Chapter 1

Question 1

Social Psychology

Answer 1

The scientific study of the causes and consequences of peoples thoughts, feelings, and actions regarding themselves and other people.

Question 2

Social cognition perspective

Answer 2

A view that focused on how people perceive, remember, and interpret events and individuals including themselves, in their social world.

Question 3

Evolutionary perspective

Answer 3

A view that humans are a species of animal and that their social behavior is a consequence of particular evolved adaptations.

Question 4

Cultural perspective

Answer 4

A view that focuses on the influence of culture on thought, feeling, and behavior.

Question 5

Cultural animals

Answer 5

A description of humans as viewing reality through a set of symbols provided by the culture in which they raised.

Question 6

Existential perspective

Answer 6

A view that focuses on the cognitive, affective , and behavioral consequences of basic aspects of the human condition, such as the knowledge of mortality, the desire for meaning, and the precarious nature of identity.

Question 7

Social neuroscience perspective

Answer 7

A view that focuses on understanding the neural processes that underlie social judgement and behavior. Neuroscience involves assessments of brain waves, brain imaging, and cardiovascular functioning.

Question 8

Dispositions

Answer 8

Consistent preferences, ways of thinking, and behavioral tendencies that manifest across varying situations and over time.

Question 9

Scientific method

Answer 9

The process of developing, testing, and refining theories to understand the determinants of social behavior.

Question 10

Attribution theory

Answer 10

The view that people act as intuitive scientists when they observe other people’s behavior and infer explanations about why those people acted the way they did.

Question 11

Casual attributions

Answer 11

Explanations of an individuals behavior

Question 12

Cultural knowledge

Answer 12

A vast store of information, accumulated within a culture, that explains how that world works and why things happen as they do.

Question 13

Cognitive misers

Answer 13

A term that conveys the human tendency to avoid expending effort and cognitive resources when thinking and to prefer seizing on quick and easy answers to questions.

Question 14

Confirmation bias

Answer 14

A tendency to seek out information and view events and other people in ways that fit how we want and expect them to be.

Question 15

Confederate

Answer 15

A supposed participant in a research study who, unknown to the real participants, actually is working with experimenters.

Question 16

Theory

Answer 16

An explanation for how and why variables are related to each other.

Question 17

Research

Answer 17

The process whereby scientists observe events, look for patterns, and evaluate theories proposed to explain those patterns.

Question 18

Hypothesis

Answer 18

An “if-then” statement that follows logically from a theory and specified how certain variables should be related to each other if the theory is correct.

Question 19

Correlational method

Answer 19

Research in which two or more variables are measured and analyzed to determine to what extent, if any, they are associated.

Question 20

Correlation coefficient

Answer 20

A positive or negative numerical value that shows the direction and strength of a relationship between two variables.

Question 21

Reverse causality problem

Answer 21

The possibility that a correlation between variables x and y may occur because one causes the other, but it is impossible to determine whether x causes y or y causes x.

Question 22

Third variable problem

Answer 22

The possibility that two variables may be correlated but do not exert a casual influence on one another, and both are caused by some additional variable.

Question 23

Longitudinal studies

Answer 23

Studies in which variables are measured in the same individuals over two or more periods of time, typically over months or years.

Question 24

Experimental method

Answer 24

A study in which a researcher manipulates a variable, referred to as the independent variable, measures possible effects on another variable, referred to as the dependent variable, and tries to hold all other variables constant.

Question 25

Internal validity

Answer 25

The judgement that for a particular experiment it is possible to conclude that the manipulated independent variable caused the change in the measured dependent variable.

Question 26

Interaction

Answer 26

A pattern of results in which the effect of one independent variable on the dependent variable depends on the level of a second independent variable.

Question 27

Random assignment

Answer 27

A procedure in which participants are assigned to conditions in such a way that each person has an equal chance of being in any condition of an experiment.

Question 28

Field research

Answer 28

Research that occurs outside the laboratory, such as in schools, in office buildings, in medical clinics, at football games, or even in shopping malls or on street corners.

Question 29

Quasi-experimental designs

Answer 29

A type of research in which groups of participants are compared on some dependent variable, but for practical or ethical reasons, the groups are not formed on the basis of random assignments.

Question 30

Operational definition

Answer 30

A specific, concrete method of measuring or manipulating a conceptual variable.

Question 31

Construct validity

Answer 31

The degree to which a dependent variable assesses what it intends to assess or an independent variable manipulates what it intends to manipulate.

Question 32

Confound

Answer 32

A variable other than the conceptual variable intended to be manipulated that may be responsible for the effect on the dependent variable, making alternative explanations possible.

Question 33

Conceptual replication

Answer 33

The repetition of a study with different operationalizations of the crucial variables but yielding similar results.

Question 34

External validity

Answer 34

The judgement that a research finding can be generalized to other people, in other settings, at other times.

Question 35

Direct replication

Answer 35

The process of reproducing a scientific finding by repeating the same methods and measures used in the original research study.

Question 36

Moderator variables

Answer 36

Variables that explain when, where, or for whom an effect is most likely to occur.

Question 37

Meta-analysis

Answer 37

A process of analyzing data across many related studies to determine the strength and reliability of a finding.

Question 38

Registered report

Answer 38

A study that is accepted for publication on the strength of the methods and importance of the question but before the results are known.

Question 39

Cover story

Answer 39

An explanation of the purpose of a study that is different from the true purpose.

Question 40

Demand characteristics

Answer 40

Aspects of a study that give away its purpose or communicate how the participant is expected to behave.

Question 41

Experimenter bias

Answer 41

The possibility experimenters knowledge of the condition a particular participant is in could affect her behavior toward the participant and thereby introduce a confounding variable to the independent variable manipulation.

Question 42

Debriefing

Answer 42

At the end of the study, the procedure in which participants are assessed for suspicion and then receive a gentle explanation of the true nature of the study in a manner that counteracts any negative effects of the study experience.