CHAPTER 13

Question 1

define social psychology

Answer 1

the scientific study of how we think about, influence and relate to one another

Question 2

what do sociologists study?

Answer 2

they study groups like social class, social structure and social institutions

Question 3

what do social psychology study?

Answer 3

they study the individual within the group

Question 4

how do social psychologists test their behaviours?

Answer 4

by conducting experiments

Question 5

what is the goal of social psychology?

Answer 5

to identify universal properties of human nature that make everyone susceptible to social influence regardless of social class or culture

Question 6

define personality psychology

Answer 6

focus on individual differences. One’s personaloty makes them different from one another

Question 7

define the fundamental attribution error

give an example

Answer 7

ignoring situational factors when explaining another’s behaviour

we assume others are the way they act

Ex: when people read a debate speech for or against fidel Castro, they attributed expressed attitudes to the speech writer even when the debate coach assigned the writer’s position

Question 8

define personal and situation disposition in terms of implications

Answer 8

personal: attribute poverty to personal dispositions such as “they’re lazy” tend to lack sympathy towards such people.
situational: they view poverty as it as well if i were to live with the same overcrwoing, poor education and discrimination would i be better off?

Question 9

are we aware of situational factors?

Answer 9

we are rarely aware. All wee see is them acting in front of us and we label their act with their personality.

Question 10

what do we use to justify our behaviour?

Answer 10

1) self serving bias as in we take credit for success. this is an example of dispositional attribution
2) when we fail, we blame others or the situation for the failure. this is known as situational attribution

Question 11

define the actor/observer effect

Answer 11

when we act, we are aware of situational influence on us.

when we see other people act, we are less aware of situation influences affecting them.

Question 12

what scenario are we less likely to commit to the fundamental attribution error?

Answer 12

when we ourselves have been in that situation the other person is going through

Question 13

which groups commit this error less?

Answer 13

japanese and chinese people because unlike western society, they view behaviours within a context and see things mixed with dispotional and situational

Question 14

what is social comparison?

Answer 14

we compare ourselves to others

example: first and fourth year accouting studnes were shwon an article about a star accounting student who won multiple awards. how did the first and fourth year students feel?

first year: were inspired
fourth year: felt demoralized.

Question 15

define conformity in terms of social pressure

Answer 15

a chnage in behaviour or belief due to real or imagined group pressure

ex: have you ever just gone along with one of the group’s ideas even though you knew it was bad or perhaps even unethical?

Question 16

define compliance in terms of social pressure

Answer 16

confrom to request but one privately disagrees

ex: wearing a part of outfit to going out to an event but inside you dont want to do it but you know generally you should

Question 17

define acceptance in terms of social pressure

Answer 17

conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure

intially you may not want to do something but overtime you get used to it and accept it.

Question 18

define obedience in terms of social pressure

Answer 18

complying with an explicit command

Question 19

when students were asked to go to the newyork metro and ask others to give up their seats with no justification, what % do you think did?

Answer 19

more than half did: 56%

most students had difficulty asking. they reported not having the words coming out, but they went further to pretending to be sick to justify themselves indirectly to the people who gave up their seat.

why did they feel bad? because they felt like they were going against social norms.

Question 20

define the autokinetic phenomenon

and define the experiment performed for social norm

Answer 20

the apparent movement of a stationary object of light in the dark

the experiment: so the tester started with each individual seperate guessing the inches the object moved. now after a couple days he invited everyone and performed the same test but as a group. He found that answers were becoming similar to each other than what they have reported invididualy

Question 21

regarding the 3 sets of lines where the table of 6 students beginning witht he first seated students say what they think the stationary object moved, who has the most accurate answer?

Answer 21

first seated - usually chooses wrong

the next 4 - wrong line as well

but when they are alone, they usually guess correctly 99% of them time

participants went along with the group even though they werent convinced.

those who didnt conform felt conspicuous and felt like a misfit

Question 22

what did the tester do when replicating the test?

Answer 22

he had a crushing unanimity: having a confedeate defect from others. have one person give the correct answers and become an ally of that participant that is odd one out on the correct answer.

writing their answer down: dropped conformity further

Question 23

define the berns replication

Answer 23

he used fMRI to show subjects two figures and they had to figure out if they were the same or different. researches then told the subjects that 4 other “people” were making the samejudgments with them. they found that high levels of conformity were found. Participants went along with other’s wrong answers most of the time.

Question 24

where in the brain is conformity associated with? and how?

Answer 24

amygdala which triggers anxiety in response to danger cues. This finding suggests that conformity may come with an anxiety price tag.

Question 25

which lobes are associated with conformity?

Answer 25

parietal and occipital lobes.

but be careful even though this raises the possibility that social pressure affects how we percieve reality, it can also be an indicator that the participants tend to doubt then recheck their inital perceptions.

Question 26

how does group size predict conformity?

Answer 26

3 to 5 people elicits more conformity than 1 or 2. beyond 5 people doesnt change much it remains as if its 5 people.

Question 27

what other factors predict conformity?

Answer 27

unanimity: if one person agress w/you, you dont waver
cohesion: cohesive group members dont like disagreeing

prior commitment: if you responded first and then were given the chnace to change your mind after the rest of the group disagreed–most people stick their guns

Question 28

are men or women more likely to conform?

Answer 28

its women but it’s becuase experiemnts were done by men. But after more experients, the differences diminished.

Question 29

define deindividuation

Answer 29

the loss ofself-awareness and self-restraint in group situations that fosters arousal and anonymity. This leads to impulsive and deviant acts such as Ku Klax Klan

Question 30

are crowds more aggresive than individuals?

Answer 30

nope! individuals are more aggressive than groups

Question 31

can the mere illusion of anonymity foster deindividuation?

Answer 31

yes

Question 32

define role and give an example

Answer 32

a set of norms that define how people in a given social position ought to behave

ex: teaching requires an outgoing and extrovert personality but what if the person is an introvert? then they are forced to adopt different identities.

Question 33

what happened to zimbardo’s experiment and roles?

Answer 33

he took volunteer people to make a realistic prison. the first day went well but as the days went by people began being engrained in their roles. the guards lost their individuality and engrianed themsleves in the guard role of being mean and rude to prisoners. The prisoners started having fear even though they had option to leave but they lost themselves so deeply. He ended the experiment ended early. prisoners were happy but guards were sad.

Question 34

define demand characteristics in terms of role?

Answer 34

to behave according to your assigned role.

they act the way they think the experimenter would like,

Question 35

what does milgrams study highlight?

Answer 35

highlights when the demands of authority clash with the demands of conscience.

they were asked to schock the learner in another room for every question they got wrong. most said they would schock past 100volts because of ethical reason. BUT when actually placed in the situation they actually did go as far as 200volts.

the funny think is the schock never reached the learner.

Question 36

what was the purpose of milgrams study?

Answer 36

influence of authority and obedience

Question 37

was milgrams study ethical?

Answer 37

no it was not because of the emotional anguish of shocking others could have had negative effects of their right to participation

Question 38

is it true that there are safety in numbers?

Answer 38

nope! some dont act on the situation even though they can hear or see something wrong

Question 39

define the bystander apathy

Answer 39

non responsiveness of bystandards was due simply to a lack of caring

Question 40

what do psychologists say about bystander apathy?

Answer 40

bystander effect is more likely due to psychological paralysis. they typically intervene but often find themselves frozen.

Question 41

define bottom lie in terms of bystander

Answer 41

If you need help in an emergency, you may be better off if there is only one witness to your plight than if there are several

Question 42

define bystander effect

Answer 42

occurs when the presence of others inhibits helping

Question 43

define pluralistic ignorance and given an example

Answer 43

a false impression of how other people are thikning, feeling or responding.

ex: youre in a group in a room and see smoke coming down the hall. you recongnize that the situation is an emergency but as we look around nobody is responding and assuming mistakenly that the situation isnt an emergency so you follow and do nothing

Question 44

another name for pluralistic ignorance

Answer 44

“silent classroom scenario”

prof is giving a lecture and ask if theres any questions, no one responds. each student nervously looks at each other and quietly and assume mistakenly that he or she is the only one who didnt understand the lecture.

Question 45

define diffusion of responsability and when it doesnt happen

Answer 45

the more people present at an emergency, the less each feels responsible

diffusion of responsability will NOT occur if a person believes only she/he is aware of the victims need

Question 46

define social loafing

Answer 46

tendecy for people to exert less effort when they pool their effors towards a common goal than when individually accountable

ex: tug of war some people feel less responsible for the outcome than they do tug a waring themselves. (diffusion of responsability)

Question 47

define self-justification: cognitive dissoncance

Answer 47

we feel tension aka dissonance when we are aware that we have 2 thoughts that are incompatible or when our behaviour is incosistent with out attitudes so to reduce this unpleasant arousal we adjust our thinking.

Question 48

what reduces dissonance?

Answer 48

internally justifying one’s behaviour when external justification is insufficient

Question 49

define foot in the door phenomenonand why do people do it?

Answer 49

when we want someone to do something for us. we acheive this by asking them firstly a small favour then second we ask with the favour we intially wanted to ask.

after they do the small favour they feel like a kind person who helps others. also refusing big favour is inconsistent with our previous behaviour.

Question 50

define low ball technique

Answer 50

an item is initially offered at a lower price than one expects in order to get the buyer to commit; then, the price is suddenly increased

Question 51

define prejudice, discrimination and stereotype

Answer 51

prejudice: basically pre judging. an unjustifiable negative attitude towards a group and its individual member. It can be a positive prejudice
discrimination: negative behaviour. the act of treating out groups members differently from in group members
stereotypes: an overgeneralized belief about a groups characteristics that we apply to all members of that group.

Question 52

when are people slower in detecting prejudice?

Answer 52

within groups such as female against female

Question 53

define moden prejudice

Answer 53

subtle in our prefrences for what is familiar, similar and comfortable.

Question 54

define explicit anf implicit attitudes

Answer 54

explicit: change with education
implicit: fear vie amygdala. changing only occurs with habits via practice

Question 55

define the just world phenomenon

Answer 55

people get what they deserve

Question 56

define own race bias

Answer 56

accurately recognizing faces of their own race

Question 57

define outgrip homogeneity effect

Answer 57

out-group members as more similar to one another then in group members.