Chapter 1 Key terms
1. Behavioral economics: how psychology-particularly social and cognitive
psychology-relates to economic decision making.
2. Behavioral genetics: A subfield of psychology that examines the role of genetic
factors in behaviour.
3. Cross-cultural research: To compare and contrast people of different cultures
4. Culture: A system of enduring meanings, beliefs, assumptions, institutions, and
practices shared by a large group and transmitted from one generation to the
next
5. Evolutionary psychology: uses the principles of evolution to understand human
social behaviour.
- Tendencies and reactions
6. Interactionist perspective: an emphasis on how both an individual’s personality
and environmental characteristics influence behaviour.
7. Multicultural research: examine racial and ethnic groups within cultures
8. Open science: a movement to make research materials, methods, hypotheses, and
data more transparent, accessible, and easily shared with researchers from other
labs.
9. Social cognition: the study of how people perceive, remember, and interpret
information about themselves and others.
10. Social neuroscience: the study of the relationship between neural and social
processes.
11. Social psychology is the scientific study of how individuals think, feel, and behave
in a social context.
Chapter 2 Key Terms:
1. Applied research: research whose goal is to make applications to the world and
contribute to the solution of social problems
2. Basic research: Research whose goal is to increase the understanding of human
behavior, often by testing hypotheses based on a theory.
3. Bogus pipeline technique: A procedure in which research participants are
(falsely) led to believe that their responses will be verified by an infallible lie
detector.
4. Confederates: Accomplice of an experimenter who, in dealing with the real
participants in an experiment, acts as if he or she is also a participant.
5. Confound: A factor other than the independent variable that varies between the
conditions of an experiment, thereby calling into question what caused any
effects on the dependent variable.
6. construct validity: The extent to which the measures used in a study measure the
variables they were designed to measure and the manipulations in an experiment
manipulate the variables they were designed to manipulate.
7. Correlation coefficients: A statistical measure of the strength and direction of the
association between two variables.
8. correlational research: Research designed to measure the association between
variables that are not manipulated by the researcher.
9. Debriefing: A disclosure, made to participants after research procedures are
completed, in which the researcher explains the purpose of the research,
attempts to resolve any negative feelings, and emphasizes the scientific
contribution made by the participants’ involvement.
10. Deception: In the context of research, a method that provides false information to
participants.
11. dependent variables: In an experiment, a factor that experimenters measure to
see if it is affected by the independent variable.
12. Experiment: A form of research that can demonstrate causal relationships
because (1) the experimenter has control over the events that occur and (2)
participants are randomly assigned to conditions.
13. Experimental realism: The degree to which experimental procedures are
involving to participants and lead them to behave naturally and spontaneously.
14. Experimenter expectancy effects: The effects produced when an experimenter’s
expectations about the results of an experiment affect his or her behavior toward
a participant and thereby influence the participant’s responses.
15. 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.
16. Hypothesis: A testable prediction about the conditions under which an event will
occur.
17. Independent variables: In an experiment, a factor that experimenters manipulate
to see if it affects the dependent variable.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20.Interrater reliability: The degree to which different observers agree on their
observations.
21. 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.
22. Mundane realism: The degree to which the experimental situation resembles
places and events in the real world.
23. Operational definition: The specific procedures for manipulating or measuring a
conceptual variable.
24. Preregistration: The practice of researchers reporting their research design,
predictions, and plans for data analyses before conducting their study.
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. Replication: Repeating a research study to see if the results are similar to those
found in the original study.
28.Subject variables: A variable that characterizes preexisting differences among the
participants in a study.
29. Theory: An organized set of principles used to explain observed phenomena.
Chapter 3 Key Terms:
1. Affective forecasting: The process of predicting how one would feel in response to
future emotional events.
2. Bask in reflected glory (BIRG): To increase self-esteem by associating with others
who are successful.
3. Dialecticism: An Eastern system of thought that accepts the coexistence of
contradictory characteristics within a single person.
4. Downward social comparisons: The defensive tendency to compare ourselves
with others who are worse off than we are.
5. Facial feedback hypothesis: The hypothesis that changes in facial expression can
lead to corresponding changes in emotion.
6. Implicit egotism: A nonconscious form of self-enhancement.
7. Overjustification effect: The tendency for intrinsic motivation to diminish for
activities that have become associated with reward or other extrinsic factors.
8. Private self-consciousness: A personality characteristic of individuals who are
introspective, often attending to their own inner states.
9. Public self-consciousness: A personality characteristic of individuals who focus
on themselves as social objects, as seen by others.
10. 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 behavior.
11. Self-concept: The sum total of an individual’s beliefs about his or her own
personal attributes.
12. Self-esteem: An affective component of the self, consisting of a person’s positive
and negative self-evaluations.
13. Self-handicapping: Behaviors designed to sabotage one’s own performance in
order to provide a subsequent excuse for failure.
14. Self-perception theory: The theory that when internal cues are difficult to
interpret, people gain self-insight by observing their own behavior.
15. Self-presentation: Strategies people use to shape what others think of them.
16. Self-regulation: The process by which people control their thoughts, feelings, or
behavior in order to achieve a personal or social goal.
17. Self-schemas: A belief people hold about themselves that guides the processing of
self-relevant information.
18. Social comparison theory: The theory that people evaluate their own abilities and
opinions by comparing themselves to others.
19. Sociometer theory: The theory that self-esteem is a gauge that monitors our
social interactions and sends us signals as to whether our behavior is acceptable
to others.
20.Terror management theory: The theory that humans cope with the fear of their
own death by constructing worldviews that help to preserve their self-esteem.
21. 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.
Chapter 4 Key Terms:
1. Attribution theory: A group of theories that describe how people explain the
causes of behavior.
2. Availability heuristic: The tendency to estimate the likelihood that an event will
occur by how easily instances of it come to mind.
3. Base-rate fallacy: The finding that people are relatively insensitive to consensus
information presented in the form of numerical base rates.
4. Belief in a just world: The belief that individuals get what they deserve in life, an
orientation that leads people to disparage victims.
5. Belief perseverance: The tendency to maintain beliefs even after they have been
discredited.
6. Central traits: Traits that exert a powerful influence on overall impressions.
7. Confirmation biases: The tendency to seek, interpret, and create information that
verifies existing beliefs.
8. Counterfactual thinking: The tendency to imagine alternative events or outcomes
that might have occurred but did not.
9. Covariation principle: A principle of attribution theory that holds that people
attribute behavior to factors that are present when a behavior occurs and are
absent when it does not.
10. False-consensus effect: The tendency for people to overestimate the extent to
which others share their opinions, attributes, and behaviors.
11. Fundamental attribution error: The tendency to focus on the role of personal
causes and underestimate the impact of situations on other people’s behavior.
12. Impression formation: The process of integrating information about a person to
form a coherent impression.
13. Information integration theory: The theory that impressions are based on (1)
perceiver dispositions and (2) a weighted average of a target person’s traits.
14. Mind perception: The process by which people attribute human-like mental
states to various animate and inanimate objects, including other people.
15. Nonverbal behavior: Behavior that reveals a person’s feelings without words
through facial expressions, body language, and vocal cues.
16. Personal attribution: Attribution to internal characteristics of an actor, such as
ability, personality, mood, or effort.
17. Primacy effect: The tendency for information presented early in a sequence to
have more impact on impressions than information presented later.
18. Priming: The tendency for recently used or perceived words or ideas to come to
mind easily and influence the interpretation of new information
19. Self-fulfilling prophecy: The process by which one’s expectations about a person
eventually lead that person to behave in ways that confirm those expectations.
20.Situational attribution: Attribution to factors external to an actor, such as the
task, other people, or luck.
21. Social perception: A general term for the processes by which people come to
understand one another.
Chapter 9 Key Terms:
1. Attachment styles: The way a person typically interacts with significant others.
2. Communal relationships: A relationship in which the participants expect and
desire mutual responsiveness to each other’s needs.
3. Companionate love: A secure, trusting, stable partnership.
4. Equity theory: The theory that people are most satisfied with a relationship when
the ratio between benefits and contributions is similar for both partners.
5. Exchange relationships: A relationship in which the participants expect and
desire strict reciprocity in their interactions.
6. Excitation transfer: The process whereby arousal caused by one stimulus is added
to arousal from a second stimulus and the combined arousal is attributed to the
second stimulus.
7. Hard-to-get effect: The tendency to prefer people who are highly selective in their
social choices over those who are more readily available.
8. Intimate relationships: A close relationship between two adults involving
emotional attachment, fulfillment of psychological needs, or interdependence.
9. Loneliness: A feeling of deprivation about existing social relations.
10. Matching hypothesis: The proposition that people are attracted to others who are
similar in physical attractiveness.
11. Mere exposure effect: The phenomenon whereby the more often people are
exposed to a stimulus, the more positively they evaluate that stimulus.
12. Need for affiliation: The desire to establish and maintain many rewarding
interpersonal relationships.
13. Passionate love: Romantic love characterized by high arousal, intense attraction,
and fear of rejection.
14. Reciprocity: A mutual exchange between what we give and receive—for example,
liking those who like us.
15. Self-disclosure: Revelations about the self that a person makes to others.
16. Sexual orientation: A person’s preference for members of the same sex
(homosexuality), opposite sex (heterosexuality), both sexes (bisexuality), or
neither (asexual).
17. Social exchange theory: A perspective that views people as motivated to maximize
benefits and minimize costs in their relationships with others.
18. Triangular theory of love: A theory proposing that love has three basic
components—intimacy, passion, and commitment—that can be combined to
produce eight subtypes.
19. What-is-beautiful-is-good stereotype: The belief that physically attractive
individuals also possess desirable personality characteristics.
Chapter 6 Attitudes
attitude
A positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object, or idea.
attitude scales
A multiple-item questionnaire designed to measure a person’s attitude toward some
object.
bogus pipeline
A phony lie-detector device that is sometimes used to get respondents to give truthful
answers to sensitive questions.
central route to persuasion
The process by which a person thinks carefully about a communication and is influenced
by the strength of its arguments.
cognitive dissonance theory
Theory holding that inconsistent cognitions arouses psychological tension that people
become motivated to reduce.
elaboration
The process of thinking about and scrutinizing the arguments contained in a persuasive
communication.
evaluative conditioning
The process by which we form an attitude toward a neutral stimulus because of its
association with a positive or negative person, place, or thing.
facial electromyograph (EMG)
An electronic instrument that records facial muscle activity associated with emotions and
attitudes.
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
A covert measure of unconscious attitudes derived from the speed at which people
respond to pairings of concepts—such as black or white with good or bad.
implicit attitudes
An attitude, such as prejudice, that one is not aware of having.
inoculation hypothesis
The idea that exposure to weak versions of a persuasive argument increases later
resistance to that argument.
insufficient deterrence
A condition in which people refrain from engaging in a desirable activity, even when only
mild punishment is threatened.
insufficient justification
A condition in which people freely perform an attitude-discrepant behavior without
receiving a large reward.
need for cognition (NC)
A personality variable that distinguishes people on the basis of how much they enjoy
effortful cognitive activities.
peripheral route to persuasion
The process by which a person does not think carefully about a communication and is
influenced instead by superficial cues.
persuasion
The process by which attitudes are changed.
psychological reactance
The theory that people react against threats to their freedom by asserting themselves
and perceiving the threatened freedom as more attractive.
sleeper effect
A delayed increase in the persuasive impact of a non-credible source.
theory of planned behavior
The theory that attitudes toward a specific behavior combine with subjective norms and
perceived control to influence a person’s actions.
Chapter 7 Conformity
collectivism
A cultural orientation in which interdependence, cooperation, and social harmony take
priority over personal goals.
compliance
Changes in behavior that are elicited by direct requests.
conformity
The tendency to change our perceptions, opinions, or behavior in ways that are
consistent with social or group norms.
door-in-the-face technique
A two-step compliance technique in which an influencer prefaces the real request with
one that is so large that it is rejected.
foot-in-the-door technique
A two-step compliance technique in which an influencer sets the stage for the real
request by first getting a person to comply with a much smaller request.
idiosyncrasy credits
Interpersonal “credits” that a person earns by following group norms.
individualism
A cultural orientation in which independence, autonomy, and self-reliance take priority
over group allegiances.
informational influence
Influence that produces conformity when a person believes others are correct in their
judgments.
lowballing
A two-step compliance technique in which the influencer secures agreement with a
request but then increases the size of that request by revealing hidden costs.
minority influence
The process by which dissenters produce change within a group.
normative influence
Influence that produces conformity when a person fears the negative social
consequences of appearing deviant.
obedience
Behavior change produced by the commands of authority.
private conformity
The change of beliefs that occurs when a person privately accepts the position taken by
others.
public conformity
A superficial change in overt behavior without a corresponding change of opinion that is
produced by real or imagined group pressure.
social impact theory
The theory that social influence depends on the strength, immediacy, and number of
source persons relative to target persons.
that’s-not-all technique
A two-step compliance technique in which the influencer begins with an inflated request,
then decreases its apparent size by offering a discount or bonus.
Chapter 8 Group processes
biased sampling
The tendency for groups to spend more time discussing shared information (information
already known by all or most group members) than unshared information (information
known by only one or a few group members).
brainstorming
A technique that attempts to increase the production of creative ideas by encouraging
group members to speak freely without criticizing their own or others’ contributions.
collective effort model
The theory that individuals will exert effort on a collective task to the degree that they
think their individual efforts will be important, relevant, and meaningful for achieving
outcomes that they value.
collective intelligence
The general ability of a group to perform well across a wide range of different tasks.
deindividuation
The loss of a person’s sense of individuality and the reduction of normal constraints
against deviant behavior.
distraction–conflict theory
A theory that the presence of others will produce social facilitation effects only when
those others distract from the task and create attentional conflict.
evaluation apprehension theory
A theory that the presence of others will produce social facilitation effects only when
those others are seen as potential evaluators.
group
A set of individuals who interact over time and have shared fate, goals, or identity.
group cohesiveness
The extent to which forces push group members closer together, such as through
feelings of intimacy, unity, and commitment to group goals.
group polarization
The exaggeration of initial tendencies in the thinking of group members through group
discussion.
group support systems
Specialized interactive computer programs that are used to guide group meetings,
collaborative work, and decision-making processes.
groupthink
A group decision-making style characterized by an excessive tendency among group
members to seek concurrence.
integrative agreement
A negotiated resolution to a conflict in which all parties obtain outcomes that are superior
to what they would have obtained from an equal division of the contested resources.
mere presence
The proposition that the mere presence of others is sufficient to produce social
facilitation effects.
prisoner’s dilemma
A type of dilemma in which one party must make either cooperative or competitive
moves in relation to another party. The dilemma is typically designed so that the
competitive move appears to be in one’s self-interest, but if both sides make this move,
both suffer more than if both had cooperated.
mere presence
The proposition that the mere presence of others is sufficient to produce social
facilitation effects.
process gain
The increase in group performance so that the group outperforms the individuals who
make up the group.
process loss
The reduction in group performance due to obstacles created by group processes, such
as problems of coordination and motivation.
resource dilemmas
Social dilemmas involving how two or more people will share a limited resource.
social dilemma
A situation in which a self-interested choice by everyone will create the worst outcome
for everyone.
social facilitation
A process whereby the presence of others enhances performance on easy tasks but
impairs performance on difficult tasks.
social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE)
A model of group behavior that explains deindividuation effects as the result of a shift
from personal identity to social identity.
social loafing
A group-produced reduction in individual output on tasks where contributions are pooled.
transactive memory
A shared system for remembering information that enables multiple people to remember
information together more efficiently than they could do so alone.
Chapter 11 Aggression
aggression
Behavior intended to harm another individual.
catharsis
A reduction of the motive to aggress that is said to result from any imagined, observed,
or actual act of aggression.
corporal punishment
Physical force (such as spanking or hitting) intended to cause a child pain—but not
injury—for the purpose of controlling or correcting the child’s behavior.
culture of honor
A culture that emphasizes honor and social status, particularly for males, and the role of
aggression in protecting that honor.
cycle of violence
The transmission of domestic violence across generations.
Dark Triad
A set of three traits that are associated with higher levels of aggressiveness:
Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism.
displacement
Aggressing against a substitute target because aggressive acts against the source of the
frustration are inhibited by fear or lack of access.
executive functioning
The cognitive abilities and processes that allow humans to plan or inhibit their actions.
frustration–aggression hypothesis
The idea that (1) frustration always elicits the motive to aggress and that (2) all
aggression is caused by frustration.
hostile attribution bias
The tendency to perceive hostile intent in others.
pornography
Explicit sexual material.
proactive aggression
Aggressive behavior whereby harm is inflicted as a means to a desired end (also called
instrumental aggression).
reactive aggression
Aggressive behavior where the means and the end coincide; harm is inflicted for its own
sake.
rumination
In the context of aggression, rumination involves repeatedly thinking about and reliving
an anger-inducing event, focusing on angry thoughts and feelings, and perhaps even
planning or imagining revenge.
social learning theory
The theory that behavior is learned through the observation of others as well as through
the direct experience of rewards and punishments.
weapons effect
The tendency that the likelihood of aggression will increase by the mere presence of
weapons.
Chap 5 Key Terms
●
ambivalent sexism
A form of sexism characterized by attitudes about women that reflect both negative,
resentful beliefs and feelings and affectionate and chivalrous but potentially
patronizing beliefs and feelings.
●
aversive racism
Racism that concerns the ambivalence between fair-minded attitudes and beliefs on
the one hand and unconscious and unrecognized prejudicial feelings and beliefs on
the other.
●
contact hypothesis
The theory that direct contact between hostile groups will reduce intergroup
prejudice under certain conditions.
●
discrimination
Behavior directed against persons because of their membership in a particular
group.
●
illusory correlation
An overestimate of the association between variables that are only slightly or not at
all correlated.
●
implicit racism
Racism that operates unconsciously and unintentionally.
●
ingroup favoritism
The tendency to discriminate in favor of ingroups over outgroups.
●
ingroups
Groups with which an individual feels a sense of membership, belonging, and
identity.
●
jigsaw classroom
A cooperative learning method used to reduce racial prejudice through interaction in
group efforts.
●
modern racism
A form of prejudice that surfaces in subtle ways when it is safe, socially acceptable,
and easy to rationalize.
●
outgroup homogeneity effect
The tendency to assume that there is greater similarity among members of
outgroups than among members of ingroups.
●
outgroups
Groups with which an individual does not feel a sense of membership, belonging, or
identity.
●
prejudice
Negative feelings toward persons based on their membership in certain groups.
●
racism
Prejudice and discrimination based on a person’s racial background, or institutional
and cultural practices that promote the domination of one racial group over another.
●
realistic conflict theory
The theory that hostility between groups is caused by direct competition for limited
resources
●
relative deprivation
Feelings of discontent aroused by the belief that one fares poorly compared with
others.
●
sexism
Prejudice and discrimination based on a person’s gender, or institutional and cultural
practices that promote the domination of one gender over another.
●
social categorization
The classification of persons into groups on the basis of common attributes.
●
social dominance orientation
A desire to see one’s ingroup as dominant over other groups and a willingness to
adopt cultural values that facilitate oppression over other groups.
●
social identity theory
The theory that people favor ingroups over outgroups in order to enhance their
self-esteem.
●
social role theory
The theory that small gender differences are magnified in perception by the
contrasting social roles occupied by men and women.
●
stereotype content model
A model proposing that the relative status and competition between groups influence
group stereotypes along the dimensions of competence and warmth.
●
stereotypes
A belief or association that links a whole group of people with certain traits or
characteristics.
●
stereotype threat
The experience of concern about being evaluated based on negative stereotypes
about one’s group.
●
stigmatized
Being persistently stereotyped, perceived as deviant, and devalued in society
because of membership in a particular social group or because of a particular
characteristic.
●
subliminal presentations
A method of presenting stimuli so faintly or rapidly that people do not have any
conscious awareness of having been exposed to them.
●
superordinate goals
A shared goal that can be achieved only through cooperation among individuals or
groups.
●
system justification theory
A theory that proposes that people are motivated (at least in part) to defend and
justify the existing social, political, and economic conditions.
●
ambivalent sexism
A form of sexism characterized by attitudes about women that reflect both negative,
resentful beliefs and feelings and affectionate and chivalrous but potentially
patronizing beliefs and feelings.
●
aversive racism
Racism that concerns the ambivalence between fair-minded attitudes and beliefs on
the one hand and unconscious and unrecognized prejudicial feelings and beliefs on
the other.
●
contact hypothesis
The theory that direct contact between hostile groups will reduce intergroup
prejudice under certain conditions.
●
discrimination
Behavior directed against persons because of their membership in a particular
group.
●
illusory correlation
An overestimate of the association between variables that are only slightly or not at
all correlated.
●
implicit racism
Racism that operates unconsciously and unintentionally.
●
ingroup favoritism
The tendency to discriminate in favor of ingroups over outgroups.
●
ingroups
Groups with which an individual feels a sense of membership, belonging, and
identity.
●
jigsaw classroom
A cooperative learning method used to reduce racial prejudice through interaction in
group efforts.
●
modern racism
A form of prejudice that surfaces in subtle ways when it is safe, socially acceptable,
and easy to rationalize.
●
outgroup homogeneity effect
The tendency to assume that there is greater similarity among members of
outgroups than among members of ingroups.
●
outgroups
Groups with which an individual does not feel a sense of membership, belonging, or
identity.
●
prejudice
Negative feelings toward persons based on their membership in certain groups.
●
racism
Prejudice and discrimination based on a person’s racial background, or institutional
and cultural practices that promote the domination of one racial group over another.
●
realistic conflict theory
The theory that hostility between groups is caused by direct competition for limited
resources
●
relative deprivation
Feelings of discontent aroused by the belief that one fares poorly compared with
others.
●
sexism
Prejudice and discrimination based on a person’s gender, or institutional and cultural
practices that promote the domination of one gender over another.
●
social categorization
The classification of persons into groups on the basis of common attributes.
●
social dominance orientation
A desire to see one’s ingroup as dominant over other groups and a willingness to
adopt cultural values that facilitate oppression over other groups.
●
social identity theory
The theory that people favor ingroups over outgroups in order to enhance their
self-esteem.
●
social role theory
The theory that small gender differences are magnified in perception by the
contrasting social roles occupied by men and women.
●
stereotype content model
A model proposing that the relative status and competition between groups influence
group stereotypes along the dimensions of competence and warmth.
●
stereotypes
A belief or association that links a whole group of people with certain traits or
characteristics.
●
stereotype threat
The experience of concern about being evaluated based on negative stereotypes
about one’s group.
●
stigmatized
Being persistently stereotyped, perceived as deviant, and devalued in society
because of membership in a particular social group or because of a particular
characteristic.
●
subliminal presentations
A method of presenting stimuli so faintly or rapidly that people do not have any
conscious awareness of having been exposed to them.
●
superordinate goals
A shared goal that can be achieved only through cooperation among individuals or
groups.
●
system justification theory
A theory that proposes that people are motivated (at least in part) to defend and
justify the existing social, political, and economic conditions.
Chap 10 Key Terms
●
altruistic
Motivated by the desire to improve another’s welfare.
●
audience inhibition
Reluctance to help for fear of making a bad impression on observers.
●
bystander effect
The effect whereby the presence of others inhibits helping.
●
diffusion of responsibility
The belief that others will or should take the responsibility for providing assistance to
a person in need.
●
egoistic
Motivated by the desire to improve one’s own welfare.
●
empathy
Understanding or vicariously experiencing another individual’s perspective and
feeling sympathy and compassion for that individual
●
empathy–altruism hypothesis
The proposition that empathic concern for a person in need produces an altruistic
motive for helping.
●
identity fusion
A strong sense of “oneness” and shared identity with a group and its individual
members.
●
kin selection
Preferential helping of genetic relatives, which results in the greater likelihood that
genes held in common will survive.
●
negative state relief model
Preferential helping of genetic relatives, which results in the greater likelihood that
genes held in common will survive.
●
pluralistic ignorance
The state in which people in a group mistakenly think that their own individual
thoughts, feelings, or behaviors are different from those of the others in the group.
●
prosocial behaviors
Actions intended to benefit others.
●
reciprocal altruism
Altruism that involves an individual helping another (despite some immediate risk or
cost) and becoming more likely to receive help from the other in return.
●
reluctant altruism
Altruistic kinds of behavior that result from pressure from peers or other sources of
direct social influence.
Chap 14 Key Terms
● appraisal
The process by which people make judgments about the demands of potentially
stressful events and their ability to meet those demands.
● coping
Efforts to reduce stress.
● depressive explanatory style
A habitual tendency to attribute negative events to causes that are stable, global,
and internal.
● emotion-focused coping
Cognitive and behavioral efforts to reduce the distress produced by a stressful
situation.
● general adaptation syndrome
A three-stage process (alarm, resistance, and exhaustion) by which the body
responds to stress.
● health psychology
The study of physical health and illness by psychologists from various areas of
specialization.
● immune system
A biological surveillance system that detects and destroys “non-self” substances that
invade the body.
● learned helplessness
A phenomenon in which experience with an uncontrollable event creates passive
behavior in the face of subsequent threats to well-being.
● positive psychology
The scientific study of how people can build a happy, meaningful, and purposeful life.
● posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
A condition in which a person experiences enduring physical and psychological
symptoms after an extremely stressful event.
● proactive coping
Up-front efforts to ward off or modify the onset of a stressful event.
● problem-focused coping
Cognitive and behavioral efforts to alter a stressful situation.
● psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
A subfield of psychology that examines the links among psychological factors, the
brain and nervous system, and the immune system.
● self-efficacy
A person’s belief that he or she is capable of the specific behavior required to
produce a desired outcome in a given situation.
● social support
The helpful coping resources provided by friends and other people.
● stress
A state of arousal in which people perceive the demands of an event as taxing or
exceeding their ability to satisfy or alter those demands.
● stressors
Anything that causes stress.
● subjective well-being
One’s happiness, or life satisfaction, as measured by self-report.
● Type A personality
A pattern of behavior characterized by extremes of competitive striving for
achievement, a sense of time urgency, hostility, and aggression.