DEFINITIONS FOR PSYB10 MIDTERM EXAM
CHAPTER 1 – WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
Social psychology: the scientific study of how individuals think, feel, and behave in a social context
Interactionist perspective: an emphasis on how both an individual’s personality and environmental
characteristics influence behaviour
Social cognition: the study of how people perceive, remember, and interpret information about
themselves and others
Social neuroscience: the study of the relationship between neural and social processes
Behavioural genetics: a subfield of the relationship that examines the role of genetic factors in
behaviour
Evolutionary psychology: a subfield of psychology that uses the principles of evolution to understand
human social behaviour
Culture: a system of enduring meanings, beliefs, values, assumptions, institutions, and practices shared
by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next
Cross-cultural research: research designed to compare and contrast people of different cultures
Multicultural research: research designed to examine racial and ethnic groups within cultures
CHAPTER 2 – DOIN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH
Hypothesis: a testable prediction about the conditions under which an event will occur
Theory: an organized set of principles used to explain observed phenomena
Operational definition: the specific procedures for manipulating or measuring a conceptual variable
Construct validity: the extent to which the measures used in a study measure the variable they were
designed to measure and the manipulations in an experiment manipulate the variables they were
designed to manipulate
Interrater reliability: the degree to which different observers agree on their observations
Qualitative research: the collection of data through open-ended responses, observation, and interviews
Quantitative research: the collection of numerical data through objective testing and statistical analysis
Random sampling: a method of selecting participants for a study so that everyone in a population has an
equal chance of being in the study
Correlational research: research designed to measure the association between variables that are not
manipulated by the researcher
1 Correlation coefficient: a statistical measure of the strength and direction of the association between
two variables
Experiment: a form of research that can demonstrate causal relationships because the experimenter has
control over the events that occur and participants are randomly assigned to conditions
Random assignment: a method of assigning participants to the various conditions of an experiment so
that each participant in the experiment has an equal chance of being in any of the conditions
Independent variable: in an experiment, a factor that experimenters manipulate to see if it affects the
dependent variable
Dependent variable: in an experiment, a factor that experimenters measure to see if it is affected by the
independent variable
Subject variable: a variable that characterizes the pre-existing differences among the participants in a
study
Internal validity: the degree to which there can be reasonable certainty that the independent variables
in an experiment caused the effects obtained on the dependent variables
Experimenter expectancy effects: the effects produced when an experimenter’s expectations about the
results of an experiment affect his or her behaviour toward a participant and thereby influence the
participant’s responses
External validity: the degree to which there can be reasonable confidence that the results of a study
would be obtained for other people and in other situations
Mondane realism: the degree to which the experimental situation resembles places and events in the
real world
Experimental realism: the degree to which experimental procedures are involving to participants and
lead them to behave naturally and spontaneously
Deception: in the context of research, a method that provides false information to participants
Confederate: accomplice of an experimenter who, in dealing with the real participants in an experiment,
acts as if he/she is also a participant
Meta-analysis: a set of statistical procedures used to review a body of evidence by combining the results
of individual studies to measure the overall reliability and strength of particular effects
Informed consent: an individual’s deliberate, voluntary decision to participate in research, based on the
researcher’s description of what will be required during such participation
Debriefing: a disclosure, made to participants after research procedures are completed, in which the
researcher explains the purpose of the research, attempts to resolve and negative feelings, and
emphasizes the scientific contribution made by the participants’ involvement
CHAPTER 3 – THE SOCIAL SELF
2 Self-concept: the sum total of an individual’s beliefs about his/her own personal attributes
Self-schema: a belief people hold about themselves that guides the processing of self-relevant
information
Affective forecasting: the process of predicting how one would feel in response to future emotional
events
Self-perception theory: the theory that when internal cues are difficult to interpret, people gai self-
insight by observing their own behaviour
Facial feedback hypothesis: the hypothesis that changes in facial expression can lead to corresponding
changes in emotion
Overjustification effect: the tendency for intrinsic motivation to diminish for activities that have become
associated with reward or other extrinsic factors
Social comparison theory: the theory that people evaluate their own abilities and opinions by comparing
themselves to others
Two-factor theory of emotion: the theory that the experience of emotion is based on two factors:
physiological arousal and a cognitive interpretation of that arousal
Dialecticism: an Eastern system of thought that accepts the existence of contradictory characteristics
within a single person
Self-esteem: an affective component of the self, consisting of a person’s positive and negative self-
evaluations
Self-awareness theory: the theory that self-focused attention leads people to notice self-discrepancies,
thereby motivating either an escape from self-awareness or a change in behaviour
Private self-consciousness: a personality characteristic of individuals who are introspective, often
attending to their own inner states
Public self-consciousness: a personality characteristic of individuals who focus on themselves as social
objects, as seen by others
Implicit egotism: a nonconscious form of self-enhancement
Self-handicapping: behaviours designed to sabotage one’s own performance in order to provide a
subsequent excuse for failure
Bask in reflected glory (BIRG): to increase self-esteem by associating with others who are successful
Downward social comparison: the defensive tendency to compare ourselves with others who are worse
off than we are
Self-presentation: strategies people use to shape what others think of them
Self-monitoring: the tendency to change behaviour in response to the self-presentation concerns of the
situation
3 CHAPTER 4 – PERCEIVING PERSONS
Social perception: a general term for the processes by which people come to understand one another
Mind perception: the process by which people attribute humanlike mental states to various animate and
inanimate objects, including other people
Nonverbal behaviour: behaviour that reveals a person’s feelings without words—through facial
expressions, body language, and vocal cues
Attribution theory: a group of theories that describe how people explain the causes of behaviour
Personal attribution: attribution to internal characteristics of an actor, such as ability, personality, mood,
or effort
Situational attribution: attribution to factors external to an actor, such as the task, other people, or luck
Covariation principle: a principle of attribution theory holding that people attribute behaviour to factors
that are present when a behaviour occurs and absent when it does not
Availability heuristic: the tendency to estimate the likelihood that an event will occur by how easily
instances of it come to mind
False-consensus effect: the tendency for people to overestimate the extent to which others share their
opinions, attributes, and behaviours
Base-rate fallacy: the finding that people are relatively insensitive to consensus information presented in
the form of numerical base rates
Counterfactual thinking: the tendency to imagine alternative events or outcomes that might have
occurred but did not
Fundamental attribution error: the tendency to focus on the role of personal causes and underestimate
the impact of situations on other people’s behaviour. This error is sometimes called correspondence
bias
Actor-observer effect: the tendency to attribute our own behaviour to situational causes and the
behaviour of others to personal factors
Belief in a just world: the belief that individuals get what they deserve in life, an orientation that leads
people to disparage victims
Impression formation: the process of integrating information about a person to form a coherent
impression
Information integration theory: the
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