PS261 Exam Two (Chapters 7-9, 12)

Question 1

attitudes

Answer 1

evaluations of people, objects, and ideas

Question 2

cognitively based attitude

Answer 2

an attitude based primarily on people’s beliefs about the properties of an attitude object

Question 3

affectively based attitude

Answer 3

an attitude based more on people’s feelings and values than on their beliefs about the nature of an attitude object

Question 4

classical conditioning

Answer 4

the phenomenon whereby a stimulus that elicits an emotional response (e.g., your grandmother) is repeatedly paired with a neutral stimulus that does not (e.g., the smell of mothballs), until the neutral stimulus takes on the emotional properties of the first stimulus

Question 5

operant conditioning

Answer 5

the phenomenon whereby behaviors we freely choose to perform become more or less frequent, depending on whether they are followed by a reward (positive reinforcement) or punishment

Question 6

persuasive communication

Answer 6

communication (e.g., a speech or television ad) advocating a particular side of an issue

Question 7

Yale attitude change approach

Answer 7

the study of the conditions under which people are most likely to change their attitudes in response to persuasive messages, focusing on the source of the communication, the nature of the communication, and the nature of the audience

Question 8

elaboration likelihood model

Answer 8

a model explaining two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change; centrally, when people are motivated and have the ability to pay attention to the arguments in the communication, and peripherally, when people do not pay attention to the arguments but are instead swayed by surface characteristics (e.g., who gave the speech)

Question 9

central route to persuasion

Answer 9

the case in which people do not elaborate on the arguments in a persuasive communication, listening carefully to and thinking about the arguments, which occurs when people have both the ability and the motivation to listen carefully to a communication

Question 10

peripheral route to persuasion

Answer 10

the case in which people do not elaborate on the arguments in a persuasive communication but are instead swayed by peripheral cues

Question 11

need for cognition

Answer 11

a personality variable reflecting the extent to which people engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities

Question 12

fear-arousing communication

Answer 12

persuasive message that attempts to change people’s attitudes by arousing their fears

Question 13

heuristic-systematic model of persuasion

Answer 13

an explanation of the two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change; either systematically processing the merits of the arguments or using mental shortcuts such as “experts are always right”

Question 14

attitude inoculation

Answer 14

making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of the arguments against their position

Question 15

reactance theory

Answer 15

the idea that when people feel their freedom to perform a certain behavior is threatened, an unpleasant state of reactance is aroused, which they can reduce by performing the threatened behavior

Question 16

attitude accessibility

Answer 16

the strength of the association between an attitude object and a person’s evaluation of that object, measured by the speed with which people can report how they feel about the object

Question 17

theory of planned behavior

Answer 17

the idea that people’s intentions are the best predictors of their deliberate behaviors, which are determined by their attitudes toward specific behaviors, their subjective norms, and their perceived behavioral control

Question 18

subliminal messages

Answer 18

words or pictures that are not consciously perceived but may nevertheless influence people’s judgments, attitudes, and behaviors

Question 19

conformity

Answer 19

a change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people

Question 20

informational social influence

Answer 20

the influence of other people that leads us to conform because we see them as a source of information to guide our behavior; we confom because we believe that others’ interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more correct than ours and will help us choose an appropriate course of action

Question 21

private acceptance

Answer 21

conforming to other people’s behavior out of a genuine belief that what they are doing or saying is right

Question 22

public compliance

Answer 22

conforming to other people’s behavior publicly without necessarily believing in what the other people are doing or saying

Question 23

contagion

Answer 23

the rapid spread of emotions or behaviors through a crowd

Question 24

mass psychogenic illness

Answer 24

the occurrence in a group of people of similar physical symptoms with no known physical cause

Question 25

social norms

Answer 25

the implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs of its members

Question 26

normative social influence

Answer 26

the influence of other people that leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted by them; this type of conformity results in public compliance with the group’s beliefs and behaviors but not necessarily in private acceptance of those beliefs and behaviors

Question 27

social impact theory

Answer 27

the idea that conforming to social influence depends on the group’s importance, its immediacy, and the number of people in the group

Question 28

idiosyncrasy credits

Answer 28

the tolerance a person earns, over time, by conforming to group norms; if enough idiosyncrasy credits are earned, the person can, on occasion, behave deviantly without retribution from the group

Question 29

minority influence

Answer 29

the case where a minority of group members influences the behavior or beliefs of the majority

Question 30

injunctive norms

Answer 30

people’s perceptions of what behaviors are approved or disapproved of by others

Question 31

descriptive norms

Answer 31

people’s perceptions of how people actually behave in given situations, regardless of whether the behavior is approved or disapproved of by others

Question 32

group

Answer 32

three or more people who interact and are interdependent in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to influence each other; “you influence them and they influence you”

Question 33

social roles

Answer 33

shared expectations in a group about how particular people are supposed to behave

Question 34

costs to social roles

Answer 34

people can get so far into a role that personal identities and personalities get lost (Stanford Prison Experiment)

Question 35

gender roles

Answer 35

conflict results when expectations change for some roles but not for others assumed by the same person

Question 36

group cohesiveness

Answer 36

qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking between members

Question 37

functions of group cohesiveness

Answer 37

doing well on tasks causes a group to become more cohesive; if maintaining a good, cohesive relationship becomes more important than the task itself, performance suffers

Question 38

social facilitation

Answer 38

the tendency for people to do better on simple tasks and worse on complex tasks when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluated (Cockroach Experiment)

Question 39

social loafing

Answer 39

the tendency for people to relax when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance cannot be evaluated, such that they do worse on simple tasks but better on complex tasks

Question 40

deindividuation

Answer 40

the loosening of normal constraints on behavior when people can’t be identified (such as when they are in a crowd)

Question 41

process loss

Answer 41

any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good problem solving

Question 42

transactive memory

Answer 42

the combined memory of two people that is more efficient than the memory of either individual

Question 43

groupthink

Answer 43

a kind of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner

Question 44

group polarization

Answer 44

the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclinations of its members

Question 45

great person theory

Answer 45

the idea that certain key personality traits make a person a good leader, regardless of the situation

Question 46

transactional leaders

Answer 46

leaders who set clear, short-term goals and reward people who meet them

Question 47

transformational leaders

Answer 47

leaders who inspire followers to focus on common, long-term goals

Question 48

contingency theory of leadership

Answer 48

the idea that leadership effectiveness depends both on how task-oriented or relationship-oriented the leader is and on the amount of control and influence the leader has over the group

Question 49

task-oriented leader

Answer 49

a leader who is concerned more with getting the job done than with workers’ feelings and relationships

Question 50

relationship-oriented leader

Answer 50

a leader who is concerned more with workers’ feelings and relationships

Question 51

social dilemma

Answer 51

a conflict in which the most beneficial action for an individual will, if chosen by most people, have harmful effects on everyone

Question 52

tit for tat strategy

Answer 52

a means of encouraging cooperation by at first acting cooperatively but then always responding the way your opponent did (cooperatively or competitively) on the previous trial

Question 53

negotiation

Answer 53

a form of communication between opposing sides in a conflict in which offers and counteroffers are made and a solution occurs only when both parties agree

Question 54

integrative solution

Answer 54

a solution to a conflict whereby the parties make trade-offs on issues according to their different interests; each side concedes the most on issues that are unimportant to it but important to the other side

Question 55

frustration-aggression theory

Answer 55

the theory that frustration–the perception that you are being prevented from attaining a goal–increases the probability of an aggressive response

Question 56

aggressive stimulus

Answer 56

an object that is associated with the aggressive responses (e.g., a gun) and whose mere presence can increase the probability of aggression

Question 57

social learning theory

Answer 57

the theory that people learn social behavior (e.g., aggression) in large part by observing others and imitating them

Question 58

scripts

Answer 58

ways of behaving socially that we learn implicitly from our culture

Question 59

catharsis

Answer 59

the notion that “blowing off steam”–by performing a verbally or physically aggressive act, watching others engage in aggressive behaviors, or engaging in a fantasy of aggression–relieves built-up aggressive energies and hence reduces the likelihood of further aggressive behavior

Question 60

behaviorally based attitude

Answer 60

actions or observable behavior toward the attitude object

Question 61

1) people’s values such as religious and moral beliefs
2) sensory reaction, such as liking the taste of chocolate
3) aesthetic reaction, such as admiring a painting
4) conditioning

Answer 61

where do affectively based attitudes come from?

Question 62

1) do not result from a rational examination of the issues
2) are not governed by logic (cannot be persuaded to change attitude based on argument)
3) are often linked to people’s values, so that trying to change those challenges their values

Answer 62

affectively based attitudes…

Question 63

self-perception theory/ behaviorally based attitudes

Answer 63

under certain circumstances, people don’t know how they feel until they see how they behave; we can form our attitudes based on the observations of our own behavior

Question 64

1) initial attitude has to be weak or ambiguous

2) only when there are no other plausible explanations for their behavior

Answer 64

people infer their attitudes from their behavior only under certain conditions

Question 65

explicit attitudes

Answer 65

attitudes we endorse

Question 66

implicit attitudes

Answer 66

attitudes we can’t help

Question 67

counterattitudinal advocacy

Answer 67

minimum external justification -> results in change of people’s private attitude in direction of public statement