Soical Psychology

Question 0

What is the fundamental attribution theory

Answer 0

the tendency for an observer, when interpreting and explaining the behavior of another person (the actor), to underestimate the situation and to overestimate the personal disposition

Imagine this situation, you are at school and someone you know comes by, you say hello, and this person just gives you a quick, unfriendly “hello” and then walks away. How would you attribute this situation – why did this person act this way? If you react to this situation by saying the person is a “jerk” or an “ass”, then you have made the fundamental attribution error

Question 1

What is the attribution theory

Answer 1

attribution is the process by which people use information to make inferences about the causes of behavior or events. Simply put, this is how we go about inferring behavior (our own and those of others).

For example, if you take an exam and you do well but a friend of yours fails, you might say that you did well because you are smart but your friend failed because he partied all night and didn’t study. In this case, you “attributed” your success to an internal attribution (you’re smart) but “attributed” your friend’s behavior to an external attribution (partied all night).

Question 2

What is an attitude

Answer 2

Attitudes can be defined as an affective feelings of liking or disliking toward an object (which can be basically anything) that has an influence on behavior.

Question 3

What is the foot in door phenomenon

Answer 3

The phenomenon is the tendancy for people to comply with some large request after first agreeing to a small request

For example, someone might want you to give to give 5 hours of your time a week for the three months as a volunteer to a charity (a big request). But to get you to agree to this big request, they first ask you to volunteer for 1 hour one time and one time only. After hearing this small request, which you are willing to agree to, they then work their way up asking you to volunteer time until you are willing to agree to the big request. You are more likely to agree to this when you have already said yes to the small request.

Question 4

Who phillp zimbardo

Answer 4

Philip Zimbardo (1933 - ) is known for leading the Stanford Prison Study, a controversial experiment which investigated the psychological effects of being a prisoner or prison guard. In the experiment, college students were randomly assigned to become prisoners or guards.

During the course of the experiment, both the prisoners and guards rapidly internalized their roles (they started to become their roles), with the guards becoming sadistic, and the prisoners becoming passive and depressed. Originally designed as a two-week experiment, the duration was cut short after 6 days due to the emotional trauma experienced by the participants.

The study demonstrated what Zimbardo calls the Lucifer Effect - how good people can turn evil in response to the situation they are in, and not as a result of their real personalities.

Question 5

What is Cognitive dissonance

Answer 5

Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors.This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance etc.

For example, when people smoke (behavior) and they know that smoking causes cancer (cognition).

Festinger’s (1957) cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance).

Question 6

What is disopitional alattributes

Answer 6

we have decided that the main cause of a person’s behavior is his or her internal, personal characteristics. We’re saying that the person behaved that way because “that’s the kind of person they are.”

Question 7

What is Situational Attributions

Answer 7

Making a situational attribution means that we believe a person’s behavior is best understood as a result of his or her circumstances. We might think that any sensible person would behave similarly in the same situation.

Question 8

What is Self serving bias

Answer 8

Self-serving bias refers to people’s tendency to attribute positive outcomes to personal factors, but attribute negative outcomes to external factors. In other words, “If it’s a success, it’s because of me. If it’s a failure, it’s because of someone or something else.”

For example, if I met my sales target, it’s because I’m a great salesperson. But if I did not meet my sales target, it’s because the economy is bad.

Question 9

What is the Foot-In-The-Door phenom

Answer 9

There is both foot-in-the-door phenomenon and foot-in-the-door technique. As you can guess, the technique is used to get the phenomenon. The phenomenon is the tendancy for people to comply with some large request after first agreeing to a small request. As you can then imagine, the technique is used to get compliance from others (to get them to behave in a way you want) in which a small request is made first in order to get compliance for a larger request.

For example, someone might want you to give to give 5 hours of your time a week for the three months as a volunteer to a charity (a big request). But to get you to agree to this big request, they first ask you to volunteer for 1 hour one time and one time only. After hearing this small request, which you are willing to agree to, they then work their way up asking you to volunteer time until you are willing to agree to the big request. You are more likely to agree to this when you have already said yes to the small request.

Question 10

What is Low balling

Answer 10

The Low-Ball Technique is a technique used in sales and other styles of persuasion to offer products or services at a bargain price in order to first attract a buyer, but then adds on additional expenses to make the purchase less of a bargain than originally thought. This is the technique often seen in car sales when the salesperson quotes a low price for the basic car, but then tacks on options, extended warranties, service packages, etc. to end in a much higher price tag than was originally quoted.

Question 11

What is compliance

Answer 11

Compliance is the tendency to agree to do what is requested especially if there are certain factors present: a feeling that there is give and take, believability, likeability, limited supply and positive feedback from others

For example, soft drink labels have long used celebrities to increase Compliance. The ordinary consumer would buy the drink because they liked the celebrity, assumed that the celebrity approved of the product, and believed what he had to say about it.

Question 12

What is conformity

Answer 12

Conformity can be defined as adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to match those of other people or a group standard.

When you see people in a room and they all are siting down you fell the need to sit down

Question 13

Who is Solomon ash

Answer 13

Solomon Asch (1907-1996) was an an American scientist who is known for his research in social psychology. His primary areas of research included impression formation, prestige and conformity and the nature of group pressure. His most famous work seems to be on conformity – video of Asch’s conformity study are often quite popular in American Universities.

Question 14

Who is Standly millgram

Answer 14

The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram.

Question 15

What Is Normative social influence

Answer 15

Sometimes people behave in ways just to gain approval from others, even if they don’t necessarily believe in what they are doing. This is normative social influence – influence resulting in the desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.

For example, if you go to a play, many times you will applaud when others do even if you didn’t really like the play that much. You do this to avoid the diapproval of the other people.

Question 16

What is Informative social influence

Answer 16

When you make decisions about how to behave, there are many sources of information available to help you make these decisions. Sometimes you may need to seek out experts, conform to the way others or a group are behaving, or look to some other source of information. One other way is to use informational social influence; you look to the behaviors of others who are also in the same or similar situation to see how they behave. Then, you can follow their lead.

For example, you travel to another planet, where some nice aliens offer to show you around. They decide to take you to one of their sporting events that is unlike anything you have ever seen. The problem is that, since you have no idea what the game is about, you don’t know what is good, bad, when to cheer, boo, or how to act in general. What can you do? You can simply watch how others are behaving, what they react to, what is going on when they cheer, when they boo, etc. In this way, you seek information from your social surroundings, which influence your behavior.

Question 17

What is obedience

Answer 17

Obedience occurs when you change your opinions, judgments, or actions because someone in a position of authority told you to. The key aspect to note about obedience is that just because you have changed in some way, it does not mean that you now agree with the change.

For example, if you are a democratic senator, and the president came to you and demanded that you vote for a something that you were not in favor, and you did go ahead and vote the way the president said, you would be obeying (or displaying obedient behavior). However, this does not mean that you now agree with the way you voted or what you voted for….only that you did what you were told to do.

Read more: http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?

Question 18

What is the central route to persuasion

Answer 18

a method of persuasion (i.e., a way to persuade others). This method focuses on facts and the content of the message in order to convince the listener, as opposed to relying on peripheral factors like the personality of the speaker, or how the message was delivered.

For example, a TV ad that presents laboratory findings to demonstrate the effectiveness of an acne treatment would be using the Central Route to Persuasion, as opposed to one that only uses a celebrity endorser.

Question 19

What is the peripheral route to persuasion

Answer 19

The peripheral route to persuasion involves being persuaded in a manner that is not based on the arguments or the message content. For example, after reading a political debate you may decide to vote for a candidate because you like the sound of the person’s voice, or the person went to the same university as you did. The peripheral route can involve using superficial cues such as the attractiveness of speaker

Question 20

What is Social loafing

Answer 20

When more people are involved in a task, the task is done faster, more easily, and better…right? Not necessarily! Social loafing is the tendency for people in a group to put less effort into the task when the effort is pooled (when they are all supposed to work on the task) compared to when they are all responsible for their own contributions. By having more people involved in the group task, each person can put in a little less effort, thinking that others will make up for their lack of effort. You may have seen this type of situation with, for example, road crews…sometimes there are 10 on the crew, 3 are working hard, 2 are sort of working, and the other 5 are sitting around talking. Are they all putting in as much effort as they would if each worked alone? Probably not.

Question 21

What is devindividation

Answer 21

that people in groups tend to lose some of their own self-awareness and self-restraint when in groups. They become less of an individual and more anonymous. In a sense, people will do things in groups they otherwise would not because they feel less responsible for their actions and less like an individual.

This process of deindividuation can have powerful effects. For example, how can soldiers kill innocent children? They often answer this question by saying that they are not monsters, but that they were going along with the group and that they were just following orders, and that they were not the only ones doing it….all engaged in heinous acts of violence because, in part, they had become

Question 22

What is Group polarization

Answer 22

When people are placed into a group and these people have to deal with some situation, the group as a whole typically has some overriding attitude toward the situation. Over time and with group discussion, the group’s attitude toward that situation may change. When it changes in such a way that the group attitude is enhanced and strengthened, then group polarization has occurred.

For example, let’s say a group of Republicans gather to discuss welfare reform and some new policy proposed by a democratic politician. The welfare policy calls for more money to be taken from private sector businesses and given to welfare centers. In the beginning of the discussion, the group as a whole may be somewhat against the welfare reform policy (thus having an initial group attitude). After discussing the policy, the group indicates that they are now more against the policy than ever. What has happened is that the initial attitude has been bolstered and the group is more polarized against the policy.

Question 23

What is groupthinking

Answer 23

groupthink is “a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment that results from in-group pressures.” Essentially, people within a group become so consumed with the group, maintaining group cohesiveness, and doing what is important for the group that they themselves lose their ability to think independently and make good, sound judgments. There are quite a few symptoms and causes of groupthink, but it is important to know what groupthink is and that it has been used to explain a variety of tragic events throughout history such as, mass suicides (like the Heaven’s Gate suicides), poor political decisions (like the Bay of Pigs invasion), riots, and more.

Question 24

What is Prejudice

Answer 24

Prejudice is a negative, usually unjustified attitude directed toward people simply because they are members of a specific social group.

For example, if a person believes that people from Bali are less intelligent than people from Nepal, that person would be prejudice toward those from Bali. Often times prejudice involves broad, sweeping generalizations about others.

Read more: http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Prejudice#ixzz3DcvXVVmD

Question 25

What is a sterotype

Answer 25

fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.” (Cardwell, 1996).

Black people love to eat watermelon
Asians are all smart

Question 26

What is discrimination

Answer 26

means to distinguish, single out, or make a distinction. In everyday life, when faced with more than one option, we discriminate in arriving at almost every decision we make. But in the context of civil rights law, unlawful discrimination refers to unfair or unequal treatment of an individual (or group) based on certain characteristics, including:

Age
Disability
Ethnicity
Gender
Marital status
National origin
Race,
Religion, and
Sexual orientation.
- See more at: http://civilrights.findlaw.com/civil-rights-overview/what-is-discrimination.html#sthash.aPEefeZf.dpuf

Question 27

What is ethnocentrim

Answer 27

Ethnocentrism is a belief that your society, group, or culture is superior to all others. Very often this means that differences in groups (e.g., your group has more old people than ours) are seen as someh

Question 28

What si in group bias

Answer 28

Ingroup bias is a simple concept, but one that has very powerful affects on people, societies, and life in general. Ingroup bias is simply the tendency to favor one’s own group. This is not one group in particular, but whatever group you associate with at a particular time. So,

for example, when you play on an intramural softball team that meets once a week, you are part of that softball team’s ingroup. Or, it can be something on a much more grand scale like, the situation between religious groups in Ireland. They have been killing each other for years, because they each perceive their own group as being the “right” and “good” group, while the other group (the outgroup) is “bad” and “evil”.

Question 29

What is out group bias

Answer 29

Humans categorize things. The minute we meet someone we begin placing them into a variety of categories such as male/female, tall/short, attractive/unattractive, intelligent/unintelligent, etc. This is a natural and important part of being human as it helps us organize the very complex world around us. When we categorize people as being part of our own group, they are considered part of the “ingroup”; others are considered to be part of the “outgroup” (see the definitions of each for more details). Members of the outgroup are viewed as less similar and, as a result we may have biases against them. Thus, the outgroup bias includes negative categorizations, feelings, or ideas about people who are not part of our ingroup.

Question 30

What is a in group

Answer 30

a group with which one feels a sense of solidarity or community of interests — compare out-group

Question 31

What is a scapegoat

Answer 31

Scapegoat theory is a social psychological term that relates to prejudice. According to this theory, people may be prejudice toward a group in order to vent their anger. In essence, they use the group they dislike as their target for all of their anger…as a vent.

One example that has been suggested is the holocaust. According to scapegoat theory, the Germans used the Jews as scapegoats for all of their countries problems (which included economic problems across the country), focused all of their anger on the Jews, allowed their anger and hatred to build, and focused all of their anger, frustration, and problems on the Jews. (This is not “the” explanation for the holocaust, but one component of it.)

Question 32

What is the just world phenomenon

Answer 32

The just-world phenomenon is the tendency for people to believe that the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get. If you have this belief, and something good happens to you, you may conclude that the world is just because you are a good person and so good things happen to you. In the same way, when you see something bad happen to someone else, you may conclude that they did something to bring on this bad event. Otherwise, it would not have occurred since the world is a just place.

For example when a girl is rapped it’s because the goal,was wearing tight clothing

Question 33

What is Hindsight bias

Answer 33

Are you a Monday-morning quarterback? Have you heard the expression “hindsight is 20-20”? Have you ever said, “I knew it all along” after something happened? These are examples of the hindsight bias which is the tendency to believe, once the outcome is already known of course, that you would have forseen it…that even though it’s over and you know the outcome, you knew it all along.

Question 34

What is aggression

Answer 34

Let’s be really simple with this term…aggression is any form of behavior that is intended to harm or injure some person, oneself, or an object.

Question 35

What is the frustration a aggression principle

Answer 35

Frustration is a feeling of tension that occurs when our efforts to reach some goal are blocked. When this occurs, it can produce feelings of anger, which in turn can generate feelings of aggression and aggressive behavior. This theory has been utilized to explain a lot of violent behavior over time.

For example, some have stated that people who become frustrated with their jobs because they don’t like their work, can’t get the raise they want, etc., but can’t take out their aggressions at work (can’t yell at the boss, can’t punch annoying co-workers), will redirect this frustration and act aggressively toward others (like a husband, wife, children, etc.).

Question 36

What is conflict

Answer 36

refers to anytime you have opposing or incompatible actions, objectives, or ideas, you have conflict. Conflicts can be between two people, countries, groups, or even within one person (an internal conflict). Conflicts are problematic and must be addressed in order to have peace, productivity, or harmony.

Question 37

What is a social trap

Answer 37

Psychologists use the term Social Trap to describe a short-term solution to a problem that ultimately causes a long-term loss. Globally, there are several examples of this such as overgrazing desert environments and clear-cutting rain forests. These are examples of situations where the short-term profits that are made are cancelled out by long-term environmental damage.

Question 38

What is the mere exposure effect

Answer 38

Have you ever met someone you didn’t like very much at first and then over time, even if you didn’t really have personal interactions with the person you started liking them (or disliking them less)? This might have been due to the mere exposure effect in which you begin to like something simply because you are exposed to it over and over again. I bet if you think about it you can come up with all sorts of things that you like simply because you are exposed to it repeatedly. There are many advertisers who bombard you with their products for this reason

Question 39

what is passionate love

Answer 39

Aren’t new relationships great? You know that giddy feeling you get when you first fall in love? If you have intense feelings (positive feelings) toward the other person to the point of really being wrapped up in the other person, you have passionate love. This doesn’t have to fade over time, but it often does. It’s not realistic to expect this heightened state of emotion and passion to be maintained over a long period of time…but it sure is nice!

Question 40

what is Compassionate love

Answer 40

is when two people first fall in love, they often have an intense passion for each other; they want to touch all the time, kiss all the time, and have very absorbing feelings, like “floating on a cloud”. However, over time, this type of intense passion subsides. What evolves from this type of love can be nothing, or it can turn into “companionate love,” a deep, mature, affectionate attachment between people who love each other, like each other, and respect each other.

Question 41

what is Altruism

Answer 41

refers to unselfish behaviors or actions done for the sake of someone else. For example, if you volunteer at a nursing home, or give money to someone in need, etc., you are helping someone else without receiving benefit. However, there is debate about altruism - some people who say altruism doesn’t “really” exist because you do get something out of unselfish acts - you feel good about yourself. I’ll leave it to you to decide if altruism exists.

Read more: http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Altruism#ixzz3Dd761uhS

Question 42

what is Diffusion of Responsibility

Answer 42

explains why we are less likely to take action or help someone in need when we are in a group compared to when we are alone. The more people around to observe an emergency, the less obligation each person feels to act because they think someone else will do it first.

This principle of social psychology has been supported by numerous lab studies. In a classic experiment by Darley and Latané (1968), participants saw someone having a (fake) seizure. When participants believed they were the only witness to the incident, 81% went to get help; when participants thought there were four other witnesses, only 31% went for help.

Read more: http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Diffusion%20of%20Responsibility#ixzz3Dd7Jp4yI

Question 43

what is the Bystander Effect

Answer 43

a social phenomenon in which a person (or persons) are less likely to offer help to another person (or persons) when there are more people around who can also provide assistance. Many people believe that, when there is an emergency and lots of people are present, the people in need are more likely to get assistance. However, this is not the case. Rather, the more people there are who can help, the less likely each person is to offer help. Thus, when in a group, people are less likely to offer help than when they are alone.

Question 44

what is the social exchange theory

Answer 44

There are many different theories about why we help each other. According to social exchange theory people help each other when there is a positive cost-benefit analysis; when the benefits outweigh the costs.The benefits can be tangible or intangible, physical or psychological. All that really matters is that the person perceives the benefits to be greater than the costs.

Read more: http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Social%20Exchange%20Theory#ixzz3Dd7xYMdc

Question 45

what is reciprocity

Answer 45

Reciprocity Norm refers to how positive actions bring about more positive actions while negative actions bring about more negative actions. For example, if a person receives a gift for their birthday, they are more likely to give a gift back to that person on their birthday.

In contrast, if someone throws eggs at his neighbor’s house, the neighbor will likely respond by adding a mixture of dandelion seeds to some fertilizer and spreading it on their lawn in the middle of the night.

Read more: http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Reciprocity%20Norm#ixzz3Dd9DGoYc

Question 46

what is social responsibility norm

Answer 46

reference to people in positions of leadership or responsibility. People in these positions are expected to help others because society has placed them on a pedestal as a “hero” of sorts. These individuals serve as role models for the rest of our society.

reference to people in positions of leadership or responsibility. People in these positions are expected to help others because society has placed them on a pedestal as a “hero” of sorts. These individuals serve as role models for the rest of our society.

Question 47

what are superordinated goals

Answer 47

Superordinate goals are goals that get people from opposing sides to come together and work toward a common end result.

For example, if you have two groups of people that seriously dislike each other you might set up a situation in which they simply have to work together in order to be successful (e.g., maybe the two groups get lost in the jungle together and the only way they survive is to work together - hey, it could happen :). This breaks down barriers, encourages people to see eachother as just people and not as part of “that other group that we dislike”, and can help overcome differences between the groups.

Question 48

what is GRIT

Answer 48

Grit is a personality trait which is encompassed by a passion and resilience to achieve one’s goals. Overcoming obstacles and hardiness are also components of this personality trait. A gritty personality could also be described as ambitious, tenacious, and having perseverance. High achievers and successful people who have overcome obstacles are often described as having grit especially if they come from humble origins.

Question 49

what is the door in face phnomenon

Answer 49

This is a technique used to get compliance from others (to get them to behave in a way you want) in which a large request is made knowing it will probably be refused so that the person will agree to a much smaller request. The real objective is to get the person to agree to the small request, which is made to seem very reasonable because it is compared to such a large, seemingly unreasonable request. In essence, the large request gets you the “door in the face” when you ask it.

For example, someone might ask you to give to give 5 hours of your time a week for the next year as a volunteer to a charity. After hearing this offer you may think it is a huge request, after which you may be asked to, instead of committing to all this volunteering time, to just donate a small amount of money. Compared to the time commitment, this request seems much more acceptable.