chapter 13

Question 1

conformity

Answer 1

the altering of ones opinions or behaviours to match those of others or to match social norms

• importance of unanimity
• Matching behaviour and appearance to perceived social norms.

Question 2

social norms

Answer 2

accepted ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving than most people in a group agree on and endorse as right and proper

• Usually unwritten or unspoken rules for behaviour in social settings.

Question 3

descriptive social norms

Answer 3

what people actually think, feel or do

Question 4

prescriptive social norms

Answer 4

what people should think, feel, or do

Question 4

informational influence

Answer 4

a group has informational influence if we adopt the group consensus because it seems correct (correctness)

Question 5

normative influence

Answer 5

a group has normative influence if we adopt the group consensus to show identification with the group (acceptance)

Question 6

compliance

Answer 6

change in a person’s behaviour in response to a direct request; requester has no authority over us

• Agreement with a request from a person with no perceived authority.

Question 7

door in the face

Answer 7

A persuasive technique in which compliance with a target request is preceded by a large, unreasonable request.

Question 8

foot in the door

Answer 8

A persuasive technique in which compliance with a small request is followed by compliance with a larger request that might otherwise have been rejected.

Question 9

low balling

Answer 9

Making further requests of a person who has already committed to a course of action.

Question 10

obedience

Answer 10

when we comply to the request of someone in a position of authority

• Compliance with a request from an authority figure.

Question 11

halo effect

Answer 11

tendency of people to rate attractive individuals more favorably for their personality traits or characteristics as compared to those who are less attractive.

Question 12

thin slices of behaviour

Answer 12

narrow windows of experience that can be used to diagnose many affective, personality, and interpersonal conditions

• think slicing is the process of making very quick inferences about the state, characteristics or details of an individual or situation with minimal amounts of information

Question 13

attributions

Answer 13

A judgment about the cause of a person’s behaviour.

Question 14

dispositional attributions

Answer 14

A judgment assigning the cause of a person’s behaviour to personal qualities or characteristics.

• explanations that refer to internal characteristics (traits)

Question 15

situational attributions

Answer 15

A judgment assigning the cause of a person’s behaviour to the environment.

• explanations that refer to external events (situation)

Question 16

fundamental attribution error

Answer 16

cognitive bias that leads people to overestimate the role of personality and underestimate the role of situation when explaining others behaviour

Question 17

correspondance bias

Answer 17

The tendency to view behaviour as the result of disposition, even when the behaviour can be explained by the situation in which it occurs.

• tendency for people to overemphasize personal factors and underestimate situational factors in explaining the behaviour of others (cultural differences)

Question 18

actor observer bias

Answer 18

Emphasizing dispositional attributions to explain the behaviour of others while emphasizing situational attributions to explain our own behaviour.

(self versus others)

Question 19

self serving bias

Answer 19

Attributing success to dispositional factors while attributing failure to situational factors.

• positive versus negative behaviours

Question 20

stereotypes

Answer 20

A simplified set of traits associated with membership in a group or category.

• cognitive bias

Question 21

prejudice

Answer 21

A prejudgment, usually negative, of another person on the basis of membership in a group.

• negative judgements and attitudes toward a person based on their group memberships
• emotional bias

Question 22

discrimination

Answer 22

Unfair behaviour based on stereotyping and prejudice.

• innapropriate and unjustified treatment of people based on their group membership
• behavioural bias

Question 23

bystander effect

Answer 23

• diffusion of responsibility
• evaluation apprehension
• pluralistic ignorance
• The study of situational variables related to helping a stranger, most notably the decreased likelihood of helping as the number of bystanders increases.

Question 24

diffusion of responsbility

Answer 24

person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when other bystanders or witnesses are present

Question 25

audience inhibition

Answer 25

people do not take action to help others in an emergency situation because they are afraid of being embarrassed or criticized by others failing to act appropriately

Question 26

groupthink

Answer 26

when group decision making is impaired because of a desire to reach or maintain consensus

Question 27

social facilitation

Answer 27

A situation in which the presence of other people changes performance.

Question 28

social loafing

Answer 28

Reduced motivation and effort shown by individuals working in a group.

Question 29

deindividuation

Answer 29

Immersion of an individual within a group, leading to anonymity.

Question 30

social psychology

Answer 30

• we are social animals who live in groups and depend on one another for survival
• social psychologists study how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual imagined or implied presence of others

Question 31

affiliation motivation: the need to belong

Answer 31

the motivation to be part of relationships to belong to groups and to be accepted by others

Question 32

asch conformity experiment

Answer 32

The experiments revealed the degree to which a person’s own opinions are influenced by those of a group.

Asch found that people were willing to ignore reality and give an incorrect answer in order to conform to the rest of the group.

Question 33

milgram studies of obedience

Answer 33

factors that lowered rates of obedience include: proximity to the learner, proximity to the experimenter, presence of non obedient confederates

Question 34

categorization and stereotypes

Answer 34

cognitive schemas that allow for easy fast processing of information about people based on membership in social groups

• overgeneralizations

Question 35

where do stereotypes come from

Answer 35

• media exposure
  -family and friends
  -direct experience