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Social Psychology: unit vocabulary

This is a list of some noteworthy vocabulary you'll find in this unit! Some are related to the unit topic, and others are generally useful academic words.
You'll know some of the words already, and some may be new. Take some time to familiarize yourself with them all before you get started on the passages and exercises in the unit.
Word: eliminate
(verb)
  • Definition: to get rid of, wipe out, or erase something
  • Sentence: The governor eliminated the sales tax on pet food to encourage more people to adopt animals from the shelter.
Word: emerge
(verb)
  • Definition: to come into view; to come out of concealment
  • Sentence: A dark figure emerged from the shadows; it was an old man with a wooden leg and a parrot on his shoulder.
Word: authoritarian
(adjective)
  • Definition: requiring total obedience to laws and rules
  • Sentence: The small country lived under authoritarian rule, in which all laws and decisions were made by the emperor alone.
Word: preface
(verb)
  • Definition: to provide an introduction
  • Sentence: The senator’s short speech prefaced the presidential speech that followed.
Word: abide
(verb)
  • Definition: to stay, remain, or reside
  • Sentence: Some religions abide by the same customs and traditions as they did hundreds of years ago.
Word: initiate
(verb)
  • Definition: to start; to get (something) going
  • Sentence: Little did Conchita know that her efforts in developing biodegradable plastics would initiate a worldwide movement for sustainability.
Word: drastic
(adjective)
  • Definition: very extensive; very severe
  • Sentence: Drastic new measures were drawn up by the king to decrease the county's crime rate.
Word: superiority
(noun)
  • Definition: being better than someone or something else (or being "superior")
  • Sentence: The leader of the battalion felt that his intelligence far exceeded everyone around him; this sense of superiority helped him justify the evil things he did.
Word: increment
(noun)
  • Definition: the amount by which something grows
  • Sentence: The fine for the parking meter is fifty cents for every half hour increment of time.
Word: indication
(noun)
  • Definition: a signal that indicates (shows) something
  • Sentence: Don’t judge a book by its cover, because the cover is rarely an indication of how good a book is.
Word: administer
(verb)
  • Definition: to manage; to be responsible for
  • Sentence: The magistrate administered the final exam for all initiates.
Word: elicit
(verb)
  • Definition: to draw out a response from someone
  • Sentence: The first clanging of the bell didn’t elicit a response from the villagers, but when the clanging continued, they all entered Center Square.
Word: comply
(verb)
  • Definition: to do what you've been asked or told to do
  • Sentence: The experiment required that all test subjects comply with the tester’s guidelines so that the results were accurate.
Word: patently
(adverb)
  • Definition: to an obvious extent; clearly
  • Sentence: It was patently obvious that the prisoner wasn’t really a feeble old man when he did a double backflip and kicked the keys out of the guard’s hand.
Word: fundamental
(adjective)
  • Definition: relating to the foundation or underlying basis of something
  • Sentence: There are many fundamental theories in the scientific community that are commonly accepted as fact, like the theory of gravity.
Word: conjecture
(noun)
  • Definition: coming to a conclusion or opinion without enough evidence
  • Sentence: The scientist made wild conjectures relating the use of toothpaste to hair loss, but he had only conducted one tiny study.

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