Psychology^intro

Secure attachment style An expectation about social relationships characterized by trust, a lack of concern with being abandoned, and a feeling of being valued and well liked.

Self-affirmation theory A theory predicting that people will often cope with specific threats to their self-esteem by reminding themselves of other unrelated but cherished aspects of their self-concept.

Self-awareness A psychological state in which one takes oneself as an object of attention.

Self-consciousness The habitual tendency to engage in self-awareness.

Self-discrepancy theory A theory that people experience specific negative emotions when they perceive a discrepancy between their self-concept and various self-guides.

Self-efficacy theory A theory that motivation is determined both by the belief that one is capable of successfully performing some behavior, and by the belief that performing the behavior will lead to certain outcomes.

Self-evaluation maintenance model A theory predicting under what conditions people are likely to react to the success of others with either pride or jealousy.

Self-perception theory The theory that we often infer our internal states, such as our attitudes, by observing our behavior.

Sexual orientation One's sexual attraction toward members of either one's own sex of the other sex.

Sleeper effect The delayed effectiveness of a persuasive message from a noncredible source.

Social anxiety The unpleasant emotion people experience due to their concern with interpersonal evaluation.

Social comparison theory The theory that proposes that we evaluate our thoughts and actions by comparing them to those of others.

Social exchange theory The theory that proposes that we seek out and maintain those relationships in which the rewards exceed the costs.

Social impact theory The theory that the amount of social influence others have depends on their number, strength, and immediacy to those they are trying to influence.

Social learning theory A theory that proposes that social behavior is primarily learned by observing and imitating the actions of others, and secondarily by being directly rewarded and punished for our own actions.

Social psychology The scientific discipline that attempts to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.

Social roles A cluster of socially defined expectations that individuals in a give situation are expected to fulfill.

Strategic self-presentation Conscious and deliberate efforts to shape other people's impressions in order to gain power, influence, sympathy or approval.

Subliminal perception The processing of information which is below one's threshold of conscious awareness.

Symbolic interaction theory A contemporary sociological theory, inspired by Mead's insights and based on the premise that the self and social reality emerge due to the meaningful communication among people.