Social Cognition
ਬਨ Sas: ਹਰਸਕਾਰ, ਉਘt or
Glossary
Accessibility The extent to which schemas and concepts are
at the forefront of people's minds and are therefore likely to be
used when making judgments about the social world
Analytic Thinking Style A type of thinking in which people
focus on the properties of objects without considering their
surrounding context; this type of thinking is common in West-
ern cultures
Automatic Thinking Thinking that is nonconscious, unin-
tentional, involuntary, and effortless
Availability Heuristic A mental rule of thumb whereby
people base a judgment on the ease with which they can bring
something to mind
Base Rate Information Information about the frequency of
members of different categories in the population
Controlled Thinking Thinking that is conscious, intention-
al, voluntary, and effortful
Counterfactual Thinking Mentally changing some aspect of
the past as a way of imagining what might have been
Holistic Thinking Style A type of thinking in which people
focus on the overall context, particularly the ways in which
objects relate to each other; this type of thinking is common in
East Asian cultures (e.g., China, Japan, and Korea)
Judgmental Heuristics Mental shortcuts people use to
make judgments quickly and efficiently
Overconfidence Barrier The fact that people usually have
too much confidence in the accuracy of their judgments
Priming The process by which recent experiences increase
the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept
Representativeness Heuristic A mental shortcut whereby
people classify something according to how similar it is to a
typical case
Schemas Mental structures people use to organize their
knowledge about the social world around themes or subjects
and that influence the information people notice, think about,
and remember
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy The case wherein people have an
expectation about what another person is like, which influences
how they act toward that person, which causes that person to
behave consistently with people's original expectations, making
the expectations come true
Social Cognition How people think about themselves and
the social world; more specifically, how people select, inter-
pret, remember, and use social information to make judgments
and decisions
Glossary
Affect Blend A facial expression in which one part of the
face registers one emotion while another
part
of the face regis-
ters a different emotion
Attribution Theory A description of the way in which peo-
ple explain the causes of their own and other people's behavior
Consensus Information Information about the extent to
which other people behave the same way toward the same
stimulus as the actor does
Consistency Information Information about the extent to
which the behavior between one actor and one stimulus is the
same across time and circumstances
Covariation Model A theory that states that to form an
attribution about what caused a person's behavior, we system-
atically note the pattern between the presence or absence of
possible causal factors and whether or not the behavior occurs
Decode To interpret the meaning of the nonverbal behavior
other people express, such as deciding that a pat on the back
was an expression of condescension and not kindness
Display Rules Culturally determined rules about which
nonverbal behaviors are appropriate to display
Distinctiveness Information Information about the extent
to which one particular actor behaves in the same way to dif-
ferent stimuli
Emblems Nonverbal gestures that have well-understood
definitions within a given culture; they usually have direct
verbal translations—such as the OK sign
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Glossary
Causal Theories Theories about the causes of one's own
feelings and behaviors; often we learn such theories from our
culture (c.g., "absence makes the heart
grow fonder")
Downward Social Comparison Comparing ourselves to
people who are worse than we are with regard to a particular
trait or ability
Extrinsic Motivation The desire to engage in an activity
because of external rewards or pressures, not because we enjoy
the task or find it interesting
Fixed Mindset The idea that we have a set amount of an
ability that cannot change
Growth Mindset The idea that our abilities are malleable
qualities that we can cultivate and
grow
Impression Management The attempt by people to get
others to see them as they want to be seen
Independent View of the Self A way of defining oneself
in terms of one's own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions
and not in terms of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other
people
Ingratiation The process whereby people flatter, praise, and
generally try to make themselves likable to another person,
often of higher status
Interdependent View of the Self A way of defining one-
self in terms of one's relationships to other people, recognizing
that one's behavior is often determined by the thoughts, feel-
ings, and actions of others
Intrinsic Motivation The desire to engage in an activity be-
cause we enjoy it or find it interesting, not because of external
Misattribution of Arousal The process whereby people
make mistaken inferences about what is causing them to feel
the way they do
Narcissism The combination of excessive self-love and a lack
of empathy toward others
Overjustification Effect The tendency for people to view
their behavior as caused by compelling extrinsic reasons, mak-
ing them underestimate the extent to which it was caused by
intrinsic reasons
Performance-Contingent Rewards Rewards that are based
on how well we perform a task
Reasons-Generated Attitude Change Attitude change
resulting from thinking about the reasons for one's attitudes;
people assume that their attitudes match the reasons that are
plausible and easy to verbalize
Self-Awareness Theory The idea that when people focus
their attention on themselves, they evaluate and compare their
behavior to their internal standards and values
Self-Esteem People's evaluations of their own self-worth-
that is, the extent to which they view themselves as good,
competent, and decent
Self-Handicapping The strategy whereby people create
obstacles and excuses for themselves so that if they do poorly
on a task, they can avoid blaming themselves
Self-Perception Theory The theory that when our attitude
and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states
by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs
Social Comparison Theory The idea that we learn about
our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other
people
rewards or pressures
Introspection The process whereby people look inward and
examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives
Glossary
Cognitive Dissonance A drive or feeling of discomfort,
originally defined as being caused by holding two or more in-
consistent cognitions and subsequently defined as being caused
by performing an action that is discrepant from one's custom-
ary, typically positive self-conception
Counterattitudinal Advocacy Stating an opinion or at-
titude that runs counter to one's private belief or attitude
External Justification A reason or an explanation for dis-
sonant personal behavior that resides outside the individual
(e.g., in order to receive a large reward or avoid a severe
punishment)
Hypocrisy Induction The arousal of dissonance by having
individuals make statements that run counter to their behav-
iors and then reminding them of the inconsistency between
what they advocated and their behavior. The purpose is to lead
individuals to more responsible behavior
Impact Bias The tendency to overestimate the intensity and
duration of one's emotional reactions to future negative events
Insufficient Punishment The dissonance aroused when in-
dividuals lack sufficient external justification for having resisted
a desired activity or object, usually resulting in individuals
devaluing the forbidden activity or object
Internal Justification The reduction of dissonance by
changing something about oneself (e.g., one's attitude or
behavior)
Justification of Effort The tendency for individuals to
increase their liking for something they have worked hard to
attain
Lowballing An unscrupulous strategy whereby a salesperson
induces a customer to agree to purchase a product at a low
cost, subsequently claims it was an error, and then raises the
price; frequently, the customer will agree to make the purchase
at the inflated price
Postdecision Dissonance Dissonance aroused after making
a decision, typically reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of
the chosen alternative and devaluating the rejected alternatives
Self-Affirmation In the context of dissonance theory, a way
of reducing dissonance by reminding oneself of one or more of
one's positive attributes
Self-Persuasion A long-lasting form of attitude change that
results from attempts at self-justification
Prejudice
Out-Group Homogeneity The perception that individu
als in the out-group are more similar to each other (homo-
geneous) than they really are, as well as more similar than
members of the in-group are
Prejudice A hostile or negative attitude toward people in
a distinguishable group, based solely on their membership in
that group
Realistic Conflict Theory The idea that limited resources
lead to conflict between groups and result in increased preju-
Glossary
Blaming the Victim The tendency to blame individuals
(make dispositional attributions) for their victimization, typi-
cally motivated by a desire to see the world as a fair place
Discrimination Unjustified negative or harmful action
toward a member of a group solely because of his or her mem-
bership in that group
Illusory Correlation The tendency to see relationships, or
correlations, between events that are actually unrelated
Institutional Discrimination Practices that discriminate,
legally or illegally, against a minority group by virtue of its eth-
nicity, gender, culture, age, sexual orientation, or other target
of societal or company prejudice
Institutionalized Racism Racist attitudes that are held by
the vast majority of people living in a society where stereotypes
and discrimination are the norm
Institutionalized Sexism Sexist attitudes that are held by
the vast majority of people living in a society where stereotypes
and discrimination are the norm
Jigsaw Classroom A classroom setting designed to reduce
prejudice and raise the self-esteem of children by placing them
in small, desegregated groups and making each child depen-
dent on the other children in the group to learn the course
material and do well in the class
Modern Racism Outwardly acting unprejudiced while
inwardly maintaining prejudiced attitudes
Mutual Interdependence The situation that exists when
two or more groups need to depend on one another to accom-
plish a goal that is important to each of them
Normative Conformity The tendency to go along with the
group in order to fulfill the group's expectations and gain
acceptance
dice and discrimination
Scapegoating The tendency for individuals
, when frus-
trated or unhappy, to displace aggression onto groups that are
disliked, visible, and relatively powerless
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy The case wherein people have an
expectation about what another person is like, which influen
how they act toward that person, which causes that person to
behave consistently with people's original expectations, maki
the expectations come true
Stereotype A generalization about a group of people, in
which certain traits are assigned to virtually all members of
group, regardless of actual variation among the members
Stereotype Threat The apprehension experienced by me
bers of a group that their behavior might confirm a cultural
stereotype
Ultimate Attribution Error The tendency to make disp
tional attributions about an entire group of people
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