Social Psychology

Question 1

The tendency to overestimate the role of dispositional factors and underestimate the role of situational factors when making attributions about the behaviors of another person

Answer 1

Fundamental Attribution Error

(can also be influenced by culture with North Americans making more dispositional attributions than Asian Indians who made more situational attributions about others)

Question 2

Tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational factors and the behavior of others to dispositional factors

Answer 2

Actor-observer effect

Question 3

Tendency to attribute our own behaviors to dispositional factors when the behaviors have desirable outcomes and situational factors when the behaviors have undesirable outcomes

Answer 3

Self-serving bias

Question 4

Applies to attributions made about members of entire groups. The negative behaviors of one’s own in-group are attributed to situational factors while negative behaviors of out groups are attributed to dispositional factors and vice versa for position behaviors

Answer 4

Ultimate attribution error

Has been used to explain the prejudice of members of a majority group towards members of minority groups

Question 5

Applies to attributions made about a group and it’s members; People believe an individual group member’s beliefs, attitudes, and preferences are representative of the group as a whole.

Answer 5

Group Attribution Error

Or, that the decisions/conclusions drawn by a group reflects that of each individual group member even when there’s evidence to the contrary

Question 6

Kelley’s covariation model proposes that people make attributions about another person’s behavior by considering 3 types of information which is what?

Answer 6

Consensus
Consistency
Distinctiveness

Question 7

When consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness are all high, what kind of attribution are people likely to make about another’s bx

Answer 7

external attribution

Question 8

When consensus is low, consistency is high, and distinctiveness is low people are likely to make what kind of attribution about another’s bx

Answer 8

internal attribution

Question 9

The question, “would others do the same thing as the person in the same situation” is asking about what

Answer 9

consensus

If the answer is yes, there is high consensus

Question 10

The question, “does the person usually act this way in this type of situation” is asking about what

Answer 10

consistency

If the answer is yes, there is high consistency

Question 11

The question, “does this person usually act differently in other types of situations” is asking about what

Answer 11

distinctiveness

If yes, high distinctiveness

Question 12

Tendency to seek and pay attention to information that confirms our attitudes and beliefs and ignore information that refutes them

Answer 12

Confirmation bias

Question 13

Self verification theory is related to confirmation bias. What is self verification theory

Answer 13

regardless of their self-concept (positive or negative) people prefer to spend time with others who confirm their self concept

Question 14

Overestimate the relationship between two variables that are not related or are only slightly related.
Exp: tendency to overestimate the frequency of behaviors that are consistent with negative stereotypes of members of certain minority groups

Answer 14

Illusory Correlation

Question 15

Tendency to ignore or underuse base rate information (information about most people) and instead be influenced by the distinctive feature of the case being judged

Answer 15

Base Rate Fallacy

Question 16

Tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people share our opinions, values, beliefs and has been found to effect judgments in a variety of situations

Answer 16

False consensus effect

Exp: students who were told they passed a social sensitivity test assumed most others passed. When told they failed, assumed most others failed

Question 17

People believe a particular chance event is effected by previous events and that chance events will even out in the short run

Answer 17

Gambler’s fallacy

Question 18

Tendency to imagine what might have happened but didn’t and can involve imagining either better or worse outcomes. It’s most likely to occur when the outcome is personally significant and relatively easy to imagine an alternative outcome

Answer 18

Counterfactual thinking

Question 19

Occurs when people believe they can influence events outside of their control. It can be used to explain superstitious behaviors to maximize probability of success

Answer 19

Illusory control

Question 20

People believe more people take notice of their actions and appearance than is actually the case. This is common in people who have social anxiety. Can occur when you believe everyone is staring at you when you go out to eat alone or show up to a meeting late

Answer 20

Spotlight effect

Question 21

Occurs when people overestimate the extent to which others can discern their internal states, thoughts, or feelings. It’s related to the spotlight effect

Answer 21

Illusion of transparency

Question 22

Also know as the knew it all along effect in which people inaccurately believe they predicted the event would occur or to over estimate the likelihood that an event would occur
exp: pre-election memories about election outcomes

Answer 22

Hindsight bias

Question 23

The tendency of people to continue investing resources (time, money) in an endeavor when they have already invested significant resources that have not produced desired outcomes and are not recoverable

Answer 23

sunk cost fallacy

(one reason for this is that people do not want to be wasteful or admit they made a mistake; evidence that older adults are less susceptible this than younger adults)

Question 24

Mental shortcuts that provide quick estimates about the likelihood of uncertain events

Answer 24

Heuristics

Question 25

What is the mere exposure effect

Answer 25

tendency for people to come to like things simply because they see or encounter them repeatedly. This may not apply when we initially have an extremely negative response.

Question 26

What is the law of attraction

Answer 26

People tend to be attracted to people they perceive to be similar to themselves and who have similar attitudes (because this is reinforcing and validates our views/produces good feelings)

Question 27

This explains why the attractiveness of a person who is perceived to be competent increases when they make a blunder; the attractiveness of a person who is perceived to be mediocre decreases when they make a blunder

Answer 27

Pratfall effect

Question 28

What is the principle of reciprocity

Answer 28

We like people who like us

Question 29

What is the gain/loss effect

Answer 29

we’re most attracted to people who initially dislike us but then change their minds as they get to know us than people who express a constant liking for us; we’re less attracted to people who initially like us and then change their minds than we are to people who express constant dislike for us

Question 30

What explains that strong emotions are elicited in close relationships when a partner interrupts the couple’s usual behavior routine because they engage in an unexpected bx (when interruption has a desirable outcome, it elicits positive emotion; when it has an undesirable outcome it elicits a negative emotion. Strong positive or negative emotions occur less often in later stages of a close rx bc bxs are less likely to be unexpected

Answer 30

Emotion in relationships model