Social Psychology

Question 1

Socialization

Answer 1

Process of people being taught to be proficient members of society. Complying with social norms and expectations

Question 2

Primary socialization

Answer 2

First type experienced, a child learns attitudes values, and actions appropriate to particular culture

Question 3

Secondary Socialization

Answer 3

refers to to continual process if learning appropriate behavior as a member of a larger society (takes place outside of home) Usually occurs in smaller changes and doesn’t require direct interactions

Question 4

Evolutionary explanations of gender roles

Answer 4

evolutionary pressures are thought to effect gender differences between male and female
- men are aggressive and and competitive as increases their chances to mate with a female. Women are nurturing and caring, empathetic and gentle, this attracts males as it shows that they can care for offspring

Question 5

What is the Psycho sexual explanation of gender

Answer 5

humans are born with an innate (biological) predisposition to behave like males or females
- Prenatal hormones that are secreted are absorbed by the infant which affects the gender and gender-appropriate behavior of the children

Question 6

Male Chromosomes

Answer 6

XY (structured through testosterone)

Question 7

Female Chromosomes

Answer 7

XX (structured through the absence of testosterone)

Question 8

Social learning theory

Answer 8

• There are no innate psychological differences between sexes
• Child develops gender identity and gender roles through modeling, imitation, and reinforcement

Question 9

Cognitive theories of gender:
Kohlbergs stage theory

Answer 9

Gender cannot be learned until a child reaches a certain stage of intellectual development
- Child actively seeks out and organizes information about their gender roles in the social environment and then behaves in accordance
Stages involve:
1. Gender Labeling: at 2 to 3 years children can identify themselves as girls or boys
2. Gender stability: At around 5 years of age, gender is stable over time and doesn’t change due to appearance
3. Gender constancy: 6-7 years, permanence of gender over time and across situations

Question 10

Gender Schema theory

Answer 10

Proposed to start earlier than Kohlberg
- Gender Schema is a mental representation of each gender, based on stereotypes or preconceived ideas about each gender
- Emulate ‘in-group’ behaviors and avoid ‘out-group’ behaviors of the gender identified
- Gender scripts of what the child should or shouldn’t do or say based on said gender
- offers an explanation why gender roles are stable in society, explains why children aren’t passive about their gender and neglects social and cultural factors for gender roles

Question 11

What are Social roles

Answer 11

Expected behavior and attitudes of a person in each given position (different roles based on expectation)

Question 12

What are social Scripts

Answer 12

A person’s knowledge about a specific sequence of events in each specific role or setting

Question 13

Social norms

Answer 13

Cultures shared knowledge of what is expected and appropriate behavior of an individual in a specific role.

Question 14

Power

Answer 14

Refers to your ability to control or influence the thoughts, feelings or behaviors of other group members

Question 15

Status

Answer 15

Refers to the importance of your position within a group, as perceived by other members of the group

Question 16

Compare compliance, identification and internalization

Answer 16

1. Compliance: Publicly conforms to attitudes or behaviors of the majority of the group whilst privately disagreeing (usually temporary)
2. Identification: Publicly and privately changes their attitudes and behavior as they want to identify with a person and/or feel a sense of membership with a group (change may be temporary)
3. Internalization: Permanent type of conformity where individual publicly and privately changes their attitudes and behavior to fit in with a group. Believes that groups’ attitudes and behaviors are correct and right.

Question 17

Evaluate the Asch (1951) study with regard to both normative and informational social influence

Answer 17

Where people had to give an answer regarding the length of a line:
32% of the participants conformed to the incorrect response, 76% conformed at least once
1. normative social influence: conforming to the group to fit in and feel accepted (still believes majority is incorrect
2. informational social influence: conform because the group feels more competent and better informed than they are (individual believes majority is correct)

Question 18

Conformity

Answer 18

Or majority influence; change in beliefs or behaviors by an individual or small group to fit in with a majority of the group as a result of real or imagined pressure from the majority groups. More influences can further influence conformity.
- size of the majority
- the presence of another desenternally
- the public or private nature of their responses
- culture

Question 19

Obedience

Answer 19

Change in individuals behavior to comply with a demand by an authority figure (has the power to make the right or demand others around him to make that decision) often compliance was observed when a consequence is observed

Question 20

Evaluate Milgram’s (1963) experiment

Answer 20

• every experimenter was a teacher, they asked questions if the question was answered wrong, the shock was administered to the actor
• 65% of participants obediently continued to shock after the maximum voltage was reached and the learner was unresponsive
• people are more likely to perform actions contrary to their beliefs if an authoritative figure tells them to do it