Social Psych Flashcards

Question

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY:

Answer 1

Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory proposes that inconsistencies in cognitions produce discomfort (dissonance) that motivates the individual to reduce the dissonance by changing their cognitions.

Answer 2

The confirmation bias is the tendency to seek or pay attention to information that confirms one’s hypothesis or current beliefs and to ignore disconfirming information.

Answer 3

The contact hypothesis proposes that prejudice may be reduced through contact between members of majority and minority groups as long as the following conditions are met. Members of the different groups have equal status and power, members are provided with opportunities that disconfirm negative stereotypes about members of the other group, and intergroup cooperation is necessary to achieve mutual (superordinate) goals.

Answer 4

Deindividuation is a state of relative anonymity that allows an individual to feel unidentifiable. It has been associated with increases in antisocial behavior, apparently because the deindividuated person’s behavior is no longer controlled by guilt, fear of evaluation, or other inhibitory controls.

Answer 5

Discrimination is the unequal treatment of different people based on the group or category membership.

Answer 6

Crowded conditions tend to enhance positive experiences and increase the unpleasantness of negative experiences. Men seem to be more stressed by crowded conditions than women and are more likely to react with increased aggressiveness, apparently because men require more personal space.

Answer 7

The research has generally confirmed that viewing media violence increases aggression by providing viewers with models for aggressive behavior. In addition, media violence can affect attitudes as well as behavior – e.g., frequent viewing of media violence has been linked to a tendency to overestimate the likelihood that one will be a victim of violence.

Answer 8

Studies investigating the effects of pornography have shown that, while exposure to mild erotica may reduce aggressiveness, exposure to pornography with violent themes tends to increase aggressive behaviors toward women as well as increase acceptance of rape myths and the adoption of callous attitudes toward sexual violence

Answer 9

ELM is a cognitive theory of attitude change that distinguishes between two information processing routes — central and peripheral. Use of the central route is likely when the listener’s motivation is high, the listener has the ability to process the information contained in the message, and/or the listener is in a neutral or slightly negative mood. Use of the peripheral route is likely when the listener is unmotivated, the listener lacks the ability to process the information, and/or the listener is in a positive mood.

Answer 10

This model of emotion provides an explanation for the experience of strong emotions in close relationships and proposes that there is an innate mechanism that generates emotion in response to unexpected events that disrupt ongoing sequences of behaviors.

Answer 11

The epinephrine studies supported the predictions of self-perception theory by confirming that, when internal cues are insufficient or difficult to interpret, people acquire information about themselves by observing their external behaviors and/or the context in which those behaviors occur.

Answer 12

Equity theory predicts that motivation (e.g., motivation to remain in a relationship) is affected by a comparison of the input/outcome ratios of oneself and one’s partner.

Answer 13

Lewin’s field theory describes human behavior as being a product of interdependent factors in the person and their physical and social environment.

Answer 14

This hypothesis proposes that aggression is motivated by frustration, and a revised version predicts that frustration leads to aggression in the presence of aggressive cues.

Answer 15

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency for an observer to overestimate dispositional causes and underestimate situational causes when making attributions about an actor’s behavior.

Answer 16

The gain-loss effect predicts that people tend to be most attracted to individuals who show increasing liking for them and to be least attracted to individuals who show decreasing liking for them.

Answer 17

The research has shown that women generally spend more time than men engaged in conversation, are more likely to talk to people of the same gender, and may affiliate more than men do in public places.

Answer 18

Group polarization is when there is a shift in decisions made by groups after discussion such that they are more extreme than those made privately by individuals of the group.

Answer 19

Groupthink occurs when the desire of group members for unanimity and cohesiveness overrides their ability to realistically appraise or determine alternative courses of action. It can be alleviated when the group leader encourages dissent, has someone play devil's advocate, and refrains from stating their decision or solution too quickly.

Answer 20

Research by Kobasa et al. (1982) found that the personality trait of hardiness acts as a protective factor against stress and has three primary characteristics: commitment (a sense of purpose and involvement in one’s relationships and life events); challenge (an openness to new experiences and change); and control (the belief that one has the ability to influence or manage life events)

Answer 21

Heuristics are mental shortcuts that people use when making attributions and other social judgments and include the representativeness, availability, simulation, and anchoring and adjustment heuristics. Although heuristics allow us to reach conclusions quickly, they may result in errors.

Answer 22

Informational social influence explains conformity behaviors in more ambiguous situations whereby people use the behavior of others to gather information about appropriate or correct actions. In contrast, normative social influence explains conformity behaviors driven by the need to belong and be similar to others - even when the situation is unambiguous.

Answer 23

Defining oneself in terms of what is unique and different about the self (e.g., internal thoughts, feelings, actions). More common in individualistic cultures.

Answer 24

Defining oneself through connections to other people and groups. More common in collectivistic cultures.

Answer 25

Lewin (1931) and Miller (1944) distinguished between four intraindividual (motivational) conflicts: approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, approach-avoidance, and double approach-avoidance. Of these, the double approach-avoidance (which occurs when we have to choose between two goals that both have positive and negative qualities) is the most difficult type to resolve.

Answer 26

A biological predisposition to help genetically related others even if it is harmful to the self as a means of passing down genetic material.

Answer 27

The jigsaw method is a method of learning in which assignments must be completed by teams with each team member being assigned a different piece of the project. It has been found to improve intergroup relations, cooperation, and self-esteem as well as academic achievement, especially for members of minority groups.

Answer 28

According to Byrne’s (1971) law of attraction, we are attracted to others who have similar attitudes because interacting with those individuals is more rewarding than interacting with people who have dissimilar attitudes and is, therefore, more likely to generate positive affect.

Answer 29

Several investigators argue, to understand the effects of racism, it is necessary to recognize that it operates on multiple levels. These levels may be categorized as cultural, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized.

Answer 30

The research shows that a minority can influence the majority by maintaining a consistent (but not dogmatic) position

Answer 31

Schachter concluded that people like to affiliate most with others who are in similar circumstances (e.g., anxious people prefer to affiliate with other anxious people).

Answer 32

Milgram’s famous and controversial studies evaluated participants’ willingness to obey the direct order or command of a high-status individual (authority) even when doing so seemed to harm another person.

Answer 33

The overjustification hypothesis predicts that, when people are externally rewarded for a task they previously found intrinsically interesting, their intrinsic interest in the task will decrease.

Answer 34

Prejudice is a negative feeling toward an individual based solely on their membership in a particular group.

Answer 35

Zimbardo’s prison simulation study demonstrated that people alter their behaviors to fit their assigned roles.

Answer 36

Privilege occurs when a right, benefit, or immunity, is afforded to one group.

Answer 37

Rosenhan’s pseudopatient study demonstrated the effects of the social context on impression formation. Once admitted to a mental hospital, the pseudopatients were viewed, especially by hospital staff, as being schizophrenic even though they did not exhibit any abnormal behaviors.

Answer 38

Psychological reactance is the tendency to resist being influenced or manipulated by others, usually by doing the opposite of what is expected or requested.

Answer 39

Sherif’s research with boys at a summer camp demonstrated that the most effective way to reduce intergroup hostility is having the members of the groups cooperate to achieve a mutual (superordinate) goal.

Answer 40

Schemata (schemas) are cognitive structures that organize past information and experience and provide a framework for processing and understanding new information and experiences.

Answer 41

Self-monitoring refers to the need for and ability to manage the impression that others form of us. High self-monitors are most concerned about their “public self” and, consequently, strive to match their attitudes and behaviors to the situation. In contrast, low self-monitors are guided primarily by their own beliefs and values and attempt to alter the situation to match their “private self.”

Answer 42

Self-perception theory predicts that people make attributions about their own attitudes and behaviors on the basis of observations of their behaviors and other external cues.

Answer 43

The self-serving bias refers to the tendency to attribute our own successes to dispositional (internal) factors and failures to situational (external) factors.

Answer 44

Self-verification theory predicts that people prefer to receive feedback from others that is consistent with their own self-evaluations.

Answer 45

Social comparison theory predicts that people use other (usually similar) people as sources of comparison to evaluate their own attitudes and behaviors.

Answer 46

Social exchange theory predicts that a person’s decision to leave a relationship depends on the relationship’s costs and rewards – i.e., a person is likely to stay in a relationship when rewards exceed costs but leave when costs are greater than rewards

Answer 47

Social facilitation theory maintains that the presence of others increases the dominant response.

Answer 48

Social learning theory predicts that learning can occur simply by observing the behavior of a model. It has been used to explain the acquisition of aggressive behaviors (e.g., the effects of media violence).

Answer 49

Social loafing occurs when people reduce effort when working in a group, compared to working alone, when effort is aggregated.

Answer 50

Social judgment theory predicts that people have three “categories of judgment” by which they evaluate persuasive messages – a latitude of acceptance, a latitude of non-commitment, and a latitude of rejection – and that people are most likely to be persuaded when the message is within their latitude of acceptance.

Answer 51

Beliefs (or schema) that associate groups of people with certain traits.

Answer 52

A form of racial discrimination that is disguised and subtle, rather than public or obvious, often presenting as microaggressions in communication.

Answer 53

Superordinate goals can be achieved only when individuals or members of different groups work together cooperatively and have been found useful for reducing intergroup conflict.

Answer 54

Sears et al. propose that that symbolic (modern) racism has gradually taken the place of “old-fashioned” racism and that symbolic racists believe that African Americans and other minorities violate such traditional American values as individualism, self-reliance, and the work ethic. They also deny their prejudice and attribute the social and economic problems of minority group members to internal factors (e.g., a lack of effort and discipline).

Answer 55

The theory of planned behavior predicts that attitudes are accurate predictors of behavior when the attitude measure assesses all three components of the behavioral intention – the person’s attitude toward engaging in the behavior, what the person believes other people think he or she should do, and the person’s perceived behavioral control.

Answer 56

The Zeigarnik effect is the tendency to remember interrupted and unfinished tasks better than completed ones, especially in non-stressful situations.