Social Psychology

Question 1

Social Norms

Answer 1

• rules concerning expected and accepted behavior
• implicit: social rule. Ex) how to talk to somebody
• explicit: the law

Question 2

Social Roles

Answer 2

• behaviors we expect to be displayed by people in certain social positions
• may have to change our attitude in order to match the behavior

Question 3

Conformity

Answer 3

-Adjust our behavior and thinking to conform with the group
-Asch’s line length experiment
The Asch effect
123 males, college students b/w 17-25 yrs old
1/3 conformed to majority
*Adolescence: highest levels in conformity, peer pressure

Question 4

Strengthening Conformity

Answer 4

• feel incompetent or insecure (low self esteem)
• 3 or more ppl
• group is unanimous & anonymous
• admiration for group
• others are observing our behavior
• We want to be right and we want to be liked

Question 5

Weakening Conformity

Answer 5

• social support

- commitment toward group (independence)

Question 6

Conformity & Culture

Answer 6

-members of the group try to conform to what they believe is opinion of majority of the group
-Committees and government
-Culture: some cultures may have higher rates of conformity
The U.S. is individualist but we still feel pressure

Question 7

Obedience

Answer 7

• compliance w/ an order
• Milgram’s obedience experiment –Milgram pushed the idea that obedience was external vs. internal
• Applications of his experiment -> Holocaust

Question 8

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

Answer 8

People tend to comply with larger requests of they have previously agreed to a small request

Question 9

Altruism

Answer 9

Unselfish regard for others welfare

Question 10

Bystander Intervention

Answer 10

Kitty: raped & murdered, 38 citizens witnessed but only 1 person called after she was dead already

Question 11

Bystander Effect

Answer 11

-More people, less likelihood of receiving help
-The best odds for helping is:
If just observed someone else being helpful
Not in a rush
Victim is similar to us
In a good mood

Question 12

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Answer 12

• When our attitudes & actions don’t match
• if we say it, we must believe it
• minimization strategies: indirect (usually I’m a good person), direct, trivialize (what does it matter)

Question 13

Festinger & Carlsmith

Answer 13

• gave participants boring task
• those who were paid $1 convinced themselves that what they were doing is enjoyable and had no other justification
• those who were paid $20 used money as their primary justification

Question 14

Davis, Grover, Becker, McGregor

Answer 14

• 90% said cheating was bad

- 40-60% admitted to cheating before

Question 15

The Power of the Situation

Answer 15

Stanford prison experiment

• Zimbardo
• 18 college students randomly assigned to role of prisoner or guard
• some prison guards began to abuse prisoners
• experiment stopped after 6 days b/c the students couldn’t decipher b/w reality and the fake roles they were playing
• Zimbardo himself did not remain objective, he was the prisoner superintendent

Question 16

Cognitive Attributions

Answer 16

-we try to explain the reasoning behind people’s behavior
-we tend to attribute others behavior to:
Dispositionism (internal factors, cant be changed) and situationism (external factors)

Question 17

Cognitive Attribution Child Example

Answer 17

A child who acts out in class

• Internal: naturally a bad kid
• External: may have problems at home

Question 18

Cognitive Attribution in Ourselves vs. in Others

Answer 18

Ourselves: self-serving bias
 -success is internal 
 -failure is external
Others:
 -success is external
 -failure is internal

Question 19

Cognitive Attribution Depends on…

Answer 19

Consensus: many in a group display behavior, external
Consistency: always show behavior, internal
Distinctiveness: unique behavior (diff from their usual behavior), external

Question 20

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 20

• underestimating the situational influences on people’s behavior
• Ex) people behave diff in diff situations: classroom quiet, party outgoing
• Perpetuates discrimination

Question 21

Stereotypes

Answer 21

• beliefs about ppl in a particular social category
• positive (ex. all tall ppl are good at basketball), negative, or neutral
• personality, physical, behavioral
• create categories (schema) to help us process info more quickly

Question 22

Prejudice

Answer 22

-unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group
-a mix of beliefs (stereotypes), emotions (fear, hostility, envy), & predisposition to actions (discriminate)
-influences how we interpret events
Ex) prisoners are mostly black americans

Question 23

Causes of Prejudice

Answer 23

• Realistic Conflict Theory: competition for resources that are scarce, robbers cave experiment (2 camps of 11 year old boys that stereotyped each other and hostility and competition increased)
• dissimilarity
• scapegoating (Ex. Hitler blamed jews for ruining economy)
• conformity to social norms
• media stereotypes

Question 24

Ingroup vs. Outgroup

Answer 24

• socially define ourselves, put ourselves into groups based on ethnicity, gender, religion, academic major
• also implies who you are not
• promotes ingroup bias
• outgroup is seen as bad, disliked and having undesirable traits

Question 25

Belief-in-a-Just-World

Answer 25

• Justify our prejudice by blaming the victim
• belief that good people are rewarded and bad people are punished (doesn’t work like this)
• people get what they deserve (hindsight bias)

Question 26

Janoff-Bulman, Timko, & Carli

Answer 26

victims blamed using hindsight bias

Ex) woman being nice to her male coworker