lecture 6

Question 1

self-serving bias

Answer 1

• attribute success to our good fortune, failure to circumstance
• we see ourselves more favorably than we see others
• “unrealistic” optimism
• false consensus and uniqueness

Question 2

self-verification theory

Answer 2

-people have a need to confirm their self-concept- positive or negative (might conflict with the need to maintain a positive self-view)

Question 3

study: choose who to have an interaction with- those with negative self-concept:

Answer 3

were more likely to choose the unfavorable person

Question 4

study: choose who to have an interaction with- those with positive self-concept:

Answer 4

chose favorable person

no conflict between two motives

Question 5

what is automatic thinking?

Answer 5

thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless
(can be very beneficial, sometimes leads to problems)

Question 6

when perceiving and processing social information, prejudgments can:

Answer 6

bias our perceptions, interpretations, and later recall (can be conscious or unconscious such as schemas)

Question 7

car crash example of prejudgements showed that:

Answer 7

about how fast were the cars going when they_____ each other?

• smashed (fastest estimate)
• hit
• contacted (slowest estimate)

Question 8

what is a schema?

Answer 8

a schema is a mental structure people use to organize their knowledge of the social world around themes or subjects (influences information noticed, thought about, and remembered)

Question 9

why are schemas important?

Answer 9

help us make sense of the world (we have schemas about many things)

Question 10

what if no schemas?

Answer 10

Korsakov’s syndrome

Question 11

what is accessibility? how do they affect which schemas are applied?

Answer 11

accessibility= extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of the mind and thus likely to be used in making judgments

Question 12

types of accessibility?

Answer 12

chronic accessibility 
temporary accessibility (priming)

Question 13

when are schemas problematic?

Answer 13

• stereotypes

- when schemas can be activated for reasons that are arbitrary

Question 14

what are stereotypes?

Answer 14

schemas applied to social groups, such as fraternity, gender, or race
(most often studied stereotypes are for African-Americans and women)

Question 15

What are the “Donald” studies?

Answer 15

• participants were told doing 2 unrelated experiments
  1) perception test: identifying colors while memorizing list of words
  2) reading comprehension study: read paragraph and give impression of donald

Question 16

what were the results of the “donald” studies?

Answer 16

the 1/2 of participants with positive words in 1st experiment rated donald as more positive “adventurous, self confident, independent”
the 1/2 of participants with negative words in 1st experiment rated donald as “reckless, conceited, aloof”

Question 17

why were the “donald” studies significant?

Answer 17

showed how schemas can influence opinions when they are both:

• accessible
• applicable

Question 18

In the study “excuse me, but what about actual behavior?” what did they test?

Answer 18

• subjects had to either unscramble neutral, polite, or rude words
• told to find the experimenter when finished, but they were immersed in conversation for 10 minutes

Question 19

what were the results of the word unscramble/find experimenter study?

Answer 19

those who unscrambled polite words 15% would interrupt

• w/ neutral 40%
• w/rude 60%

Question 20

confirmatory hypothesis testing is to answer the question:

Answer 20

do we seek information objectively, or are we inclined to confirm the suspicions we already have?

Question 21

Snyder & Swann: Confirmatory hypothesis testing experiment

Answer 21

• interview person, told they were either extrovert or introvert
• subjects made up different questions that lead to confirmation of original ideas

Question 22

results of Synder and Swann confirmatory hypothesis testing

Answer 22

even observers of the interview, blind to condition, saw the “extroverts” as more extroverted, and the “introverts” as more introverted

Question 23

we are less likely to use this confirmatory hypothesis technique if we:

Answer 23

• if we are uncertain of our impression

- if we are concerned with the accuracy of the impression

Question 24

belief perseverance

Answer 24

the tendency to maintain a belief even after it has been discredited
(the explanation or theory about why the initial belief was true often survives)

Question 25

Ross 1975 experiment with false feedback:

Answer 25

• gave people bogus feedback (succeeded or failed a social sensitivity test)
• told feedback was false
• then estimated the number of items they actually did get right or would get right on a similar test

Question 26

results of ross 1975 experiment with false feedback:

Answer 26

those with false success feedback estimated higher scores on current and future tasks than those with fake failure feedback

Question 27

what is one way we can reverse belief perseverance?

Answer 27

explain the opposite

Question 28

what is confirmation bias?

Answer 28

the tendency to search for and interpret information that verifies existing beliefs

Question 29

what was the hannah study?

Answer 29

participants saw one of two videos: high expectation (affluent) and low expectation (poor), then asked to predict her math and verbal skills after (no info or new info of her performance at school)

Question 30

what were the results of the hannah study?

Answer 30

when performance not viewed- no difference in guessed performance of high and low expectation
-but when performance viewed (the same for low and high), there was a difference in expectation of performance (higher for high expectation)

Question 31

what is the attribution theory?

Answer 31

the way in which people explain the causes of their own and others’ behavior

Question 32

internal attribution:

Answer 32

inference that behavior is the because of something about the person, such as his attitude, character, or personality

Question 33

external attribution:

Answer 33

inference that the behavior is because of something about the situation

Question 34

what is the covariation model? (Kelley)

Answer 34

combines consensus information and distinctiveness information when determining if something is an internal or external attribution

Question 35

in the covariation model, what is consensus information?

Answer 35

the extent that other people behave the same way in this situation

Question 36

in the covariation model, what is distinctiveness information?

Answer 36

the extent to which one particular person behaves differently in various situations

Question 37

when something is considered internal attribution it has:

Answer 37

low consensus

low distinctiveness

Question 38

when something is considered external attribution it has:

Answer 38

high consensus

high distinctiveness