Midterm #2

Question 1

Define attitude

Answer 1

Evaluation of oneself, other people, events, issues, and material things with some degree of favour or disfavour

Question 2

When attitudes influence behaviour

Answer 2

Attitudes are beliefs and feelings that can influence our reactions
Attitudes influence behaviour when…
- Attitude is specific to the behaviour
- External factors are taken into account
- Attitude is strongly held

Question 3

When behaviour influences attitudes

Answer 3

Sometimes we change our attitudes to match our behaviours
Example: Role-playing
- Refers to actions expected of those who occupy a particular social position
- Zimbardo’s Standford Prison Experiment

Question 4

Role playing and the power of the situation

Answer 4

Zimbardo - Stanford Prison Study

- “What is unreal can evolve into what is real”

Question 5

Define compliance and give examples

Answer 5

the action or fact of complying with a wish or command. (Doing what you’re told)

Question 6

Normative social influence (The need to be liked)

Answer 6

When people change their opinions or actions because they want to fit in with the group.

Question 7

Informational social influence (The need to be right)

Answer 7

When people change their opinions or actions because they believe that others have the information they need to make the right decisions.

Question 8

Caldini’s 6 Principles of Compliance

Answer 8

• Commitment and Consistency; Once we agree to something we do not want to change our minds.
• Scarcity; If something is limited in amount or time of availability, we will want it more
• Reciprocity; If someone does something for us, we want to return the favour.
• Social proof; We look to others’ behaviours when making our decisions.
• Liking; We are more likely to accept something coming from someone we like.
• Authority; If someone in authority tells us it is good, we will like it.

Question 9

How do we coerce or persuade people to do what we want them to do?

Answer 9

• Foot-in-the-door technique: The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.
• Door-in-the-face technique: The tendency for people who have first declined a large request to comply with a smaller request.
• Low-ball technique: People who agree to an initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante. People who receive only the costly request are less likely to comply with it.

Question 10

Cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 10

Tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions, as when we realize that we have acted contrary to our attitudes. (adjust our attitudes to to correspond with our actions)

Question 11

Self-perception theory

Answer 11

When unsure of our attitudes, we infer them - much as someone observing us would - by looking at our behaviour and the circumstances under which it occurs.

Question 12

Conformity

Answer 12

Changing one’s perceptions, opinions, or behaviour in order to be more consistent with real or imagined group norms.

Question 13

Obedience

Answer 13

Changes in behaviour elicited by the commands of an authority figure.

Question 14

Asch’s Study of Conformity

Answer 14

• Participants judged which of three comparison lines matched the standard.

Question 15

Factors found to influence conformity

Answer 15

• Situational factors (group size, group cohesiveness, social support)
• Personal factors (self-awareness, need for individuation, desire for personal control, desire for individualization)

Question 16

Milgrim’s Obedience Experiments

Answer 16

• Percentage of subjects complying despite the learner’s cries of protest and failure to respond

Question 17

Explain each of the four factors determined obedience

Answer 17

• Emotional distance of the victim: distant/depersonalized (learner in the room vs. not seen)
• Closeness and legitimacy of the authority: physical presence of experimenter (phone vs. in room)
• Institutional authority: Yale vs. Bridgeport
• The liberating effects of group influence: First responders

Question 18

Persuasion

Answer 18

The action or fact of persuading someone or of being persuaded to do or believe something.

Question 19

2 routes to persuasion

Answer 19

• Central route: involved, motivated, thinking systematically, focusing on arguments
• Peripheral route: uninvolved, distracted, cues that trigger acceptance

Question 20

3 elements of persuasion

Answer 20

• The communicator: credibility, sleeper effect, attractiveness
• The message: central vs. peripheral
• The audience: personality characteristics, life-cycle explanation (attitudes change as people get older), generational explanation (change in generations)

Question 21

Resisting persuasion?

Answer 21

• Forewarned is forearmed

- Be involved, critical thinkers

Question 22

Resisting persuasion?

Answer 22

• Forewarned is forearmed

- Be involved, critical thinkers

Question 23

Define indoctrination (examples)

Answer 23

A process, used by a number of social groups, to teach members a partisan and uncritical acceptance of the group’s perspective on issues.

Question 24

How social psychological principles explain indoctrination

Answer 24

• Attitudes follow behaviour (compliance breeds acceptance)

- Persuasive elements (communicator, message, audience)

Question 25

Philip Zimbardo's research on cults

Answer 25

- Individuals do not join "cults" - Reflect society's "default values" - "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything" - Everyone is vulnerable under different conditions.

Question 26

Know how to tell if your group is a cult...

Answer 26

- Alternatives being provided or taken away - One's access to new and different information being broadened or denied? - Personal responsibility vs. group as its leader

Question 27

Attitude Strength

Answer 27

Strong attitudes are more likely to lead to behaviour than weak attitudes

Question 28

Information Processing Biases

Answer 28

The way in which attitudes are formed impacts how easily we are influenced - Exposure: environmental pollution - Attention: pay more attention to information we believe in - Perception: encoding of information - Judgement: conclusions about the meaning or relevance of information - Memory: recall and recognition of attitude relevant info

Question 29

Factors that enable us to resist social pressure

Answer 29

- Reactance: boomerang effect (boy/girl your family doesn't want you to date) - Asserting uniqueness: unique, individuality, different - Attitude inoculation: exposure to weak attacks in order to prepare for stronger attacks

Question 30

Implications of social influence

Answer 30

- active listener - critical thinker - counter argue - ineffective persuasion is often counterproductive - don't just listen, react!

Question 31

Social facilitation original meaning (Triplett)

Answer 31

- perform simple or well-learned tasks better when others are present - problem: couldn't explain why some people performed more poorly in the presence of others

Question 32

Robert Zajonc (arousal and dominant responses)

Answer 32

- genetically predisposed to arousal - arousal enhances whatever behaviour is dominant - for well-learned tasks: the correct responses are the dominant responses. "Home team 'adavntage' only works when the team is already having a good season."

Question 33

Social facilitation (current meaning)

Answer 33

The strengthening of dominant responses in the presence of others.

Question 34

How crowd size can effect

Answer 34

- A large audience can interfere with well-learned, automatic behaviour - Being in a crowd intensifies positive or negative reactions

Question 35

Why are we aroused in the presence of others?

Answer 35

- Evaluation apprehension: concern for how others are evaluating us - Distraction: concern for the presence of others distracts us - Mere presence: some arousal occurs even without evaluation apprehension

Question 36

Social loafing

Answer 36

The tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts toward a common goal than when they are individually accountable

Question 37

Free-rider

Answer 37

People who benefit from the group but give little in return

Question 38

When people are less likely to social loaf when...

Answer 38

- The task is challenging - The task is appealing - The task is involving - Members in the group are friends - in collectivist cultures

Question 39

Deindividuation

Answer 39

When arousal and diffused responsibility combine - Abandon normal restraints - Lose their sense of individual identity - Become responsive to group or crowd norms

Question 40

What elicits deindividuation?

Answer 40

- Group size - Physical anonymity - Arousing and distracting activities - Diminished self-awareness

Question 41

The risky shift phenomenon (examples)

Answer 41

Why groups are more cautious than individuals (James Stoner) | - groups make riskier decisions than individuals

Question 42

Group polarization (examples)

Answer 42

Group-produced enhancement of members' preexisting tendencies whether risky or cautious - a better describer because involves both risk and caution in groups

Question 43

Group polarization in... - law courts - communities - on the internet - in cults - terrorist groups

Answer 43

- Republican judges more conservative with other republican appointees than with democratic ones - Gang delinquency, "landslide" elections - Virtual communities, electronic chat rooms - Shared grievances, isolated from moderating influences

Question 44

Groupthink

Answer 44

"The mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive in-group that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action"

Question 45

Causes and consequences of group think

Answer 45

- an amiable, cohesive group - relative isolation of the group from dissenting viewpoints - a directive leader who signals what decision he or she favours

Question 46

Symptoms of group think

Answer 46

- tend to overestimate might & right (illusion of invulnerability, unquestioned belief in the group's morality) - members become close minded (rationalization, stereotyped view of opponent) - pressures towards uniformity (conformity pressure, self-censorship, illusion of unanimity, mind guards)

Question 47

Preventing groupthink

Answer 47

- Be impartial - Encourage critical evaluation - Subdivide group and reunite to air differences - Welcome critiques from outside experts - Call a "second chance" meeting

Question 48

Minority influence

Answer 48

- Individuals can influence their groups (Rosa Parks) - Consistency (don't flip/flop) - Self-confidence (confidence can sway people) - Defections from the majority (one-time members of majority group viewed as more persuasive when they become members of the minority)