General Studies

Question 1

What were the IV/DV for Asch’s Line Task?

Answer 1

IV - size of majority, stooge wearing glasses, public/private responding
DV- Conformity Score, Accuracy, Error

Question 2

Was Asch’s Line task high or low in internal/external validity?

Answer 2

• High internal validity, ppts randomly allocated to conditions, allowing strong casual inference, Covert
• Low External validity, study conducted in lab (unrealistic), unusual stimuli

Question 3

What were the 4 main stages of Sherif’s summer camp studies (1955)?

Answer 3

1) Spontaneous Friendships > one hut > careful pretesting to rule our psychopathology
2) Group Formation > Rattlers v Eagles > Friends assigned to different groups
3) Intergroup Competition > zero-sum games > winning/losing team
4) Conflict Resolution > Introduction of subordinate goals > only achieved by groups working together> conflict reduced

Question 4

What were the Iv/DV for Sherif’s study?

Answer 4

IV- phase of study (repeated measures) after intergroup competition vs after subordinate goals
DV- Estimates of performance by ingroup v outgroup members, % unfavorable trait ratings but ingroup v outgroup

Question 5

Was Sherif’s study high or low in internal/external validity?

Answer 5

• high internal validity due to random allocation to conditions however brought down by the fact its a field experiment
• external validity better than lab experiment , more generalizable however summer camp was a v specific setting so limited

Question 6

Who was responsible for the minimal groups paradigm?

Answer 6

Tajfel et al 1971

Question 7

Minimal Groups Paradigm

Answer 7

stage 1) categorization into in group and outgroup on trivial criteria (e.g. coin toss)
stage 2) task: allocate money (points) between in group and outgroup (no possibility that results due to self interest)
Results) people gave more money to others from in v out group, specifically maximizing the difference in resource allocation between the in and out group , even at the expense of overall group profit .
Conclusion) competition is not necessary for intergroup conflict

Question 8

What were the IV/DV for the minimal groups paradigm?

Answer 8

IV- recipient of money / points (repeated measures), after categorization > in group v outgroup member
DV- amount of money/points given to IG v OG, strength of various matrix scores (MJP, MD, F, MIP)

Question 9

what is a proposed explanation for why people stereotype?

Answer 9

• to save cognitive effort

Question 10

What is the stereotype Congruence study?

Answer 10

• Macrae et al 1994)
• ppts required to form impressions of various individuals , simultaneously listened to passage about geography + economics of Indonesia and asked to recall basic details
• during the task, impression congruent stereotypes were presented to half the ppts (e.g. pushy, arrogant, confident would be associated with ‘estate agent’)
• groups performed better on tasks when stereotypes were present, improvement in recall suggests stereotypes aid in more efficient cognitive processing