ELITE COMPREHENSIVE
ADVANCED PLACEMENT (AP) PSYCHOLOGY SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY AND PERSONALITY COMPREHENSIVE
REVIEW GUIDE
SOCIAL INFLUENCE • ATTITUDES • GROUP
BEHAVIOR • PERSONALITY THEORIES
SPRING EXAMINATION MAY 2026
Attributions
• people's explanations for why events or actions occur
dispositional attribution
• assuming that another's behavior is due to personality factors, not
situational ones
Situational attribution
• attribution to factors external to an actor, such as the task, other people, or
luck
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,Explanatory style
• One's habitual way of explaining life events. Can be optimistic or pessimistic
Optimistic
• hopeful and confident about the future
Pessimistic
• seeing the worst side of things; no hope
actor-observer bias
• the tendency to blame our actions on the situation and blame the actions
of others on their personalities
fundamental attribution error
• the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to
underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact
of personal disposition
self-serving bias
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, • the tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame
failure on external factors
Internal locus of control
• the perception that you control your own fate
External locus of control
• the perception that chance or outside forces beyond your personal control
determine your fate.
Mere exposure effect
• the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of
them
self-fulfilling prophecy
• an expectation that causes you to act in ways that make that expectation
come true.
social comparison
• evaluating one's abilities and opinions by comparing oneself with others
3|Page
ADVANCED PLACEMENT (AP) PSYCHOLOGY SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY AND PERSONALITY COMPREHENSIVE
REVIEW GUIDE
SOCIAL INFLUENCE • ATTITUDES • GROUP
BEHAVIOR • PERSONALITY THEORIES
SPRING EXAMINATION MAY 2026
Attributions
• people's explanations for why events or actions occur
dispositional attribution
• assuming that another's behavior is due to personality factors, not
situational ones
Situational attribution
• attribution to factors external to an actor, such as the task, other people, or
luck
1|Page
,Explanatory style
• One's habitual way of explaining life events. Can be optimistic or pessimistic
Optimistic
• hopeful and confident about the future
Pessimistic
• seeing the worst side of things; no hope
actor-observer bias
• the tendency to blame our actions on the situation and blame the actions
of others on their personalities
fundamental attribution error
• the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to
underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact
of personal disposition
self-serving bias
2|Page
, • the tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame
failure on external factors
Internal locus of control
• the perception that you control your own fate
External locus of control
• the perception that chance or outside forces beyond your personal control
determine your fate.
Mere exposure effect
• the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of
them
self-fulfilling prophecy
• an expectation that causes you to act in ways that make that expectation
come true.
social comparison
• evaluating one's abilities and opinions by comparing oneself with others
3|Page
