Attitudes

An attitude is a feeling or feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.

Advertising is all based on attitude formation, making you feel something and thus connecting you to the product/idea. 

You hear “In the arms of the angels…” and immediately start sobbing and get the desire to buy all the sad puppies left in the snow. It’s an effective tactic for the ASPCA to get donations because it makes you feel something, thus why they’ve run the same commercial for over a decade.

Changing Attitudes

The foot-in-the-door phenomenon is the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. 

• Ex. Agreeing to a free trial makes you more likely to buy the product, if you help your overwhelmed coworker with a few tables you’re more likely to cover her shift when she asks a few days later

The door-in-the-face phenomenon is the tendency for people to comply to a smaller request after rejecting an initially larger request.

• Ex. Asking for $100 assuming you’ll be rejected and then asking for $5 which you are more likely to get, curating a huge wedding registry knowing you won’t get everything but people will buy more if they see more options

The lowball technique is designed to gain compliance by making a very attractive initial offer to persuade a person to accept the offer and then making the terms less favorable. 

• Ex. “Hidden Fees”, When a car dealership lists a car for $14,000 to get you to agree to buy it and later changes the price to $16,000. 

Peripheral route persuasion occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as the speaker’s attractiveness.

• Ex. Celebrity endorsements

Central route persuasion occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.

• Ex. Making a decision based on research and statistics rather than feelings

Cognitive Dissonance

Sometimes, our attitudes and our behaviors don’t line up. When this happens, we experience a tension known as cognitive dissonance. To relieve this tension, Leon Festinger proposed Cognitive Dissonance Theory, which states that we act to reduce this discomfort we feel when our actions are inconsistent with our thoughts. There are three ways to alleviate this tension - change the action, change the attitude, or change the attitude about the action.

For example, let’s say you think you are a good and honest person, but while out with friends, you shoplift an item from a store on a dare. You can’t be a good person while stealing, so you experience dissonance in the form of guilt. To relieve this, you can either return or pay for the item, decide you are not in fact a good person, or rationalize the shoplifting by saying “It’s was only $2!” or “That company mistreats its employees and deserved it!” or maybe “My friends wouldn’t like me if I didn’t follow through.”. 

Mimicry

Behavior is contagious. If we see someone yawn, or just read about someone yawning, we have a desire to yawn too. This is true of many simple behaviors - looking at the sky, scratching, checking your phone, having an accent, adjusting to a mood shift, etc. 

• Chameleon Effect - In an experiment, a confederate/collaborator of the experimenter intentionally rubbed his/her face or shook a foot; this seemed to lead to a greater likelihood of the study participant doing the same behavior.

For Better or Worse

Social Facilitation: improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others. (i.e. If you are really good at something, or it is an easy task, you will perform better in front of a group.)

• Ex. Athletes doing better with a large crowd to cheer them on than they did in practice with no one watching.

Social Impairment: reduced performance on difficult or unpracticed tasks in the presence of others (i.e. If it is a difficult task or you are not very good at it, you will perform worse in front of a group.)

• Spotlight effect:

• Ex. Stage fright

Social Loafing: the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal than if they were individually accountable.

• Ex. Tug-of-war, group projects

Bystander Effect

Sometimes we are inclined to help, other times we ignore those in need. The bystander effect is the tendency for any given bystander (witness) to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present. We are more likely to help if:

• The person appears in need and deserving of help

• The person is similar to us

• The person is female

• We see others being helpful

• We aren’t in a hurry

• We are in a small town

• We feel guilty

• We are in a good mood → do-good feel-good phenomenon

Part of the Crowd

Sometimes crowds make us better, but other times, they act as a shield from consequences. Deindividuation is the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group that foster arousal and anonymity. This explains “mob mentality”, where a person would not be likely to act violently alone, but they feel empowered and emboldened when part of a group. 

When we disagree with our group, we often stay silent because we don’t want to be cast out or cause problems. Groupthink is the mode of reasoning that occurs when the desire for harmony in the decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. 

Group polarization is a phenomenon wherein the decisions and opinions of people in a group setting become more extreme than their actual, privately held beliefs after discussion within the group.

Aggression

Aggression is any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally.

When faced with an aversive situation or obstacle, you experience anger (frustration) which makes you more likely to engage in violent behavior (aggression). This is known as the frustration-aggression principle. 

Influences on Aggression:

• Genetics → predisposition for a short temper

• Neural → amygdala & frontal lobe

• Biochemical → testosterone

• Social → observing violent models

When might aggression be reinforced?

• Children who have gotten what they wanted through bullying or are praised for their tenacity on a soccer field are being rewarded for their acts of aggression.

• Growing up in a household or culture where men are expected to be dominant and aggressive will encourage that behavior.

• Repeated exposure to violence in various forms of media desensitizes viewers to acts of violence.

  • Video games: Some studies suggest that video games promote aggression, while others argue it allows for a cathartic outlet for one to indulge their violent tendencies.

Conflict

Conflict is perceived as an incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas. 

• Approach-approach conflict: occurs when you must choose between two desirable outcomes.

• Avoidance-avoidance conflict: occurs when you must choose between two unattractive outcomes.

• Approach-avoidance conflict: exists when one event or goal has both attractive and unattractive features. 

• Multiple approach-avoidance conflicts: here you must choose between two or more things, each of which has both desirable and undesirable features.

A social trap is a situation in which a person or group of people actively work to attain a short-term goal, which will ultimately have long-term consequences for the larger population. 

• Ex. Before laws and regulations were passed, many chemical companies would dispose of toxic and chemical waste by dumping it in the ocean or burying it underground. 

  • • Solved their immediate problem- the waste disappeared 

    • Created a serious environmental and health hazards for future generations

Other examples include running your sprinklers during a drought, refusing to get vaccines for major illnesses thus allowing those illnesses to spread, and hunting an endangered animal.

Friends & Foes

Mirror-image perceptions: mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive.

• Ex. opposing sides of a war, political parties, school rivalry

Self-fulfilling prophecy: a phenomenon in which a belief in something causes it to come true

• Ex. You go into the AP Exam saying “There’s no way I pass”. You don’t study, you don’t prepare, because you “know” you’re going to fail. When you score a 1, you are disappointed but not surprised. 

Contact between hostile groups will reduce animosity if they are made to work towards a superordinate goal, or a shared goal that overrides differences among people and requires their cooperation. 

• In the Robber’s Cave study, researcher Muzafer Sherif separated 22 Oklahoma City boys into two separate camp areas. Then he had the two groups compete for prizes in a series of activities. Before long, each group became intensely proud of itself and hostile to the other group. Food wars broke out. Cabins were ransacked. Fistfights had to be broken up by camp counselors. Brought together, the two groups avoided each other, except to taunt and threaten. Then Sherif arranged for the camp water supply to “fail,” and all 22 boys had to work together to restore the water. To rent a movie they all had to pool their resources. To move a stalled truck, the boys needed to combine their strength, pulling and pushing together. Having used isolation and competition to make strangers into enemies, Sherif used shared predicaments and goals to turn enemies into friends. 

Attraction

Why do we like who we like? Love and friendship may seem complicated, but in reality, it boils down to a few key factors:

• Proximity - we like people who are geographically close to us

  • Mere exposure effect: the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them

• Reciprocity - we like people who like us

• Similarity - we like people who like what we like

• Association - we like people who are associated with the things we like

• Appearance - we like people we find attractive

  • Historically, we are attracted to those who are viewed as healthy, but the idea of “healthy” changes with each generation and culture. Physical attractiveness predicts dating frequency and they are perceived as healthier, happier, more honest, and more successful than less attractive counterparts. Despite this, attractive people do not have higher self-esteem or happiness.

Two types of love:

• Passionate Love: An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship. Ex. Summer love

  • • Emotions have two ingredients - physical arousal plus cognitive appraisal

    • Arousal from any source can enhance one emotion or another, depending on how we interpret and label the arousal

• Companionate Love: A deep, affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined. Ex. Soul mates 

  • • Equity: a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it

    • Self-disclosure: revealing the intimate aspects to oneself to others (a.k.a. honesty)

Altruism

Altruism is an unselfish regard for the welfare of others, or engaging in acts of kindness without expecting anything in return. This can be done through acts of charity, donating to causes, volunteering, etc. 

Why do we help? 

• Social exchange theory states that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs.

  • • Ex. giving blood, donating clothes

• The reciprocity norm states that an expectation that people will help those that have helped them.

  • • Ex. offering a ride home to the classmate that helps you with your homework, buying gifts for those that have bought gifts for you

• Social responsibility norm: an expectation that people will help those in need of help

Gordon Allport

When Gordon Allport interviewed Sigmund Freud, he discovered just how preoccupied the founder of psychoanalysis was with finding hidden motives, even in Allport’s own behavior during the interview. That experience ultimately led Allport to do what Freud did not do: to describe personality in terms of fundamental traits, or people’s characteristic patterns of behavior or a disposition to feel/act in certain ways (such as the curiosity that actually motivated Allport to see Freud).

Traits Theorists & Practices

Hans & Sybil Eysenck personality is based on 2 dimensions: 

• Introversion vs Extroversion 

• Neuroticism vs. Stability 

Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers developed the Myers-Briggs test known today as the MBTI. Measures four different bipolar factors:

• • Introversion vs Extraversion

  • Intuitive vs Observant

  • Thinking vs Feeling

  • Prospecting vs Judging

Paul Costa and Robert McCrae created the Big 5 Personality Inventory which measured where individuals fell on scales in the following areas:

• • Openness to experience

  • Conscientiousness

  • Extraversion

  • Agreeableness

  • Neuroticism

Personality Inventories are questionnaires (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits.

• Factor Analysis (a technique that is used to reduce a large number of variables into fewer numbers of factors) is used to cluster items and score personality “tests”.

• Empirically derived: a test created by selecting from a pool of items those that discriminate between groups

MBTI Personality Survey

Enneagram Test

Big 5 Test

The Person-Situation Controversy

Do you act the same way around your friends as you do your family? Probably not. But if personality is believed to be stable and unchanging, why would your behavior differ depending on who you are with? 

This is the basis for the person-situation controversy proposed by Walter Mischel. The person-situation controversy refers to the debate concerning whether it is the situation that the person is in or the personality of the person that determines their behavior. In unfamiliar, formal situations—perhaps as a guest in the home of a person from another culture—our traits remain hidden as we carefully attend to social cues. In familiar, informal situations—just hanging out with friends—we feel less constrained, allowing our traits to emerge. In these informal situations, our expressive styles—our animation, manner of speaking, and gestures—are impressively consistent.

Finding Oneself

The self is the center of personality, organizing our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Considering possible selves helps motivate us toward positive development, but focusing too intensely on ourselves can lead to the spotlight effect (overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders).

High self-esteem (one’s feelings of self-worth) is beneficial, but unrealistically high self-esteem is dangerous (linked to aggressive behavior) and fragile. Rather than unrealistically promoting children’s feelings of self-worth, it is better to reward their achievements, which leads to feelings of competence. Self-efficacy refers to one’s sense of competence and effectiveness.

Poor Representation of the Self

How do excessive optimism, blindness to one’s own incompetence, and self-serving bias reveal the costs of self-esteem, and how do defensive and secure self-esteem differ?

• Excessive optimism can lead to complacency and prevent us from seeing real risks, while blindness to one’s own incompetence may lead us to make the same mistakes repeatedly.

• Self-serving bias is our normal tendency to perceive ourselves favorably, as when viewing ourselves as better than average or when accepting credit for our successes but not blame for our failures.

• Narcissism is excessive self-love and self-absorption.

• Defensive self-esteem is fragile, focuses on sustaining itself, and views failure or criticism as a threat. Secure self-esteem is sturdy, enabling us to feel accepted for who we are.

Culture & the Self

Although individuals vary, different cultures tend to emphasize either individualism or collectivism. Cultures based on self-reliant individualism tend to value personal independence and individual achievement. They define identity in terms of self-esteem, personal goals and attributes, and personal rights and liberties. Cultures based on socially connected collectivism tend to value group goals, social identity, and commitments. They define identity in terms of interdependence, tradition, and harmony.

• Individualist → what’s “best” for you

• Collectivist → what’s “best” for everyone

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is when we find participation in an activity personally rewarding and fulfilling, while extrinsic motivation is when we participate in an activity to gain a reward or avoid punishment. 

For example, if you study psychology on your own because you find it fascinating and enjoyable, that’s intrinsic motivation. If you study psychology just to do well in class and possibly get a passing score on the AP exam, exempting that class in college, that’s extrinsic motivation. 

Affiliation

“Without friends, no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” - Aristotle

Separated from friends or family—alone in prison or at a new school or in a foreign land—most people feel keenly their lost connections with important others. This deep need to belong—our affiliation need—seems a key human motivation. Originally, our survival depended on the presence of others. While we evolved to have more protection from the outside world, we still depend on others to survive daily life. 

• Affiliation: the need to build relationships and to feel part of a group

Avenues to connection and relationship have changed with technology, from face-to-face then letters then phone calls and now text and FaceTime. This shift allows us to reach people from across the globe instantly, but it also provides distance to say things we wouldn’t say face-to-face. Electronic communication can make us more comfortable with sharing our innermost feelings but social networking also provides our narcissistic sides to break free.

Ostracism

Can you recall feeling excluded or ignored or shunned? Perhaps you were unfriended or ignored online. Perhaps others gave you the silent treatment, avoided you, looked away, mocked you, or shut you out in some other way. Or perhaps you have felt excluded when among people speaking an unfamiliar language.

All these experiences are instances of ostracism, or deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups. Worldwide, humans use many forms of ostracism—exile, imprisonment, solitary confinement—to punish, and therefore control, social behavior. For children, even a brief time-out in isolation can be punishing. Being shunned threatens one’s need to belong and can have detrimental effects. 

Achievement

Some motives seem to have little obvious survival value. Billionaires may be motivated to make ever more money, reality TV stars to attract ever more social media followers, politicians to achieve ever more power, daredevils to seek ever greater thrills. Such motives seem not to diminish when they are fed. The more we achieve, the more we may need to achieve. 

• Achievement Motivation: a desire for significant accomplishment, for mastering skills or ideas, for control, and for attaining a high standard

• Grit: passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals

Hunger

The complex interaction of appetite hormones and brain activity helps explain the body’s predisposition to maintain a particular weight. When semistarved rats fall below their normal weight, their “weight thermostat” signals the body to restore the lost weight. It’s as though fat cells cry out “Feed me!” and grab glucose from the bloodstream. Hunger increases and energy expenditure decreases. This stable weight toward which semi-starved rats return is their set point. In rats and humans, heredity influences body type and approximate set point. This explains why people struggle to gain or lose weight, because our bodies are resistant to change from their set point. 

Our bodies regulate weight through the control of food intake, energy output, and basal metabolic rate—the resting rate of energy expenditure for maintaining basic body functions. 

Our internal hunger is pushed by our physiology—our body chemistry and hypothalamic activity. Yet there is more to hunger than meets the stomach. The following environmental factors can determine what you eat and how much:

• Taste Preferences

  • Carbs boost serotonin and makes us feel better.

  • The hotter the climate, the spicier the food.

• Culture 

  • Some cultures believe a dish is a delicacy when to others it is an abomination → guinea pigs, reindeer meat, caviar, peanut butter, cheese, snails, etc. 

• Arousal → Engrossed in a movie and you’ll eat a tub of popcorn. 

• Presence of Others → We tend to eat more around others.

• Serving Size & Selection → Buffets and menus too many options encourage overeating.

Stomach Contractions Theory

Working with Walter Cannon, A. L. Washburn agreed to swallow a balloon attached to a recording device. When inflated to fill his stomach, the balloon transmitted his stomach contractions. Washburn supplied information about his feelings of hunger by pressing a key each time he felt a hunger pang. The discovery→  Whenever Washburn felt hungry, he was indeed having stomach contractions.

Science of Hunger

People and other animals automatically regulate their caloric intake to prevent energy deficits and maintain a stable body weight. The body is keeping tabs on its available resources. One such resource is the blood sugar glucose. Increases in the hormone insulin (secreted by the pancreas) diminish blood glucose, partly by converting it to stored fat. If your blood glucose level drops, you won’t consciously feel the lower blood sugar. But your brain, which is automatically monitoring your blood chemistry and your body’s internal state, will trigger hunger. Signals from your stomach, intestines, and liver (indicating whether glucose is being deposited or withdrawn) all signal your brain to motivate eating or not.

As dieters know, physiological needs are powerful. This was vividly demonstrated when Ancel Keys and his research team studied semistarvation among wartime volunteers who participated in a challenging experiment as an alternative to military service. After feeding 200 men normally for three months, researchers halved the food intake for 36 of them. These semistarved men became listless and apathetic as their bodies conserved energy. Eventually, their body weights stabilized about 25 percent below their starting weights.

More dramatic were the psychological effects. Consistent with Maslow’s idea of a needs hierarchy, the men became food obsessed. They talked food. They daydreamed food. They collected recipes, read cookbooks, and feasted their eyes on delectable forbidden foods. Preoccupied with their unfulfilled basic need, they lost interest in sex and social activities. The men’s preoccupations illustrate how powerful motives can hijack our consciousness.

• Abraham Maslow: an American psychologist known for his humanistic theory of personality and the hierarchy of needs, which suggests that individuals strive for self-actualization and personal growth once their basic needs are met.

• achievement motivation: the desire to excel, succeed, or accomplish challenging goals, often driven by the pursuit of competence, mastery, or recognition in specific domains or tasks.

• actor-observer bias: the tendency to attribute one's own behavior to external factors while attributing others' behavior to internal factors, particularly in situations where one is the actor (participant) versus the observer.

• affiliation need: a fundamental human motivation to seek social connections, relationships, and belongingness with others, driven by the desire for companionship, support, and interpersonal bonds.

• agreeableness: a personality trait that reflects a person's tendency to be compassionate and cooperative.

• aggression: behavior that is intended to cause harm or injury to another individual, either physically or psychologically.

• Albert Bandura: psychologist known for his social-cognitive theory of personality, self-efficacy theory, and research on observational learning (modeling), which emphasizes the role of cognitive processes, social learning, and self-regulation in behavior.

• Alfred Adler: an Austrian psychiatrist and founder of individual psychology, known for his theories on the importance of social dynamics, striving for superiority, and the influence of early childhood experiences on personality development.

• altruism: selfless behavior or actions that are motivated by concern for the well-being or welfare of others, without expecting any personal benefit or reward in return.

• approach-approach conflict: a type of conflict that occurs when a person must choose between two desirable outcomes.

• approach-avoidance conflict: a conflict involving a single goal or event that has both positive and negative aspects.

• arousal theory: a theory of motivation suggesting that people are driven to perform actions in order to maintain an optimal level of physiological arousal.

• attribution: the process by which individuals explain the causes of behavior and events.

• attitudes: evaluations, feelings, or beliefs about people, objects, or ideas that influence behavior and responses to the social world

• attribution theory: a psychological framework that explores how individuals explain the causes of events, behaviors, and outcomes, either attributing them to internal factors (such as personality traits) or external factors (such as situational circumstances).

• avoidance-avoidance conflict: a conflict that occurs when a person must choose between two unattractive outcomes.

• basal metabolic rate: the minimum amount of energy or calories required by the body to maintain basic physiological functions (such as respiration, circulation, and cell metabolism) while at rest and in a fasting state.

• behavior feedback effect: the phenomenon whereby changes in behavior can influence emotional experience and physiological arousal, suggesting that actions and movements can affect mood and subjective feelings.

• behavioral approach: a psychological perspective that focuses on observable behaviors, environmental influences, and learning principles (such as classical and operant conditioning) in explaining personality and behavior.

• belief perseverance: the tendency to cling to one's initial beliefs even after receiving new information that contradicts or disconfirms the basis of those beliefs.

• Bibb Latane: social psychologist known for his research on social loafing, bystander effect, and diffusion of responsibility, particularly his experiments on helping behavior in emergency situations.

• Big Five Factors: theory that contains five broad dimensions of personality traits openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, which capture the major dimensions of individual differences in personality.

• broaden & build theory: theory that suggests positive emotions broaden one's awareness and encourage novel, varied, and exploratory thoughts and actions.

• burnout: a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.

• bystander effect: a social phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to offer help or intervene in an emergency situation when others are present, often due to diffusion of responsibility and social influence.

• Carl Jung: Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, known for his theories on the collective unconscious, archetypes, and the process of individuation.

• Carl Rogers: an American psychologist and founder of client-centered therapy, known for his humanistic theory of personality, emphasis on unconditional positive regard, and the importance of self-concept and self-actualization in personal growth.

• central route persuasion: a method of persuasion that involves careful consideration and evaluation of the arguments, evidence, and logic presented in a persuasive message.

• cognitive dissonance theory: proposed by Leon Festinger, suggests that individuals experience psychological discomfort when their attitudes or beliefs are inconsistent with their behavior, leading them to seek consistency and reduce dissonance through attitude change or rationalization.

• collective unconscious: a concept in analytical psychology proposed by Carl Jung, referring to a shared reservoir of unconscious memories, symbols, and experiences that are common to all humans and inherited across generations.

• collectivism: a cultural orientation that prioritizes the interests, values, and goals of the group or community over those of the individual, emphasizing cooperation, interdependence, and social harmony.

• companionate love: a deep and enduring emotional bond characterized by intimacy, trust, affection, and commitment, often found in long-term relationships or marriages.

• conflict: a perceived incompatibility of goals, interests, or values between individuals or groups, leading to disagreement, tension, or competition.

• confirmation bias: the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs.

• conformity: the tendency to adjust one's attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors to match those of a majority group or social norms, often in response to real or perceived pressure to fit in or be accepted.

• conscientiousness: a personality trait characterized by organization, dependability, and discipline.

• culture: the shared beliefs, values, norms, customs, traditions, and practices that characterize a particular group, community, or society, influencing behavior, attitudes, and social interactions.

• defense mechanisms: unconscious strategies or tactics used by the ego to protect against anxiety, threats, or conflicts, by distorting reality, repressing impulses, or redirecting emotions.

• deindividuation: the loss of self-awareness and individuality that occurs when individuals are part of a group or crowd, leading to reduced inhibitions, increased conformity, and impulsive behavior.

• denial: refusing to accept reality or facts.

• discrimination: the unjust or prejudicial treatment of individuals or groups based on their membership in a particular social category, often resulting in differential access to resources, opportunities, or rights.

• disinhibition: lack of restraint manifested in disregard for social conventions, impulsivity, and poor risk assessment.

• displacement: redirecting emotional impulses from a threatening target to a safer one.

• display rules: cultural norms that dictate the appropriate expressions of emotions.

• dispositional attribution: attributing behavior to internal characteristics or traits of the individual.

• drive-reduction theory: a motivational theory proposing that biological drives, such as hunger or thirst, create a state of tension or arousal (drive) that motivates organisms to engage in behaviors that reduce or satisfy those drives and restore homeostasis.

• ego: the rational and decision-making component of personality that operates on the reality principle, mediating between the demands of the id, superego, and external reality, while managing internal conflicts and desires.

• emotion: a complex psychological and physiological state characterized by subjective feelings, physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and cognitive appraisal, often in response to external stimuli or internal thoughts.

• empirically derived test: a psychological assessment tool developed through systematic research and statistical analysis of large datasets, ensuring reliability and validity based on empirical evidence.

• equity: a sense of fairness, balance, and mutual give-and-take in the distribution of rewards, benefits, and responsibilities between partners.

• ethnocentrism: belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group.

• explanatory style: a psychological attribute that indicates how people explain to themselves why they experience a particular event.

• explicit attitudes: attitudes that are consciously held and can be easily reported.

• external locus of control: the belief that external factors, such as luck or other people, control one's fate.

• extraversion: personality trait characterized by sociability, talkativeness, and assertiveness.

• extrinsic motivation: the desire to engage in an activity or behavior in order to obtain external rewards, incentives, or avoid punishment, rather than for the inherent satisfaction or enjoyment of the activity itself.

• facial feedback effect: the phenomenon whereby facial expressions can influence emotional experience and physiological arousal, suggesting that changes in facial muscles can affect mood and subjective feelings.

• false consensus effect: the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

• foot-in-the-door phenomenon: a persuasion technique in which compliance with a small request is followed by compliance with a larger request, based on the principle of consistency and the desire to maintain a positive self-image.

• free association: a psychoanalytic technique in which individuals are encouraged to express themselves freely and spontaneously, revealing unconscious thoughts, emotions, and memories without censorship or judgment.

• frustration-aggression principle: suggests that frustration, resulting from the blocking of goals or desires, often leads to aggressive behavior or responses.

• fundamental attribution error: the tendency to overestimate the influence of internal factors and underestimate the influence of external factors when explaining the behavior of others, especially in negative or ambiguous situations.

• ghrelin: a hormone produced in the stomach that stimulates appetite.

• glucose: a simple sugar and the primary source of energy for cells in the body, obtained from the digestion of carbohydrates in food and transported through the bloodstream to fuel cellular metabolism.

• grit: the perseverance, passion, and resilience demonstrated by individuals in the pursuit of long-term goals or objectives, despite facing obstacles, setbacks, or failures.

• group polarization: the tendency for group discussion or interaction to intensify and reinforce the initial attitudes, opinions, or inclinations of group members, leading to more extreme decisions or positions.

• groupthink: a phenomenon in which group members prioritize harmony and consensus over critical evaluation of alternatives or dissenting opinions, leading to flawed decision-making and the suppression of dissent.

• halo effect: the tendency for an impression created in one area to influence opinion in another area

• hierarchy of needs: a theory proposed by Abraham Maslow, suggesting that human motivation is organized into a hierarchical structure of needs, ranging from basic physiological needs to higher-order psychological needs such as self-esteem and self-actualization.

• homeostasis: the body's tendency to maintain a stable, balanced internal environment despite changes in external conditions, through physiological mechanisms that regulate various bodily processes and functions.

• humanistic theories: psychological theories that emphasize the inherent goodness, self-actualizing tendency, and potential for growth and fulfillment in individuals, focusing on subjective experiences, personal values, and self-determination.

• id: the primitive and instinctual component of personality that operates on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification of basic needs and desires, regardless of social norms or consequences.

• implicit attitudes: attitudes that are automatic, unconscious, and difficult to control.

• incentive: a stimulus or reward that motivates or encourages behavior, often by offering the possibility of obtaining positive outcomes or avoiding negative consequences.

• individualism: a cultural orientation that prioritizes the rights, needs, and goals of the individual over those of the group, emphasizing independence, autonomy, and personal achievement.

• industrial-organizational psychology: the application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces.

• informational social influence: when individuals conform to the beliefs or behaviors of others because they believe others possess accurate knowledge or information, leading to acceptance of the group's judgments or decisions.

• ingroup: a social group with which an individual identifies and feels a sense of belonging, typically characterized by shared values, norms, and identities.

• ingroup bias: the tendency to favor and show positive attitudes toward members of one's own ingroup while displaying negative attitudes toward members of outgroups.

• internal locus of control: the belief that one controls one's own fate or outcomes.

• instinct: an innate, fixed pattern of behavior that is characteristic of a species and is often triggered by specific stimuli, serving important adaptive functions such as survival and reproduction.

• intrinsic motivation: the desire to engage in an activity or behavior for its own sake, deriving satisfaction, enjoyment, or fulfillment from the activity itself rather than external rewards or incentives.

• John Darley: a social psychologist known for his research on bystander intervention, diffusion of responsibility, and the factors influencing helping behavior in emergency situations.

• Joseph LeDoux: an American neuroscientist known for his research on the neural mechanisms of emotion, particularly the role of the amygdala in fear and emotional processing.

• just-world phenomenon: the tendency to believe that the world is inherently fair and that people get what they deserve, leading to victim-blaming and rationalization of inequalities and injustices.

• Karen Horney: a German psychoanalyst and pioneer of feminist psychology, known for her theories on neurosis, the impact of social and cultural factors on personality, and the concept of basic anxiety.

• Leon Festinger: a social psychologist known for his theory of cognitive dissonance and his research on social comparison processes, group dynamics, and the psychology of cults.

• leptin: hormone produced by adipose (fat) cells that helps to regulate energy balance by inhibiting hunger.

• loose culture: societies with weaker social norms, more permissive attitudes, and greater tolerance for diversity and deviance, resulting in less conformity and social control.

• lowball technique: persuasion and selling technique in which an item or service is offered at a lower price than is actually intended to be charged, after which the price is raised to increase profits.

• mere exposure effect: the phenomenon whereby repeated exposure to a stimulus, such as a person, object, or idea, increases liking or preference for that stimulus over time, even in the absence of conscious awareness.

• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): a widely used psychological assessment tool for measuring personality and psychopathology, consisting of a series of true/false statements that assess various personality traits, psychological symptoms, and disorders.

• mirror-image perceptions: the reciprocal views or stereotypes that conflicting parties hold about each other, in which each side sees the other as aggressive, hostile, or unreasonable, while viewing themselves as peaceful, reasonable, and justified.

• motivation: the processes that initiate, guide, and sustain goal-directed behavior, including the internal and external factors that energize and direct behavior towards achieving specific goals or outcomes.

• multiculturalism: perspective that recognizes the cultural diversity of a country and promotes equal standing for all cultural traditions.

• narcissism: a personality trait characterized by excessive self-admiration, grandiosity, entitlement, and a lack of empathy for others, often accompanied by a need for admiration and validation from others.

• neuroticism: personality trait characterized by emotional instability, anxiety, and moodiness.

• normative social influence: when individuals conform to group norms or expectations in order to gain social approval, acceptance, or avoid rejection or disapproval.

• norms: shared rules, expectations, and standards of behavior that guide interactions and social conduct within groups or societies.

• obedience: the compliance with direct commands or instructions from an authority figure or social group, often in the absence of personal responsibility or accountability for the consequences of one's actions.

• obesity: a medical condition characterized by excessive accumulation of body fat to the extent that it may have adverse effects on health, well-being, and quality of life, often defined by a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher.

• openness: personality trait that reflects a person's openness to experience, creativity, and willingness to try new things.

• ostracism: the act of excluding or ignoring individuals from social interactions, relationships, or group activities, often resulting in feelings of rejection, loneliness, and social pain.

• other race effect: the tendency to better recognize and distinguish faces of individuals from one's own racial or ethnic group compared to those of other racial or ethnic groups.

• out-group: a social group with which an individual does not identify and may perceive as different or inferior, often leading to stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.

• out-group homogeneity: the tendency to view an out-group as homogenous, or all the same, while seeing members of the in-group as more varied.

• passionate love: an intense emotional state characterized by strong feelings of attraction, longing, and desire for intimacy and physical closeness, often experienced early in a romantic relationship.

• Paul Costa: a psychologist known for his collaboration with Robert McCrae in developing the Five Factor Model (Big Five) of personality and for his research on personality development and aging.

• Paul Ekman: an American psychologist known for his research on facial expressions, emotion, and nonverbal communication, as well as his contributions to the study of universal emotions and the Facial Action Coding System (FACS).

• peripheral route persuasion: a method of persuasion that relies on superficial factors such as attractiveness, credibility, or emotional appeals rather than the quality of the message itself.

• person perception: the process of forming impressions, judgments, and evaluations of other people based on their behavior, appearance, and other observable characteristics.

• personality: an individual's unique pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that persist over time and across different situations, shaping their identity, interactions, and experiences.

• personality inventory: a self-report questionnaire or assessment tool used to measure and assess various personality traits, characteristics, or dimensions, often based on empirical research and psychometric principles.

• personality psychology: the branch of psychology that focuses on understanding individual differences in behavior, thoughts, and emotions, as well as the underlying psychological processes that contribute to the development and expression of personality traits.

• persuasion: the process of intentionally influencing attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors of others through communication, argumentation, or manipulation of information.

• physiological need: basic biological requirements for survival and functioning, such as food, water, shelter, and sleep, which must be satisfied to maintain homeostasis and well-being.

• polygraph: commonly known as a lie detector, a device used to measure physiological responses (such as heart rate, blood pressure, and skin conductivity) that are believed to be associated with deception or emotional arousal, often used in forensic and security settings.

• preconscious: the area of the mind that contains information that can be brought into consciousness when needed.

• prejudice: a negative attitude or belief held about individuals or groups based on their membership in a particular social category, such as race, ethnicity, gender, or religion.

• projection: attributing one's own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to others.

• projective test: a psychological assessment tool used to reveal unconscious thoughts, feelings, and conflicts by presenting individuals with ambiguous stimuli and interpreting their responses, which are thought to reflect underlying personality dynamics.

• psychodynamic theories: psychological theories that emphasize the role of unconscious processes, inner conflicts, and early childhood experiences in shaping personality and behavior, particularly within the framework of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory.

• psychoanalysis:  a therapeutic approach developed by Sigmund Freud that aims to explore and resolve unconscious conflicts, desires, and motivations through techniques such as free association, dream analysis, and interpretation of unconscious thoughts and feelings.

• rationalization: creating a seemingly logical reason or excuse for behavior that might otherwise be shameful.

• reaction formation: behaving in a way that is opposite to one's unacceptable impulses.

• reciprocal determinism: a key concept in social-cognitive theory proposed by Albert Bandura, suggesting that behavior, personal factors (such as cognition, beliefs), and environmental influences (such as social context, reinforcement) interact and influence each other bidirectionally over time.

• reciprocity norm: a social norm that suggests individuals should reciprocate kind or helpful actions of others, fostering mutual cooperation and social exchange.

• regression: reverting to an earlier stage of development in the face of stress.

• relative deprivation: the perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself.

• repression: a defense mechanism that involves pushing threatening or anxiety-provoking thoughts, feelings, or memories into the unconscious mind, preventing conscious awareness and reducing distress.

• Richard Lazarus: an American psychologist known for his research on stress, coping, and emotion, particularly the cognitive-mediational theory of emotion, which emphasizes the role of cognitive appraisal in emotional experience.

• Robert McCrae: a psychologist known for his research on personality and the development of the Five Factor Model (Big Five) of personality, which includes five broad dimensions of personality traits - openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

• Robert Zajonc: a Polish-American psychologist known for his research on social psychology, social facilitation, and the mere exposure effect, which suggests that repeated exposure to stimuli increases liking and preference for those stimuli.

• role: a set of expected behaviors, duties, and responsibilities associated with a particular position, status, or social identity within a group or society.

• Rorschach inkblot test: a projective psychological test consisting of symmetrical inkblots that individuals are asked to interpret, revealing unconscious thoughts, feelings, and perceptions based on their responses.

• scapegoat theory: suggests that individuals or groups who are frustrated or facing negative circumstances may redirect their aggression toward a target that is perceived as weaker or different, serving as a scapegoat for their frustrations.

• self: a multidimensional construct that encompasses an individual's beliefs, attitudes, values, identity, and self-awareness, representing their subjective experience of themselves as separate and distinct from others.

• self-actualization: the highest level of psychological development and fulfillment according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, characterized by the realization of one's potential, pursuit of personal growth, and fulfillment of intrinsic values and aspirations.

• self-concept: an individual's perception, beliefs, and evaluations about themselves, including their identity, self-worth, abilities, and roles, which shapes their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

• self-determination theory: a motivational theory emphasizing the importance of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in fostering intrinsic motivation, personal growth, and well-being.

• self-disclosure: the voluntary sharing of personal information, thoughts, feelings, or experiences with another person, which fosters intimacy and trust in interpersonal relationships.

• self-efficacy: the belief in one's own ability to successfully accomplish tasks, achieve goals, or overcome challenges, based on past experiences, skills, and perceived capabilities.

• self-esteem: an individual's overall evaluation of their own worth, value, and competence, encompassing feelings of self-respect, self-acceptance, and self-confidence.

• self-fulfilling prophecy: a belief or expectation that influences behavior in a way that makes the belief or expectation come true, often due to confirmation bias or changes in behavior that align with the belief.

• self-serving bias: a cognitive bias that involves attributing successes to internal factors (such as ability or effort) while attributing failures to external factors (such as luck or situational factors), in order to protect one's self-esteem and maintain a positive self-image.

• self-transcendence: a concept proposed by Abraham Maslow, referring to the capacity to transcend personal concerns, ego boundaries, and individual identity in pursuit of higher meaning, connection, and spiritual experiences.

• sensation-seeking theory: theory suggesting that individuals have varying levels of a need for stimulation and excitement.

• set point: a hypothetical physiological level or range (such as body weight or temperature) that the body tries to maintain within a stable equilibrium through regulatory mechanisms and feedback loops.

• Sigmund Freud: an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, known for his theories on the structure of the mind (id, ego, superego), stages of psychosexual development, and defense mechanisms.

• situational attribution: attributing behavior to external factors or circumstances.

• social-cognitive perspective: a psychological approach that emphasizes the interaction between individual characteristics (such as personality traits, cognition) and environmental influences (such as social contexts, learning experiences) in shaping behavior and personality.

• social influence: the effect that other people have on an individual's thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behaviors.

• social inhibition: the tendency to perform worse on tasks when in the presence of others, especially for tasks that are complex or not well practiced.

• social exchange theory: proposes that people's social behavior is based on the calculation of rewards and costs, where individuals seek to maximize rewards and minimize costs in their interactions with others.

• social facilitation: the tendency for the presence of others to enhance performance on simple or well-learned tasks, but hinder performance on complex or novel tasks, due to increased arousal and evaluation apprehension.

• social identity: the part of an individual's self-concept that is derived from their membership in social groups, such as nationality, ethnicity, gender, or profession, which shapes their sense of identity and belonging.

• social loafing: the tendency for individuals to exert less effort or motivation when working collectively in a group compared to when working individually, due to diffusion of responsibility and decreased accountability.

• social norms: the accepted behaviors that an individual is expected to conform to in a particular group, community, or culture.

• social psychology: the branch of psychology that studies how individuals think, feel, and behave in social contexts, including the influence of social interactions, groups, and cultural factors on behavior.

• social reciprocity norm: the expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them.

• social responsibility norm: suggests individuals should help those in need, especially when they are dependent, vulnerable, or unable to help themselves.

• social script: a set of expected behaviors, actions, and responses that guide interactions in specific social situations, such as greetings, conversations, or dating rituals.

• social trap: a situation in which individuals or groups pursue immediate rewards or benefits that ultimately lead to negative long-term consequences for themselves or others, often due to a lack of cooperation or consideration of the common good.

• Solomon Asch: a social psychologist known for his research on conformity, particularly his experiments on conformity to group pressure and the influence of social norms on individual behavior.

• spotlight effect: a phenomenon in which individuals tend to overestimate the extent to which others notice and pay attention to their appearance, behavior, or actions, leading to self-consciousness and social anxiety.

• Stanley Milgram: a social psychologist known for his controversial experiments on obedience to authority, which demonstrated the willingness of individuals to obey authority figures even when it conflicted with their personal conscience.

• Stanley Schachter: an American psychologist known for his research on emotions, social psychology, and the two-factor theory of emotion, which proposes that emotions involve both physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation.

• stereotype: a fixed, oversimplified, and often negative belief or judgment about a particular group of people, based on their perceived characteristics or attributes.

• sublimation: redirecting unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable activities.

• superego: the moral and ethical component of personality that internalizes societal standards, values, and ideals, serving as the conscience and enforcing moral judgments and standards of behavior.

• superordinate goals: common objectives or shared interests that require cooperation and mutual effort from conflicting parties, often leading to reduced intergroup conflict and improved relations.

• terror-management theory: a social psychological theory that explores how individuals cope with the existential anxiety and fear of mortality by adhering to cultural worldviews, beliefs, and values that provide meaning, significance, and a sense of immortality.

• Thematic-Apperception Test: a projective psychological test used to assess personality and unconscious motives by presenting individuals with ambiguous pictures and asking them to create stories or narratives about what is happening in the pictures.

• tight culture: societies with strong social norms, strict rules, and low tolerance for deviance or nonconformity, leading to greater conformity and social control.

• trait: a relatively stable and enduring characteristic or pattern of behavior, thought, or emotion that distinguishes one individual from another and influences how they respond to different situations.

• trait theory: a theory of personality that focuses on identifying, describing, and measuring individual differences in behavioral predispositions.

• unconditional positive regard: an attitude of acceptance, respect, and nonjudgmental regard toward individuals, regardless of their thoughts, feelings, or behaviors, which fosters self-acceptance, authenticity, and personal growth.

• unconscious: a reservoir of thoughts, feelings, memories, and desires that are not consciously accessible to awareness but may influence behavior, emotions, and perceptions.

• Walter Cannon: an American physiologist known for his research on homeostasis, stress response, and the fight-or-flight response, as well as coining the term "homeostasis."

• William James: an American philosopher and psychologist known for his contributions to functionalism, pragmatism, and theories of consciousness, emotion, and the self, including the concept of the "stream of consciousness."

• Yerkes-Dodson law: a principle in psychology stating that there is an optimal level of arousal or stress that enhances performance on a task, with performance declining at both low and high levels of arousal.