Social Psychology

Question 1

Clark L. Hull

Answer 1

(1884 – 1952) Prominent early behaviorist who expressed his model in biological terms:

• organisms suffer deprivation
• deprivation creates needs
• needs activate drives
• drives activate behavior
• behavior is goal directed
• achieving the goal has survival value

Hull is perhaps best known for the “goal gradient” effect / hypothesis, wherein organisms spend disproportionate amounts of effort in the final stages of attainment of the object of drives. Clark L. Hull was an inspiration to the group of young researchers at Yale University in the 1930s (John Dollard, Neal E. Miller, and others) who proposed the frustration-aggression hypothesis and in general sought to combine learning theory with psychoanalysis.

Question 2

Attitudes

Answer 2

The “keystone” of modern social psychology. Attitudes are likes and dislikes. They have 3 components:

• Cognition / beliefs
• Feelings
• Behavioral predisposition

Attitudes are typically expressed in opinion statements.

Question 3

2 Main Principles of Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Answer 3

1. If a person is pressured to say or do something contrary to his or her privately held attitudes, there will be a tendency for him or her to change those attitudes.
2. The greater the pressure to comply, the less the person’s attitude will change. In general, attitude change occurs when the behavior is induced with minimum pressure. This is called the minimal justification effect, or the insufficient justification effect.

Question 4

Social Comparison Theory

Answer 4

Leon Festinger created social comparison theory: we are drawn to affiliate because of a tendency to evaluate ourselves in relationship to other people. Three principles:

• People prefer to evaluate themselves by objective, nonsocial means. However, when that is not possible, people evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparing them to those of other people.
• The less the similarity of opinions and abilities between two people, the less the tendency to make these comparisons.
• When a discrepancy exists with respect to opinions and abilities, there is a tendency to change one’s position so as to move it in line with the group.

Question 5

Stanley Schachter

Answer 5

(1922 – 1997) His research found that anxiety leads to a desire to affiliate. A situation that provokes little anxiety typically does not lead to a desire to affiliate. Also, anxious people prefer the company of other anxious people. Thus, both anxiety and a need to compare oneself with other people (Festinger’s social comparison theory) may play a role in determining both when and with whom we affiliate.

Question 6

Attribution Theory

Answer 6

Fritz Heider (of balance theory) is one of the founding fathers of attribution theory. According to Heider, we are all amateur psychologists who attempt to discover cause and effect in events. Heider divided causes into 2 categories: dispositional and situational. Dispositional causes relate to the features of the person whose behavior is being considered. Situational causes are external / contextual. The fundamental attribution error is a general bias that has been observed, namely the tendency to make dispositional attributions rather than situational attributions.

Question 7

Overjustification Effect

Answer 7

Implication of Daryl Bem’s self-perception theory. If you reward people for something they already like doing, they may stop liking it.

Question 8

Self-Perception Theory

Answer 8

Daryl Bem created self-perception theory: people infer their attitudes from observing their own behavior. This theory leads to an alternative explanation of Festinger’s / Carlsmith’s experiment. Subjects paid $20 attribute their recommendation to the money. Subjects paid $1 attribute it to their personal attitudes. Key difference between Bem’s and Festinger’s theories is that Bem doesn’t hypothesize a state of discomfort or dissonance. One implication of self-perception theory is that if you reward people for doing something they already like doing, they may stop liking it. Called the overjustification effect.

Question 9

Consistency Theories

Answer 9

People prefer consistency. Inconsistencies are viewed as stimuli or irritants, and are often resolved by changing attitudes. Two prominent consistency theories are Fritz Heider’s Balance Theory and Leon Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory.

Question 10

Carl Hovland and Walter Weiss

Classic Study on Source Credibility

(1952)

Answer 10

Hovland and Weiss prepared articles on controversial topics of the era, then presented them to American subjects. In some cases the article was said to be written by a highly credible figure, for example, J. Robert Oppenheimer, while in other cases the “author” was a low-credibility source, such as a Russian newspaper. The opinions of the subjects were ascertained before, immediately after, and 4 weeks after reading the articles. The high-credibility sources were more effective in changing attitudes. However, the 4-week measurement revealed the sleeper effect.

Question 11

Reactance

Answer 11

When social pressure to behave in a particular way becomes so blatant that the person’s sense of freedom is threatened, the person will tend to act in a way to reassert a sense of freedom.

Question 12

Reciprocity Hypothesis

Answer 12

We tend to like people who like us, and we tend to dislike people who dislike us. In other words, attraction is a two-way street.

Question 13

Prosocial Behavior

Answer 13

Behavior that benefits other individuals or groups of people. Two forms: helping behavior and altruism. Altruism is a form of helping behavior in which the person’s intent is to benefit someone else at some cost to himself or herself. Helping behavior includes altruistic motivations, but also includes behaviors that may be motivated by egoism or selfishness.

Question 14

John Darley and Bib Latané

Answer 14

Conducted research on bystander intervention (a kind of helping behavior), inspired by the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese. They hypothesized that anyone in any emergency might decide not to help, largely because of 2 situational factors: social influence and diffusion of responsibility (diffusion of responsibility was the most significant factor in the murder of Kitty Genovese). One form of social influence is pluralistic ignorance.

Question 15

Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

of Aggression

Answer 15

Aggression is learned through modeling and through reinforcement. Famous “Bobo” doll study demonstrates modeling of aggressive behavior. Bandura also believed that aggressive behavior is selectively reinforced––that people act aggressively because they expect some sort of reward (material benefit, social approval, attention) for doing so.

Question 16

Clark and Clark

Answer 16

Clark and Clark (1947) studied ethnic self-concept among white and black children using the famous doll preference task. The experimenter showed each child a black doll and a white doll, and asked the child a series of questions about how the child felt about the dolls. The majority of white and black children preferred the white doll over the black doll. However, subsequent research (since the 1960s) using improved methodologies (e.g., balancing the ethnicity of the experimenter), and perhaps partially due to changes in society, has shown that black children hold positive views of their own ethnicity.

Question 17

4 Tangible Action-Items of Self-Efficacy

(from Albert Bandura)

Plus 1 More

(proposed by psychologist James Maddux)

Answer 17

1. Mastery experiences
2. Modeling (vicarious experiences)
3. Persuasion (mentoring)
4. States of physiology and emotion
5. Imaginal experiences (visualization)
   
   • Proposed by psychologist James Maddux

Question 18

Edward Hall

Answer 18

(1914 – 2009) Suggested there are cultural norms that govern how far away we stand from the people we’re speaking to. In the US, the proper distance to stand when you are talking to someone with whom you are intimate is about one foot, whereas interactions between strangers in the US usually take place several feet apart. The study of how individuals space themselves in relation to others is called proxemics.

Question 19

Irving Janis

Answer 19

(1918 – 1990) Studied the ways that group decisions often go awry. Coined groupthink: the tendency of decision-making groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information.

Question 20

Kurt Lewin’s

Leadership Study

Answer 20

Kurt Lewin conducted research to determine the effects of different leadership styles. Lewin manipulted the leadership styles used to supervise boys in an after-school program. Each group of boys experienced 3 different leadership styles: autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire. Laissez-faire groups were less efficient, less organized, and less satisfying for the boys than the democratic groups. The autocratic groups were more hostile, more aggressive, and more dependent on their leader. Democratic groups were more satisfying for the boys and more cohesive than autocratic groups. The quantity of work was greatest in autocratic groups, but work motivation / interest were stronger in democratic groups.

Question 21

Belief Perseverance

Answer 21

Under certain conditions, people will hold beliefs even after those beliefs have been shown to be false. For example, if you are induced to believe a statement and then provide your own explanation for it, you will tend to continue to believe the statement even when the statement is shown to be false.

Question 22

Albert Bandura

Answer 22

The main figure in social learning theory. Proposed that behavior is learned through imitation (as well as through reinforcement).

Question 23

Cognitive Theory

Answer 23

Extremely influential in social psychological theory / research. Perception, judgment, memories, decision-making, etc.

Question 24

Fritz Heider

(When there isn’t balance, there will be stress,

and a tendency to remove this stress by achieving balance.)

Answer 24

Created balance theory. In general, balance occurs when you agree with someone you like, or disagree with someone you don’t like. Imbalance occurs when you agree with someone you dislike, or disagree with someone you like. May be represented by a triangle, with vertices labeled P, O, and X, respectively (P means subject, O means other person, and X means thing, idea, or person) and sides labeled plus or minus. Balance exists with 1 or 3 positives. Imbalance exists with 0 or 2 positives. This is the simplest form of the theory.

Question 25

Social Exchange Theory

Answer 25

A person weighs the rewards and costs of interacting with another. The more the rewards outweigh the costs, the greater the attraction to the other person.

Question 26

Equity Theory

Answer 26

We consider not only our own costs and rewards, but the costs and rewards of the other person. We prefer that our ratio of costs to rewards be equal to the other person’s ratio. If one person feels that he or she is getting less, or more, out of the relationship than the other, there will be instability due to perceived inequality.

Question 27

Mere Exposure Effect / Hypothesis

Answer 27

Phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. A key figure in research on the mere exposure effect is Robert Zajonc.

Question 28

Similarity and Attraction

Answer 28

Correlations have been found between affiliation and similarity of intelligence, attitudes, education, height, age, religion, socioeconomic status, drinking habits, and mental health.

Question 29

Need Complementarity

Answer 29

The idea that “opposites attract.” Generally not supported by the research.

Question 30

Physical Attractiveness and Attraction

Answer 30

Research has repeatedly documented the potency of physical attractiveness as a determinant of attraction. The attractiveness stereotype is a likely explanation.

Question 31

Attractiveness Stereotype

Answer 31

The tendency to attribute positive qualities and desirable characteristics to attractive people.

Question 32

Spacial Proximity and Attraction

Answer 32

People will generally develop a greater liking for someone who lives within a few blocks than for someone who lives in a different neighborhood. Even small differences in proximity can have an effect. One possibility is that the closer people live to each other, the more accessible they are to each other, so potential friendships have a better opportunity to develop. Proximity may also increase the intensity of initial interactions. Another possibility is the mere exposure effect / hypothesis.

Question 33

Smoke-Filled Room

Answer 33

Study conducted by John Darley and Bib Latané to test for social influence in an ambiguous event. Hypothesis was that the presence of 2 non-reponsive confederates (who obviously saw the smoke) would inhibit the response of the subject, influencing the subject to define the smoke as a nonemergency. Hypothesis was confirmed. This situation is an illustration of pluralistic ignorance.

Question 34

Pluralistic Ignorance

Answer 34

When a majority of group members privately reject a norm, but go along with it because they assume, incorrectly, that most others accept it.

Question 35

John Darley and Bib Latané

Experiment on Diffusion of Responsibility

Answer 35

When subjects thought they were the only ones listening in on a seizure, 100% reported the seizure. When subjects thought that 2 other people were listening, 85% reported the seizure. When subjects thought that 4 other people were listening, 62% reported the seizure. These results support the diffusion of responsibility hypothesis. The more people present, the less the likelihood that any individual will offer help.

Question 36

Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

Answer 36

According to this hypothesis, when people are frustrated, they act aggressively. In fact, researchers have found that the strength of the frustration experienced is correlated with the level of aggression observed. The frustration-aggression hypothesis was initially proposed by John Dollard, Neal E. Miller and others at Yale University in the 1930s.

Question 37

Muzafer Sherif’s Conformity Study

Answer 37

Involved the autokinetic effect. Sherif had subjects, when alone, estimate the amount of movement of a (stationary) point of light in an otherwise completely dark room. He then brought a group of subjects together and had them, as a group, estimate the amount of movement. He found that the subject’s solitary estimates changed so that the group agreed upon the amount of movement. In other words, individuals conformed to the group.

Question 38

Solomon Asch’s Conformity Study

Answer 38

A subject was placed in a classroom with 7 – 9 college men (confederates) and informed that they would be comparing the lengths of lines… The subjects were asked to choose which of the 3 lines was the same length as the comparison line… The comparisons were easy and obvious. Students were told to announce their answers in the order in which they were seated… The next to last seat was always reserved for the one genuine subject. On the first 2 rounds, everyone, including the subject, would agree on the correct answer. On the 3rd round, one after another of the confederates agreed, but on the wrong answer. In the control condition, subjects faltered less than 1% of the time. In the experimental condition, subjects gave the wrong answer (i.e., conformed) ~ 37% of the time, and 75% of the subjects gave the wrong answer at least once.

Question 39

Stanley Milgram’s

Obedience Experiment

Answer 39

Each of the 40 subjects administered at least 300 volts. After 300 volts, the point at which the learner pounded on the wall, 5 subjects refused to continue. But 26 of the 40 subjects (65%) continued to the last switch marked “XXX.” 14 of the 40 subjects laughed nervously and smiled; 3 subjects had uncontrollable seizures. First experiment was at Yale. Milgram repeated the experiment in a run-down commercial building in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The level of obedience there was not significantly lower than at Yale. In a separate study, Milgram asked 2 confederates (teachers) to defy the experimenter in the middle of the experiment. 90% of the subjects followed their lead. This is not surprising, given the results of Asch’s conformity studies. In another variation, the subjects did not directly shock the learner; they would pull a switch and then a confederate would deliver the shock. In this version, 37 of the 40 subjects participated until the end.

Question 40

Conformity

vs.

Compliance

vs.

Obedience

Answer 40

• Conformity involves changing one’s attitudes, beliefs, or behavior in order to match those of others.
• Compliance means adapting one’s actions to another’s wishes or rules.
• Obedience is the act of following orders without question.

Question 41

Compliance

Answer 41

A change in behavior that occurs as a result of situational or interpersonal pressure.

Question 42

Conformity

Answer 42

Yielding to group pressure when no explicit demand has been made to do so.

Question 43

Foot-in-the-Door Effect / Technique

Answer 43

Compliance with a small request increases the likelihood of compliance with a larger request.

Question 44

Door-in-the-Face Effect / Technique

Answer 44

People who refuse a large initial request are more likely to agree to a later, smaller request.

Question 45

Why the foot-in-the-door technique

and the door-in-the-face technique

aren’t contradictory:

Answer 45

The initial request of the foot-in-the-door technique is quite reasonable, whereas the initial request of the door-in-the-face technique is large and unreasonable. Thus, the effect depends on the nature of the original request.

Question 46

Dimensions of Personal Identity

Answer 46

Individuals have more than one dimension of personal identity, and several factors determine which identity will be enacted in particular situations. It is believed that our identities are organized according to a hierarchy of salience, which is context-specific. Researchers have found that the more salient the identity, the more we conform to role expectations.

Question 47

Albert Bandura and Self-Efficacy

Answer 47

Self-Efficacy Theory is an important component of Bandura’s larger theoretical framework, Social Cognitive Theory. Bandura describes self-efficacy as an individual’s belief in his ability to organize and execute a particular pattern of behavior. Research studies have shown that individuals with strong self-efficacy exert more effort on challenging tasks than those with low self-efficacy.

Question 48

Primacy Effect

vs.

Recency Effect

(of social perception)

Answer 48

• Primacy Effect: when first impressions are more important than subsequent impressions
• Recency Effect: when the most recent information we have about an individual is more important in forming our impressions

Question 49

Halo Effect

Answer 49

Another tendency for bias in evaluations of other people. Specifically, the tendency to allow a general impression about a person (“I like Jill in general”) to influence other, more specific evaluations about a person (“Jill is a good writer, Jill is trustworthy, Jill can do no wrong”). Explains why people are often inaccurate in evaluations of people that they believe to be generally good or generally bad.

Question 50

Theodore Newcomb’s Study

Answer 50

Demonstrated influence of group norms. Small women’s college (Bennington). Most of the students came from wealthy, conservative families, but the college had a very liberal atmosphere. Newcomb found that each year of a student’s career was marked by an increase in her liberalism. One indicator was the 1936 presidential election between Roosevelt (a Democrat) and Langdon (a Republican). Newcomb did a follow-up 20 years later. Most of the women who had left the school as liberals remained liberals, and those who left as conservatives remained conservatives. Women who had left as liberals generally married men of similar political beliefs. However, those liberals who ultimately married conservative men frequently returned to their old conservatism.

Question 51

Proxemics

Answer 51

The study of how individuals space themselves in relation to others.

Question 52

Philip Zimbardo

Stanford Prison Simulation,

Anonymity,

and Deindividuation

Answer 52

Zimbardo found that people are more likely to commit antisocial acts when they feel anonymous within a social environment (e.g., Stanford Prison Simulation). Zimbardo says that one of the major processes operating within the prison was deindividuation, which refers to a loss of self-awareness and personal responsibility.

Question 53

Leadership and Communication

Answer 53

Research has found that leaders of groups engage in more communication than nonleaders. Furthermore, by artificially increasing the amount a person speaks, that person’s perceived leadership status also increases (shown in research).

Question 54

Robber’s Cave Experiment

Answer 54

Study on cooperation / competition conducted by Muzafer Sherif. Sherif and his colleagues created hostilities through competition and then reduced the hostilities through cooperation. Took place at a boy’s camp in Robber’s Cave, Oklahoma. The subjects were 22 twelve-year-old boys, separated into 2 groups… To reduce hostilities, Sherif / colleagues first tried “mere contact,” which failed. What ultimately succeeded was superordinate goals: shared goals requiring intergroup cooperation.

Question 55

Empathy

Answer 55

The ability to vicariously experience the emotions of another. Empathy is thought by some social psychologists to be a strong influence on helping behavior.

Question 56

Social Loafing

Answer 56

The tendency for people to put forth less effort when part of a group effort than when acting individually.

Question 57

Cooperation

vs.

Competition

Answer 57

In cooperation, persons act together for their mutual benefit so that all of them can obtain a goal. In competition, a person acts for his or her individual benefit so that he or she can obtain a goal that has limited availability.

Question 58

Prisoner’s Dilemma

Answer 58

A standard example of a game analyzed in game theory that shows why two completely rational individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interests to do so.

• If A and B each betray the other, each of them serves two years in prison.
• If A betrays B but B remains silent, A will be set free and B will serve three years in prison.
• If A remains silent but B betrays A, A will serve three years in prison and B will be set free.
• If A and B both remain silent, both of them will serve only one year in prison.

Question 59

Robert Zajonc

Answer 59

(1923 – 2008) Key figure in research on the mere exposure effect / hypothesis, which states that mere repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to enhanced liking for it.

Zajonc also developed the theory that the presence of others increases arousal and thus enhances the performance of dominant responses. For a novice dancer, the dominant response is likely to be a mistake. For an expert dancer, the dominant response is likely to be “correct.”

Question 60

Robert Zajonc’s Theory on the Presence of Others

Answer 60

Zajonc argues that the presence of others increases arousal and thus enhances the performance of dominant responses. For a novice dancer, the dominant response is likely to be a mistake. For an expert dancer, the dominant response is likely to be “correct.” Zajonc is also a key figure in research on the mere exposure effect / hypothesis.

Question 61

William McGuire

Answer 61

Uses the anology of inoculation against diseases in the context of resisting persuasion. Tested his theory by using cultural truisms. Since these beliefs are seldom attacked, they are vulnerable to attack. McGuire inoculated people against attacks on cultural truisms by first presenting arguments against the truisms and then refuting the arguments. These are known as refuted counterarguments. McGuire found that inoculation can be quite effective in developing resistance of cultural truisms to subsequent attacks. McGuire also found that cultural truisms that were not inoculated were quite susceptible to attack.

Question 62

2 Types of Dissonance

Answer 62

• Free-choice dissonance: When a person makes a choice between several desirable alternatives. After the decision, according to Leon Festinger, there will be dissonance, known as post-decisional dissonance.
• Forced-compliance dissonance: When a person is forced into behaving in a manner inconsistent with his or her beliefs / attitudes. The force may come from anticipated punishment or reward.

Question 63

Spreading of Alternatives

Answer 63

Method of reducing free-choice dissonance. Involves accentuating the positives of the chosen option, while accentuating the negatives of the rejected option.

Question 64

Group Shifts

Answer 64

Research has gone through several phases:

• Risky shift: finding that group decisions are riskier than the average of the individual choices. One explanation is the value hypothesis: risky shift occurs in situations were riskiness is culturally valued.
• 1968 experiment by James Stoner presented couples with controversial dilemmas, for example, whether to continue a dangerous pregnancy or end it. Group decisions became more cautious, not more risky.
• Now researchers speak about extremity shifts, noting that group decisions tend to be more extreme but not necessarily more risky than the decisions of individuals. Leading explanation is group polarization, a tendency for group discussion to enhance the group’s initial tendencies toward riskiness or caution.

Question 65

Belief in a Just World

Answer 65

Melvin J. Lerner studied the tendency of individuals to believe in a just world. A strong belief in a just world increases the likelihood of “blaming the victim.”

Question 66

Daniel Batson

Answer 66

Created Empathy-Altruism Model, according to which, when faced with situations in which others may need help, people might feel distress (mental pain or anguish), and/or they might feel empathy. Relative amounts of empathy and distress determine helping behavior. (Some psychologists disagree, believing instead that helping behavior occurs only when there is some benefit to the individual offering help.) Results of a series of experiments suggest that individuals who experience more empathy than distress are more likely to help.

Question 67

Elliot Aronson and Darwyn Linder

Answer 67

Proposed a twist to the reciprocity hypothesis known as the gain-loss principle: An evaluation that changes will have more of an impact than an evaluation that remains constant. We will like someone more if their liking for us has increased than if they have consistently liked us. We will dislike someone more if their liking for us has decreased than if they have consistently disliked us.

Question 68

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Answer 68

Created by Leon Festinger. Together with Merrill Carlsmith, Leon Festinger conducted famous experiment in 1959. Subjects were asked to perform extremely boring task, then tell next “subject” that the task is interesting, then were paid $1 or $20, then had to rate the enjoyability of the task. Subjects paid $1 rated the task as more enjoyable. Elliot Aronson (of gain-loss principle) was also involved in the development of cognitive dissonance theory.

Question 69

Role Theory

Answer 69

Bruce Biddle, 1979: The perspective that people are aware of the social roles they are expected to fill, and much of their observable behavior can be attributed to adopting those roles.

Question 70

1908

Answer 70

William McDougall (psychologist) and E. A. Ross (sociologist) each independently published the first textbooks on social psychology.

Question 71

Norman Triplett

Answer 71

In 1898 published what is thought to be the first study of social psychology. He investigated the effect of competition on performance, and found that people perform better on familiar tasks when in the presence of others than when alone.

Question 72

William Samuel Verplanck Junior

Answer 72

(1916 - 2002) His study in the 1950s showed that the course of a conversation changes dramatically based on the feedback (i.e., approval / disapproval) from others. Together with Ivan Pavlov, Edward Thorndike, Clark L. Hull, and B. F. Skinner, helped to establish reinforcement theory, according to which behavior is motivated by anticipated rewards. Verplanck also conducted significant experiments in the field of ethology.

Question 73

Richard Petty and John Cacioppo

Answer 73

Created Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (more recent than Carl Hovland’s model). There are 2 routes to persuasion: central and peripheral. If the issue is very important to us, the central route is used. We follow the presenter’s argument closely and mentally evaluate the argument by generating counter-arguments of our own. In the central route, the strength of the argument matters. The peripheral route is used when we don’t care much about the issue, or we can’t hear the message clearly, or we are distracted. In this case, the strength of the argument doesn’t matter as much. Peripheral, contextual variables matter.

The peripheral route is an indirect route that uses peripheral cues to associate positivity with the message. Instead of focusing on the facts and a product’s quality, the peripheral route relies on association with positive characteristics such as positive emotions and celebrity endorsement.

Question 74

Carl Hovland

Answer 74

(1912 – 1961) Created a model of persuasion involving 3 components: the source, the communication, and the situation. Source credibility is important. However, over time, it seems that the persuasive impact of a high credibility source decreases, while the persuasive impact of a low-credibility source increases (time starting with the deliverance of the message). This is called the sleeper effect. Sources can increase their credibility by arguing against their own self-interest. Two-sided messages, which contain arguments for and against a position, seem “balanced” and thus are often used for persuasion.