1.
attribution: An explanation of why things happen and why people act as they do; not necessarily correct interpretations of others and their motives
2.
authoritarian interview: An interviewing style in which the interviewer has and exerts greater power than interviewee.
3.
cognitive complexity: The number of mental constructs an individual uses, how abstract they are, and how elaborately they interact to create perceptions
4.
cognitive schemata: Mental structures people use to organize and interpret experience. Four schemata have been identified: prototypes, personal constructs, stereotypes, and scripts
5.
culture: The beliefs, understandings, practices, and ways of interpreting experience that are shared by a group of people
6.
empathy: The ability to feel with another person, to feel what he or she feels in a situation
7.
expectancy violation theory: A theory claiming that when our expectations are violated, we become more cognitively alert as we struggle to understand and cope with unexpected behaviors
8.
individualism: A predominant Western value that regards each person as unique, important, and to be recognized for her or his individual qualities and behavior
9.
inference: An interpretation that goes beyond the facts known but is believed to logically follow from them
10.
interpretation: The subjective process of organizing and making sense of perceptions
11.
judgment: A belief or opinion based on observations, feelings, assumptions, or other nonfactual phenomena
12.
mind reading: The assumption that we understand what another person thinks or how another person perceives something
13.
monitoring: The observation and regulation of one's own communication
14.
perception: An active process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting people, objects, events, situations, and activities
15.
personal construct:
