Social Psychology

Question 1

What is social psychology?

Answer 1

the study of how individuals behave, think, and feel in social situations

Question 2

What is a social role?

Answer 2

a pattern of behaviour that is expected of a person when functioning in a given setting

Question 3

Are social roles usually good or bad? Why?

Answer 3

good, provides order in society

Question 4

Explain Zimbardo’s prison experiment.

Answer 4

had participants screened for mental maturity and health, randomly assigned to either being a prisoner or a guard, after 6 days of role playing guards had created cruel routines and prisoners were breaking

Question 5

What is conformity?

Answer 5

adjusting our behaviour or thinking to fit in with a group standard

Question 6

What are some factors that promote conformity?

Answer 6

group size, group unanimity, ambiguity of the situation, and group pressure

Question 7

Explain Soloman Asch’s experiment?

Answer 7

particpants were shown lines taht were different lengths and asked which was shorter, placed in group with actors who gave wrong answer, 70% also gave this wrong answer because they conformed

Question 8

Explain Milgram’s study?

Answer 8

assigned participants as a teacher and ordered them to shock the student when they make a mistake and increase the voltage each time

Question 9

Does judgment of others get distorted by appearance? How?

Answer 9

yes

we tend to associate desirable personality traits and competence with attractive people

Question 10

What are stereotypes?

Answer 10

widely held beliefs that others will have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group

Question 11

Why do evolutionary theorists think we categorize people?

Answer 11

because we needed to be able to quickly tell who was a friend or an enemy

Question 12

What are attributions?

Answer 12

inferences that people make about the causes of events/behaviours

Question 13

What are internal attributions?

Answer 13

we attribute the causes of behaviour to personal traits, abilities, and feelings

Question 14

What are external attributions?

Answer 14

we attribute the causes of behaviour to situational demands/environmental factors

Question 15

What is the fundamental attribution error?

Answer 15

people’s bias in favour of internal attribtuions in explaining others’ behaviour

Question 16

What is the self-serving bias?

Answer 16

tendency to explain your successes with internal attributions and your failures with external attribution

Question 17

What is individualism vs collectivism?

Answer 17

putting personal goals ahead of group goals vs putting group goals ahead of personal goals

Question 18

Are individualistic or collectivistic cultures less prone to fundamental attribution error and self-serving bias?

Answer 18

collectivism

Question 19

What is a key factor in romantic attraction for both gender?

Answer 19

physical attraction

Question 20

What is the matching hypothesis?

Answer 20

that males and females of about equal attractiveness are likely to choose eachother as partners

Question 21

How many types of love are there according to Sternberg’s triangular theory of love?

Answer 21

three main types: intimacy, passion, commitment

two can combine which creates three more types

all three can combine for a total of seven

Question 22

According to Sternberg what is intimacy alone considered? What about intimacy+passion? What about intimacy+commitment?

Answer 22

liking, romantic love, companionate love

Question 23

According to Sternberg what is passion alone considered? What about passion+commitment?

Answer 23

infatuation, fatuous love

Question 24

According to Sternberg what is commitment alone considered?

Answer 24

empty love

Question 25

According to Sternberg what is intimacy+passion+commitment considered?

Answer 25

consummate love

Question 26

What is the cognitive component of attitude?

Answer 26

the beliefs that people hold about the object of their attitude

Question 27

What is the affective component of attitude?

Answer 27

the emotional feelings that are brought on by the object of their attitude

Question 28

What is the behavioural component of attitude?

Answer 28

of a predisposition to act in a certain way towards the object of their attitude

Question 29

What does attitude strength refer to?

Answer 29

how firmly your attitude is held

Question 30

What does attitude accessibility refer to?

Answer 30

how often and how quickly an attitude comes to mind

Question 31

What does attitude ambivalence refer to?

Answer 31

how conflicted you feel about an attitude

Question 32

Are attitudes good predictors of peoples behaviour?

Answer 32

they are mediocre predictors

Question 33

What are explicit vs implicit attitudes?

Answer 33

explicit attitudes are ones we hold consciously and are aware of and can describe implicit attitudes we are not aware of and are expressed through subtle automatic responses, can influence behaviour

Question 34

When does persuasion tend to be more successful?

Answer 34

when the source trying to persuade is credible, can depend on expertise or trustworthiness, and likeability

Question 35

Are two sided arguements or one sided presentation more effective at convincing people?

Answer 35

two sided arguements

Question 36

When do fear appeals tend to convince people?

Answer 36

if you succesfully arouse fear

Question 37

What is the learning theory of attitude change?

Answer 37

the affective component of attitude can be changed through classical conditioning or strengthened through operant conditioning

Question 38

What is dissonance theory? What can it explain?

Answer 38

inconsistency between attitudes motivates attitude change why people sometimes believe their own lies

Question 39

What is the elaboration likelihood model?

Answer 39

the central route to persuasion depends on their logic and the peripheral route to persuasion depends on emotions both routes can lead to persuasion but the central route tends to last longer

Question 40

What is the self-perception theory?

Answer 40

people often infer their attitudes from their behaviour

Question 41

What is the bystander effect?

Answer 41

people are less likely to help when they are in groups because of diffusion of responsibility (feel like someone else will help)

Question 42

Does productivity increase or decrease when working as a group? Why?

Answer 42

usually decrease loss of coordination and social loafing

Question 43

What is social loafing?

Answer 43

the reduced effort seen when people work in groups

Question 44

What is group polarization?

Answer 44

discussion leads a group to shift toward a more extreme decision in the direction it was already leaning

Question 45

What is groupthink?

Answer 45

cohesive group suspends critical thinking in a misguided effort to promote agreement

Question 46

How is prejudice different today?

Answer 46

tends to be subtle and often manifested in inconspicuous microaggressions

Question 47

What can contribute to prejudice?

Answer 47

attributional biases

Question 48

What is the foot in the door technique?

Answer 48

involves getting people to agree to a small request to increase the chance they will agree to a large request later

Question 49

What is the reciprocity norm?

Answer 49

the rule that we should pay back in kind what we receive from others

Question 50

What is the door in the face technique?

Answer 50

when people are presented with a very large request, turn it down, and then comply with a more moderate request

Question 51

What is the lowball technique?

Answer 51

getting someone to commit to an attractive proposition before its hidden costs are revealed

Question 52

What is the actor observer bias?

Answer 52

Actors tend to use external attributions for their behaviour and observers use internal attributions for the same behaviour

Question 53

What is the defensive attribution?

Answer 53

Tendency to blame victims for their misfortune so they feel more secure and less likely to be similarly victimized