Psychology Unit 3 Chapter 8

Rules that regulate social life, including explicit laws and implicit cultual conventions.

A given social position that is governed by a set of norms for proper behavior.

A program of shared rules that govern the behavior of people in community or society, and set of values, beliefs, and customs shared by most members of that community.

A gradual process in which individuals escalate their commitment to a course of action to justify their investment of time, money, or effort.

An area in social psychology concerned with social influences on thought, memory, perception, and beliefs.

The theory that people are motivated to explain their own and other people's behavior by attributing causes of that behavior to a situation or disposition.

The tendency, in explaining other people's behavior, to overestimate personality factors and underestimate the influence of the situation.

The tendency, in explaining one's own behavior, to take credit for one's good actions and rationalize one's mistakes.

The notion that many people need to believe that the world is fair and that justice is served, that bad people are punished and good people are rewarded.

A state of tension that occurs when a person simultaneously holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent or when a person's belief is incongruent with his or her behavior.

The tendency of people to feel more positive toward a person, item, product, or other stimulus the more familiar they are with it.

The tendency of people to believe that a statement is true or valid simply because it has been repeated many times.

The tendency for all members of a group to think alike for the sake of harmony and to suppress disagreement.

In groups, the tendency of members to avoid taking action because they assume that others will.

In groups or crowds, the loss of awareness of one's own individuality.