AP Psychology Social Psychology and Personality

Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.

Expected standards of conduct, which influence behavior.

Evaluating one's abilities and opinions by comparing oneself to others.

The perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself.

Comparing oneself with others who are better off.

Comparing oneself with others who are worse off.

Influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality.

Following the directives of authority.

Improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.

The enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group.

The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.

The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.

Diminished sense of responsibility among group members to act because others are seen as equally responsible.

The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable.

The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.

The theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.

Attributing behavior to the person's disposition and traits.

Attributing behavior to the environment.

A person's habitual way of explaining events, typically assessed along three dimensions: internal/external, stablenstable, and global/specific.

Explaining bad events as results of temporary, external causes.

Explaining bad events as results of stable, internal causes.

The tendency for observers, when analyzing others' behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

The tendency to attribute one's own actions to external causes while attributing other people's behaviors to internal causes.

A readiness to perceive oneself favorably.

The perception that one controls one's own fate.

The perception that chance or outside forces beyond one's personal control determine one's fate.

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

An expectation that people will help those needing their help.

A generalized belief about a group of people.

The tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.

Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

A belief that leads to its own fulfillment.

An unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members.

Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.

Attitudes that influence a person's feelings and behavior at an unconscious level.

The tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve.

Perception of out-group members as more similar to one another than are in-group members.

The tendency to favor one's own group.

The phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them.

Evaluating other cultures according to the standards and customs of one's own culture.

Giving priority to the goals of one's group and defining one's identity accordingly.

The practice of valuing and respecting differences in culture.

Shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation.

A situation in which conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.

The process of creating, reinforcing, or changing people's beliefs or actions.

A theory of how persuasive messages lead to attitude changes.

Attitude change path in which interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.

Attitude change path in which people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness.

The tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic.

The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

The strategy of getting someone to agree to a modest request by first asking them to agree to a much larger request that they will likely turn down.

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent.

Psychologists who apply psychology's principles to the workplace.

A complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned.

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need.

The tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level.

Hormone secreted by an empty stomach; sends 'I'm hungry' signals to the brain.

Hormone secreted by fat cells; when abundant, causes brain to increase metabolism and decrease hunger.

A neural structure lying below the thalamus; directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temperature), helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion and reward.

The endocrine system's most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands.

The human emotional need to be an accepted member of a group.

The theory that people are motivated to maintain an optimal level of alertness and physical and mental activation.

The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases.

The search for experiences and feelings that are varied, novel, complex, and intense.

Pursuing activities that provide a rush of adrenaline.

Engaging in unusual and exciting activities.

Acting impulsively, without considering the consequences.

Tendency to experience boredom and frustration when not engaged in stimulating activities.

A theory that states that behavior is motivated by a desire for reinforcement or incentives.

A desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.

A theory of motivation that is concerned with the beneficial effects of intrinsic motivation and the harmful effects of extrinsic motivation.

A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.

A theory that describes situations in which conflicting motivations produce indecision and difficulty.

Conflict that results from having to choose between two attractive alternatives.

Conflict that results from having to choose between two distasteful alternatives.

Conflict that results when a single action or event has both attractive and unattractive features.

A response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience.

A broad range of feelings that people experience.

The idea that facial expressions can influence emotions as well as reflect them.

Culturally determined rules about which nonverbal behaviors are appropriate to display.

Stimuli that trigger emotional responses.

Theory proposing that happiness predisposes us to think more openly.

Basic emotions that are expressed by all cultures around the world such as happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, and surprise.

A view that explains personality in terms of conscious and unconscious forces, such as unconscious desires and beliefs.

The level of consciousness that is not currently in focal awareness.

A reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories.

Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people refuse to believe or even to perceive painful realities.

Defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person.

Defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.

Defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one's actions.

Defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites.

Defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage.

Defense mechanism by which anxiety-provoking thoughts and feelings are forced to the unconscious.

Defense mechanism by which people re-channel their unacceptable impulses into socially approved activities.

A historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people.

An attitude of total acceptance toward another person.

The human motive toward realizing our inner potential.

Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people's traits (including their thinking) and their social context.

The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment.

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, 'Who am I?'

One's sense of competence and effectiveness.

One's feelings of high or low self-worth.

Theories that endeavor to describe the characteristics that make up human personality in an effort to predict future behavior.

The theory that there are five basic personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (emotional stability).

A questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits.

A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie one's total score.

One of the five factors; willingness to try new things and be open to new experiences.

One of the five factors; a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement.

One of the five factors; energy, positive emotions, and the tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others.

One of the five factors; a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.