Social Psychology

Question 1

Interpersonal processes explore the impact that social interactions within groups of people (min. 2 people) have on the motives, emotions and behaviour of individuals

Answer 1

.

Question 2

Interpersonal attraction refers to

Answer 2

the desire to affiliate (i.e. seek out the company of other people and spend time with) other people

Question 3

We affiliate or become attracted to other people because of

Answer 3

our own need to belong (i.e. to behave in ways that will include us in groups we consider important and to in ways that avoid being excluded by them)

Question 4

We affiliate or become attracted to people who are

Answer 4

.in physical proximity, are rewarding to be around, are similar in values, attitudes and attractiveness and are physical attractive

Question 5

Proximity facilitates

Answer 5

familiarity, which in turn facilitates liking (or attraction); ‘interaction accessibility’ is another important component of proximity influencing attraction

Question 6

We tend to be attracted to people that are similar attitudes, values and interests because

Answer 6

they validate our world view; but we are also attracted to people different to ourselves if the difference is complementary

Question 7

We tend to be attracted to people who are

Answer 7

similar to ourselves in physical attractiveness (‘matching hypothesis’)
We tend to be attracted to people who are physical attractive because it is rewarding or pleasing to look at them, and it rewarding to be associated with them

Question 8

Interpersonal attraction underlies all social relationships including love relationships and friendships

Answer 8

.

Question 9

Two common theories of love are:

Answer 9

(i) Hatfield (1988) and (ii) Sternberg (1988)

Question 10

Hatfield (1988) argues that there are two types of love:

Answer 10

(i) Passionate love (wildly emotional, marked by intense physiological arousal and complete absorption in the other person) and (ii) Companionate love (a deep affection, friendship and emotional intimacy)

Question 11

Sternberg’s(1988)

Answer 11

‘triangular theory of love’ argues that there are love is made up of three components: (i) Intimacy (feelings of closeness), (ii) Passion (sensual arousal) and (iii) Commitment (dedication to the other person and the relationship)

Question 12

When all three components are present, the relationship in known as

Answer 12

‘consummate love’

Question 13

; If there is only intimacy, the relationship is known as a

Answer 13

liking relationship’

Question 14

; If there is only passion, the relationship is an

Answer 14

‘infatuated relationship

Question 15

; If you have only commitment, the relationship is

Answer 15

‘empty

Question 16

; If you have only intimacy and passion

Answer 16

, the relationship is ‘romantic

Question 17

; I you have only intimacy and commitment, the relationship is

Answer 17

‘compassionate

Question 18

and if you have only passion and commitment, the relationship is

Answer 18

‘fatuous’

Question 19

According to the evolutionary perspective, there are significant gender differences in what men and women find attractive when looking for a long term relationship/mate:

Answer 19

i) Females generally prefer males with more resources and older males because they are more likely to have resources, as well as for their emotional and mental maturity,
(ii) Males, generally prefer attractive females to elicit sufficient arousal over the long term and to increase their own status and younger females because they are likely to be more fertile

Question 20

The bystander effect (Darley & Latané, 1968):

Answer 20

we are less likely to help (or ‘intervene’) if other people (‘bystanders’) are present, because there is a diffusion of responsibility over all the bystanders present

Question 21

There are three steps required before a person will help:

Answer 21

(i) Step 1: Notice the event,
(ii) Step 2: Decide of the event is an emergency,
(iii) Step 3: Assume personality responsibility to offer help; if any of these steps have not occurred, a bystander will not intervene

Question 22

Being the only one available to help does not guarantee that we will; prosocial (or helping) behaviour depends on a number of other factors:

Answer 22

(i) mood (people in a good mood are likely to help because it maintains their good mood; people in a mild to moderately bad mood are also likely to help because helping makes you feel good about yourself and so this can alleviate your negative mood state; people in an intensely bad mood are generally not likely to help and that is because they are distracted by their negative mood state),
ii) they possess the specific skills and capacity required for the helping task
(iii) personality (people higher on empathy, self-efficacy, self-monitoring and emotionality are more likely to help – people high on empathy tend to feel more responsibility to offer help; people high on self efficacy tend to feel more capable of offering help; people high on self-monitoring are those who are concerned with making a good impression on other people, so they will help others if it makes them look good; and people high on emotionality are more likely to interpret an ambiguous situation as an emergency and thus offer help) and
(iv) whether you know the person in need of help (especially if they are related to)

Question 23

According to the evolutionary perspective

Answer 23

we are more likely to help those we are biologically related to than those we are not because then our genes will survive; thus, the implication is that all human behaviour is inherently self-interested

Question 24

According to Batson (1991

Answer 24

, people behave altruistically

Question 25

Altruism is

Answer 25

a form of prosocial behaviour that seems to have no gain for the helper, and may even carry a potential cost to the helper

Question 26

According to Batson (1991), altruism may entail some

Answer 26

‘cost-benefit analysis’ by the helper, but if there is sufficient empathy this is enough to behave in an altruistic way

Question 27

Benefits of altruism can include

Answer 27

feeling good about oneself for meeting ‘ideal-self’ standards; receiving material or social rewards (e.g. gifts, thanks, the esteem of others), etc; costs can include putting yourself in danger or feeling guilty for not helping)

Question 28

Altruism should not be defined as

Answer 28

pure selflessness but any act that has the intention of helping another person (even if the act of helping ends up providing the helper with benefits)

Question 29

The topic of social influence is

Answer 29

the study of how the presence of other people alters the way individuals think, feel and behave

Question 30

Obedience occurs when a person complies with the orders of a perceived legitimate authority figure

Answer 30

.

Question 31

The most famous study on obedience was by

Answer 31

Stanley Milgram (1963, 1974) who found that approximately 65% of participants delivered shocks up to 450 volts to a (confederate) ‘learner’ simply because they were told to do so by an experimenter