"PSY 202: LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT FINAL EXAMINATION"
Social Psychology - answers✔✔Branch of Psychology that studies how a person's thoughts,
feelings, and behavior are influenced by the presence of other people and by the social and
physical environment.
Sense of Self - answers✔✔An individual's unique sense of identity that has been influenced by
social, cultural, and psychological experiences; your sense of who you are in relation to other
people.
Social Cognition - answers✔✔The mental processes people use to make sense of their social
environments.
Social Influence - answers✔✔The effects of situational factors and other people on an
individual's behavior.
Person Perception - answers✔✔The mental processes we use to form judgements and draw
conclusions about the characteristics and motives of other people.
Social Norms - answers✔✔The "rules", or expectations for appropriate behavior in a particular
social situation.
Social Categorization - answers✔✔The mental process of categorizing people into groups (or
social categories) on the basis of their shared characteristics.
Explicit Cognition - answers✔✔Deliberate, conscious mental processes involved in perceptions,
judgements, decisions, and reasoning.
,Implicit Cognition - answers✔✔Automatic, non-conscious mental processes that influence
perceptions, judgements, decisions, and reasoning.
Implicit Personality Theory - answers✔✔A network of assumptions or beliefs about the
relationships among various types of people, traits, and behaviors.
Attribution - answers✔✔The mental process of inferring the causes of people's behavior,
including one's own. Also refers to the explanation made for a particular behavior.
Fundamental Attribution Error - answers✔✔The tendency to attribute the behavior of others to
internal, personal characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the effects of external,
situational factors; an attributional bias that is common in individualistic cultures.
Blaming the Victim - answers✔✔The tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for
having somehow caused the problem or for not have taken steps to avoid or prevent it.
Hindsight Bias - answers✔✔The tendency to overestimate one's ability to have foreseen or
predicted the outcome of an event.
Just-World Hypothesis - answers✔✔The assumption that the world is fair and that therefore
people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
Self-Serving Bias - answers✔✔The tendency to attribute successful outcomes of one's own
behavior to internal causes and unsuccessful outcomes to external, situational causes.
Self-Effacing (or Modesty) Bias - answers✔✔The tendency to blame ourselves for our failures,
attributing them to internal, personal causes, while downplaying our successes by attributing
them to external, situational causes. More common in collectivistic cultures.
, Attitude - answers✔✔A learned tendency to evaluate some object, person, or issue in a
particular way; such evaluations may be positive, negative, or ambivalent.
Cognitive Dissonance - answers✔✔An unpleasant state of psychological tension or arousal
(dissonance) that occurs when two thoughts or perceptions (cognitions) are inconsistent;
typically results from awareness that attitudes and behaviors are in conflict.
Prejudice - answers✔✔A negative attitude toward people who belong to a specific social group.
Stereotype - answers✔✔A cluster of characteristics that are associated with all members of a
specific social group, often including qualities that are unrelated to the objective criteria that
define the group.
In-Group - answers✔✔A social group to which one belongs.
Out-Group - answers✔✔A social group to which one does not belong.
Out-Group Homogeneity Effect - answers✔✔The tendency to see members of out-groups as
very similar to one another.
In-Group Bias - answers✔✔The tendency to judge the behavior of in-group members favorably
and out-group members unfavorably.
Ethnocentrism - answers✔✔The beliefs that one's own culture or ethnic group is superior to all
others and the related tendency to use one's own culture as a standard by which to judge other
cultures.
Implicit Attitudes - answers✔✔Preferences and biases toward particular groups that are
automatic, spontaneous, unintentional, and often unconscious, measured with the Implicit
Associations Test (IAT).
Social Psychology - answers✔✔Branch of Psychology that studies how a person's thoughts,
feelings, and behavior are influenced by the presence of other people and by the social and
physical environment.
Sense of Self - answers✔✔An individual's unique sense of identity that has been influenced by
social, cultural, and psychological experiences; your sense of who you are in relation to other
people.
Social Cognition - answers✔✔The mental processes people use to make sense of their social
environments.
Social Influence - answers✔✔The effects of situational factors and other people on an
individual's behavior.
Person Perception - answers✔✔The mental processes we use to form judgements and draw
conclusions about the characteristics and motives of other people.
Social Norms - answers✔✔The "rules", or expectations for appropriate behavior in a particular
social situation.
Social Categorization - answers✔✔The mental process of categorizing people into groups (or
social categories) on the basis of their shared characteristics.
Explicit Cognition - answers✔✔Deliberate, conscious mental processes involved in perceptions,
judgements, decisions, and reasoning.
,Implicit Cognition - answers✔✔Automatic, non-conscious mental processes that influence
perceptions, judgements, decisions, and reasoning.
Implicit Personality Theory - answers✔✔A network of assumptions or beliefs about the
relationships among various types of people, traits, and behaviors.
Attribution - answers✔✔The mental process of inferring the causes of people's behavior,
including one's own. Also refers to the explanation made for a particular behavior.
Fundamental Attribution Error - answers✔✔The tendency to attribute the behavior of others to
internal, personal characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the effects of external,
situational factors; an attributional bias that is common in individualistic cultures.
Blaming the Victim - answers✔✔The tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for
having somehow caused the problem or for not have taken steps to avoid or prevent it.
Hindsight Bias - answers✔✔The tendency to overestimate one's ability to have foreseen or
predicted the outcome of an event.
Just-World Hypothesis - answers✔✔The assumption that the world is fair and that therefore
people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
Self-Serving Bias - answers✔✔The tendency to attribute successful outcomes of one's own
behavior to internal causes and unsuccessful outcomes to external, situational causes.
Self-Effacing (or Modesty) Bias - answers✔✔The tendency to blame ourselves for our failures,
attributing them to internal, personal causes, while downplaying our successes by attributing
them to external, situational causes. More common in collectivistic cultures.
, Attitude - answers✔✔A learned tendency to evaluate some object, person, or issue in a
particular way; such evaluations may be positive, negative, or ambivalent.
Cognitive Dissonance - answers✔✔An unpleasant state of psychological tension or arousal
(dissonance) that occurs when two thoughts or perceptions (cognitions) are inconsistent;
typically results from awareness that attitudes and behaviors are in conflict.
Prejudice - answers✔✔A negative attitude toward people who belong to a specific social group.
Stereotype - answers✔✔A cluster of characteristics that are associated with all members of a
specific social group, often including qualities that are unrelated to the objective criteria that
define the group.
In-Group - answers✔✔A social group to which one belongs.
Out-Group - answers✔✔A social group to which one does not belong.
Out-Group Homogeneity Effect - answers✔✔The tendency to see members of out-groups as
very similar to one another.
In-Group Bias - answers✔✔The tendency to judge the behavior of in-group members favorably
and out-group members unfavorably.
Ethnocentrism - answers✔✔The beliefs that one's own culture or ethnic group is superior to all
others and the related tendency to use one's own culture as a standard by which to judge other
cultures.
Implicit Attitudes - answers✔✔Preferences and biases toward particular groups that are
automatic, spontaneous, unintentional, and often unconscious, measured with the Implicit
Associations Test (IAT).
