Social Psych Sample Flashcards
What is social psychology?
It is the sect of psychology that “uses scientific methods to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings.” (Allport, 1985)
What is an attitude, and why is it so important to social psychology?
An attitude is a set of feelings and beliefs, and can be positive or negative. Since we can have positive or negative attitudes about people, places, events, and items, attitudes shape our view of the world and the things we like or don’t like.
According to social psychology, why do you see the same advertisement for the same product over and over again?
The mere exposure effect hypothesizes that you will like something more and more as you see it more and more, which will make you more likely to buy what is being advertised.
An ad with a political candidate explaining directly why he is better than his opponent is an example of what idea of social psychology?
This is an example of the central route of persuasion.
An ad featuring a beautiful model and a famous athlete using a product without saying why it is better than a competitor’s product is an example of what idea in social psychology?
This is an example of the peripheral route to persuasion.
What did Richard LaPiere’s research show about attitudes and behavior?
His research, which looked at the behavior toward Asians in America in the 1930s, showed that, while hotel and restaurant workers at the time overwhelmingly said they would refuse service to Asians, a very small percentage actually did. This suggests that attitude does not necessarily dictate behavior.
Not getting into your first choice school and then deciding you didn’t want to go there anyway because the weather is too cold and the dorm rooms are small is an example of what?
This is an example of cognitive dissonance. When there is a difference in attitude and behavior, it can cause stress or angst, so one of those things may change.
Since you can’t get into a school that already rejected you, cognitive dissonance allows you to change your attitude.
What was Festinger and Carlsmith’s experiment on cognitive dissonance, and what does it teach us about motivation?
Participants in a study were paid either $1 or $20 to tell a confederate that the task to complete was enjoyable when it was really quite boring.
Those who were paid $1 actually changed their minds about the task so that they believed it was not boring. They had insufficient justification to lie, so they changed their attitude about the task.
Those who were paid $20 did not change their minds, and continued to believe the task was boring. They had an external justification for their behavior (saying the task was not boring and lying).
What compliance strategy believes a person should ask for something small to get something bigger later?
The foot-in-the-door phenomemon believes that if someone agrees to giving away something small, they will be more likely to give away something larger if it is requested later.
If you ask your parents for $50 and they say no, then you ask them for $20 and they say yes, what compliance strategy is employed?
The door-in-the-face strategy suggests that if you ask for something large, asking for something smaller will seem more reasonable and the request is more likely to be granted.
Why would we be more likely to donate money to kids wrapping presents for free during the holidays?
Norms of reciprocity are the idea that if someone does something nice for you, you should do something nice for him. So since the kids are wrapping presents for free for you, you think the least you could do is donate to their cause.
Why might you choose to believe you got in a car accident because someone cut you off instead of believing it is because you were not paying attention to the other cars on the road?
Attribution theory addresses how we understand behaviors and the causes of events. You may attribute your accident to someone else making a poor driving decision instead of you so you won’t feel bad or guilty.
What are the three kinds of information Harold Kelley proposed we use to make attributions?
- consistency: how consistent is this information over time?
- distinctiveness: how distinct is this information from the other information we have about the subject?
- consensus: how would others have responded given the same information?
What did Rosenthal and Jacobson’s experiment, “Pygmalion in the Classroom” show about self-fulfilling prophecy?
A class of students was issued a standard IQ test, but the researchers told teachers it was a measure of performance potential and randomly selected several students as being more capable than others.
The teacher used self-fulfilling prophecy to treat these kids as capable learners, and their scores improved more than the other students’.
What is a fundamental attribution error?
It is falsely attributing a cause for behavior or events, like when a teacher thinks a student failed to do well on a test because he is unintelligent, but the student actually had found out his parents were divorcing and couldn’t concentrate on the test.
