A
Attitudes
Orientations that locate objects of thought on dimensions of judgment.
Attributions
Inferences that people draw about the causes of events, othersš behavior, and their own behavior.
B
Balance
According to Heider, the situation that exists when liking relations fit together harmoniously.
Bystander effect
A paradoxical social phenomenon in which people are less likely to provide needed help when they are in groups than when they are alone.
C
Channel
The medium through which a message is sent.
Cognitive dissonance
A psychological state that exists when related cognitions are inconsistent.
Collectivism
Putting group goals ahead of personal goals and defining onešs identity in terms of the groups one belongs to.
Commitment
An intent to maintain a relationship in spite of the difficulties and costs that may arise.
Companionate love
Warm, trusting, tolerant affection for another whose life is deeply intertwined with onešs own.
Compliance
A type of conformity that occurs when people yield to social pressure in their public behavior, even though their private beliefs have not changed.
Conformity
The tendency for people to yield to real or imagined social pressure.
D
Defensive attribution
The tendency to blame victims for their misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way.
Discrimination
Behaving differently, usually unfairly, toward the members of a group.
E
Ethnocentrism
The tendency to view onešs own group as superior to others and as the standard for judging the worth of foreign ways.
External attributions
Ascribing the causes of behavior to situational demands and environmental constraints.
Fundamental attribution error
Observersš bias in favor of internal attributions in explaining othersš behavior.
F
G
Group
Two or more individuals who interact and are interdependent.
Group cohesiveness
The strength of the liking relationships linking group members to each other and to the group itself.
Group polarization
A phenomenon that occurs when group discussion strengthens a groupšs dominant point of view and produces a shift toward a more extreme decision in that direction.
H
I
Illusory correlation
A misperception that occurs when people estimate that they have encountered more confirmations of an association between social traits than they have actually seen.
Individualism
Putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining onešs identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group memberships.
Ingratiation
A conscious effort to cultivate othersš liking by complimenting them, agreeing with them, and doing them favors.
Ingroup The group that people belong to and identify with.
Ingroup
The group that people belong to and identify with.
Internal attributions
Ascribing the causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, and feelings.
Internal attributions
Ascribing the causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, and feelings.
Interpersonal attraction
Positive feelings toward another.
Intimacy
Warmth, closeness, and sharing in a relationship.
J
K
L
Latitude of acceptance
A range of potentially acceptable positions on an issue centered on onešs initial attitude position.
M
Matching hypothesis
The idea that males and females of approximately equal physical attractiveness are likely to select each other as partners.
Message
The information transmitted by a source.
N
O
Obedience
A form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority.
Outgroup
People who are not part of the ingroup.
P
Passionate love
A complete absorption in another that includes tender sexual feelings and the agony and ecstasy of intense emotion.
Person perception
The process of forming impressions of others.
Prejudice
A negative attitude held toward members of a group.
Proximity
Geographic, residential, and other forms of spatial closeness.
Q
R
Receiver
The person to whom a message is sent.
Reciprocity
Liking those who show that they like you.
S
Self-serving bias
The tendency to attribute onešs successes to personal factors and onešs failures to situational factors.
Social loafing
A reduction in effort by individuals when they work in groups as compared to when they work by themselves.
Social psychology
The branch of psychology concerned with the way individualsš thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others.
Social schemas
Organized clusters of ideas about categories of social events and people.
Source
The person who sends a communication.
Stereotypes
Widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group.
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z