module 52-54: social psychology

Question 1

what is social psychology?

Answer 1

the study of how individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others

Question 2

what is personality psychology?

Answer 2

individuals’ characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

Question 3

define social cognition.

Answer 3

how we interpret social information

Question 4

what is social influence?

Answer 4

process by which social groups exert pressure onto an individual, either intentionally or unintentionally

Question 5

what is person perception?

Answer 5

processes by which we use social stimuli to form impressions of others

Question 6

what are attributions?

Answer 6

explanations of the causes of behavior

Question 7

define the self-as-social-object concept.

Answer 7

how we think of ourselves in relation to other people

Question 8

what are attitudes?

Answer 8

opinions and beliefs that affect how we react to other people and events

Question 9

describe the importance of the face in person perception.

Answer 9

• automatic processing of information about trustworthiness and friendliness
• we often assume positive characteristics about those who are attractive

Question 10

define self-fulfilling prophecies.

Answer 10

social expectations that cause a person to act in a way that aligns with those expectations.

(refer to Rosenthal and Jacobson experiment with students)

Question 11

what is the attribution theory?

Answer 11

the view that people are motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior

Question 12

what is situational attribution?

Answer 12

focuses on features of the situation

Question 13

what is dispositional attribution?

Answer 13

focuses on features of the person

Question 14

what is the fundamental attribution error?

Answer 14

overestimation of the dispositional factors when judging the negative behaviors of others

Question 15

what is the self-serving bias?

Answer 15

attributing success to dispositional factors and failures to situational factors

Question 16

what is the just-world bias?

Answer 16

good people are always rewarded, and bad people are always punished

Question 17

what is the false-consensus effect?

Answer 17

the tendency to think other people share our attitudes more than they actually do

Question 18

describe self-objectification.

Answer 18

• the tendency to see oneself as an object in the eyes of others ( how you appear to other people)
• associated with body shame and appearance anxiety

Question 19

what is social comparison?

Answer 19

the process by which individuals evaluate their thoughts in relation to the thoughts of others ( comparing ourselves to others)

Question 20

what is the self-perception theory?

Answer 20

individuals make inferences about their attitudes by observing their behavior.

Question 21

what is cognitive dissonance?

Answer 21

psychological discomfort caused by having two inconsistent thoughts

ex: 1. I smoke
2. smoking leads to cancer

Question 22

what is persuasion?

Answer 22

trying to change someone’s attitude and behavior

Question 23

what is the central route?

Answer 23

goes through the rational mind, attitude is changed through evidence and logic

Question 24

what is the peripheral route?

Answer 24

appeals to fears, desires, emotions, and associations

Question 25

who created the mock prison experiment related to social roles?

Answer 25

Philip Zimbardo

Question 26

what is conformity?

Answer 26

adjusting behavior/thinking to fit in with a group’s beliefs or standards

Question 27

describe the Solomon Asch study.

Answer 27

• judging the length of lines
• look at the line on the left, which one is the same length?
• subject denies his belief and goes with the others
• 75% of the participants conformed at least once

Question 28

what is normative social influence?

Answer 28

influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

Question 29

what is informational social influence?

Answer 29

influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept other’s opinions about reality

Question 30

what is groupthink?

Answer 30

group members share such a strong willingness to share a consensus that they do not critically evaluate other points of view.

Question 31

what is entrapment?

Answer 31

people committed to their failing sense of view so much, that they have to continue investing in that idea since they have already invested so much time into it.

Question 32

what is obedience?

Answer 32

people follow direct commands, often from a person in authority.

Question 33

describe Stanley Milgram’s experiment.

Answer 33

• 40 males between 20-50
• told that they need to deliver shocks when people get the wrong answer
• kept shocking even after hearing screams of people getting “shocked”