4.1 Vocab - Attribution & Person Perception

Person Perception

• The process of evaluating one's own personality traits.

• How we form impressions of ourselves and others, including attributions of behavior.

• The ability to read non-verbal cues in social situations.

• The study of how people influence each other's behavior.

Stereotype

• A belief that is always accurate about a group of people.

• A generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people.

• A specific and detailed description of an individual.

• An opinion based solely on personal experience.

Outgroup

• 'Us'— those perceived as similar to our ingroup.

• 'Them'— those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup.

• 'Everyone'— all individuals regardless of group affiliation.

• 'None'— individuals who do not belong to any group.

Discrimination

• Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members.

• A fair treatment of all individuals regardless of their background.

• A legal term for the protection of individual rights.

• A positive action taken to support a marginalized group.

Ingroup

• 'Us' — people with whom we share a common identity.

• 'Them' — people who are different from us.

• A group of people who are always in conflict.

• A random collection of individuals without any commonality.

Scapegoat Theory

• A theory that suggests prejudice is a natural human instinct.

• The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.

• A psychological concept that explains the formation of group identities.

• A sociological theory that focuses on economic disparities.

Other-Race Effect

• The tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately than faces of other races.

• The ability to recognize faces of all races equally well.

• The phenomenon where individuals can only remember faces of their family members.

• The inclination to forget faces of people from different cultures.

Actor-Observer Bias

• The tendency for observers to attribute their own behavior to external causes.

• The tendency for actors to attribute their behavior to internal causes.

• The tendency for those acting in a situation to attribute their behavior to external causes, but for observers to attribute others’ behavior to internal causes.

• The tendency for observers to ignore the context of a situation when judging behavior.

Attribution Theory

• The theory that we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the person’s stable traits.

• A psychological concept that focuses solely on genetic influences on behavior.

• A method of analyzing data in social psychology.

• A theory that suggests behavior is entirely random and unpredictable.

Just-World Phenomenon

• The belief that the world is fair and people get what they deserve.

• The idea that luck is the primary factor in success.

• The notion that people are inherently good and will always do the right thing.

• The concept that justice is often served in a timely manner.