Chapter 11

Question 1

Social psychology

Answer 1

The study of how people think about, influence, and relate to other people.

Question 2

Bystander effect

Answer 2

The tendency of an individual who observes an emergency to be less likely to help when other people are present than when the observer is alone.

Question 3

Social cognition

Answer 3

The area of social psychology exploring how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information.

Question 4

Stereotype

Answer 4

A generalization about a group’s characteristics that does not consider any variations from one individual to another.

Question 5

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 5

Social expectations that cause an individual to act in such a way that the expectations are realized.

Question 6

Stereotype threat

Answer 6

An individual’s fast-acting, self-fulfilling fear of being judged based on a negative stereotype about their group.

Question 7

Attribution theory

Answer 7

The view that people are motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior as part of their effort to make sense of the behavior.

Question 8

Fundamental attribution theory

Answer 8

The view that people are motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior as part of their effort to make sense of the behavior.

Question 9

Attitudes

Answer 9

An individual’s opinions and beliefs about people, objects, and ideas—how the person feels about the world.

Question 10

Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 10

A study where people were paid $15 ($97 today) per day and assigned as either a prisoner or guards. Guards acted sadistically towards prisoners and prisoners became docile and lost their sense of self. Zimbardo claimed the study showed the strong power of roles in determining behavior.

Question 11

Cognitive dissonance

Answer 11

An individual’s psychological discomfort (dissonance) caused by two inconsistent thoughts.

Question 12

Elaboration likelihood model

Answer 12

Theory identifying two ways to persuade: a central route and a peripheral route. Central: works by engaging the audience thoughtfully with a sound, logical argument. Peripheral: involves factors such as the attractiveness of the person giving the message or the emotional power of an appeal.

Question 13

Social behavior

Answer 13

The way we behave in social environments. The way people interact with and influence other individuals. Not only the way other people respond to the current situation but also their future decisions.

Question 14

Altruism

Answer 14

Giving to another person with the ultimate goal of benefiting that person, even if it incurs a cost to oneself.

Question 15

Egoism

Answer 15

Giving to another person to ensure reciprocity; to gain self-esteem; to present oneself as powerful, competent, or caring; or to avoid social and self-censure for failing to live up to society’s expectations.

Question 16

Empathy

Answer 16

A feeling of oneness with the emotional state of another person.

Question 17

Aggression

Answer 17

Social behavior whose objective is to harm someone, either physically or verbally.

Question 18

Overt aggression

Answer 18

Physical or verbal behavior that directly harms another person.

Question 19

Relational aggression

Answer 19

Behavior that is meant to harm the social standing of another person.

Question 20

Close Relationships

Answer 20

Characterized by relatively high levels of trust, love, knowledge, commitment, and intimacy.

Question 21

Mere exposure effect

Answer 21

The phenomenon that the more individuals encounter someone or something, the more probable it is that they will start liking the person or thing even if they do not realize they have seen it before.

Question 22

Social exchange theory

Answer 22

The view of social relationships as involving an exchange of goods, the objective of which is to minimize costs and maximize benefits.

Question 23

Social influence

Answer 23

Social Influence: describes how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors respond to our social world, including our tendencies to conform to others, follow social rules, and obey authority figures.

Question 24

Group processes

Answer 24

Group processes: the behaviors of the members of small working groups (usually between three and twelve members) as they engage in decision-making and task performance.

Question 25

Conformity

Answer 25

A change in a person’s behavior to coincide more closely with a group standard.

Question 26

Informational social influence

Answer 26

The influence other people have on us because we want to be right.

Question 27

Normative social influence

Answer 27

The influence other people have on us because we want them to like us.

Question 28

Obedience

Answer 28

Behavior that complies with the explicit demands of the individual in authority.

Question 29

Milgram’s Study of Obedience

Answer 29

In an experiment, people were asked to act as a teacher punishing the mistakes made by the learner by electric shock. Each time the learner made a mistake, the teacher was asked to increase the intensity of the shock. The experimenter was able to command people to shock a man to unconsciousness (the man was pretending to be shocked). The critical decision was made at the 150-volt level when the learner first requested that the experiment be halted.

Question 30

Deindividuation

Answer 30

The reduction in personal identity and erosion of the sense of personal responsibility when one is part of a group.

Question 31

Social contagion

Answer 31

Imitative behavior involving the spread of behavior, emotions, and ideas.

Question 32

Social facilitation

Answer 32

Improvement in an individual’s performance because of the presence of others.

Question 33

Social loafing

Answer 33

Each person’s tendency to exert less effort in a group because of reduced accountability for individual effort.

Question 34

Groupthink

Answer 34

The impaired group decision making that occurs when making the right decision is less important than maintaining group harmony.

Question 35

Prejudice

Answer 35

An unjustified negative attitude toward an individual based on the individual’s membership in a group.

Question 36

Systemic racism

Answer 36

Systems, structures, and procedures in a society that disadvantage a racial group and privilege another.

Question 37

Microaggressions

Answer 37

Everyday, subtle, and potentially unintentional acts that communicate bias to members of marginalized groups.

Question 38

Discrimination

Answer 38

An unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group simply because the person belongs to that group.

Question 39

Muzafer Sherif, Ph.D.

Answer 39

Muzafer Sherif was a Turkish-American social psychologist. He helped develop social judgment theory and realistic conflict theory. He graduated from Columbia University with his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Columbia in 1935. Dr. Sherif is credited with helping found modern social psychology and published over 60 articles and 24 books. His most famous experiment was the 1954 Robbers Cave Experiment which supported the Realistic Conflict Theory that he developed.