Page 454 - The Social Animal

436 Glossary

assignment, researchers can be relatively certain that differences in their
participants’ personalities or backgrounds are distributed evenly across
conditions
recency effect: under some specifiable conditions, the last argument you
hear will be particularly effective

re-constructive memory: the process whereby memories of an event can
become distorted by information encountered after the event has occurred

recovered memory phenomenon: recollections of a past event, such as sex-
ual abuse, that had been forgotten or repressed; a great deal of controversy
surrounds the accuracy of such memories

relational-aggression: a nonphysical form of aggression such as gossiping,
spreading false rumors, or ostracism

relative deprivation: the perception that you (or your group) have less than
you deserve, less than you have been led to expect, or less than people similar
to you have
representativeness heuristic: a mental shortcut whereby people classify
something according to how similar it is to a typical case
romantic love: according to Sternberg, a combination of passion and intimacy
scapegoating: the tendency for individuals, when frustrated or unhappy, to
displace aggression onto groups that are disliked, visible, and relatively pow-
erless
script: ways of behaving socially that we learn implicitly from the culture

secondary gain: after complying, an unanticipated, beneficial state of affairs
that makes the compliant behavior more attractive
self-concept: the contents of the self; that is, our perception of our own
thoughts, beliefs, and personality traits
self-esteem: people’s evaluations of their own worth—that is, the extent to
which they view themselves as good, competent, and decent

self-fulfilling prophecy: the case whereby people (1) have an expectation
about what another person is like, which (2) influences how they act toward
that person, and (3) causes that person to behave in a way consistent with
those people’s original expectations

self-justification: the tendency to justify one’s actions in order to maintain
one’s self-esteem
self-perception theory: the theory that when our attitudes are uncertain or
ambiguous, we infer what they are by observing what we do