Social Psychology

Question 1

attitude

Answer 1

cognition, beliefs, feelings, & behavioral predisposition

Question 2

consistency theories

Answer 2

people prefer consistency & will change or resist changing attitudes based on this preference

Question 3

Fritz Heider’s balance theory

Answer 3

1. person whom we’re talking about
2. some other person
3. thing, idea, or some other person

balance exists when all 3 fit together harmoniously.

no balance = stress

Question 4

Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 4

the conflict that you feel when your attitudes are not in synch with your behaviors

Question 5

how can dissonance be reduced?

Answer 5

by changing attitude so it’s consistent with behavior

Question 6

free-choice dissonance

Answer 6

person makes a choice between several desirable alternatives

Question 7

post-decisional dissonance

Answer 7

dissonance that emerges after a choice

Question 8

spreading of alternatives

Answer 8

approach to reducing dissonance by accentuating negatives or positives; reduces inconsistency

Question 9

forced-compliance dissonance

Answer 9

individual forced into behaving in manner that is inconsistent w/ his or her beliefs

Question 10

Festinger & Carlsmith experiment

Answer 10

given $1 or $20 to lie; $1 showed greater enjoyment

Question 11

attitude change occurs when behavior is induced with ____ pressure

Answer 11

minimum

Question 12

minimal justification effect

Answer 12

when behavior can be justified by means of external inducements, no need to change internal cognitions. when external justification is minimal, you need to reduce your dissonance by changing internal cognitions

Question 13

Daryl Bem’s self-perception theory

Answer 13

people infer what their attitudes are based upon observation of their own behavior

Ex: “I guess I like brown bread because I’m always eating it.”

Question 14

overjustification effect

Answer 14

if you reward people for doing something they already like doing, they might stop liking it

Question 15

Carl Hovland’s model

Answer 15

attitude change as a process of communicating a message w/ the intent to persuade someone

Question 16

Carl Hovland’s model 3 parts

Answer 16

1. communicator
2. communication
3. situation

Question 17

sleeper effect

Answer 17

over time, persuasive impact of high credibility source decreased

persuasive impact of low-credibility source increased

Question 18

two-sided messages

Answer 18

contain arguments for & against position; used for persuasion since it seems “balanced”

Question 19

Petty & Cacioppo’s elaboration likelihood Model of Persuasion

Answer 19

two routes to persuasion:

1. central
2. peripheral

Question 20

central route to persuasion

Answer 20

issue very important to us, strong arguments work better

Question 21

peripheral

Answer 21

issue not that important; strength of argument doesn’t matter that much

how, by whom, & surroundings matter more

Question 22

analogy of inoculation

Answer 22

medical inoculation works by exposing body to weakened viruses: strong enough to trigger a response, but not so strong as to overwhelm the body’s resistance

Question 23

inoculation theory

Answer 23

expose someone to weakened counterarguments, triggering process of counter-arguing which eventually confers resistance to later, stronger persuasive messages

Question 24

cultural truism

Answer 24

beliefs that are seldom questioned; vulnerable for attack; no practice defending them

Question 25

refused counterarguments

Answer 25

how he inoculated people against attacks - presented arguments against truisms, refuted arguments; this motivates people to practice defending their beliefs

Question 26

belief perseverance

Answer 26

under certain conditions, people will hold beliefs even after those beliefs have been shown false

Question 27

reactance

Answer 27

if you try too hard to persuade someone, that person will choose to believe the opposite of your position

Question 28

Festinger's Social Comparison Theory

Answer 28

we are drawn to affiliate b/c of a tendency to evaluate ourselves in relationship to other people - need for self-evaluation becomes linked to need to affiliate

Question 29

Stanley Schachter

Answer 29

greater anxiety leads to greater desire to affiliate

Question 30

reciprocity hypothesis

Answer 30

we tend to like people to indicate that they like us and vice versa

Question 31

gain-loss principle

Answer 31

an evaluation that changes will have more of an impact than an evaluation that remains constant (we'll like someone more if their liking for us has increased)

Question 32

social exchange theory

Answer 32

assumes that person weighs the rewards and costs of interacting w/ one another; attempt to maximize rewards & minimize costs

Question 33

equity theory

Answer 33

consider not only our own costs & rewards, but also costs & rewards of other person want the ratios to be equal

Question 34

need complementarity

Answer 34

opposites attract; people choose relationships so they satisfy each other's needs

Question 35

attractiveness stereotype

Answer 35

tendency to attribute positive qualities & desirable characteristics to attractive people

Question 36

spatial proximity

Answer 36

people prefer people who live closer

Question 37

mere exposure hypothesis

Answer 37

the more you see something, the more you like it

Question 38

helping behavior

Answer 38

includes altruistic motivations, but also includes behaviors that may be motivated by egoism or selfishness

Question 39

altruism

Answer 39

person's intent is to benefit someone else at some cost to himself or herself

Question 40

bystander intervention

Answer 40

people see something happening and don't do anything about it

Question 41

social influence

Answer 41

reason for bystander effect other people don't do anything, so you don't do anything

Question 42

diffusion of responsibility

Answer 42

reason for bystander effect the more people present, the less likelihood that any individual will offer help

Question 43

empathy

Answer 43

ability to vicariously experience emotions of another; strong influence on helping behavior

Question 44

Batson's empathy-altruism model

Answer 44

when faced with situations in which others may need help, people might feel distress and/or empathy people who report more empathy than distress are more likely to help out regardless of easy or difficult escape condition

Question 45

frustration-aggression hypothesis

Answer 45

possible explanation for aggressive behavior; when people are frustrated, they act aggressively

Question 46

Bandura's social learning theory

Answer 46

aggression is learned through modeling (direct observation) or through reinforcement

Question 47

Sherif's autokinetic effect experiment

Answer 47

if you stare at a point of light in a room that is otherwise completely dark, light will appear to move used in an experiment to show that people conform to the group (tend to say what others say)

Question 48

Solomon Asch's conformity study

Answer 48

with no pressure to conform, researchers found strong tendency for subjects to conform to incorrect responses comparing lengths of lines: people yield to group pressure and choose incorrect line

Question 49

Stanley Milgram's obedience experiment

Answer 49

made participants shock Mr. Wallace every time he answered a question incorrectly; shock got stronger, reaction got stronger result: drive to obey was stronger than drive not to hurt someone against his will

Question 50

foot-in-door effect

Answer 50

demonstrates compliance w/ a small request increases likelihood of compliance w/ larger request

Question 51

door-in-the-face effect

Answer 51

people who refuse large initial request are more likely to agree to a later smaller request

Question 52

Clark & Clark doll preference study

Answer 52

majority of white & black children preferred white doll - later showed black children hold positive views of their own ethinicity

Question 53

primacy effect

Answer 53

first impressions are more important than subsequent impressions

Question 54

recency effect

Answer 54

most recent information we have about individual is most important in forming impression

Question 55

attribution theory

Answer 55

focuses on tendency for individuals to infer the causes of other people's behavior - people are natural psychologists

Question 56

dispositional causes

Answer 56

those that relate to the attitudes & personality characteristics of the individual (part of attribution theory)

Question 57

situational causes

Answer 57

external; relate to features of the surroundings | part of attribution theory

Question 58

fundamental attribution error

Answer 58

general bias towards dispositional attributions | part of attribution theorY

Question 59

Halo effect

Answer 59

tendency to allow general impression about person to influence other, more specific evaluations about person

Question 60

M.J. Lerner's belief in just world

Answer 60

strong belief in just world increases likelihood of victim blaming since such a world view denies possibility of innocent victims

Question 61

Theodore Newcomb study

Answer 61

college makes people liberal (shows group effects)

Question 62

proxemics

Answer 62

the study of how individuals space themselves in relation to others (cultural norms that govern how far away we stand from people we're speaking to)

Question 63

Zajonc

Answer 63

presence of others increases arousal & enhances emission of dominant responses

Question 64

social loafing

Answer 64

tendency for people to put forth less effort when part of a group than when acting individually

Question 65

Philip Zimbardo & anonymity

Answer 65

people are more likely to commit antisocial acts when they feel anonymous within a social environment since when a person is anonymous, there's diminished restraint of unacceptable behavior

Question 66

Stanford prison simulation

Answer 66

had students act as either prisoners or guards...people went cray

Question 67

deindividuation

Answer 67

loss of self-awareness & personal identity

Question 68

groupthink

Answer 68

tendency of decision-making groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information

Question 69

risky shift

Answer 69

group decisions are riskier than the average of the individual choices

Question 70

value hypothesis

Answer 70

risky shift occurs in situations in which riskiness is culturally valued

Question 71

group polarization

Answer 71

leading explanation; tendency for group discussion to enhance group's initial tendencies towards riskiness or caution

Question 72

leadership & communication

Answer 72

people who communicate more are seen more as leaders

Question 73

Kurt Lewin

Answer 73

manipulated leadership styles in after-school program

Question 74

autocractic

Answer 74

hostile, aggressive, dependent on leader, greatest work quantity

Question 75

democratic

Answer 75

more satisfying, cohesive, strong motivation & interest

Question 76

laissez faire

Answer 76

less efficient, less organized, less satisfying

Question 77

cooperation

Answer 77

person acts together for their mutual benefit so that all can obtain a goal

Question 78

competition

Answer 78

person acts for his or her individual benefit so that he or she can obtain goal that has limited availability

Question 79

prisoner's dilemma

Answer 79

maximum gain: if choose to cooperate, other person competes lose the most: if he or she competes, other chooses to cooperate

Question 80

Robber's cave experiment

Answer 80

made two cabin groups compete & hate each other; social events failed to decrease hostilities

Question 81

superordinate goals

Answer 81

best obtained through intergroup cooperation; joint effort on these superordinate goals dramatically improved intergroup relations (result of Robber's cave experiment)