Psychology Motivation, Emotion, and Social Behavior Concepts Practice Test

In-group membership means the group with which a person identifies and toward which they feel a sense of connection and goodwill. When you say a selection of people one favors and has ties to in some way, that describes the in-group—the group you belong to and with which you share identity and positive regard. This concept is a cornerstone of social identity theory, which explains why people often evaluate in-group members more positively and cooperate more with them. The other terms refer to different ideas: an out-group is those not belonging to your group, Attribution Theory explains how we infer the causes of others’ behavior, and Stereotype refers to generalized beliefs about a group. So the best fit for the description is in-group.