Social Psychology - Exam 4

Question 1

social psychology according to Don Saucier

Answer 1

people are lazy (brains are efficient) and they want to feel good about themselves (want others to perceive them favorably)

Question 2

social psychology

Answer 2

real/imagined presence of others and how that influences thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

Question 3

cell phone + convo study

Answer 3

lower convo quality, lower trust, and lower empathy

Question 4

major areas of social psychology

Answer 4

attitudes, prosocial and antisocial behavior, social influence, and social cognition

Question 5

attitudes

Answer 5

opinions, feelings, and beliefs about a person concept or group

Question 6

stereotypes

Answer 6

shortcuts about a group to navigate social situations/make decisions
influence behavior
either positive or negative
**cognitive

Question 7

positive stereotype

Answer 7

belief that a person has positive qualities
make it difficult to combat negative stereotypes - protects perpetrator (ie compliments)

Question 8

negative stereotype

Answer 8

negative thoughts about people
easier to combat

Question 9

are stereotypes accurate?… kernel of truth hypothesis

Answer 9

scenarios when a stereotype is true

Question 10

prejudice

Answer 10

refers to how a person feels about an individual based on their (presumed) group membership

Question 11

discrimination

Answer 11

unjust/prejudicial treatment of different categories of people

Question 12

Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) discrimination experiment race

Answer 12

black and white applicants with identical resumes
applicants portrayed as white received more calls for interviews than those portrayed as black

Question 13

Moss Racusin (2012) discrimination experiment gender

Answer 13

science faculty application
used male and female applicants with the same resume
women were rated lower than male applicants and were offered lower salary than male applicants

Question 14

Batson et all (1997) overcoming negative attitudes experiment (Harold)

Answer 14

randomly assigned groups to rate homeless man objective and fair vs seeing life through Harold’s eyes and imagining how he felt
also rated attitudes toward homeless people in general (ie could get a job, chose to live this way)
results - put in Harold’s shoes were more empathetic for Harold and homeless people as a group

Question 15

attitudes predict behavior best when…

Answer 15

attitudes are strong, when attitudes become public knowledge

Question 16

what happens when our behaviors are inconsistent with out attitudes?

Answer 16

we believe one thing but do the other… uncomfortable

Question 17

cognitive dissonance

Answer 17

discomfort we feel when our attitudes don’t agree with our behaviors
**either our behavior or attitude must change
ex: Greek life (“if it’s hard to get in, then it must be worth it”), “I want to be in this class”

Question 18

prosocial behavior

Answer 18

helping, altruism

Question 19

what factors affect our willingness to help?

Answer 19

less likely to help when others are around
gender differences

Question 20

gender differences in helping

Answer 20

men - danger is high, feelings of competence
women - interpersonal situations

Question 21

steps to helping

Answer 21

notice event
interpret event as emergency
take responsibility
know how to help
decide to help

Question 22

Good Samaritan Study

Answer 22

shows how we may not notice an event
recruited seminary students to prepare talk on either seminary jobs or Good Samaritan story
told they needed to deliver a speech - half told they were late and others that they had lots of time
on way to give speech, they walked past person groaning against a door
results - people in a rush (no matter what story they were giving) stopped to help less than those not rushing
- had people rating their behavior w/out knowledge of condition

Question 23

altruism

Answer 23

helping another person without expecting anything in return
helping others even at the cost of oneself
*considerable debate

Question 24

debate on altruism (are people altruistic?)

Answer 24

no - people help others for their own personal gain (feeling good, avoid guilt, reciprocity, survival of family genes)
yes - people help even when it’s not in their best interest

Question 25

antisocial behavior

Answer 25

aggression, cultures of honor

Question 26

aggression

Answer 26

behavior with intention to harm someone

Question 27

how do we learn aggression?

Answer 27

observation (social learning theory)

Question 28

aggression link to operant conditioning

Answer 28

if we watch someone behave aggressively and they are rewarded/seem to enjoy it -> appropriate behavior if they are criticized and punished -> avoid it

Question 29

cultures of honor

Answer 29

cultural background that emphasizes personal or family reputation and social status

Question 30

cultures of honor research (north vs south)

Answer 30

Cohen - north vs south murders (south had more murders - culture of honor) bump with asshole (paradox of politeness) - southern participants got more angry and had big increase in testosterone and cortisol

Question 31

social influence

Answer 31

attitudes, cognitions, or behaviors that are changed based on the doings of others includes conformity, obedience, and persuasion

Question 32

conformity

Answer 32

change in one's behavior to coincide more closely with a given group

Question 33

Asch's Line Study

Answer 33

conformity had confederates pick the wrong line as the answer before the participant -> most participants conformed and picked the wrong answer

Question 34

two factors that contribute to conformity

Answer 34

informational and normative social influences

Question 35

informational social influences

Answer 35

conform because we want to be right ex: picking the same answer as the "smart" kid

Question 36

normative social influence

Answer 36

conform because we want to belong ex: wear certain brand

Question 37

obedience

Answer 37

complying with demands of an authority figure **received a lot of attention from social psychology

Question 38

obedience studies examples

Answer 38

Miligram study (shocking people for wrong answers) Stanford prison

Question 39

persuasion

Answer 39

act of delivering a particular message so that it influences a person's behavior in a desired way ex: peer pressure, advertising

Question 40

serving staff at a restaurant persuasion study

Answer 40

gift giving chocolate - giving chocolate increased tips by 2% offering an additional treat - increased by 21%

Question 41

sales people persuasion techniques

Answer 41

foot in the door door in the face

Question 42

foot in the door technique

Answer 42

small favor asked first and typically granted, followed by larger favor ex: vacuum people coming to your house

Question 43

door in the face technique

Answer 43

starts with extreme request which usually gets denied, goes to a more reasonable request (which is usually the main goal)

Question 44

social cognition

Answer 44

the way we think about the social world and how we perceive others

Question 45

social attribution

Answer 45

educated guesses about the efforts or motives of others information is often incomplete - bound to make errors

Question 46

fundamental attribution error

Answer 46

overestimated impact of personal disposition (ex: that driver is rude and impatient) underestimate impact of the situation (ex: "bad driver" is rushing their wife who's giving birth to the hospital) **we have a tendency to overestimate someone's group belonging rather than their actual character when we don't know them

Question 47

self serving bias

Answer 47

take credit for success - internal attributions (ex: I did good on that exam!) deny responsibility for failure - external attributions (ex: Amanda didn't teach this good enough) have tendency to protect the groups we belong to