4.1/4.2 Attribution Theory & Attitude Formation
Emma says, “All athletes are bad students,” even though she’s never met most of them.
What is a stereotype?
During a group project, two members barely contribute because they assume others will pick up the slack.
What is social loafing?
After being yelled at by his coach, a player goes home and kicks his little brother’s soccer ball aggressively.
What is displacement?
A response involving physiological arousal, expressive behavior, and conscious experience.
What is emotion?
The largest number in the data set subtracted by the smallest number.
What is range?
After tripping in the hallway, Ava says, “The floor is slippery!” But when she sees someone else trip, she thinks, “Wow, they’re clumsy.”
What is actor-observer bias?
In a crowded mall, a person collapses—but no one helps because everyone assumes someone else will.
What is the bystander effect?
On a personality test designed to measure the Big 5 traits, Liam scores high in organization, discipline, and responsibility.
What is high conscientiousness?
Happiness, anger, fear, sadness, surprise, and disgust are recognized across cultures.
What are universal emotions?
An ethical guideline that proposes that participant information should not be shared.
What is confidentiality/anonymity?
After failing his math test, Diego says, “The test was unfair and the teacher doesn’t explain things well.”
What is self-serving bias?
A streaming service first asks you to sign up for a free 3-day trial. A week later, they ask you to commit to a full-year subscription—and you agree.
What is the foot-in-the-door phenomenon?
A therapist offers complete acceptance and support to a client, regardless of their past behavior.
What is unconditional positive regard?
A student practices piano every day because she loves playing music and feels proud when she improves—not because of money, prizes, or grades.
What is intrinsic motivation?
In this type of research study, the researcher actively changes on variable to observe its effect on another.
What is an experiment?
A student publicly says vaping is dangerous but continues to vape. To reduce discomfort, he says, “It’s not that bad.”
What is cognitive dissonance?
At a political rally, people leave with even stronger views than when they arrived.
What is group polarization?
A test asks participants to tell a story about an ambiguous inkblot.
What is a projective test?
Positive emotions like joy help people build long-term resilience and psychological resources.
What is the broaden-and-build theory?
This type of FRQ will ask you to create a defensible claim and back it up using evidence from 3 sources.
What is an evidenced-based question?
After repeatedly seeing the same TikTok creator on her feed, Taylor suddenly finds them funny—even though she didn’t at first.
What is the mere exposure effect?
You stand up at your first football game because everyone else is standing and you assume they know when to stand.
What is informational social influence?
According to this theory, behavior, environment, and personal factors all influence one another.
What is reciprocal determinism?
Students perform best on a test when they feel alert but not overly anxious.
What is Arousal Theory or Yerkes-Dodson Law?
A statistical measure that tells you the variability of the results.
What is standard deviation?