Social Psychology Ch. 1

Question 0

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Answer 0

The process by which someone’s expectations about a person or group leads to the fulfillment of those expectations.

Question 1

Social Psychology

Answer 1

The scientific discipline that attempts to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.

Question 2

Three-Step Process of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Step 1

Answer 2

1. The perceiver (“Prophet”) forms an impression of the target person.

Question 3

Three-Step Process of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Step 2

Answer 3

The perceiver acts toward the target person in a manner consistent with this first impression.

Question 4

Three-Step Process of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Step 3

Answer 4

In rsponse, the target person’s behavior changes to correspond to the perceiver’s actions.

Question 5

Norman Triplett

Answer 5

Credited with conducting the first social psychology experiment in 1895.

Question 6

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 6

Widely regarded as the founder of psychology.

Predicted that there would be 2 branches of psychology:

• Physiological
• Social

Question 7

Floyd Allport

Answer 7

Shaped the identity of American social psychology by emphasizing the EXPERIMENTAL method in studying topics:

• Conformity
• Nonverbal communication
• Social Facilitation

Question 8

SPSSI

Answer 8

Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues

Question 9

Kurt Lewin

Answer 9

One of the most influential social psychologist.
Instrumental in founding SPASI.
Firmly believed that social psych. did NOT have to make a choice between either a pure science or applied science.

Question 10

Stanley Milgram

Answer 10

Famous obedience experiments.

Examined the situational factors that make people more likely to obey destructive authority figures.

Question 11

Self

Answer 11

A symbol-using social being who can reflect on his or her own behavior.

Question 12

Self-Serving Bias

Answer 12

The tendency to take credit for positive outcomes but deny responsibility for negative outcomes in our lives.

Question 13

Interactionism

Answer 13

An important perspective in social psychology that emphasizes the combined effects of both the person and the situation on human behavior.

Question 14

Social Cognition

Answer 14

The ways in which we interpret, analyze, remember, and use information about our social world.

Question 15

Dual-Process Theories

Answer 15

Theories of social cognition that describe two basic ways of thinking about social stimuli, one involving automatic, effortless thinking and the other involving more deliberate, effortful thinking.

Question 16

Explicit Cognition

Answer 16

Deliberate judgments or decisions of which we are consciously aware.

Question 17

Implicit Cognition

Answer 17

Judgments or decisions that are under the control of automatically activated evaluations occurring without our awareness.

Question 18

Culture

Answer 18

The total lifestyle of a people, including all the ideas, symbols, preferences, and material objet that they share.

Question 19

Individualism

Answer 19

A philosophy of life stressing the priority of individual needs over group needs, a preference for loosely knit social relationships, and a desire to be relatively autonomous of others’ influence.

Question 20

Collectivism

Answer 20

A philosophy of life stressing the priority of group needs over individual needs, a preference for tightly knit social relationships, and a willingness to submit to the influence of one’s group.

Question 21

Evolutionary Psychology

Answer 21

An approach to psychology based on the principle of natural selection.

Question 22

Genes

Answer 22

The biochemical units of inheritance for all living organisms.

Question 23

Natural Selection

Answer 23

The process by which organisms with inherited traits best suited to the environment reproduce more successfully than less well-adapted organisms over a number of generations, and a process which leads to evolutionary changes.

Question 24

Evolution

Answer 24

The genetic changes that occur in a species over generations due to natural selection.

Question 25

Social Neuroscience

Answer 25

The study of the relationship between neural processes of the brain and social processes.

Question 26

Cerebral Cortex

Answer 26

The wrinkled-looking outer layer of the brain that coordinates and integrates all other brain areas into a fully functioning unit, that is the brain’s “thinking” center, and that is much larger in humans than in other animals.

Question 27

Frontal Lobe

Answer 27

The region of the cerebral cortex situated just behind the forehead that is involved in the coordination of movement and higher mental processes, such as planning, social skills, and abstract thinking. This is the area of the brain that is the originator of self processes.

Question 28

Positive Psychology

Answer 28

An approach to psychology that studies ways to enrich human experience and maximize human functioning.