Chapter 15: Social Psychology

Question 1

Social psychology

Answer 1

The study of how the immediate social context as well as broader cultural environments influence people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions

Question 2

Transference

Answer 2

The tendency to treat one person as if they possess the traits or characteristics of another more familiar person. For example, in psychotherapy, clients might respond to a therapist in ways that resemble the dynamic they have with major figures in their own lives

Question 3

False consensus

Answer 3

The tendency to overstimulate the extent to which other people’s beliefs and attitudes are similar to our own

Question 4

Impression management

Answer 4

A series of strategies that people use to influence the impressions that others form of them

Question 5

Attribution

Answer 5

Assignment of a casual explanation for an event, action, or outcome.

Question 6

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 6

The tendency to assume that people’s actions are more the result of their internal dispositions than of the situational context

Question 7

Self-serving attributions

Answer 7

The attributions people make for their own behaviours or outcomes: we tend to make dispositional attributions for positive events but situational attributions for negative events

Question 8

Affective forecasting errors

Answer 8

People’s inability to accurately predict the emotional reactions they will have to events

Question 9

Attitude

Answer 9

An orientation toward some target stimulus that is composed of an affective feeling, a cognitive belief, and a behavioural motivation toward the target.

Question 10

Implicit attitude

Answer 10

An automatically activated evaluation of a stimulus ranging from positive to negative

Question 11

Explicit attitude

Answer 11

The consciously reported evaluation a person has in response to a target stimulus

Question 12

Elaboration likelihood model (ELM)

Answer 12

A theory of persuasion contending that attitudes can change by two different routes; a central route that focuses on the strength of the argument and a peripheral route that is sensitive to more superficial cues

Question 13

Cognitive dissonance

Answer 13

A sense of conflict between people’s attitudes and actions that motivates efforts to restore cognitive consistency

Question 14

Social norms

Answer 14

The patterns of behaviour, traditions, and preferences that are tacitly approved of by a given culture or subculture

Question 15

Conformity

Answer 15

The process by which people implicitly mimic, adopt, or internalize the behaviours and preferences of those around them

Question 16

Informational social influence

Answer 16

Pressure to conform to others actions or beliefs based on a desire to behave correctly or gain an accurate understanding of the world.

Question 17

Normative social influence

Answer 17

Pressure to conform to others actions or beliefs in order to gain approval from others or avoid social sanctions.

Question 18

Social facilitation

Answer 18

An enhancement of the dominant behaviour response when performing a task in the mere presence of others; easy or well-learned tasks are performed better, but difficult or novel tasks are performed worse

Question 19

Social loafing

Answer 19

The tendency for individuals to expend less effort on a task when they are doing it with others rather than alone

Question 20

Group polarization

Answer 20

A tendency for people’s attitudes to become more extreme after they discuss an issue with like-minded others

Question 21

Groupthink

Answer 21

A form of biased group decision making whereby pressure to achieve consensus leads members of the group to avoid voicing unpopular suggestions

Question 22

General aggression model

Answer 22

An integrative framework of the various factors and psychological processes that contribute to an act of aggression

Question 23

Weapons affect

Answer 23

A phenomenon whereby simple exposure to a gun or weapon can increase aggressive responses by bringing violent thoughts to mind

Question 24

Kin selection

Answer 24

An evolved or adaptive strategy of assisting those who share one’s genes, even at personal cost, as a means of increasing the odds of genetic survival

Question 25

Norm of reciprocity

Answer 25

An automatic tendency to help others who have helped in the past or are expected to help in the future

Question 26

Empathy gap

Answer 26

The inability to accurately simulate the mental suffering of another person

Question 27

Bystander effect

Answer 27

The lower likelihood of people coming to the aid of a victim when in the presence of other observers than if they are alone

Question 28

Pluralistic ignorance

Answer 28

A situation that can occur when people are collectively unaware of each other’s true attitudes or beliefs

Question 29

Diffusion of responsibility

Answer 29

A tendency for people in a group to assume that someone else is in a better position to act or has already acted

Question 30

Stereotypes

Answer 30

Mental representations are schemas that summarize the beliefs and/or associations we have for a group of people

Question 31

Prejudice

Answer 31

A negative attitude toward a group or members of a group

Question 32

Discrimination

Answer 32

A tendency for individuals to receive different treatment or outcomes as a result of their membership in a given social group

Question 33

Realistic group conflict theory

Answer 33

A theory asserting that negative intergroup attitudes develop whenever groups compete against one another for access to the same scarce resources

Question 34

Social identity theory

Answer 34

A theory that explains why people develop a more positive attitude toward their own ingroup than toward outgroups

Question 35

Symbolic racism

Answer 35

The tendency to redirect one’s prejudice toward a racial or ethnic group to the policies that might benefit that group

Question 36

Implicit racial bias

Answer 36

Differential treatment resulting from the automatic activation of, and failure to control, negative attitudes or stereotypes of a racial group

Question 37

Aversive racism

Answer 37

A tendency, even among egalitarian-minded people, to have unconscious negative reactions to people of racial or ethnic outgroups

Question 38

Contact hypothesis

Answer 38

The proposal that prejudice can be reduced through sanctioned, friendly, and cooperative interactions between members of different groups working together as equals toward a common goal

Question 39

Parental investment theory

Answer 39

A theory that predicts sex differences in attraction due to the greater time, effort, and risk assumed by women than by men during procreation

Question 40

Triangular theory of love

Answer 40

A model that specifies passion, intimacy, and commitment as distinct elements that combine in various ways that lead to different types of love