Chapter 10 - Social Psychology

Question 1

What is Social Psychology?

Answer 1

The scientific study of how a person’s thoughts, feelings or behavior influence and are influenced by social groups

Question 2

What is Social Influence?

Answer 2

Process through which the real or implied presence of others can directly or indirectly influence the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of an individual

Question 3

What is conformity?

Answer 3

Changing one’s own behavior to match that of other people

Question 4

What was Asch’s conformity study?

Answer 4

Solomon Asch (1951) conducted the first of his classic studies on conformity by having seven participants gather in a room.

Participants were told that they were participating in an experiment on visual judgment. They were then shown a white card with only one line on it followed by another white card with three lines of varying lengths. The task was to determine which line on the second card was most similar to the line on the first card.

In reality, only the next-to-the-last person in the group was a real participant. The others were all confederates who were instructed to pick the same incorrect line from the comparison lines.

Would the real participant, having heard the others pick what seemed to be the wrong answer, change to conform to the group’s opinion? Surprisingly, the participants conformed to the group answer a little over one third of the time.

Question 5

What is Groupthink?

Answer 5

Occurs when a decision-making group feels that it is more important to maintain group unanimity and cohesiveness than to consider the facts realistically

Question 6

What are the characteristics of Groupthink?

Answer 6

Invulnerability - Members feel they cannot fail

Rationalization - Members explain away warning signs and help each other rationalize their decision

Lack of Introspection - Members do not examine the ethical implications of their decisions because they believe that they cannot make immoral choices

Stereotyping - Members stereotype their enemies as weak, stupid or unreasonable

Pressure - Members pressure each other not to question the prevailing opinion

Lack of disagreement - Members do not express opinions that differ from group consensus

Self-deception - Members share in the illusion that they all agree with the decision.

Insularity - Members prevent the group from hearing disruptive but potentially useful information from people who are outside the group.

Question 7

What is group polarization?

Answer 7

Tendency for members involved in a group discussion to take somewhat more extreme positions and suggest riskier actions than individuals who have not participated in a group discussion

Question 8

What is Social facilitation, social impairment and social loafing?

Answer 8

Social facilitation: Positive influence of others on performance
Social impairment: Negative influence of others on performance
Social loafing: When a lazy person works in a group, that person often performs less well than if the person were working alone

Question 9

What are the different techniques of compliance and consumer psychology?

Answer 9

Compliance occurs when a person changes behavior as a result of another person asking or directing that person to change.

The foot-in-the-door technique involves asking for a small commitment and, after gaining compliance, asking for a bigger commitment.

The door-in-the-face technique involves asking for a large commitment and being refused and then asking for a smaller commitment.

The lowball technique involves getting a commitment from a person and then raising the cost of that commitment.

The that’s-not-all technique is a sales technique in which the persuader makes an offer and then adds something extra to make the offer look better before the target person can make a decision.

Question 10

What is involved in the anatomy of a cult

Answer 10

• People who are stressed, dependent, unrealistically idealistic are targeted as recruits
• “Love bombing”
• Asking for small commitments at first
• Leaving is difficult, deprogramming sometimes needed
• 90% eventually do leave

Question 11

What is obedience?

Answer 11

Compliance due to perceived authority of the asker;

Request is perceived as command

Question 12

What was Milgram’s obedience experiment?

Answer 12

Milgram did experiments in which he found that 65 percent of people obeyed the authority figure of a psychology professor even if it meant hurting, injuring, or possibly killing another person with an electric shock.

Researchers have looked for particular personality traits that might be associated with high levels of obedience but have not found any one trait or group of traits that consistently predicts who will obey and who will not in experiments similar to Milgram’s original studies.

The people who “went all the way” were not necessarily more dependent or susceptible to being controlled by others; they were simply people like most other people, caught in a situation of “obey or disobey” the authority.

Question 13

What is attitude?

Answer 13

Tendency to respond positively or negatively toward certain people, ideas, objects, or situations

Question 14

What are the components of attitude?

Answer 14

The affective component of an attitude is the way a person feels toward the object, person, or situation.

The behavior component of an attitude is the action that a person takes in regard to the person, object, or situation.

The cognitive component of an attitude is the way a person thinks about himself, an object, or a situation.

Attitudes are often poor predictors of behavior unless the attitude is very specific or very strong.

Question 15

What are the processes that can result in a certain attitude?

Answer 15

Direct contact with the person, situation, object, or idea can help form attitudes.

Attitudes can be formed through direct instruction from parents or others.

Interacting with other people who hold a certain attitude can help an individual form that attitude.

Attitudes can also be formed through watching the actions and reactions of others to ideas, people, objects, and situations.

Question 16

What is persuasion? What affects how effective persuasion is?

Answer 16

Attempt to change another’s attitude via argument, explanation, etc.

• Source of message
• Message itself
• Target audience
• Medium

Question 17

What are the routes in delivering a message?

Answer 17

Direct Route - Involves attending to the content of the message itself
Peripheral Route - Involves attending to factors not involved in the message, such as:
Appearance of source of message
Length of message

Question 18

What is cognitive dissonance?

Answer 18

Discomfort arising when one’s thoughts and behaviors do not correspond

Question 19

How do you lessen cognitive dissonance?

Answer 19

• Change the conflicting behavior
• Change the conflicting attitude
• Form a new attitude to justify the behavior

Question 20

What was the Festinger and Carlsmith experiment?

Answer 20

After completing a boring task, some participants were paid $1 and some $20 to convince others waiting to do the same task that the task was interesting and fun.

Surprisingly, the participants who were paid only $1 seemed to change their own attitude toward the task, rating it as interesting, whereas those who were paid $20 rated the task no differently than a control group did.

Question 21

What is impression formation?

Answer 21

Forming of first knowledge about another person
Influenced by primacy effect
Part of social cognition

Question 22

What is social categorization?

Answer 22

Automatic unconscious assignment of a new acquaintance to some category or group

Question 23

What is a stereotype?

Answer 23

Set of characteristics that people believe is shared by all members of a particular social category

Question 24

What is attribution? What are the types of attributions?

Answer 24

Process of explaining the behavior of others as well as one’s own behavior

Dispositional (internal) is an explanation of behavior based on the internal personality characteristics of the person being observed.

Situational (internal) cause is an explanation of behavior based on factors in the surrounding environment or situation.

Question 25

What is the fundamental attribution error?

Answer 25

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency for people to overestimate the influence of another person’s internal characteristics on behavior and underestimate the influence of the situation. In other words, people tend to explain the actions of others based on what “kind” of person they are rather than looking for outside causes, such as social influences or situations.

Question 26

What would you call the tendency to overestimate situational attribute instead of dispositional attributes when explaining our own behavior?

Answer 26

Actor-observer bias

Question 27

What is prejudice? What is discrimination?

Answer 27

Prejudice: Negative thoughts and feelings about a particular group
Discrimination: Treating others differently because of prejudice

Question 28

What are the types of groups?

Answer 28

In-group: Social groups with whom a person identifies; “us”

Out-group: Social groups with whom a person does not identify; “them”

Question 29

What is the realistic conflict theory?

Answer 29

The realistic conflict theory of prejudice states that increasing prejudice and discrimination are closely tied to an increasing degree of conflict between the in-group and the out-group when those groups are seeking a common resource, such as land or available jobs.

Question 30

What is scapegoating?

Answer 30

Scapegoating refers to the tendency to direct prejudice and discrimination at out-group members who have little social power or influence. New immigrants are often the scapegoats for the frustration and anger of the in-group.

Question 31

What is social cognitive theory?

Answer 31

States that prejudice is an attitude acquired through direct instruction, modeling, and other social influences

Question 32

What is social identity theory?

Answer 32

Social identity theory sees a person’s formation of a social sense of self within a particular group as being due to three things:

1. Social categorization (which may involve the use of reference groups)
2. Social identity (the person’s sense of belonging to a particular social group)
3. Social comparison (in which people compare themselves to others to improve their own self-esteem

Question 33

What is stereotype vulnerability?

Answer 33

Refers to the effect that a person’s knowledge of another’s stereotyped opinions can have on that person’s behavior. People who are aware of stereotypes may unintentionally come to behave in a way that makes the stereotype real in a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Question 34

What is a stereotype threat?

Answer 34

When members of a stereotyped group are made anxious and wary of any situation in which their behavior might confirm a stereotype.

Question 35

How does one overcome prejudice?

Answer 35

The best weapon against prejudice is education: learning about people who are different from you in many ways.

The best way to learn about others is to have direct contact with them and to have the opportunity to see them as people rather than “as outsiders or strangers” (intergroup contact).

Intergroup contact is more effective in reducing prejudice if the groups have equal status.

Prejudice and discrimination are reduced when people must work together to solve a problem because each person has an important key to solving the problem, creating a mutual interdependence.

Question 36

What are social factors of stress?

Answer 36

Poverty - Lack of sufficient money to provide basic necessities of life can lead to many stressors
Job Stress - Workload, Lack of control, Lack of job security, Work schedule, Low job satisfaction, Burnout
Acculturative stress -
1. Integration: original identity maintained but forms positive relationships with members of dominant culture (lowest stress)
2. assimilation: individual gives up old culture and completely adopts ways of majority (moderate stress)
3. separation: majority culture is rejected and original cultural identity is maintained (high stress)
4. marginalization: does not maintain contact with original culture or join majority culture (greatest stress)

Question 37

What is interpersonal attraction? What are the factors?

Answer 37

Interpersonal attraction:Liking or having the desire for a relationship with another person
Factors 
 Physical attractiveness
 Proximity
 Similarity
Complementary qualities
Reciprocity of liking

Question 38

What are the types of love?

Answer 38

Intimacy - Liking
Passion - Infatuation
Commitment - Empty 
Passion and Intimacy - Romantic
Passion and Commitment - Fatuous
Intimacy and Commitment - Companionate
Intimacy, Passion and Commitment - Consummate

Question 39

What are the influences of aggression?

Answer 39

Biological influences:
Genetics
Amygdala and limbic system
Testosterone and serotonin levels

Learning influences:
Social learning theory and social roles
Media violence

Question 40

What is a social role?

Answer 40

Pattern of behavior expected of a person in a particular

social position

Question 41

What was the Stanford Prison Experiment?

Answer 41

70 young men assigned to be prisoners or guards
Guards: Became increasingly more aggressive
Experiment cancelled after students became very deeply involved in assigned roles

Question 42

What is Altruism/Prosocial behavior?

Answer 42

Altruism is prosocial behavior in which a person helps someone else without expectation of reward or recognition, often without fear for his or her own safety.

Question 43

What is the bystander effect?

Answer 43

The bystander effect means that people are more likely to get help from others if there is only one person or a small number of people nearby rather than a larger number. The more people nearby, the less likely it is that help will be offered.

When others are present at a situation in which help could be offered, there is a diffusion of responsibility among all the bystanders, reducing the likelihood that any one person or persons will feel responsibility for helping.

Question 44

What are the steps in making a decision to help?

Answer 44

Noticing: Realizing that there is a situation that might be an emergency, e.g., hearing a loud crash or a cry for help.

Defining an Emergency: Interpreting the cues as signaling an emergency, e.g., loud crash is associated with a car accident, people are obviously hurt.

Taking Responsibility: Personally assuming the responsibility to act. A single bystander is much more likely to act than when others are present.

Planning a Course of Action: Deciding how to help and what skills might be needed. People who feel they have the necessary skills to help are more likely to help.

Taking Action: Actually helping. Costs of helping (e.g., danger to self) must not outweigh the rewards of helping.