chapter 14

Question 1

Social Psychology

Answer 1

Study of the ways that individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others

Question 2

Social Interaction

Answer 2

Social interaction is adaptive, healthy, and serves a useful purpose
Humans have evolved to be social

Question 3

Attitude

Answer 3

An attitude is a mixture of belief and emotion that predisposes a person to respond to other people, objects, or groups in a positive or negative way

Question 4

Affect

Answer 4

how you feel

Question 5

Behavior

Answer 5

what you do, how you act

Question 6

Cognition

Answer 6

what you think, what you believe

Question 7

Mere Exposure

Answer 7

We like things (or people) better the more we encounter them

Question 8

Cognitive Dissonance

Answer 8

An uncomfortable state that we feel when our behaviors don’t match the rest of our attitudes (People want their behaviors to be consistent with their beliefs and feelings)

Question 9

Persuasion (Elaboration Likelihood Model)

Answer 9

Attitudes can be changed through one of two routes of cognitive processing that differ in how much we “elaborate on” the messages we’re hearing

Question 10

Factors that Influence Attitudes/Persuasion

Answer 10

Communicator
Message
Audience

Question 11

Communicator

Answer 11

attractive/likable, credible/trustworthy, authoritative/expert

Question 12

Message

Answer 12

Doesn’t seem like an attempt to persuade us; appears to present both sides of an issue

Question 13

Audience

Answer 13

Some people are more easily persuaded; mood effects how critical we are

Question 14

Peripheral Route

Answer 14

Evaluation of other cues
Low motivational state
Low skills or knowledge needed to evaluate message
Low elaboration likelihood

Question 15

Central Route

Answer 15

Evaluation of message content
High motivational state
High skills or knowledge needed to evaluate message
High elaboration likelihood

Question 16

Social Roles

Answer 16

What position(s) someone occupies in society and the behaviors that are expected from him or her because of those roles

Question 17

Attributions

Answer 17

We look for causes for individuals’ behavior (why they do what they do)

Question 18

Internal Attributions

Answer 18

Personal causes (traits, emotions, ability, motivations)

Question 19

External Attributions

Answer 19

Environmental causes (circumstances, task difficulty, luck)

Question 20

Attribution Errors

Answer 20

When making attributions about our own and others’ behavior, people make common types of mistakes

Question 21

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 21

Attributing others’ behavior to internal causes (something about them, rather than the situation)

Question 22

Actor-Observer Bias

Answer 22

Attributing our own behavior to external causes (we are actors) and others’ behavior to internal causes (we are observing them)

Question 23

Self-Serving Bias

Answer 23

Attributing our successes to internal factors but our failures to external factors

Question 24

Heuristics

Answer 24

People are “cognitive misers” (don’t like to think), so they use mental shortcuts when they think about others

Question 25

Availability Heuristic

Answer 25

We base our judgements on the most readily available information (the first thing that comes to mind)

Question 26

Representativeness Heuristic

Answer 26

We assume people in a certain category have all the characteristics we associate with members of that category; ignores individual variation

Question 27

Anchoring

Answer 27

We use ourselves as the basis (anchor) for judging others; leads to bias when we don’t take individual variation into account

Question 28

Stereotypes

Answer 28

A simplified set of traits that are associated with group membership

Question 29

Effects of Stereotypes

Answer 29

Can lead to biased judgements of others
Can lead us to ignore individual characteristics or differences

Question 30

Jane Elliot

Answer 30

3rd grade teacher in Iowa
Responded to assassination of MLK
Devised an exercise to teach children about prejudice and discrimination
Brown eyed kids vs. blue eyed kids

Question 31

Prejudice

Answer 31

A preconceived opinion or attitude about an issue, person, or group

Question 32

Discrimination

Answer 32

Involves treating members of various social groups differently in circumstances where their rights or treatment should be identical

Question 33

Reducing Prejudice

Answer 33

Increase contact in cooperative activities
Increased exposure to differences in positive contexts (friendship, collaboration) leads to less prejudice

Question 34

Conformity

Answer 34

Behaving in ways that increase the likelihood of gaining a group’s approval and avoiding rejection

Question 35

Compliance

Answer 35

Agreeing to do something simply because we have been asked

Question 36

Foot in the Door Technique

Answer 36

Make small request first (get initial agreement), then big (more desired) one

Question 37

Reciprocity

Answer 37

If you do something for someone, they feel like they should do something in return

Question 38

Door in the Face Technique

Answer 38

Make large, unreasonable request first (refused), then small request (actually desired one)

Question 39

Obedience

Answer 39

Complying with instructions given by an authority figure

Question 40

Milgram’s Experiment

Answer 40

65% of participants followed instructions to harm another person, even to the point of giving them electric shocks they believed could be fatal

Question 41

Social Facilitation

Answer 41

Occurs when the presence of other people changes individual performance; not always effective

Question 42

Social Loafing

Answer 42

Reduced motivation and effort by individuals who work in a group as opposed to work alone

Question 43

Deindividuation

Answer 43

Immersion of the individual within a group, making the individual relatively anonymous

Question 44

Groupthink

Answer 44

A type of flawed decision making in which a group does not question its decisions critically

Question 45

Aggression

Answer 45

An action done with the intent to harm others (biology, frustration, learning)

Question 46

Altruism

Answer 46

Engaging in helping behaviors without the expectation of any personal gain