Social Psychology

Question 1

Social comparison theory

Answer 1

People evaluate their own abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to others.
Upward comparison: comparing yourself to someone perceived as better/more successful, motivates self improvement but could cause feelings of inadequacy
Downward comparison: comparing yourself to someone perceived as worse/less successful, boosts self esteem and comfort

Question 2

Enlightenment effect

Answer 2

Understanding of psychology principles improves your self awareness and decision making, leading to more thoughtful/intentional behavior

Question 3

Halo effect

Answer 3

Perception of one positive trait influences your overall impression, causing other traits to be viewed more favorably

Question 4

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 4

Belief held about a person that causes the belief to come true

Question 5

Attitude

Answer 5

Reflect how we think/act/feel towards something, characterized by positive/negative feelings, beliefs and behavioral tendencies toward it

Question 6

Components of attitudes

Answer 6

Affective: refers to emotional aspect of attitude, how we feel about things, whether we like them or not
Behavioral: how our attitudes influence our actions and behaviors, what we do as a result of our attitude
Cognitive: beliefs or thoughts about an entity, involves information or perception

Question 7

Dimensions of attitudes

Answer 7

Measure how attitudes vary in strength or nature
Strength: how firmly held an attitude
Accessibility: how easily an attitude comes to mind when one is faced with an object
Ambivalence: presence of mixed/conflicting feelings about an object

Question 8

Cognitive dissonance

Answer 8

Discomfort/tensions we feel when we hold two contradictory beliefs/attitudes, or engage in behavior that conflicts with existing beliefs/attitudes. Motivates us to change our attitude, behavior, or create new cognition (to justify contradiction) to reduce inconsistency to reduce discomfort

Question 9

Self-perception theory

Answer 9

People infer their own attitudes/beliefs through observing their own behavior, especially when they don’t have strong pre existing attitudes. Therefore our own behavior leads us to adopt new attitudes

Question 10

Impression management theory

Answer 10

People change attitudes and behaviors to create a desired impression to be consistent with social expectations or gain approval. Attitude changes as a result of a need to manage impressions of others. Causes people to present beliefs/attitudes aligning with social norms/expectations

Question 11

Elaboration likelihood model

Answer 11

Explains how people process persuasive messages and how likely they are to change as a result
Central route: involves careful, thoughtful processing of persuasive messages, and is likely to be lasting if the person is motivated and thinks deeply about the issue
Peripheral route: involves attitude change based on attractiveness or emotional appeal over careful consideration. This change is more temporary

Question 12

Foot in the door vs door in the face technique

Answer 12

Foot in the door: small request is made first to gain compliance, followed by greater request. People are more likely to agree to the second because they already agreed to the first
Door in the face: large request that is likely to be rejected, followed by smaller more reasonable request. People are more likely to agree to the second one because it seems relatively more reasonable

Question 13

Attribution

Answer 13

How people try to explain causes of behaviors events or outcomes
Stable: factor is fixed and does not change
Unstable: factor is not fixed and can change over time
Internal: causality assigned to personal traits, feelings, abilities
External: causality assigned to situational factor

Question 14

How do individualist vs collectivist cultures affect attribution

Answer 14

Individualist: emphasize personal responsibility and internal attribution
Collectivist: emphasize situational elements and external attribution

Question 15

Attribution errors

Answer 15

Fundamental attribution error: while judging others, we tend to overemphasize personal (internal) characteristics and ignore situational (external) factors
Defensive attribution error: explaining things in a way that defends us from feelings of vulnerability or mortality

Question 16

Stereotypes

Answer 16

Generalized beliefs or expectations about members of a group, simplify complex social information, lead to oversimplified or incorrect assumptions

Question 17

Subtyping

Answer 17

Occurs when ppl see individuals who do not fit a stereotype, and believe they are exceptions to the rule, creating a subtype to maintain the original stereotype

Question 18

Perceptual confirmation

Answer 18

Tendency to see what we expect to see, and interpret ambiguous behavior in a way that confirms our pre existing stereotypes or beliefs

Question 19

Illusory correlation

Answer 19

Perception of a relationship between two variables when it does not exist

Question 20

Adaptive conservatism

Answer 20

Tendency to favor familiar/“safe” groups. Has roots in evolutionary psychology (was once necessary to group together with people for survival), leads to prejudice/mistrust against unfamiliar groups

Question 21

Out-group homogeneity

Answer 21

Perception that members of an out group are more similar to each other than members of one’s in group, leads to stereotyping/belief that all members of a group are “all the same”

Question 22

Contact hypothesis

Answer 22

Proses that under certain conditions (equal status, cooperation and support from authorities/institutions), direct contact between members of different groups reduces prejudice

Question 23

Common knowledge effect

Answer 23

People are more likely to talk about info that group members know, because shared info is safe. Familiar info is an indicator of in group status, unfamiliar info is an indicator of our group status

Question 24

Social loafing

Answer 24

We don’t work as hard in group projects as solo, because we perceive that people will do our work for us

Question 25

Group polarization

Answer 25

The opinion of the collective group when they get together is more extreme than the opinions of one individual, because people don’t want to offer opposing opinions

Question 26

Groupthink

Answer 26

You are more likely to agree with group than say no for fear of rejection

Question 27

Deindividuation

Answer 27

People abandon their individual identity for the sake of the group identity, engaging in activities they may not normally

Question 28

Group influence

Answer 28

Conformity: going along with group behavior or opinion without being directly requested
Compliance: going along with group behavior with direct request
Obedience: type of compliance where direct request comes from authority figure

Question 29

Informational vs normative influence

Answer 29

Informational: going along with a group because you genuinely believe the group is right, behavior will persist after group leaves
Normative influence: going along with the group to avoid rejection, not because you think they are right, behavior will change after group leaves

Question 30

Correlates of conformity

Answer 30

Unanimity, group size = correlated w/ conformity
Anonymity, presence of co-conspirator = inversely correlated w/ conformity

Question 31

Milgram study

Answer 31

Obedience study where people are instructed to administer a deadly shock to someone by an authority figure

Question 32

Correlates of obedience

Answer 32

Physical closeness of authority figure, legitimate authority, depersonalized victim
Temporal closeness of request and action, depersonalized victim, defiant models = inversely correlated with obedience

Question 33

Sternberg’s triangular theory of love

Answer 33

Intimacy: sharing deep emotions, thoughts and feelings
Passion: hot, physical attraction (lust)
Commitment: desire/intent to stay in the relationship

Question 34

Matching hypothesis

Answer 34

People will be in relationships with people of equal levels of attraction

Question 35

Correlates of attraction

Answer 35

Facial symmetry, proximity to each other, similar level of attractiveness = correlated with attraction

Question 36

Types of aggression

Answer 36

Relational: trying to harm other’s relationships
Physical: trying to cause physical harm
Hostile/hot: out of emotion
Instrumental: aggression used to reach a goal
Identity/societal role can affect aggression

Question 37

Kin selection

Answer 37

More likely to help people related to us

Question 38

Reciprocal altruism

Answer 38

“You help me, I’ll help you”

Question 39

Empathy-altruism hypothesis

Answer 39

To help someone without any physical benefit for yourself, you must have empathy for them. Some disagree, say that all empathy is for an emotional benefit

Question 40

Bystander effect

Answer 40

More likely to help someone when there are fewer people around (ties into conformity/group size)

Question 41

Social responsibility norm

Answer 41

Humans have a responsibility to help those more vulnerable