Social Psychology & Personality

Question 1

What is the Social Brain Hypothesis?

Answer 1

The size of a primate species’ social group is relative to the volume of their neocortex (the outer layer of the cerebral cortex).

Question 2

What are in groups and out groups?

Answer 2

In groups: groups one belongs in
Out groups: groups one does not belong in

Question 3

What is reciprocity and transitivity?

Answer 3

Reciprocity: people treat others as others treat them
Transitivity: people tend to have the same opinions as others

Question 4

What is Out-group Homogeneity Effect?

Answer 4

The tendency to view the out-group as less than and viewing the in-group positively.

Question 5

What is Social Identity Theory?

Answer 5

People not only identify with certain groups, but value and take pride in their membership.

Question 6

What is In-Group Favoritism?

Answer 6

The increase of favors and willingness to forgive in-group members.

Question 7

What is Group Polarization?

Answer 7

The tendency that if most group members are one way, for example cautious, then the group becomes even more cautious.

Question 8

What is Groupthink?

Answer 8

An extreme form of polarization where bad decisions can be made.

Question 9

What is Social Facilitation?

Answer 9

The idea that the presence of others enhances ones performance.

Presence of others —> arousal —> enhancement of the dominant response —> achieving either good or bad performance based on if the response is easy/well learned or difficult/not well learned.

Question 10

What is Mere-Presence effect?

Answer 10

The idea that a person changes their behavior due to the presence of an audience.

Question 11

What is Social Loafing?

Answer 11

When one doesn’t try or tries less in a group, therefore not having responsibility for the in-groups output.

Question 12

What is Deindividuation?

Answer 12

Losing individuality when in a group due to lack of awareness and not prioritizing personal standards.

Question 13

What is Normative Influence? (Conformity)

Answer 13

People go along with the crowd to fit in and avoid looking foolish. (THINK: Asch’s Line Experiment)

Question 14

What is Informational Influence? (Conformity)

Answer 14

People look to others for cues about how to respond due to uncertainties or ambiguity about what’s correct, appropriate or expected.

Question 15

What are Social Norms? (Conformity)

Answer 15

Expected standards of conduct.

Question 16

What did Milgram’s experiment results show in terms of increased and decreased obedience?

Answer 16

Increase in obedience occurred when the increase of shocks were slow, the “victim” made protests later in the experiment, participants had a higher high-school status and the authorities figure seemed for serious.

Decreased obedience occurred when participants saw or touched the confederate and when they were given instructions on the phone.

Question 17

What is aggression? What are factors that increase aggression?

Answer 17

Aggression is the intention to harm others.

Factors for increased aggression: observational learning, media violence, social rejection, heat**, negative emotions, testosterone (due to decreases in brain control of impulses), and disrupted serotonin (possibly from variations of the MAO enzyme which regulates serotonin and norepinephrine activity).

Factors for decreased aggression: superordinate goals (goals that require cooperation).

Question 18

What is altruism?

Answer 18

Providing help when needed without any immediate reward.

Question 19

What are examples of pro-social behaviors?

Answer 19

Favors, offering assistance or compliments.

Question 20

What is Bystander Intervention effect? Why does this happen?

Answer 20

The failure to help someone in need when others are present. Because there’s a diffusion of responsibility, one has anonymity, one can be afraid of social blunders, one considers their own harm and benefits.

Question 21

What is compliance?

Answer 21

The tendency to do something requested by others.

Question 22

What is the Foot-In-The-Door effect?

Answer 22

If one agrees to a small request, they may comply with a large and undesired request.

Question 23

What is Door-In-The-Face effect?

Answer 23

When one disagrees with a large request, they may agree to a small request.

Question 24

What is low-balling?

Answer 24

Making the initial idea attractive, causing a person to accept, then making the idea less favorable.

Question 25

What are attitudes?

Answer 25

Attitudes are stable evaluations of something good or bad (based on feelings, opinions and beliefs).

Question 26

What are explicit and implicit attitudes?

Answer 26

Explicit attitudes: attitudes you know and can report to others
Implicit attitudes: unconscious attitudes that influence feelings and behaviors.

Question 27

What is Mere-Exposure effect?

Answer 27

The tendency to have more positive attitudes due to increased exposure which causes increased familiarity.

Question 28

What is Festinger’s Theory of Cognitive Dissonance?

Answer 28

The theory that people need consistency so when attitudes conflict, one experiences an unpleasant state of dissonance. (THINK: 1$ or 20$ experiment)

Question 29

What is persuasion? Based on?

Answer 29

The active and conscious effort to change an attitude or behavior. Based on the source, the content and the type of receiver.

Question 30

What are the two components of the Elaboration Likelihood Model?

Answer 30

1) The Central Route is when people are motivated and able to process information, therefore having strong attitudes that last and would defend.

2) The Peripheral Route is when people have no motivation or are unable to process information, therefore making more impulsive actions and having weak attitudes that are likely to change.

Question 31

What are attributions? More specifically personal/dispositional attributions and situational/external attributions.

Answer 31

Attributions are explanations for events or actions, including other people’s behavior.

Dispositional attributions is crediting behavior based on abilities, moods or efforts.
Situational attributions is crediting behavior to outside events like luck, accidents, other people.

Question 32

What is Fundamental Attribution Error?

Answer 32

When one mistakes associations between a behavior and a fundamental feature about a person. (THINK: Correspondence bias and the two bridge experiment)

Question 33

What is Actor/Observer Discrepancy?

Answer 33

The focus on situations in ones own behavior but focus on dispositions in others behavior. (THINK: Self-serving bias)

Question 34

What is whole persons? What is a personality trait?

Answer 34

Whole persons is the measurement of how much can we understand about one individual person.
Personality traits are a pattern of though, emotion and behavior that is consistent in time and across situations.

Question 35

How do genes and the environment influence personality?

Answer 35

No specific genes influence personality, its a combination. And parents don’t really influence personality either.

Question 36

What are temperaments? What are they based on?

Answer 36

Temperaments are the general tendencies to feel or act in certain ways. Based on activity level (the overall amount of energy or action one exhibits), emotionality (the intensity of emotions) and sociability (the affiliation with others).

Question 37

What is inhibited temperaments?

Answer 37

Traits in infancy, such as irritability, that reflect with adult shyness and/or social anxiety.

Question 38

What is the Trait Approach? What is the 5-Factor Theory and facets?

Answer 38

The focus on how individuals differ in personality dispositions. Cattell proposed 16 basic dimensions of personality which Norman organized into 5 factors.

These factors are: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.
Facets describe other traits that fall under the main five.

Question 39

What is the Humanistic Approach to personality? What is Roger’s Person Centered Approach?

Answer 39

The Humanistic Approach proposed that people seek to fulfill their potential for personal growth though greater self-understanding.

Roger claimed personality is influenced by how we understand ourselves and how other evaluate us. Children need unconditional positive regard in order to develop good mental health

Question 40

What is the Cognitive-Behavioral Approach to personality?

Answer 40

The idea that the brain system is involved in the pursuit of incentives or rewards.
- Radical behavior: anyone can become anything with proper training (THINK: learning conditionings)
- Cognitive approach: locus of control - how much control people believe they have over what happens to them.
- Internal locus: believing one brings their rewards
- External locus: rewards result from forces beyond ones control
- Delay of gratification (shows personality traits)

Question 41

What is the Psychodynamic Approach to personality? What are the 3 components of human personality?

Answer 41

The idea that human behavior is the expression of unconscious motives and wishes that have originated from early childhood experiences. Diseases are the expression of troubling, unconscious memories.

Human personality is separated in Id (our biological urges, like the pleasure principle), Ego (derived from Id but the reality principle), Superego (internalized code of conduct).

Question 42

In terms of the 3 components of human personality (psychodynamic approach), what are primary and secondary defense mechanisms?