Lecture 7: Individual Differences

Question 1

why do we study individual differences?

Answer 1

People show meaningful variability on a lot of things in life

Question 2

Caruso et al., 2009

Answer 2

manipulated a candidate’s image by making their skin lighter and darker. Found that out of those who agreed with the candidate, more people found the lightened image representative than the darkened image. The same effect was found for disagreeing with the candidate, where more people found the darker image more representative.

Question 3

Caruso et al. Obama follow-up study

Answer 3

they used Obama’s picture and found that Liberals found the lightened image more representative and Conservatives found the darkened image more representative

Question 4

Rensis Likert

Answer 4

translated abstract attitudes into numerical data

Question 5

Likert scale

Answer 5

scale from 1-5 where respondents select the option best corresponding to their attitude

Question 6

development of modern racism theory

Answer 6

developed by political scientists in the 1970s and 80s

Question 7

modern/ symbolic racism theory states that

Answer 7

People were no longer willing to accept or report more blatant forms of prejudice, so we must use indirect approaches to measure racial attitudes

Question 8

direct measures of racial attitudes

Answer 8

Prejudice index
Racial stereotypes measure
Subtle and blatant prejudice

Question 9

what might hinder direct measures?

Answer 9

self-preservation factors

Question 10

what might hinder indirect measures?

Answer 10

irrelevant factors

Question 11

link between self-report scale & IAT

Answer 11

As items get more direct, the shared variance with race IAT increases. Positive correlation r= .47

Question 12

did correlational studies find that self-presentation concerns had a big effect on reported prejudice

Answer 12

not as big a deterrent as expected; the best way to find out about racial attitudes is to ask

Question 13

right-wing authoritarianism

Answer 13

A scale and construct first defined by Canadian psychologist Robert Altemeyer in 1981

Question 14

why was right-ring authoritarianism developed

Answer 14

to identify people who are willing to submit to authorities who strongly adhere to societal conventions and norms

Question 15

RWA & prejudice

Answer 15

RWA is a strong predictor of intergroup prejudice

Question 16

RWA is correlated with

Answer 16

(from most to least correlated)
- anti-feminist prejudice
- political orientation (Conservatism)
- anti-Gay prejudice
- anti-Black prejudice
- anti-disability prejudice

Question 17

why is it theorized that right-wing authoritarianism is connected to prejudice?

Answer 17

due to RWA’s connection to mental inflexibility and attitudes toward groups that violate current conventions

Question 18

RWA and political orientation

Answer 18

fairly highly correlated at r= .65

Question 19

political orientation

Answer 19

The degree to which a person self-identifies as liberal or conservative

Question 20

need for closure

Answer 20

an individual’s desire to arrive at a form answer to avoid feelings of ambiguity

Question 21

need for closure and conservatism

Answer 21

Need for closure is consistently found to be related to the degree to which someone identifies as conservative r= .20

Question 22

why is it theorized that need for closure is connected to conservatism?

Answer 22

A need for closure and need for stereotypical thinking allows for a more simplified view of the world

Question 23

perceptions of androgyny study

Answer 23

Participants viewed targets varying in androgyny and had to categorize them as male or female as quickly as possible. Afterwards, participants reported how positive they felt towards each face and finally reported their political ideology. Conservative participants evaluated androgynous targets more negatively partly because it took them longer to categorize more androgynous faces. The same pattern didn’t appear for liberals

Question 24

use of physical appearance study

Answer 24

Participants reported how confident they are in inferring social group membership from physical appearance. In every category, conservatives were more confident that social group membership could be inferred from physical appearance. Participants also completed a measure of the need for structure. Can partially help inform ideological debates around certain political issues like racial profiling or ‘stop and frisk’

Question 25

need for structure

Answer 25

how much a person enjoys having a lack of ambiguity

Question 26

example of an indirect approach sample item

Answer 26

Black people are getting too demanding in their push for equal rights