Alphabetical Glossary

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category-based expectancies
expectations about people based on the groups to which they belong, such as expecting someone to love going to parties because he or she belongs to a party-loving fraternity or sorority

catharsis
the notion that "blowing off steam"-by performing an aggressive act, watching others engage in aggressive behaviors, or engaging in a fantasy of aggression-relieves built-up aggressive energies and hence reduces the likelihood of further aggressive behavior

causal theories
theories about the causes of one's own feelings and behaviors; often we learn such theories from our culture (e.g., "absence makes the heart grow fonder")

central route to persuasion
the case whereby people elaborate on a persuasive communication, listening carefully to and thinking about the arguments; this occurs when people have both the ability and the motivation to listen carefully to a communication

classical conditioning
the case whereby a stimulus that elicits an emotional response is repeatedly experienced along with a neutral stimulus that does not, until the neutral stimulus takes on the emotional properties of the first stimulus

cognitions
thoughts, feelings, beliefs, or pieces of knowledge

cognitive appraisal theories of emotion
theories holding that emotions result from people's interpretations and explanations of events, in the absence of any physiological arousal

cognitive dissonance
a drive or feeling of discomfort, originally defined as being caused by holding two or more inconsistent cognitions and subsequently defined as being caused by performing an action that is discrepent from one's customary, typically positive self-conception

cognitive misers
The idea that people are so limited in their ability to think and make inferences that they take mental shortcuts whenever they can

cognitively based attitude
an attitude based primarily on people's beliefs about the properties of an attitude object

communal relationships
relationships in which people's primary concern is being responsive to the other person's needs

companionate love
the feelings of intimacy and affection we feel for another person when we care deeply for the person but do not necessarily experience passion or arousal in his or her presence

comparison level
people's expectations about the level of rewards and punishments they are likely to receive in a particular relationship

comparison level for alternatives
people's expectations about the level of rewards and punishments they would receive in an alternative relationship

compliance
a change in behavior due to a direct request from another person

conformity
a change in behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people

conjunctive task
a group task in which performance depends on how well the least talented member does (e.g., how fast a team of roped-together mountain climbers can climb a mountain)

consensus information
information about the extent to which other people behave the same way toward the same stimulus as the actor does

consistency information
information about the extent to which the behavior between one actor and one stimulus is the same across time and circumstances

construal
the way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world.

contagion
the rapid transmission of emotions or behaviors through a crowd

contingency theory of leadership
the theory that leadership effectiveness depends both on how task-oriented or relationship-oriented the leader is and on the amount of control and influence the leader has over the group

controllability
information that indicates whether the cause of the success (or failure) is something the individual can control or cannot control

controlled processing
thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful

conversion model
information inconsistent with a stereotype that leads to a radical change in the stereotype

coping styles
the ways in which people react to stressful events

correlational method
the method whereby two or more variables are systematically measured and the relationship between them (i.e., how much one can be predicted from the other) is assessed

correspondent inference theory
the theory that we make internal attributions about a person when there are (a) few noncommon effects of his or her behavior and (b) the behavior is unexpected

counterattitudinal advocacy
the process that occurs when a person states an opinion or attitude that runs counter to his or her private belief or attitude

counterfactual thinking
mentally changing some aspect of the past as a way of imagined what might have been

covariation model
a theory which states that in order to form an attribution about what caused a person's behavior, we systematically note the pattern between the presence (or absence) of possible causal factors and whether or not the behavior occurs

cover story
a description of the purpose of a study, given to participants, that is different from its true purpose; cover stories are used to maintain psychological realism

crowding
the subjective feeling of unpleasantness due to the presence of other people