| affectionate love | Also called companionate love; the type of love that occurs when individuals desire to have the other person near and have a deep, caring affection for the person.
|
 |
|
|
| Altruism | An unselfish interest in helping someone else.
|
|
|
|
| Attitudes | Opinions and beliefs about people, objects, and ideas.
|
|
|
|
| attribution theory | Theory that views people as motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior as part of their effort to make sense of the behavior.
|
|
|
|
| bystander effect | The tendency of an individual who observes an emergency to help less when other people are present than when the observer is alone.
|
|
|
|
| cognitive dissonance | A concept developed by Festinger; an individual's psychological discomfort (dissonance) caused by two inconsistent thoughts.
|
|
|
|
| Confederate | A person who is given a role to play in a study so that social context can be manipulated.
|
|
|
|
| Conformity | Change in a person's behavior to coincide more closely with a group standard.
|
|
|
|
| Deindividuation | The reduction of personal identity and erosion of the sense of personal responsibility that can arise when one is part of a group.
|
|
|
|
| Discrimination | In social psychology, an unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group simply because he or she is a member of that group.
|
|
|
|
| Egoism | Giving to another person to ensure reciprocity; to gain self-esteem; to present oneself as powerful, competent, or caring; or to avoid social and self-censure for failing to live up to society's expectations.
|
|
|
|
| elaboration likelihood model | Theory identifying two ways by which a communication can be persuasive—a central route and by a peripheral route.
|
|
|
|
| Empathy | A feeling of oneness with the emotional state of another person.
|
|
|
|
| Ethnocentrism | The tendency to favor one's own ethnic group over other groups.
|
|
|
|
| false consensus effect | Overestimation of the degree to which everybody else thinks or acts the way we do, stemming from the use of our own outlook or situation to predict that of others.
|
|
|
|
| fundamental attribution error | The tendency for observers to overestimate the importance of internal traits and underestimate the importance of external situations when they seek explanations of an actor's behavior.
|
|
|
|
| group polarization effect | The solidification and further strengthening of an individual's position as a consequence of a group discussion.
|
|
|
|
| Groupthink | Group members' impaired decision making and avoidance of realistic appraisal to maintain group harmony.
|
|
|
|
| informational social influence | The influence other people have on us because we want to be right.
|
|
|
|
| investment model | A model emphasizing the ways that commitment, investment, and the availability of attractive alternative partners predict satisfaction and stability in relationships.
|
|
|
|
| mere exposure effect | The outcome that the more we encounter someone or something (a person, a word, an image), the more likely we are to start liking the person or thing even if we do not realize we have seen it before.
|
|
|
|
| normative social influence | The influence that other people have on us because we want them to like and approve of us.
|
|
|
|
| Obedience | Behavior that complies with the explicit demands of the individual in authority.
|
|
|
|
| positive illusions | Positive views of oneself that are not necessarily deeply rooted in reality.
|
|
|
|
| Prejudice | An unjustified negative attitude toward an individual based on the individual's membership in a group.
|
|
|
|
| risky shift | The tendency for a group decision to be riskier than the average decision made by individual group members.
|
|
|
|
| romantic love | Also called passionate love; the type of love that has strong components of sexuality and infatuation and often predominates in the early part of a love relationship.
|
|
|
|
| self-objectification | The tendency to see oneself primarily as an object in the eyes of others.
|
|
|
|
| self-perception theory | Bem's theory about the connection between attitudes and behavior; stresses that individuals make inferences about their attitudes by perceiving their behavior.
|
|
|
|
| self-serving bias | The tendency to take credit for one's successes and to deny responsibility for one's failures.
|
|
|
|
| social comparison | The process by which individuals evaluate their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and abilities in relation to other people.
|
|
|
|
| social contagion | Imitative behavior involving the spread of behavior, emotions, and ideas.
|
|
|
|
| social exchange theory | A theory based on the notion of social relationships as involving an exchange of goods, the objective of which is to minimize costs and maximize benefits.
|
|
|
|
| social facilitation | Improvement in an individual's performance because of the presence of others.
|
|
|
|
| social identity | The way individuals define themselves in terms of their group membership.
|
|
|
|
| social identity theory | Tajfel's theory that social identities are a crucial part of individuals' self-image and a valuable source of positive feelings about themselves.
|
|
|
|
| social loafing | Each person's tendency to exert less effort in a group because of reduced accountability for individual effort.
|
|
|
|
| social psychology | The study of how people think about, influence, and relate to other people.
|
|
|
|
| social support | Information and feedback from others that one is loved and cared for, esteemed and valued, and included in a network of communication and mutual obligation.
|
|
|
|
| Stereotype | A generalization about a group's characteristics that does not consider any variations from one individual to another.
|
|
|
|
| stereotype threat | An individual's fast-acting, self-fulfilling fear of being judged on the basis of a negative stereotype about his or her group.
|
