Social: Various Topics Flashcards
You will be able to analyze how individuals interact within social contexts, focusing on perception, attitudes, relationships, group dynamics, and cultural influences.
What is social psychology?
It is the sect of psychology that “uses scientific methods to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings.” (Allport, 1985)
What is an attitude, and why is it so important to social psychology?
It is an evaluation of people, objects, or ideas. Since we can have positive or negative attitudes about nearly everything, attitudes shape our view of the world.
According to social psychology, why do advertisers use the same commercial for the same product over and over again?
The mere exposure effect hypothesizes that you will like something more as you see it more, which will increase your likelihood of buying what is advertised.
An ad with a political candidate explaining directly why he is better than his opponent is an example of what idea of social psychology?
central route of persuasion
An ad featuring a beautiful model and a famous athlete using a product without saying why it is better than a competitor’s product is an example of what idea in social psychology?
peripheral route to persuasion
What did Richard LaPiere’s research show about attitudes and behavior?
His research, which looked at the behavior toward Asians in America in the 1930s, showed that, while hotel and restaurant workers at the time overwhelmingly said they would refuse service to Asians, a very small percentage actually did. This suggests that attitude does not necessarily dictate behavior.
What is cognitive dissonance?
A theory that people are motivated to reduce the differences that are psychologically uncomfortable between their own thoughts, feelings, and actions. Often this is “sour grapes” or rationalization.
What was Festinger and Carlsmith’s experiment on cognitive dissonance?
Participants in a study were paid either $1 or $20 to tell a confederate that the task to complete was enjoyable when it was really quite boring. The more a participant was paid, the less they actually believed they enjoyed the task.
What compliance strategy believes a person should ask for something small to get something bigger later?
The foot-in-the-door phenomemon believes that if someone agrees to giving away something small, they will be more likely to give away something larger if it is requested later.
If you ask your parents for $50 and they say no, then you ask them for $20 and they say yes, what compliance strategy is employed?
The door-in-the-face strategy suggests that if you ask for something large, asking for something smaller will seem more reasonable and the request is more likely to be granted.
Why would we be more likely to donate money to people wrapping presents for free during the holidays?
Norms of reciprocity are the idea that if someone does something nice for you, you should do something nice for him. So since the volunteers are wrapping presents for free for you, you think the least you could do is donate to their cause.
Why might you choose to believe you got in a car accident because someone cut you off instead of believing it is because you were not paying attention to the other cars on the road?
Attribution theory addresses how we understand behaviors and the causes of events. You may attribute your accident to someone else making a poor driving decision instead of you so you won’t feel bad or guilty.
What are the three kinds of information Harold Kelley proposed we use to make attributions?
- consistency: how consistent is this information over time?
- distinctiveness: how distinct is this information from the other information we have about the subject?
- consensus: how would others have responded given the same information?
What did Rosenthal and Jacobson’s experiment, “Pygmalion in the Classroom” show about self-fulfilling prophecy?
A class of students was issued a standard IQ test, but the researchers told teachers it was a measure of performance potential and randomly selected several students as being more capable than others.
As a result of self-fulfilling prophecy, teachers treated these kids as capable learners, and their scores improved more than the other students’.
What is the fundamental attribution error?
It is our bias to view the behavior of others in terms of dispositional characteristics (a teacher thinks a student failed a test because the student is stupid), but not considering situational reasons (the student did not study).
If I believe everyone likes chocolate because I like chocolate, and you believe everyone likes vanilla because you like vanilla, what is being exhibited?
The false-consensus effect is occurring. We believe that because we feel one way about something, everyone else feels the same way about it.
Why are we more likely to take credit for our role in a successful group presentation than an unsuccessful group presentation?
The self-serving bias allows us to believe that we had a greater role in something’s success than in its failure.
What belief (suggested by M.J. Lerner) allows us to think that good things will come to good people, and bad things will ultimately befall bad people?
The just-world bias helps us make sense of the world by believing that it is fundamentally fair.
This also allows us to blame victims of misfortune, believing things would have been different if they had made better decisions, so they got what they deserved.
What is a stereotype?
A shared belief or generalization about a group of people and can be positive or negative.
What is a prejudice and how does it differ from a stereotype?
It is the negatively affective component of stereotyping, like being scared of a group of people you believe (through stereotyping) to be violent.
What is discrimination, and how does it emerge from stereotypes and prejudices?
An action taken because of the prejudices that arise from stereotypes.
An example of discrimination is calling the police about a group of people loitering in an area because you believe them to be violent, even if they have done nothing wrong.
If you believe that other cultures are odd because they are not like your own, and that your culture is superior to other cultures, you are engaging in what form of bias?
ethnocentrism
Why might we see members of our out-groups as all being the same?
We have extensive experience with those who are part of our in-groups, so we see the variance therein. However, we have less experience with groups we are not part of, so we tend to see them as all being the same. This is called out-group homogeneity.
Why might we engage in in-group bias?
Researchers suggest that we have a need to see ourselves as good people. If we have a social identity that we believe makes us good, we will tend to favor people in our in-groups, since we believe they must also be good (or they would be part of our out-groups).