psychological evidence

Question 1

what information does the human human perceptual system rely on

Answer 1

(1) environmental energy stimulating the receptors and

(2) knowledge and expectations that the observer brings to the situation.

Question 2

Likelihood principle (perception)

Answer 2

A
We perceive the object that is most likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we have received. This judgment of what is most likely occurs, according to Helmholtz, by a process called unconscious inference, in which our perceptions are the result of unconscious assumptions, or inferences, that we make about the environment.

Question 3

Encoding specificity

Answer 3

we encode information along with its context.

Question 4

Reminiscence bump

Answer 4

The enhanced memory for adolescence and young adulthood found in people over 40

Question 5

cognitive hypothesis (cues: retrieval, reminiscence bump)

Answer 5

proposes that periods of rapid change that are followed by stability cause stronger encoding of memories.

Question 6

constructive nature of memory

Answer 6

what people report as memories are constructed based on what actually happened plus additional factors, such as the person’s knowledge, experiences, and expectations

Question 7

cryptomnesia

Answer 7

unconscious plagiarism of the work of others

Question 8

the illusory truth effect (this is so good for anything media related)

Answer 8

The enhanced probability of evaluating a statement as being true upon repeated presentation

Question 9

Music-enhanced autobiographical memories (MEAMS)

Answer 9

Memories elicited by hearing music. Often thought of as involuntary memories.

Question 10

the human tendency towards categorization refers to

Answer 10

States that we can decide whether some-thing is a member of a category by determining whether a particular object meets the definition or the prototype of that category.

Question 11

prototypically

Answer 11

High typicality means that a category member closely resembles the category prototype

Question 12

fixation

Answer 12

the psychological tendency to focus on a specific characteristic of the problem that keeps them from arriving at a solution.

Question 13

Attitude

Answer 13

A positive, negative or mixed reaction to a person, object or idea. E.g., like, love, dislike, hate, admire and detest, self-esteem, prejudice.

Question 14

Implicit attitude

Answer 14

An attitude, such as prejudice, that the person is not aware of having.

Question 15

3 general reasons for stronger attitudes:

Answer 15

Directly affected their own self-interest
Related to deeply held philosophical, political and religious values
were of concern to their close friends, family and social ingroups.

Question 16

Psychological reactance

Answer 16

The theory that people react against threats to their freedom by asserting themselves and perceiving the threatened freedom as more attractive

Question 17

Evaluative conditioning

Answer 17

A
The process by which we form an attitude towards a neutral stimulus because of its association with a positive or negative person, place or thing.

Question 18

self-generated persuasion

Answer 18

when people behave in ways that contradict their attitudes, they sometimes go on to change those attitudes without any exposure to a persuasive communication”

The process of persuading yourself through developing arguments (etc.). More effective when the audience you select is someone you anticipate will agree the least. If you believe in an idea, target someone else that disagrees or that you don’t know where they will stand. If you disagree, target yourself and you’ll try harder to investigate and therefore persuade yourself more.

Question 19

Cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 19

The theory holding that inconsistent cognitions arouse psychological tension that people become motivated to reduce.

Question 20

Ethical dissonance

Answer 20

The internal state of turmoil that arises from behaving in ways that violate our own moral code.

Question 21

Moral licensing

Answer 21

A tendency to justify an anticipated misdeed by citing good things that we have done

Question 22

how people reduce dissonance (6 ways)

Answer 22

Change your attitude
Change your perception of your behaviour
Add consonant cognitions (e.g. dieting person saying ‘chocolate icecream is actually very nutritious)
Minimise the importance of the conflict (‘I don’t care if i’m overweight, life is too short’)
Reduce percieved choice (‘I had no choice…’)
Intuit ingroup hypocrisy

Question 23

Vicarious self-perception

Answer 23

The act reaching conclusions about yourself via perceptions of a comparable counterpart

Question 24

Social comparison theory

Answer 24

The theory that people evaluate their own abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to others.

Question 25

Sociometer theory

Answer 25

A The theory that people are inherently social animals and their desire for self-esteem is driven by a more primitive need to connect with others and gain their approval. This leads to some having a ‘sociometer’ – that detects acceptance and rejection, and translates these into high and low self-esteem.

Question 26

Terror management theory (self-esteem related)

Answer 26

The theory that humans cope with the fear of their own death by constructing worldviews that help to preserve their self-esteem.

Question 27

Self-discrepancy theory

Answer 27

our self-esteem is defined by the match or mismatch between how we see ourselves and how we want to see ourselves.

Question 28

Mechanisms of self-enhancement (8)

Answer 28

The better-than-average effect Implicit egotism Self Serving beliefs Self-handicapping Basking in reflected glory (BIRG) Cut off reflected failure (CORF) Downward social comparisons Downward temporal comparison

Question 29

Downward social comparison

Answer 29

The defensive tendency to compare ourselves with others who are worse off than we are

Question 30

Normative conformity

Answer 30

Influence that produces conformity when a person fears the negative social consequences of appearing deviant.

Question 31

Minority Influence

Answer 31

A The process by which dissenters produce change within a group

Question 32

Social impact theory

Answer 32

The theory that social influence depends on the strength, immediacy and number of individual sources relative to target people.

Question 33

Ashs study

Answer 33

using visual selection task, participants where shown to submit clearly incorrect responses to stimuli purely becuase acting paricipants gave wrong answers - __. normative conformity

Question 34

Availability heuristic

Answer 34

The tendency to estimate the likelihood that an event will occur by how easily instances of it come to mind.

Question 35

False-consensus effect

Answer 35

In part, produced by the availability heuristic. The tendency for people to overestimate the extent to which others share their opinions, attributes and behaviours.

Question 36

Belief in a just world

Answer 36

The belief that individuals get what they deserve in life – an orientation that leads people to disparage victims

Question 37

Information integration theory

Answer 37

The theory that impressions are based on (1) personal dispositions and the current state of the perceiver and (2) a weighted average of a target person’s characteristics

Question 38

Impression formation

Answer 38

The process of integrating information about a person to form a coherent impression.

Question 39

Priming

Answer 39

The tendency for recently used or perceived words or ideas to come to mind easily and influence the interpretation of new information

Question 40

Primacy effect

Answer 40

The tendency for information presented early in a sequence to have more impact on impressions than information presented later

Question 41

Confirmation bias

Answer 41

The tendency to seek, interpret and create information that verifies existing beliefs.

Question 42

Belief perseverance

Answer 42

The tendency to maintain beliefs even after they have been discredited.

Question 43

self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 43

The process by which an individual’s expectations about a person eventually lead that person to behave in ways that confirm those expectations

Question 44

Out-group homogeneity effect

Answer 44

The tendency to assume that there is greater similarity among members of outgroups than among members of ingroups.

Question 45

Ingroup favouritism

Answer 45

The tendency to discriminate in favour of ingroups over outgroups.

Question 46

Social identity theory

Answer 46

The theory that people favour ingroups over outgroups in order to enhance their self-esteem

Question 47

Social dominance orientation

Answer 47

A desire to see one’s ingroup as dominant over other groups, and a willingness to adopt cultural values that facilitate oppression over other groups.

Question 48

System justification theory

Answer 48

System justification theory A theory that proposes that people are motivated (at least in part) to defend and justify the existing social, political and economic conditions particularly when the status quo suits their ing-group values

Question 49

Social role theory

Answer 49

The theory that small gender differences are magnified in perception by the contrasting social roles occupied by men and women.

Question 50

Illusory correlation

Answer 50

An overestimate of the association between variables that are only slightly or not at all correlated.

Question 51

Q Stigmatised

Answer 51

Persistently being stereotyped, perceived as deviant and devalued in society due to being a member of a particular social group or possessing a particular characteristic.

Question 52

Modern racism

Answer 52

A form of prejudice that surfaces in subtle ways when it is safe, socially acceptable and easy to rationalise.

Question 53

Aversive racism

Answer 53

Racism that concerns the ambivalence between fair-minded attitudes and beliefs, and unconscious and unrecognised prejudicial feelings and beliefs.

Question 54

Implicit race-based bias

Answer 54

Race-based bias that operates unconsciously and unintentionally.

Question 55

what cuases implicit bias

Answer 55

personal experiences, societal stereotypes and cultural context, societal norms the media

Question 56

Social facilitation

Answer 56

A process whereby the presence of others enhances performance on easy tasks but impairs performance on difficult tasks.

Question 57

mere presence theory

Answer 57

that others simply being present is enough to produce social facilitation

Question 58

Social loafing

Answer 58

when someone puts in less effort when they're judged as part of a group

Question 59

Deindividuation

Answer 59

The loss of a person’s sense of individuality and the reduction of normal constraints against deviant behaviour.

Question 60

Process loss

Answer 60

The reduction in group performance due to obstacles created by group processes, such as problems of coordination and motivation.

Question 61

Evaluation apprehension

Answer 61

In the presence of others, people may be hesitant to suggest wild, off-the-wall ideas for fear of looking foolish and being criticised. Even if they are willing to suggest such ideas, they may spend time preparing to justify them that they otherwise could have spent coming up with more ideas.

Question 62

Bystander effect

Answer 62

the presence of others inhibits helping

Question 63

Audience inhibition

Answer 63

Reluctance to help for fear of making a bad impression on observers

Question 64

Dark triad

Answer 64

A set of three traits that are associated with higher levels of aggressiveness: Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism.

Question 65

Cycle of violence - as a result of social learning theory

Answer 65

The transmission of domestic violence across generations.

Question 66

Weapons effect

Answer 66

The tendency that the likelihood of aggression will increase by the mere presence of weapons.

Question 67

Cultivation

Answer 67

The process by which the mass media (particularly television) construct a version of social reality for the public

Question 68

adaptation-level theory

Answer 68

our satisfaction with the present depends on the level of success to which we are accustomed e.g. hedonic adaption: receive a new improved car, you adapt to it eventually, desire improvement relative to that car

Question 69

Own-race identification bias

Answer 69

The tendency for people to be more accurate at recognising members of their own racial group than of other groups

Question 70

Attribution theory

Answer 70

is concerned with the ways in which people explain (or attribute) the behaviour of others. The theory divides the way people attribute causes to events into two types. External or "situational" attributions assign causality to an outside factor, such as the weather. Internal or "dispositional" attributions assign causality to factors within the person, such as ability or personality.

Question 71

Drive theory

Answer 71

posits that the presence of an audience causes arousal which creates dominant or typical responses in the context of the situation.

Question 72

Motivation crowding theory

Answer 72

suggests that extrinsic motivators such as monetary incentives or punishments can undermine (or, under different conditions, strengthen) intrinsic motivation.

Question 73

Social Identity theory

Answer 73

examines how categorizing people (including oneself) into ingroups or outgroups affects perceptions, attitudes, and behavior.

Question 74

Social representation theory

Answer 74

concerns the character of the shared beliefs and practices that typify any collective.

Question 75

Socioemotional selectivity theory

Answer 75

posits that as people age and their perceived time left in life decreases, they shift from focusing on information seeking goals to focusing on emotional goals.

Question 76

System justification theory

Answer 76

proposes that people have a motivation to defend and bolster the status quo, in order to continue believing that their social, political, and economic systems are legitimate and just.