Spotlight effect
The belief that other are paying more attention to one's appearance and behavior than they really are
Illusion of transparency
the illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others
Self Schemas
the beliefs about the self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information
self reference effect
the tendency to quickly process and remember well the information that is relevant to our self-concepts
social comparison
the extent to which we evaluate our abilities and opinions by comparing ourselves to others
individualism
giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications
collectivism
giving priority to the goals of one's groups such as one's family and workplace and defining one's identity accordingly
immune neglect
when we accomodate and adjust to personal injuries, romantic breakups, exam failure, we cope more readily than we would expect
locus of control
the extent to which we perceive outcomes as a result of our own efforts or a result of chance
learned helplessness
the hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or animal perceives no control over repeated negative events
self-serving bias
we tend to attribute our success to our own skills and our losses to chance or situational factos
false uniqueness effect
the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's abilities and one's desireable or successful behaviors
egocentric bias
when people claim more contributions for themselves for the results of a joint action than an outside observer would credit them
self-fulfilling prophecy
tendency for our expectations to evoke responses that confirm what we originally anticipated
self concept
is fed by our roles, our social identity, our comparison with others, and also other's judgement
false consensus effect
the tendency to overestimate the degree to which one's opinions and beliefs are shared by others
unrealistic optimism
the demonstrated systematic tendency for people to be overly optimistic about the outcome of planned actions. This include over-estimating the likelihood of positiv events and under-estimating the likelihood of negative events
attribution
the process by which people use information to make inference about the causes of behavior or events. Simply put this is how we go about inferring behavior (our own and those of others)
misattribution
attributing an event to something with which ir really has no connection or association. It's making an incorrect attribution
Consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency
Harold kelly's convariation model of attribution looks to three main types of information from which to make an attribution decision about an individual's behavior the first is --- information, or information on how other people in the same situation and with the same stimulus behave. the second --- information or how the individual responds to different stimuli. the third is --- information or how frequent the individual's behavior can be observed with similar stimulus but varied situations
internal (dispositional) or external (situational)
when there is low consensus and distinctiveness and high consistency people make --- attributions for behaviors. on the other hand, people make --- attributions when there is high consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency
fundamental attribution error
the tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon other's behavior (AKA correspondence bias)
self handicapping
to protecting one's self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure. It's an action or choice which prevents a person from being responsible for failure. It creates attributional ambiguity to insulate or protect people from negative attribution about them
spontaneous trait inference
an effortless, automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone's behavior. it's the inferences that are made without intention or conscious awareness on exposure to trait-impying information about behavior
discounting principle
rule of attribution which states that the perceived role of a cause will be discounted or reduced if other possible causes are also present. ex. a person who gets a high grade in a university history examination may be considered clever but if you are told that the person is already a professor you would be singularly unimpressed
augmenting principle
a rule of attribution which states that the perceive role of a cause will be increased if other factors are present that would work against the behavior ex. a person who gets a high grade in a history exam may be considered clever but if told 16 you may well consider them extremely clever
actor observer difference
occurs when we observe others from a different perspective than we observe ourselves. in some experiments this has led to differing explanations for behavior. we tend to see other people's behaviors as being cause by other personal disposition whilst perceiving our own actions as due to situational factors
explanatory style
how people explain the events of their lives. there are three facets of how people can explain a situation that can lean toward optimism or pessimism (int/ext, stable/unstable, and global/specific)
overconfidence phenomena
tendency to be more confident that correct to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs
availability heuristic
an efficient but fallible rule of thumb that judges the likelihood of thing in terms of their availability in memory. if instances or something come readily to mind, we presume if to be commonplace
representative heuristic
tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling a typical member
belief perserverance
refers to persistence of one's initial conceptions, as when the basis for one's belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives
conjunction fallacy
when two events can occur separately or together, the conjunction, when they overlap, cannot be more likely that the likelihood of either of the two individual events. how people forget this and ascribe a higher likelihood to combination events, erroneously association quantity of events with quantity of probability
hindsight bias
refers to the tendency prople have to see events that have already occured as being more predictable than they were before they took place. after an event people often believe they they knew the otcome of the event before it actually happened. it is often referred to as the i knew it all along phenomenon
evolutionary perspective
argue that social behaviors developed through genetics and inheritance. emphasize the role of biology and gene transmission across generations to explain current behavior
social learning perspective
according to this viewpoint, we learn behaviors through observing and mimicking the behavior of others
social cognition perspective
support an information processing model of social behavior where we notice, interpret, and judge the behavior of others. by understand how information is processed we can better understand how patterns of thoughts impact behavior
randoms sampling
probability sampling technique. it is designed to select a sample of subjects from a population in such a way that the data from the sample can be extrapolated to the general population. it can let every person in the population have an equal chance of inclusion in the study
random assignment
used to assign subjects to different groups after all the subjects have been selected. it can ensure that every subject has an equal chance of being placed in any of the treatment conditions
generalizability
refers to the extent to which the results of a study apply to individuals and circumstances beyond those studied. it can be also referred to as external validity, the degree to which a given study's findings can be extrapolated to another population.
experimenter bias
refers to the influence of the experimenter's expectations or personal beliefs on the findings of a study. it occurs when an experimenter unintentionally encourages participants to respond in a way that supports the hypothesis. the experimenter may act differently towards subjects in control and treatment groups. and it may influence participant's behaviors and thus alter the findings
demand characteristics
cues in a n experiment that tell the participant what behavior is expected. a term used in psychology experiments to describe a cue that makes participants aware of what the experimenter expects to find or how participants are expected to behave. it can change the outcome of an experiment because participants will often change their behavior to conform to the experiment's expectations. participants may act in a way they believe corresponds to what the researches is looking for
experimental realism
occurs when subjects are caught up in the experiment and are truly influenced by it. it is the impact of an experimental setting on subjects.
illusory correlation
often searching for things that are associated with each other. think two things related when not related at all
illusion of control
the idea that chance events are subject to our influence or control over things like langer did study of people who got to pick lottery numbers versus who didnt and how much would pay
cognitive dissonance theory
developed to explain cognitive and behavioral inconsistency - behave in a way that is inconsistent with your thoughts --> produce tension or arousal this then leads to a drive or motive to reduce this tension
conditions for dissonance theory
personal responsibility, perceived negative consequences of the behavior, and insufficient justification
effort justification
someone who puts a lot of effort into a goal that goal becomes attractive **people come to like what they suffer for
spread of alternatives
the difference between two equally attractive choices gets larger after the decision is made
self-perception theory
the theory that when we are unsure of our attitudes we infer them much as would someone observing us- by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which is occurs. It asserts that people develop their attitudes by observing their behavior and concluding what attitudes must have caused them.