Chapter 13: Social Psychology

Question 1

sociometer theory

Answer 1

self-esteem derives primarily from our perception of other’s attitudes toward us

Question 2

big-fish-in-small-pond effect

Answer 2

change of reference group can dramatically affect self-esteem

Question 3

positive illusory bias

Answer 3

overestimation of abilities

Question 4

norm of reciprocity

Answer 4

tendency to comply with people who have done things for us

Question 5

norm of obedience

Answer 5

obeying legitimate authorities

Question 6

altruistic punishment

Answer 6

punishing someone who contributed less

Question 7

in-group favouritism; out-group discrimination

Answer 7

increased willingness to help members of own group; decreased willingness to help members of another group

Question 8

attitude

Answer 8

belief/opinion that has an evaluative component

Question 9

attribution

Answer 9

inference about the cause of a person’s behavioural action or set of actions

Question 10

cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 10

people seek to relieve the disconfort associated with the awareness of inconsistency between two or more of one’s own cognitions/beliefs (Festinger’s theory)

Question 11

explicit attitudes

Answer 11

conscious attitudes; attitudes that people are aware of holding and can state verbally

Question 12

explicit stereotypes

Answer 12

stereotypes that people hold consciously

Question 13

foot-in-the-door technique

Answer 13

technique for gaining compliance in which one first asks for some relatively small contribution of favor before asking for a larger one; complying with the first request predisposes the person to comply with the second

Question 14

fundamental attribution error/ actor-observer-discrepancy

Answer 14

tendency for people to attribute an action to the individual’s personality and to ignore the constraints that the role or situation places on how the person can/must act

Question 15

group polarization

Answer 15

tendency for a group of people who already share a particular opinion to hold that opinion more strongly after discussing the issue among themselves

Question 16

groupthink

Answer 16

model of thinking in which members of a group are more concerned with group cohesiveness and unanimity that with realistic appraisal of the actions being considered

Question 17

implicit assotiation test

Answer 17

test of a person’s automatic, unconscious mental assotiations, designed to assess implicit streotypes or other implicit attitudes

Question 18

implicit attitudes

Answer 18

attitudes that are manifested in a pesron’s behaviour or automatic mental associations, even though the person may not be conscious of holding those attitudes

Question 19

implicit stereotypes

Answer 19

sterotypes that automatically, unconsciously influence people’s judgements and actions toward others

Question 20

impression management

Answer 20

the entire set of ways by which people either consciously or unconsciously attempt to influence other people’s impressions of them

Question 21

informational influence

Answer 21

class of social influence that derives from the use of other’s behaviour or opinion as information in forming one’s own judgement about the objective nature of an event/situation

Question 22

in-groups

Answer 22

groups to which we belong

Question 23

insufficient-justification effect

Answer 23

change in attitude that serves to sutify an action that seems unjustified in the light of the prevously held attitude

Question 24

low-ball technique

Answer 24

sales trick in which the salesperson suggests a low price for the item being sold, and then, when the potential customer has agreed to buy it at that price, pretends to discover that the item cannot be sold for that price

Question 25

normative influence

Answer 25

class of social influence that derives from people’s concern about what others will think of them if they behave in a certain way or express a certain belief

Question 26

out-groups

Answer 26

groups to wich we do not belong

Question 27

person bias

Answer 27

tendency to attribute a person’s behaviour too much to the person’s inner characteristics/personality and not enough to the environmental situation

Question 28

personal identity

Answer 28

portion of the self-concept that pertains to the self as a distinct, separate individual

Question 29

self-fulfilling prophecies/ Pygmalion effects

Answer 29

phenomenon by which beliefs and expectations that others have on a person can to a some degree create reality by influencing that person’s self-concept and behaviour

Question 30

reference group

Answer 30

group of people with whom an individual compares him- or herself for the purpose of self-evaluation

Question 31

self-concept

Answer 31

way a person defines him- or herself

Question 32

self-esteem

Answer 32

person’s feeling of approval and acceptance of him- or hersels

Question 33

self-serving attributional bias

Answer 33

tendency of people to attribute their successes to their own qualities and their failures to the situation

Question 34

social comparison

Answer 34

process in which an individual evaluates their own abilities/ characteristics/ ideas/ achievements by comparing them with those of other people

Question 35

social dilemma

Answer 35

situatin in which a particular action will:

• benefit the individual who takes it
• harm the individuals who don’t
• cause more harm than benefit to everyone if everyone takes it

Question 36

social facilitation

Answer 36

tendency to perform a task better in front of others than when alone

Question 37

social identity

Answer 37

portion of the self-concept that pertains to the social categories/groups of which the person is a part

Question 38

social interference

Answer 38

tendency to perform a task worse in front of others than when alone

Question 39

social pressure

Answer 39

entire set of psychological forces that are exerted on an individual by other people or by the individual’s beliefs about other people

Question 40

social psychology

Answer 40

branch of psycholgy that attempts to understand how the behaviour and subjective experiences of individuals are influenced by the actual/imagined presence of other people

Question 41

stereotype

Answer 41

mental concept by which people characterize one or more specific groups/categories of people

Question 42

stereotype threat

Answer 42

threatened feeling that occurs, during the taking of a test, when a person is reminded of the fact that they belong to a group that, according to a culturally prominent stereotype, is expected to perform poorly on the test

Question 43

superordinate goals

Answer 43

goals shared by two or more groups, which tend to foster cooperation among the groups