answer 26

pluralistic ignorance

Question 27

Recognizing shared grievances and engaging in a power struggle on behalf of one’s devalued group.

Answer 27

politicized collective identity

Question 28

The tendency to eat more when a larger portion of food is received than if a smaller portion is received. Portion size acts as a starting point (anchor) for how much food is perceived to be appropriate to eat. Since portion sizes have steadily increased over time, this effect is believed to play an important role in overeating in western societies.

Answer 28

portion size effect

Question 29

Image of how we might be in the future—either a “dreaded” potential to be avoided or “desired” potential that can be strived for.

Answer 29

possible selves

Question 30

A psychological condition caused by experiencing or witnessing an extremely frightening, often life-threatening, ordeal or event.

Answer 30

post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Question 31

Negative emotional responses based on group membership.

Answer 31

prejudice

Question 32

A style characterized by low self-esteem and high interpersonal trust. This is a conflicted and somewhat insecure style in which the individual strongly desires a close relationship but feels that he or she is unworthy of the partner and is thus vulnerable to being rejected.

Answer 32

preoccupied attachment style

Question 33

A situation that occurs when stimuli or events increase the availability in memory or consciousness of specific types of information held in memory

Answer 33

priming

Question 34

Judgments concerning the fairness of the procedures used to distribute available rewards among group members.

Answer 34

procedural justice

Question 35

The number of topics on which two people express similar views is divided by the total number of topics on which those two people have communicated, resulting in a proportion that can be used to predict attraction.

Answer 35

proportion of similarity

Question 36

Actions by individuals that help others with no immediate benefit to the helper.

Answer 36

prosocial behavior

Question 37

Summary of the common attributes possessed by members of a category.

Answer 37

prototype

Question 38

Actions by others that tend to trigger aggression in the recipient, often because they are perceived as stemming from malicious intent.

Answer 38

provocation

Question 39

In attraction research, the physical closeness between two individuals with respect to where they live, where they sit in a classroom, where they work, and so on. The smaller the physical distance, the greater the probability that the two people will come into repeated contact experiencing repeated exposure to one another, positive affect, and the development of mutual attraction.

Answer 39

proximity

Question 40

Procedures in which aversive consequences are delivered to individuals when they engage in specific actions

Answer 40

punishment