Chapter 16 Social Psychology

Question 1

16.1 What is social psychology

Answer 1

Social psychologyThe study of how others influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Question 2

16.2 Describe the process of attribution and its two key errors.

Answer 2

Attribution is the process of explaining the causes of behaviors or events. We do this by determining whether actions resulted from internal, dispositional factors or external, situational factors. The two eky errors are: (1) the fundamental attribution error (FAE), which overestimates dispositional factors and underestimates situational factors when jduging others; and (2) the self-serving bias, which involves taking credit for successes and externalizing failures when judging ourselves.

Question 3

16.3 Describe how culture affects attributional biases.

Answer 3

Collectivistic cultures, like China, are less likely to make the fundamental attribution error adn the self-serving bias because they focus on interdependence and collective responsibility, whereas individualistic cultures, like the United States, emphasize independence and personal responsibility.

Question 4

16.4 Define attitude and identify its three key components.

Answer 4

An attitude is a learned predispositon to respond cognitively, affectively, and behaviorally toward a particular object. Its three components are: (1) cognitive (thoughts and beliefs), (2) affective (feelings), and (3) behavioral (predisposition to actions).

Question 5

16.5 What is cognitive dissonance, how does it change attitudes, and how odes culture affect it?

Answer 5

Cognitive dissonance is a feeling of discomfort caused by a discrepancy between an attitude and a heavior or between two competing attitudes. This mismatch and resulting tension motivate us to change our attitude or behavior to reduce the tension and restore blaance. Individualistic cultures expereince more cognitive dissonance than collectivistic cultures because our emphasis on independence and personal responsibility creates more tension when our attitudes are in conflict.

Question 6

16.6 Define prejudice, identify its three key components, and differentiate between prejudice and discrimination.

Answer 6

Prejudice is a learned, generally negative, attitude directed toward members of a group. It contains all three components of attitudes –cognitive, affective, and behavioral. (the cognitive component involves stereotypes, and the behavioral component is called discrimination).

Question 7

16.7 Discuss the five major sources of prejudice and discrimination.

Answer 7

The five major sources of prejudice are (1) learning (classical and operant conditioning and social learning), (2) personal experience, (3) mental shortcuts (categorization), (4) economic and political competition, and (5) displaced aggression (scapegoating. Mental shortcuts involve viewing memebers of the ingroup more positively than members of teh outroup (ingroup favoritism) and seeing less diversity in the outgroup (outgroup homogeneity effect).

Question 8

16.8 What are the three key factors in attraction?

Answer 8

Physical attractiveness, proximity, and similarity are the three major factors in interpersonal attraction. Although people commonly believe that “opposites attract” (need complementarity), research shows that similarity (need compatibility) is more important in long-term relationships.

Question 9

16.9 Describe cultural and historical similarities and differences in judgments of attractiveness.

Answer 9

Many cultures share similar standards of attractiveness (e.g. youthful appearance and facial and body symmetry are important for women, whereas maturity and financial resources are more important for men). Historically, what is judged as beautiful varies from era to era.

Question 10

16.10 Discuss scientific research on flirting.

Answer 10

People use nonverbal flirting behaviors to increase their attractieness and signal interest. In hereosexual couples, women are more likely to use flirting to initiate courtship.

Question 11

16.11 Differentiate between romantic and companionate love, and discuss problem with romantic love.

Answer 11

Romantic love is intense, passionate, and highly valued in our society. However, because it is based on mystery and fantasy, it is hard to sustain. Companionate love relies on mutual trust, respect, and friendship and seems to grow stronger with time.

Question 12

16.12 Define conformity, and explain the three factors that contribute to this behavior

Answer 12

Conformity involves changes in behavior in response to real or imagined group pressure. People conform for approval and acceptance (normative social influence), out of a need for more information and direction (informational social influence), and to match the behavior of those they admire and want to be like (reference group).

Question 13

16.13 Define obedience and describe mMilgram’s classic study.

Answer 13

Obedience refers to following direct command,s usually from an authority figure. Milgram’s study showed that a surprisingly large number of people obey orders even when they believe another human being is physically threatened.

Question 14

16.14 Identify the four key factors in obedience.

Answer 14

Legitimacy and closeness of the authority figure, remoteness of the victim, assignment of responsibility, ad modeling or imitation of others are the four major factors in obedience.

Question 15

16.15 Discuss the importance of roles and de-individuation in Zimbardo’s Stanford prison study.

Answer 15

Zimbardo conducted a simulated prison study assigning college students to be either prisoners or guards. The study showed that both the roles we play in groups and deindividuation (reduced self-consciousness, inhibition, and personal responsibility) dramatically affect behavior.

Question 16

16.16 How do group polarization and groupthink affect group decision making?

Answer 16

Group polarization is the process of most group members initially tending toward an extreme idea, followed by the rest of the group moving (polarizing) in that extreme direction. This phenomenon occurs because discussions with likeminded members reinforce the preexisting tendencies. Groupthink is a faulty type of decision making that occurs when a highly cohesive group strives for agreement and avoids inconsistent information.

Question 17

16.17 Define aggression and identify the biological and psychosocial factors that contribute to its expression.

Answer 17

Aggression is any behaivor intended to harm someone. Some researchers believe it is caused by biological factors, such as instincts, genes, the brain, and nervous system, substance abused, and other mental disorders, and hormones and neurotransmitters. Other researchers emphasize psychosocial factors such as aversive stimuli, culture and learning, and violent media.

Question 18

16.18 Describe three approaches to reducing aggression.

Answer 18

Releasing aggressive feelings through violent acts or watching violence (catharsis) is not an effective way to reduce aggression. Inroducing incompatible responses (such as humor) and teaching social and communication skills are more efficient.

Question 19

16.19 Define altruism, and describe the three models that attempt to explain it.

Answer 19

Altruism refers to actions designed to help others with no obvious benefit to the helper. The evolutionary model suggests altruism is innate and has survival value, the egoistic model proposes that helping is motivated by anticipated gain, and the empathy-altruism hypothesis suggests helping increases when the helper feels empathy for the victim.

Question 20

16.20 Describe Latane and Darley’s decision-making model, and other factors that help explain why we don’t help.

Answer 20

According to Latane and Darley, whether or not someone helps depends on a series of interconnected events, starting with noticing the problem and ending with a decision to help. Some people don’t help because of the ambiguity of many emergencies or because of diffusion of responsibility (assuming someone else will respond).

Question 21

16.21 List four major approaches useful for reducing prejudice and discrimination.

Answer 21

The four key approaches are coopoeration and common goals, intergroup contact, cognitive retraining, and cognitive dissonance.

Question 22

16.22 Describe recent research on implicit biases.

Answer 22

Research shows that people have hidden, implicit biases that are activated by a mere encounter with an attitude object, and that these biases can be used as a quick guide to behaviors that they are not aware of and do not control. Although these biases were previously thought to be impervious to change, newer studies show that we can reshape them (or at least curb) their effects on our behavior.

Question 23

16.23 Identify six ways to reduce destructive obedience.

Answer 23

To decrease destructive obedience, we need to reexamine socialization, the power of the situation, groupthink, the foot-in-the-door technique, a relaxed moral guard, and disobedient models.