Social Psychology Chapter

Question 1

Social Psychology

Answer 1

Is the study of how the immediate social context as well as broader cultural environments influence people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Question 2

3 motivations that humans have

Answer 2

1. Fundamental need to belong and form trusting relationships with others
2. To perceive ourselves and our groups positively
3. To understand the world and feel a sense of control over our actions and outcomes

Question 3

What area of the brain underlies facial recognition?

Answer 3

the fusiform face area (FFA)

Question 4

2 key dimensions that capture our attention about a person

Answer 4

1. How warm or trustworthy the person is
   - allows us to categorize others as friends or foes
2. How competent the person is
   - enables us to gauge the person’s status or competence in a social pecking order

Question 5

transference

Answer 5

a tendency to assume that a new and unfamiliar person has the same traits as another, known person whom he or she resembles in some way

Question 6

False consensus effect

Answer 6

The tendency to use the self as an anchor and overestimate the extent to which other people’s beliefs and attitudes are similar to our own

Question 7

impression management strategies

Answer 7

A series of strategies that people use to influence the impressions that others form of them

Question 8

attribution

Answer 8

the assignment of a casual explanation for an event, action, or outcome

Question 9

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 9

The tendency to assume that people’s actions are more the result of their internal dispositions than of the situational context

Question 10

self-serving attributions

Answer 10

the attributions people make for their own behaviour or outcomes: We tend to make dispositional attributions for positive events, but situational attributions for negative events.

Question 11

Implicit attitudes

Answer 11

• Are our automatically activated associations, which are often learned through repeated exposure to a person, place, thing, or issue.
• Are often harder to change, except with repeated exposure to a new association.

Question 12

explicit attitudes

Answer 12

• Are those we explicitly report that we feel or believe about a person, place, thing, or issue.
• Explicit attitudes, just like other conscious beliefs, can be more readily updated by simply learning new information

Question 13

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

Answer 13

A theory of persuasion contending that attitudes can change by 2 different routes:

1. A central route that focuses on the strength of the argument
2. A peripheral route that is sensitive to more superficial cues.

Question 14

Compliance strategies

Answer 14

1. The “door in the face” strategy:
   works by eliciting a bit of guilt after people decline an unreasonably large request so that they feel more open to a smaller one.
2. The “foot in the door” approach:
   people who complied with the initial low-cost request will be more likely to buy a box of cookies.
3. Social proof:
   Pointing out all the other people that have endorsed and supported it
4. Scarcity principle:
   People tend to place higher value on things that are in short supply

Question 15

Cognitive Dissonance

Leon Festinger

Answer 15

A sense of conflict between people’s attitudes and actions that motivates efforts to restore cognitive consistency.

Question 16

Post-decision dissonance

Answer 16

• Happens when we have to forgo an option that we have a positive attitude toward.
• To alleviate the dissonance, we might find ourselves focusing on the negative aspects of the option not chosen, while praising the merits of the selected option

Question 17

Social norms

Answer 17

Patterns of behavior, traditions, beliefs, and preferences that are accepted and reinforced by others and influence our behavior.

Question 18

conformity

Answer 18

The process by which people implicitly mimic, adopt, or internalize the behaviours and preferences of those around them

Question 19

Informational Social Influence

Answer 19

Pressure to conform to others’ actions or beliefs based on a desire to behave correctly or gain an accurate understanding of the world

Question 20

autokinetic effect

Answer 20

A single stationary light will appear to move if there are no other visual cues to anchor it in place.

Question 21

Normative social influence

Answer 21

Pressure to conform to others’ actions or beliefs in order to gain approval from others or avoid social sanctions

Question 22

deindividuation

Answer 22

Losing sight of our own individuality

Question 23

social facilitation

Answer 23

Refers to evidence that the mere presence of others can boost arousal in a way that facilitates the dominant response, or most likely behavioral reaction, to that task.

-Easy or well-learned tasks are performed better, but difficult or new tasks are performed worse

Question 24

social loafing

Answer 24

The tendency for individuals to expend less effort on a task when they are doing it with others rather than alone

Question 25

group polarization

Answer 25

A tendency for people’s attitudes on an issue to become more extreme after discussing it with like-minded others

Question 26

groupthink

Answer 26

• Groupthink occurs during group decisions when people feel pressure to maintain allegiance to a group leader or to render a difficult decision under time pressure.
• Groupthink is exacerbated by having a dominant and authoritarian leader who voices strong opinions for what the group’s decision should be.

Question 27

Ways to avoid groupthink?

Answer 27

1. Emphasizing the need for making the right decision over the need for making a quick decision.
2. Advising the leader to listen and moderate the discussion
3. Role of devil’s advocate = counterarguments
4. Promoting a norm of critical evaluation
5. Fostering a spirit of brainstorming where all ideas and opinions are welcome.
6. Forming groups of diverse members who are more likely to bring different attitudes, expertise, and perspectives to the issue.

Question 28

General Aggression Model

Answer 28

Is a framework for knitting together various factors that, in combination, predict the likelihood that people will act aggressively

Question 29

weapons effect

Answer 29

Suggested that simple exposure to a gun or weapon can increase aggressive responses by bringing violent thoughts to mind

Question 30

prosocial behaviour

Answer 30

Actions aimed at assisting others towards their goals

Question 31

kin selection

Answer 31

An evolved or adaptive strategy of assisting those who share one’s genes, even at personal cost, as a means of increasing the odds of genetic survival

Question 32

norm of reciprocity

Answer 32

According to this norm, people agree to help others who have helped them in the past or might help them in the future

Question 33

the empathy gap

Answer 33

The inability to accurately simulate the mental suffering of another person

Question 34

the bystander effect

Answer 34

Occurs when people are less likely to come to the aid of a victim when other observers are present than when they are alone

Question 35

pluralistic ignorance

Answer 35

• Where people are collectively unaware of each other’s true attitudes or beliefs.
• A tendency for people to collectively fail to help in an emergency because they misinterpret the situation or assume others will help

Question 36

diffusion of responsibility

Answer 36

A tendency for people in a group to assume that someone else is in a better position to act or has already acted

Question 37

stereotypes

Answer 37

Stereotypes are the mental representations or schemas we have about groups.

Question 38

prejudice

Answer 38

A negative attitude towards a group or members of a group

Question 39

discrimination

Answer 39

A tendency for individuals to receive different treatment or outcomes as a result of their membership in a given social group.

Question 40

realistic group conflict theory

Answer 40

Negative intergroup attitudes can develop whenever groups compete against one another for access to the same scarce resources

Question 41

social identity theory

Answer 41

People maintain this positive attitude for their ingroup in part by seeing other groups, or outgroups, in a more negative light

Question 42

symbolic racism

Answer 42

This tendency to redirect one’s prejudice toward a racial or ethnic group to the policies that might benefit that group

Question 43

aversive racism

Answer 43

A tendency, even among egalitarian-minded people, to have unconscious negative reactions to people of racial or ethnic outgroups

Question 44

contact hypothesis

Answer 44

The proposal from Gordon Allport, that prejudice can be reduced through sanctioned, friendly, and cooperative interactions between members of different groups working together as equals towards a common goal.

4 elements of positive contact that can help reduce prejudicial attitudes:

1. Working together
2. as equals
3. towards a common goal, and
4. in an environment where those in the position of authority support social change

Question 45

the jigsaw classroom

Answer 45

A technique to reduce intergroup prejudice by dividing as assignment among a diverse group of students and having them learn the information cooperatively

Question 46

the chameleon effect

Answer 46

When we interact with someone we like, we tend to mimic their mannerisms, accent, and speech patterns

Question 47

parental investment theory

Answer 47

A theory that predicts sex differences in attraction due to the greater time, effort, and risk assumed by women than by men during procreation

Question 48

What are the 4 horsemen of relationships?

Answer 48

1. Criticism = personal attacks
2. Contempt = a tendency to be hostile or dismissive of the other person’s point of view
3. Defensiveness = denial of any personal responsibility
4. Stonewalling = withdrawing from any further conversation

Question 49

triangular theory of love

Answer 49

• Passion, intimacy, and commitment are the points of a triangle, and various combinations of these elements create different variations of what love can be
• Consummate love is experienced when couples combine all three, whereas friends with benefits might have intimacy and passion without commitment.