manipulation

a lot of psychological research uses the experimental method, which creates different conditions and observes their effect on a measured variable; the creation of the different conditions is called manipulation; psychological experiments manipulate for instance the presence of other people or the presence of specific stimuli or objects

market pricing

relationships are oriented through proportions, ratios and cost-benefit analyses

masculinity

the quality of being manly, of embodying or possessing those behaviors, attributes, and activities that a given culture deems appropriate for men

mass hysteria

the spontaneous manifestation of identical or similar inexplicable physical symptoms by multiple people at once

mastery functions

refer to those functions of gossip that help individuals learn about their social worlds, allowing individuals to understand and predict events in order to obtain reward

media literacy

The ability to critically engage with messages that are depicted in media like movies, music, books, or pornography.

melanin

is a hormone that determines eye, hair, and skin color

meme

an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture

mental representations

 contain information about people, objects, and events; they often consist of beliefs, explanations, and sensory memories

mental simulation

the automatic process whereby the mind forms an image of a sensory experience

mere exposure

the finding that repeated stimuli are preferred over novel stimuli

mestizo

one of the terms proposed for the racial mixture represented by a person with one indigenous and one European or Spanish parent

meta-analysis

technique that statistically summarizes the findings of several studies which all deal with the same research question

metamorphoses

can be explained in two ways, first, they can be transformations from one entity into another; this can be both within ontological categories or between ontological categories; secondly, they can be narrative poems by Ovid, consisting of fifteen books, which describes the creation and history of the world by drawing from Greek and Roman mythology

metaphor

a mapping of a physical sensation to similar, or analogical, properties of an abstract concept

Metaphoric Transfer Strategy

the process via which researchers assess whether manipulating physiological states (e.g., perceptions, motivations) changes how people think about information related to a dissimilar concept in a way consistent with the relation portrayed by metaphor

mimicry

a reflexive tendency to adopt the behavior or mannerisms of others

Minimal Ingroup Paradigm

the mere act of declaring that a group exists can be enough to make people start treating those in their new ingroup with slight favouritism

mirror-neurons

type of neurons that respond to actions we observe in others

misinformation

erroneous or misleading information about details of an event

misinformation paradigm

a paradigm in which participants are exposed to an event, subsequently receive misleading information and are then questioned about the initial event

monozygotic twins

twins who share almost 100% of their DNA sequence

moral conviction

is the strong and "absolute" individual attitude on a moral issue

moral dilemma

a complex situation involving a conflict between moral requirements, in which to obey one would result in transgressing another; moral psychologists distinguish between “personal” and “impersonal” moral dilemmas; an example of a personal moral dilemma is the footbridge version of the trolley problem, involving physically pushing someone from a bridge in order to save many others; an example of an impersonal moral dilemma is the switch version of the trolley problem, involving hitting a switch in order to steer the trolley to another track where it kills only one instead many other people; personal moral dilemmas tend to trigger stronger emotional reactions than impersonal ones and thus tend to result in stronger deontological judgments than impersonal moral dilemmas

moral domain

The class of questions or norms that are considered “moral” as opposed to the set of norms or questions that may be conventions but not moral.

mortality salience

the extent to which death-related thoughts are mentally activated, such that they affect a person’s behavior

motherhood mandate

the prevalent expectation that women will bear and raise children

motor simulation

mental simulation of an action

Multiple-choice recognition test

In a multiple-choice recognition test, people indicate which of the presented options they recognize from a past encounter. A prominent example are line ups, in which eyewitnesses have to identify a potential perpetrator among a number of people unrelated to the crime.

mutual stimulation

A process that occurs when people work together in groups. Mutual stimulation refers to benefiting from the ideas or contributions of other group members. For example, in brainstorming groups, cognitive stimulation can lead group members to think of new ideas, after hearing the ideas of the other group members.

Synonyms: cognitive stimulation

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