Chapter16- Social Psychology

Question 1

Social Psychology

Answer 1

The subfield that attempts to explain how the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others influences the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals

Question 2

Primacy Effect

Answer 2

The tendency for an overall impression of another to be influenced more by the first information that is received about that person than by information that comes later.

Question 3

Attributions

Answer 3

The assignment of a cause to explain one’s own or another’s behavior

Question 4

Situational Attribution

Answer 4

Attributing a behavior to some external cause or factor operating within the situation; an external attribution

Question 5

Dispositional Attribution

Answer 5

Attributing a behavior to some internal cause, such as a personal trait, motive, or attitude; an internal attribution

Question 6

Actor-observer Effect

Answer 6

The tendency to attribute one’s own behavior primarily to situational factors and the behavior of other primarily to dispositional factors.

Question 7

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 7

The tendency to attribute others’ behavior to dispositional factors

Question 8

Self-Serving Bias

Answer 8

The tendency to attribute one’s successes to dispositional causes and one’s failures to situational causes

Question 9

Proximity

Answer 9

Physical or geographic closeness; a major influence in attraction

Question 10

Mere-exposure Effect

Answer 10

The tendency to feel more positively toward a stimulus as a result of repeated exposure to it.

Question 11

Reciprocity

Answer 11

The tendency to like people who are like us or who we believe to be like us.

Question 12

Halo Effect

Answer 12

The tendency to assume that a person has generally positive or negative traits as a result of observing one major positive or negative trait.

Question 13

Matching Hypothesis

Answer 13

The notion that people tend to have lovers or spouses who are similar to themselves in physical attractiveness and other assets.

Question 14

Conformity

Answer 14

Changing or adopting a behavior or an attitude in order to be consistent with the social norms of a group or the expectations of other people

Question 15

Social Norms

Answer 15

The attitudes and standards of behavior expected of members of a particular group

Question 16

Solomon Asch

Answer 16

Designed a simple test to evaluate conformity. 8 male participatns were seated around a large table and were asked to tell the experimenter which of the lines matched a standard line. One of the participants was the actual participant, the others were confederates. During repeated exercises of the trials, Asch found that 5% of subjects conformed to the incorrect majority all of the time, 70% conformed some of the time but 25% remained completely independent and never conformed

Question 17

Groupthink

Answer 17

The tendency for members of a tightly knit group to be more concerned with preserving group solidarity and uniformity than with objectively evaluating all alternatives in decision making

Question 18

Obedience

Answer 18

Behaving in accordance with the rules and commands of those in society

Question 19

Stanley Milgram

Answer 19

In his experiments on obedience, “teachers” were led to believe that they could deliver electric shocks to “learners” who were hooked to devices. 65% of participants obeyed the teacher until the end (when the “learners” were presumed dead).

Question 20

Compliance

Answer 20

Acting in accordance with the wishes, suggestions, or direct requests of other people

Question 21

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

Answer 21

A strategy designed to gain a favorable response to a small request at first, with the intent of making the person more likely to agree later to a larger request

Question 22

Door-in-the-Face Technique

Answer 22

A strategy in which someone makes a large, unreasonable request with the expectation that the person will refuse but will then be more likely to respond favorably to a smaller request

Question 23

Low-Ball Technique

Answer 23

A strategy in which someone makes a very attractive initial offer to get a person to commit to an action and then makes the terms less favorable

Question 24

Social Facilitation

Answer 24

Any positive or negative effect on performance that can be attributed to the presence of others, either an audience or as co-actors

Question 25

Audience Effects

Answer 25

The impact of passive spectators on performance

Question 26

Co-Action Effects

Answer 26

The impact on performance of the presence of other people engaged in the task

Question 27

Norman Triplett

Answer 27

Conducted experiments on social facilitation; when other people were present, bikers performed harder than they would alone.

Question 28

Social Loafing

Answer 28

The tendency to put forth less effort when working with others on a common task than when working alone

Question 29

Social Roles

Answer 29

Socially defined behaviors considered appropriated for individuals occupying certain positions within a given group

Question 30

Deindividuation

Answer 30

A social psychological process in which individuals lose their sense of personal identity as a result of identification with a group

Question 31

Social Identity

Answer 31

A social psychological process in which individuals join with others to construct a group identity in order to insulate themselves from stressors

Question 32

Philip Zimbardo

Answer 32

Experiment simulated the prison environment by randomly assigning participants to the social roles of prison guards or inmates. The social roles influenced the participants’ behavior.

Question 33

Attitudes

Answer 33

A relatively stable evaluation of a person, object, situation, or issue, along a continuum ranging from positive to negative

Question 34

The three components to attitudes

Answer 34

1. cognitive- thoughts and beliefs
2. emotional- feelings
3. behavioral- actions

Question 35

Cognitive Dissonance

Answer 35

The unpleasant state that can occur when people become aware of inconsistencies between their attitudes or between their attitudes and their behavior

Question 36

Persuasion

Answer 36

A deliberate attempt to influence the attitudes and/or behavior of another pattern

Question 37

Prosocial Behavior

Answer 37

Behavior that benefits others, such as helping, cooperation, and sympathy

Question 38

Altruism

Answer 38

Behavior that is aimed at helping another, requires some self-sacrifice, and is not performed for personal gain

Question 39

Bystander Effect

Answer 39

A social factor that affects prosocial behavior. As the number of bystanders at an emergency increases, the probability that the victim will receive help decreases, and help, if given, is likely to be delayed.

Question 40

Diffusion of Responsibility

Answer 40

The feeling among bystanders at an emergency that the responsibility for helping is shared by the group, making each person feel less compelled to act than if she or he alone bore the total responsibility.

Question 41

Aggression

Answer 41

The intentional infliction of physical or psychological harm on others.

Question 42

Frustration-Agression Hypothesis

Answer 42

The hypothesis that frustration produces aggression

Question 43

Scapegoating

Answer 43

Displacing aggression onto members of minority groups or other innocent targets not responsible for the frustrating situation

Question 44

Personal space

Answer 44

An area surrounding each person, much like an invisible bubble, that the person considers part of himself or herself and uses to regulate the level of intimacy with others

Question 45

Crowding

Answer 45

The subjective judgment that there are too many people in a confined space

Question 46

Sexual Aggression

Answer 46

Any kind of sexual contact in which one or more participants are either unable to give consent or forced into participation

Question 47

Prejudice

Answer 47

Attitudes (usually negative) towards others based on their gender, religion, race, or membership in a particular group

Question 48

Discrimination

Answer 48

Behavior (usually negative) directed toward others based on their gender, religion, race or membership in a particular group

Question 49

Realistic Conflict Theory

Answer 49

The view that as competition increases among social groups for scarce resources, so do prejudice, discrimination, and hatred

Question 50

In-Group

Answer 50

A social group with a strong sense of togetherness, from which others are excluded

Question 51

Not-Group

Answer 51

A social group made up of individuals specifically identified by the in-group as not belonging

Question 52

Social Cognition

Answer 52

The mental processes that people use to notice, interpret, and remember information about the social world.

Question 53

Stereotypes

Answer 53

Widely shared beliefs about the characteristic traits, attitudes and behaviors of members of various social groups (racial, ethnic, or religious), including the assumption that the members of such groups are usually all alike

Question 54

Ethnocentrism

Answer 54

The tendency to look at situations from one’s own racial or cultural perspective