Exam 1

Question 1

Define social perception

Answer 1

The process through which individuals form impressions of others and interpret information about them

Question 2

Define social influence

Answer 2

The process through which other people affect an individual’s thoughts or actions

Question 3

Give an example of social perception

Answer 3

Social perception causes us to think people who wear glasses are smarter

Question 4

Define social facilitation

Answer 4

The enhancement of a well-learned performance when another person is present

Question 5

Define social loafing

Answer 5

A phenomenon that occurs when an individual makes less of an effort when aiming to achieve a particular goal as a group than they would if they were attempting to achieve the goal on their own

Question 6

Describe the study that illustrates social loafing

Answer 6

Ringelmann asked participants to first pull on a rope individually, and then as a group. He found that people try harder when on their own.

Question 7

What are the 3 main topics of social psychology?

Answer 7

Social perception, social influence, and social interaction

Question 8

What event in the 20th century had the biggest impact on social psychology?

Answer 8

WWII and the rise of Hitler; led social psychology to begin studying conformity and propaganda

Question 9

What are the two types of research in social psychology?

Answer 9

Basic and applied social psychological research

Question 10

Define sociocultural perspective

Answer 10

A perspective that focuses on the relationship between social behavior and culture

Question 11

Define evolutionary perspective

Answer 11

A perspective that focuses on the physical and biological predispositions that result in human survival

Question 12

Define social cognitive perspective

Answer 12

A perspective that builds on behavioral theories and demonstrates that an individual’s cognitive process influences and is influenced by behavioral associations

Question 13

Define social learning perspective

Answer 13

A perspective that stresses the particular power of learning through social reinforcements and punishments

Question 14

Define confederate

Answer 14

A person who’s a part of the research team and is placed in the experiment to play a certain role

Question 15

Define hindsight bias

Answer 15

The tendency to think that one knew that something would happen all along

Question 16

Define false consensus effect

Answer 16

A phenomenon that causes individuals to assume that everyone shares the same opinion they do

Question 17

Define differential construal

Answer 17

The act of judging circumstances differently

Question 18

Define confirmation bias

Answer 18

The tendency to notice information that confirms one’s beliefs and to ignore information that disconfirms one’s beliefs

Question 19

Define scientific method

Answer 19

An approach to thinking that involves using systematic observations, measurements, and experiments to assess information

Question 20

What individuals are interested in the interaction of the person and situation?

a. behavioral psychologists
b. sociologists
c. social psychologists
d. social workers

Answer 20

c. social psychologists

Question 21

Which is an example of social influence?

a. seeing a person in a military uniform and assuming he is trustworthy
b. eating only seafood that’s sustainable to help the environment
c. taking a fashion class to meet girls
d. buying the same cell phone as your friend

Answer 21

d. buying the same cell phone as your friend

Question 22

What historic event was a precursor to the development of social psychology?

a. the damage done by the Nazis during WWII
b. the industrial revolution
c. the harlem renaissance
d. the start of the golden age in europe

Answer 22

a. the damage done by the Nazis during WWII

Question 23

Which is an example of social loafing?

a. finishing a race with a personal best time
b. doing extra credit to raise your grade in class
c. forgetting to turn in a research paper
d. putting forth minimal effort on a group project

Answer 23

d. putting forth minimal effort on a group project

Question 24

What was a major milestone in the development of social psychology?

a. the formation of organizations
b. the development of field-specific textbooks
c. the migration of psychologists to europe
d. the invention of the radio

Answer 24

b. the development of field-specific textbooks

Question 25

Who do some think is the individual who had the greatest influence on social psychology?

a. Theodore Roosevelt
b. Martin Luther King, Jr
c. Adolf Hitler
d. Sigmund Freud

Answer 25

c. Adolf Hitler

Question 26

Which social psychologist developed the theory of cognitive dissonance?

Answer 26

Festinger

Question 27

Which of the following is NOT a reason why common sense is unreliable:

a. it is a subjective concept
b. it can be obstructed by hindsight bias
c. it is used to make predictions before events occur
d. it is not based on scientific research

Answer 27

c. it is used to make predictions before events occur

Question 28

Which social psychology perspective focuses on the relationship between social behavior and culture?

a. evolutionary perspective
b. sociocultural perspective
c. cognitive learning perspective
d. social learning perspective

Answer 28

Sociocultural perspective

Question 29

How might a member of congress use social psychology to improve his or her political campaign?

a. impressing constituents with a large vocabulary
b. using common sense to figure out what the people want
c. making voting machines easier to use
d. using research to find out what makes a candidate likable

Answer 29

d. using research to find out what makes a candidate likable

Question 30

Define archival studies

Answer 30

Research that details culling information from existing records ranging from magazine articles to web site analytics

Question 31

Define confounding variable

Answer 31

Any difference other than the levels of the independent variable between the experimental group and the control group

Question 32

Define correlational research

Answer 32

Research in which researchers don’t manipulate variables but observe whether or not there’s a relationship between two variables

Question 33

Define deception

Answer 33

Providing participants with false or incomplete information

Question 34

Define descriptive research

Answer 34

Research used to obtain information regarding the current status of a population or phenomena to describe the who, what, when, where and how questions with respect to variables or conditions in a situation

Question 35

Define experimenter bias

Answer 35

Bias exhibited by the experiment administrator by subtly changing their behavior toward participants because of their knowledge of which group is experimental

Question 36

Define external validity

Answer 36

The extent to which results apply to a general population

Question 37

Define internal validity

Answer 37

The ability to infer cause and effect; that the variable that was manipulated was the only factor to change across conditions and so was what led to the observed effect

Question 38

Define matched samples design

Answer 38

Research design in which two or more groups of individuals are identical, or matching, in terms of the third variable

Question 39

Define naturalistic observation

Answer 39

Research that involves watching behavior in a real-world setting

Question 40

Define operational definition

Answer 40

A definition that assigns one or more specific operational conditions to an event and then identifies how those conditions should be measured

Question 41

Define participant bias

Answer 41

A bias that happens when a participant’s suspicions, expectations, or assumptions about the study influence the result

Question 42

Which psychological researcher is responsible for a controversial study on obedience?

a. Sigmund Freud
b. Paul Zak
c. Stanly Milgram
d. Daniel Gilbert

Answer 42

c. Stanly Milgram

Question 43

Which is an example of hindsight bias?

a. knowing that putting a candle near curtains is dangerous
b. thinking you knew it was going to rain after it did
c. assuming more expensive wine tastes better
d. overestimating the number of people who also believed that obama would win the 08 election

Answer 43

b. thinking you knew it was going to rain after it did

Question 44

Which key word is UNlikely to help you if you’re researching bystander apathy?

a. obedience
b. group
c. crime
d. influence

Answer 44

a. obedience

Question 45

What makes a hypothesis untestable?

a. a variable that has an operational definition
b. a variable that’s reliable and valid
c. a variable that’s subjective
d. a variable that’s objective

Answer 45

c. a variable that’s subjective

Question 46

Which is not one of the three basic ethical principles established in the belmont report?

a. justice
b. integrity
c. beneficence
d. autonomy

Answer 46

b. integrity

Question 47

Which technique eliminates experimenter bias?

Answer 47

A double blind study