Social Psych Exam 2

Question 1

What is natural selection?

Answer 1

Process by which heritable traits that best enable organisms to survive and reproduce in particular environments are passed to ensuing generations.

Question 2

What is evolutionary psychology?

Answer 2

Study of the evolution of cognition and behavior using principles of natural selection
* Whom should I help?
* When, and with whom, should I mate?
* What should we fear?

Question 3

What is gender? How this is different from sex?

Answer 3

Gender
* Characteristics, whether biologically or culturally influenced, by which people define male and female
Sex
How is gender different from sex?
* Females have 70% more fat, 40% less muscle, 5 inches shorter, and 40 pounds less than males (Sex)
* Males are 3 times more likely to have ADHD, 4 times more likely to commit suicide (Gender)

Question 4

Differences between woman and man regarding independence and connectedness?

Answer 4

Men have great needs for status and independence (emphasis on separate and different).
Women have needs for intimacy and connection (emphasis on close and same).

Question 5

Differences between woman and man regarding social dominance?

Answer 5

• Men are socially dominant, and expected to be.
• Women in 2019 were but 24% of the world’s legislators
• Men are more likely to favor conservative political candidates and programs that preserve group inequality
• Women’s wages in industrial countries average 78-84% of men’s
• Men tend to initiate first dates, do most driving, and pick up most of the tabs
• Leader: Agentic (assertive, independent, forceful) - men vs. Communal (helpful, kind, nurturing) - women
• Men take more risks and men take high-status conversation role

Question 6

Differences between woman and man regarding aggression?

Answer 6

• Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone
• In the U.S., the arrest ratio of male to female is 8 to 1
• Almost all suicide terrorists have been young men
• Most battlefield deaths and death row inmates are men
• Women are slightly more likely to commit indirect aggressive acts (Ex. Verbal attack, spread gossip, or bullying)

Question 7

How woman and man are different regarding sexuality?

Answer 7

Men:
* Have more desire for unrestricted sex
* More often think about sex, masturbate more, and initiate more sex
* Want more sexual partners, more quickly aroused, use more pornography, take more risk and more willing to pay for sex
Women:
* “Sex is something females have that males want”
* Rarely pay for sex (no need)
* Sex can be a weapon for women

Question 8

Parental Investment theory

Answer 8

**Men’s investment in childbearing is about 9 seconds **
* Spreading genes widely and competing with other males-reproduce widely
* Values physical characteristics, prefer youthful
Woman seek out quality
* Investment in childbearing is at least 9 months
* Protecting and nurturing of offspring-reproduce wisely
* Value the ability to provide resources and commitment

Question 9

What are essential mating traits for men and women?

Answer 9

Men’s essential trait for mating
* Physically dominant: Related to male aggression and dominance
* External resources: Achievement (Socially and Financially)
Women’s essential trait for mating
* Beauty and youth
* Ovulation effect
* Motherly disposition

Question 10

What is conformity and the three types?

Answer 10

Conformity: Change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure
Three types
* Compliance (outward conformity): Acting publicly in accordance with an implied or explicit request while privately disagreeing
* Obedience: Acting in accordance with a direct order or command
* Acceptance (inward conformity): Acting and believing in accordance with social pressures

Question 11

Sherif’s experiment of norm formation, what it found, and how it relates to conformity.

Answer 11

• Used autokinetic phenomenon (a visual illusion that makes a stationary object appear to move), then asked groups of men to determine how much the point of light had moved
• The responses of the men changed and they followed each other’s responses, even though the point of light never moved

Question 12

Suggestibility (social contagion)

Answer 12

The spread of behaviors, attitudes, and emotions through groups of people, such as contagious yawning, mass hysteria, and violent crimes
Ex. When 13 Reasons Why released, there were an increase in suicides.

Question 13

Asch’s Studies of Group Pressure

Answer 13

• Perceptual judgment experiment
• Six confederates gave incorrect answers to see if participant would agree even if he knew it was the incorrect answer

Question 14

Milgram’s Obedience Experiments

Answer 14

Tested what happens when the demands of authority lash with the demands of conscience
* Teacher “shocks” learner at the insistence of experimenter
* 65% of participants continued beyond expectations
* Most people will conform to authority figure if pressured consistently enough

Question 15

Criticism of Milgram’s experiments

Answer 15

Critics said the Milgram’s experiment stressed participants against their will
They argued that the participants’ self-esteem may have been altered because they did something against their will

Question 16

What breeds obedience?

Answer 16

1. Victim’s distance or depersonalization: showed the most obedience when they cannot see victim (65% vs. 40%)
2. Closeness and legitimacy of the authority: authority should be physically present and perceived as legitimate
3. Institutional authority: people obey the order/commands from certain institutions with higher social power/reputation
4. Liberating effects of group influence: firefighters rushed into World Trade Center towers because “they were partially obeying their supervisors, partially conforming to extraordinary group loyalty”

Question 17

How did conformity, especially obedience, result in extreme
violence and slaughter throughout history (i.e., Nazi, and My Lai Massacure).

Answer 17

Enabling individuals to commit horrific acts when following orders from perceived legitimate leaders, even when those orders contradict their personal morals, effectively creates a situation where individuals feel compelled to participate in atrocities due to social pressure and the fear of defying authority.

Question 18

Three psychological concepts related to the development of evil act through conformity

Answer 18

Diffusion of responsibility: People are less likely to take responsibility for their actions or inactions when others are present
Foot in the Door: A small act of evil fosters the attitude that leads to a larger evil act
Cognitive dissonance: Blame the victim process - Criticism produces contempt, which licenses cruelty, which, when justified, leads to brutality, then killing

Question 19

What are factors that predict conformity?

Answer 19

Group size
3 to 5 people will elicit more conformity than just 1 or 2
Groups greater in size than 5 yields diminishing returns
Unanimity
Observing another’s dissent can increase our own independence
Cohesion
“The we feeling”; extent to which members of a group are bound together, such as by attraction for one another
The more cohesive a group is, the more power it gains over its members
Status
Higher-status people tend to have more of an impact
Public Response
People conform more when they must respond in front of others rather than writing their answers privately
Prior Commitment
Most people that make a public commitment stick to it

Question 20

Why does conformity happen?

Answer 20

Normative influence
Based on a person’s desire to fulfill others’ expectations, often to gain acceptance
Produced by the desire to be liked and social image
We do not want social rejection (ex. Cancel culture)
Informational influence
Occurs when people accept evidence about the reality provided by other people
Produced by the desire to be correct (ex. Customer reviews)

Question 21

Who would conform more than the others?

Answer 21

Personality
High on agreeableness and high on conscientiousness → more likely to conform
But it is a poor predictor of conformity; situations are better
Culture
Different cultures socialize people to be more or less socially responsive
Social Roles
Conforming to expectations is an important task when taking on a new social role

Question 22

What is persuasion

Answer 22

Process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors

Question 23

What are the two routes to persuasion?

Answer 23

Central Route
* Occurs when interested people focus on the compelling arguments and respond with favorable thoughts
Peripheral Route
* Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness
* Focuses on cues that trigger automatic acceptance without much thinking (ex. Product placement on T.V., many advertisements)

Question 24

What are the four elements of persuasion?

Answer 24

Who says? - The communicator
What is said? - The message content
How is it said? - The channel of communication
To whom is it said to? - The audience

Question 25

What makes the communicator more effective?

Answer 25

Credibility
* They should be perceived as both an expert and trustworthy
Perceived expertise
Seen as knowledgeable
* You believe someone to be an expert if they say something that you agree with.

Question 26

Reason versus emotion message for persuasion

Answer 26

You want to persuade people to help world hunger relief – what are you going to do?
Take a picture/video of the thin children and ask for money - Yes
You can ask for money directly - No

Message depends on the audience: Well-educated or analytical people are responsive to rational appeals (but not everyone)
Depends how people’s attitudes were formed: Attitudes formed by the peripheral route will be more persuaded by the same route

Question 27

What is the effect of good feeling and arousing fear?

Answer 27

Effect of good feeling: Associating good feelings with the message portrayed – peripheral cues (ex. Address label with donation request, drinking this beer will make you feel good)
Effect of arousing fear: By associating negative feelings with the message portrayed (ex. Graphic warning on cigarettes)
* Applied to risky sexual behavior, drug abuse, health screening
* Fear doesn’t always work. Works best if it also comes with a solution

Question 28

Foot in the door phenomenon

Answer 28

Tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
Ex. Asking a friend to borrow a small item like a pen, then later asking them for a larger favor like helping with a project.

Question 29

Low-Ball Technique

Answer 29

Where someone makes an initial offer that’s attractive to get a person to agree, and then increases the price or makes the terms less favorable.
* Used by some car dealers

Question 30

Door-in-the-Face Technique

Answer 30

Making a large request that a person will likely refuse in order to get the person to subsequently agree to a smaller request.
Ex. You ask your boss for a 30% raise, and they say no. You then ask for a 10% raise, which they’re more likely to agree to.

Question 31

One-Sided vs. Two-Sided appeals

Answer 31

One-Sided: Only the positive side of things
Two-Sided: Positive and Negative persuasion
Which one is more effective?
* Depends on whether the audience already agrees with the message
* Try to go for 2 sided appeal

Question 32

Active experience or passive reception

Answer 32

Passive: Repetition (even mere exposure) and rhyming of a statement serves to increase its fluency and believability (ex. politics)
Active: Active experience strengthens attitudes

Question 33

Personal vs. Media Influence

Answer 33

Personal influence is often based on informal relationships, while media influence can be both positive and negative, and can have direct or indirect effects and can be very powerful.

Question 34

Life Cycle Explanation and Generational Explanation

Answer 34

Life Cycle Explanation
Attitudes change as people grow older
Generational Explanation
Attitudes do not change, older people largely hold onto the attitudes they adopted when they were young

Question 35

How do audiences’ characteristics affect persuasion?

Answer 35

Forewarned is forearmed – If you care enough to counter argue
If you are told beforehand that you are going to get into an argument, you are going to prepare for it
Distraction disarms counterarguing
Words can promote a candidate or product while visual images keep us occupied so we don’t analyze the words (ex. Political ads)
Uninvolved audiences use peripheral cues (high vs. low need for cognition matters)
Simulated thinking (ex. Presenting multiple speakers or making multiple people feel responsible) makes strong messages more persuasive and weak messages less persuasive.

Question 36

What is a group?

Answer 36

A collection of people who are interdependent and influence each other through social interactions.

Question 37

What is a function of group?

Answer 37

• Providing social support,
• facilitating collaboration on tasks too large for one person,
• sharing information,
• defining social norms
• contributing to a sense of belonging within a community

Question 38

What is social facilitation?

Answer 38

A psychological theory that people tend to perform better on tasks when they are in the presence of others.

Question 39

How social facilitation can be applied to learning?

Answer 39

Team building challenges: Students can work together on challenges to grow as a team.
Online study groups: Students can join virtual study groups to learn together.
Peer learning: Students can pair up with more knowledgeable peers to practice skills.

Question 40

How effects of others’ presence will be related to their number?

Answer 40

As the number of people present increases, the effect of their presence on an individual’s behavior also increases, often leading to a more pronounced impact, particularly in situations like the “bystander effect” where the likelihood of someone helping decreases with more bystanders present.

Question 41

What are three explanations of social facilitation? Be able to explain each of them with an example.

Answer 41

1. Evaluation apprehension theory (the concern of being judged), Ex. A student feeling nervous to speak up in class
2. The mere presence theory (the simple presence of others causing arousal), Ex. Running a 100 meter sprint against someone, making you run faster
3. Distraction-conflict theory (the cognitive conflict of paying attention to both the task and others present), Ex. A student is trying to focus on a test in a crowded classroom, but their attention is constantly being pulled towards the noises and movements

Question 42

What is social loafing? Why social loafing is happening? Be able to explain the social loafing with an example

Answer 42

When individuals put in less effort when working as part of a group compared to when working alone, often because they feel their individual contribution is less noticeable or important within the group
Ex. Some members might not actively participate with ideas, relying on others to generate most of the suggestions.

Question 43

How social loafing would work differently depending on culture and gender?

Answer 43

Collectivistic cultures: They do less social loafing
Gender: Women do less social loafing
People doing social loafing overestimate their own relative contributions

Question 44

How can we reduce social loafing in group works?

Answer 44

People in groups loaf less when the task is:
* Challenging
* Appealing: rewards are significant
* Involving Team Spirit and more Cohesive Groups

Question 45

What is deindividuation? Be able to explain it with an example.

Answer 45

Phenomenon in which people engage in seemingly impulsive, deviant, and sometimes violent acts in situations in which they believe they cannot be personally identified
Ex. In groups on the Internet such as a subreddit on reddit

Question 46

How physical anonymity will influence deindividuation? Several examples that would enforce this behavior

Answer 46

By reducing a person’s sense of personal accountability and identity, which can lead to impulsive and antisocial behavior
Examples: Wearing masks, similar uniforms, situations where lighting is low, online anonymity with usernames

Question 47

How arousing and distracting activity would influence deindividuation?

Answer 47

• Aggressive outbursts by groups are preceded by minor actions that arouse and divert people’s attention (ex. Shouting, chanting, clapping, throwing rocks)
• It is self-reinforcing pleasure in acting impulsively while watching others do the same thing
• When we act in an impulsive way as a group, we are not thinking about our values; we are reacting to the immediate situation.

Question 48

.What is the consequence of the decrease in self-awareness? How this will be related to deindividuation?

Answer 48

• Loss of personal identity
• Reduced self-regulation
• Increased conformity
  Situations that contribute to a loss of self-awareness, like anonymity within a crowd, wearing masks, or being part of a large group, can facilitate deindividuation.

Question 49

How to incorporate the concept of self-awareness into our society to decrease deindividuation?

Answer 49

Encouraging individuals to focus on their personal values, goals, and beliefs can help maintain a sense of self-awareness and reduce the likelihood of deindividuated behavior.