Social Psychology Key Terms for Chapter 3

1. Micro expressions
Very short bursts of emotions shown on a person’s face. These are fleeting facial expressions lasting only a
few tenths of a second. Such reactions appear on the face very quickly after an emotion-provoking event and
are difficult to suppress. As a result, they can be very revealing about others’ true feelings or emotions.

2. Actor-Observer Effect
The tendency to attribute our own behavior mainly to situational causes but the behavior of others mainly to
internal (dispositional) causes.

3. Attribution
Refers to our efforts to understand the causes behind others’ behavior and, on some occasions, the causes
behind our behavior, too.

4. Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate the impact of dispositional cues on others’ behavior.

5. Noncommon Effects
Effects produced by a particular because that could not be produced by any other apparent cause.

6. Nonverbal Communication
Communication between individuals that does not involve the content of spoken language. It relies instead
on an unspoken language of facial expressions, eye contact, and body language.

7. Social Perception
The process through which we seek to know and understand other people.

8. Self-Serving Bias
The tendency to attribute positive out- comes to internal causes (e.g., one’s own traits or characteristics) but
negative outcomes or events to external causes (e.g., chance, task difficulty).

9. Impression Formation
The process through which we form impressions of others.

10. Body Language

Cues provided by the position, posture, and movement of others’ bodies or body parts.

11. Correspondence Bias

The tendency to explain others’ actions as stemming from dispositions even in the presence of clear
situational causes.

12. Overconfidence Barrier

The tendency to have more confidence in the accuracy of our own judgments than is reasonable.

13. Implicit Personality Theories

Beliefs about what traits or characteristics tend to go together.
14. Correspondence Inference
The tendency to explain others’ actions as stemming from dispositions even in the presence of situational
causes.

15. Distinctiveness
The extent to which an individual responds in the same manner to different stimuli or events.

16. Attribution and Depression

New forms of therapy focus on getting depressed people to change their attributions—to take personal credit
for successful outcomes, to stop blaming themselves for negative outcomes (especially ones that can’t be
avoided), and to view at least some failures as the result of external factors beyond their control. Since
attribution theory provides the basis for these new forms of treatment, it has certainly proven very useful in
this respect.

17.Kelley’s Theory of Causal Attribution

According to Kelley, in our attempts to answer the why question about others’ behavior, we focus on three
major types of information.
First, we consider consensus—the extent to which other people react to a given stimulus or event in the same
manner as the person we are considering. The higher the proportion of people who react in the same
way, the higher the consensus.
Second, we consider consistency—the extent to which the person in question reacts to the stimulus or event
in the same way on other occasions, over time.
And third, we examine distinctiveness—the extent to which this person reacts
in the same manner to other, different stimuli or events.
According to Kelley’s theory, we are most likely to attribute another’s behavior to internal causes under
conditions in which consensus and distinctiveness are low, but consistency is high. In contrast, we are most
likely to attribute another’s behavior to external causes when consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness are
all high.

18. Facial Expressions among Gold, Silver, and Bronze Olympic Medal Winners
As shown here, gold medal winners and bronze medal winners smiled frequently (at the conclusion of their
matches and when receiving their medals). In contrast, silver medal winners did not smile; they showed
sadness instead. Gold and Bronze medal winners are happy with there results while Silver medalists are not
satisfied.

Lecture Notes: