Social Psychology

Question 1

SOCIAL INHIBITION

Answer 1

reduced performance due to the presence of others

Question 2

SOCIAL FACILITATION

Answer 2

improved performance due to the presence of others

Question 3

GROUP POLARISATION

Answer 3

the strengthening of attitudes in individuals when they are in groups of people who hold similar attitudes
- discussion within groups can strengthen attitudes

Question 4

MYERS AND BISHOP (1970)

GROUP POLARISATION

Answer 4

− Found that when students who were low radical prejudice talked together, attitudes became more accepted
− When highly prejudice students talked about the issues then became even more prejudice

Question 5

CLARK MCCAULEY (2002)
GROUP POLARISATION

Answer 5

− Noted that terrorists mentally come from groups that get together and share their similar grievances where there is no moderating influence

Question 6

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

Answer 6

“deals with how the social perceiver uses information to arrive at causal explanations for events. it examines what information is gathered and how it is combined to form a causal judgment” (friske & taylor, 1991)
- concerned with how and why ordinary people explain evens as they do

Question 7

HEIDER (1958)

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

Answer 7

• believed that people are naive psychologists trying to make sense of the world
• two main ideas; internal (situational attribution) and external (dispositional attribution)

Question 8

DISPOSITIONAL ATTRIBUTION

Answer 8

assigning the because of behaviour to some internal characteristic, rather than outside forces e.g. personality traits

Question 9

SITUATIONAL ATTRIBUTION

Answer 9

assigning the because of behaviour to some situation or event outside a person’s control rather than internal characteristics e.g. having bad day

Question 10

KELLEY COVARIATION MODEL (1967)

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

Answer 10

covariation; a person has information from multiple observations, at different times and situations and can perceive the covariation of an observed effect and its because

• 3 types (consensus, distinctiveness, consistency)
• low = dispositional (internal)
• high = situational (external)
• may not have enough information to make judgement

Question 11

CONSENSUS

Answer 11

• the extent to which other people behave in the same way in a a similar situation

Question 12

DISTINCTIVENESS

Answer 12

• the extent to which the person behaves in the same way in similar situations

Question 13

CONSISTENCY

Answer 13

• the extent to which the person behaves like this every times the situation occurs

Question 14

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

Answer 14

• a situation involving conflicting attitudes, belied or behaviours
• produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviours to reduce the discomfort and restore balance

Question 15

FESTINGER (1957)

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

Answer 15

• we have an inner drive to hold all out attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (dissonance)
• a powerful notice to maintain cognitive consistency can give rise to irrational and sometimes maladaptive behaviour
• participant observation study of a cult which believe the earth was going to be destroyed by a flood
• fringe members were inclined to recognise that they made fools
• committed members were more like to re-interpret the evidence to show they were right

Question 16

DISSONANCE CAN BE REDUCED IN 3 WAYS

Answer 16

• change one or more of the attitudes
• acquire new information
• reduce the importance of the cognition

Question 17

FORCED COMPLIANCE BEHAVIOUR

Answer 17

an individual performs an action that is inconsistent with his or her beliefs
can’t be changed as already in the past
reduced by re-evaluating their attitude to what they have done

Question 18

FESTINGER AND CARL SMITH (1959)

Answer 18

• investigated if making people perform a dull task would create cognitive dissonance through forced compliance behaviour
• 71 males
• half paid $1 to $20 to tell waiting patient that task was interesting
• those paid $1 rated task as more fun
• being paid $1 is not sufficient incentive for lying and those who were paid $1 experienced dissonance
• overcome by believing that the task really were interesting

Question 19

ASCH

Answer 19

line test

Question 20

MILGRAM

Answer 20

obedience study/zappy zap

Question 21

ZIMBARDO

Answer 21

prison experiment