Theories

Question 1

Reinforcement Theory

Answer 1

Verplank, Pavlov, Thorndike, Hull, Skinner behavior is motivated by anticipated reward

Question 2

Role Theory

Answer 2

people are aware of the social roles they are expected to fill and much of their observable behavior can be attributed to adobting those roles

Question 3

Consistency theories

Answer 3

people prefer consistency, if there is inconsistency, people will try and resolve it

Question 4

Fritz Heider’s Balance Theory

Answer 4

three elements are related: person whom we’re talking about P, some other person O, and another thing, idea, or some other person X - balance will exist if there are one or three positives

Question 5

Leon Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Answer 5

Behavior that conflicts with an attitude may result in changing one’s attitude so that it is consistent

1. If a person is pressured to say or do something contrary to his or her privately held attitudes there will be a tendency for him or her to change those attitudes
2. The greater the pressure to comply, the less this attitude change. Ultimately, attitude change generally occurs when the behavior is induced with minimum pressure.

Question 6

Daryl Bem’s self-perception theory

Answer 6

people infer what their attitudes are based upon observation of their own behavior

Question 7

Leon Festinger’s Social Comparison Theory

Answer 7

we are drawn to affiliate because of a tendency to evaluate ourselves in relationship to other people

1. People prefer to evaluate themselves by objective, nonsocial means. However when this is not possible, people evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparing them to those of other people.
2. The less the smiliarity between two people, the less the tendency to make these comparisons.
3. When a discrepancy exists, there is at endency to chagne one’s position to move it in line with the group.

Question 8

Gain-Loss Principle

Answer 8

evaluation that changes will have more of an impact

Question 9

Social Exchange Theory

Answer 9

People attempt to maximize rewards and minimize costs when making affiliation/attraction decisions

Question 10

Equity Theory

Answer 10

We consider not only our own costs and benefits of social exchanges but the costs and rewards of the other person. We prefer our ratio of costs to rewards be equal to the other person’s ratio

Question 11

Mere Exposure Hypothesis

Answer 11

repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to enhanced liking for it

Question 12

Batson’s Empathy-Altruism Model

Answer 12

Situations in which others may need help, people might feel distress and/or empathy, either can determine helping behavior – empathy stays.

Question 13

Attribution Theory

Answer 13

individuals infer the causes of other people’s behavior, Heider: dispositional causes and situational causes

Question 14

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 14

general bias towards dispositional causes

Question 15

Halo Effect

Answer 15

allow a general impression to influence otehr more specific evalautions about a person

Question 16

Gender Schematic Processing Theory

Answer 16

Martin and Halverson, as soon as children are able to label themselves, they concentrate on those gender behaviors paying less attention to opposite gender behaviors

Question 17

Kohlber’s Self-Socialization Theory

Answer 17

Gender Labeling, Gender Stability, and Gender Consistency

Question 18

Kohlberg’s Morality Stages

Answer 18

Preconventional - right/wrong, punishment and obedience, reciprocity/instrumental
Conventional - looking for approval, law and order
Post Conventional - social contract, greater good, universal ethics

Heinz Dilemma

Question 19

Ainsworth’s Attachment Types

Answer 19

Type A - Avoidant -same with strangers and parents
Type C - Resistant, resists stranger attached to parents, resistant upon return
Type B - Secure

Question 20

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Answer 20

Sensorimotor
Preoperational - understands object permanence
Concrete Operational - understands conservation
Formal Operational - like a scientist

Question 21

Stages of Fetus

Answer 21

Zygote, Germinal Period, Embryonic Period - increases in size by 2 million percent, Fetal period - electrical activity in the fetus brain

Question 22

Law of specific Nerve Energies

Answer 22

Johannes Muller, each sensory nerve is excited by only one kind of energy, sensation depends more on the part of hte brain that nerves stimulate than on the particular stimulus that activates them

Question 23

Weber’s Law

Answer 23

mathematical expression of Weber’s discovery about just noticeable differences, states that the change in stimulus intensity needed to produce divded by the stimulus intensity of the standard stimulus is constant, fits data except at very low and very high intensitites

Question 24

Fechner’s law

Answer 24

relationship between intensity of sensation and intesnity of the stimulus, derived from Weber’s law, sensation increases more slowly as intensity increases

Question 25

Steven’s Power Law

Answer 25

relates intensity of the stimulus to the intesnity of hte sneation 20th century, suggested Fechner’s law might be incorrect

Question 26

Signal Detection Theory

Answer 26

other, nonsensory factors influence what the subject says she senses including experiences, motives and expectations

Question 27

Response bias

Answer 27

tendency of subjects to respond in a particular way due to nonsensory factors

Question 28

Receiver Operating Characteristic

Answer 28

employed by many researchers to graphically summarize a subject’s response by measuring the operating (sensitivity characteristics of the subject receiving signals

Question 29

Duplicity Theory of Vision

Answer 29

retina contains two kinds of photoreceptors, organization of the retinal cells makes light pass through intermediate sensory neurons before reaching and stimulating the photoreceptors

Question 30

Feature Detection Theory

Answer 30

Hubel and Wiesel figured out the neural basis in 1981 using single cell recording, certain cells in the cortex are maximally sensitive to certain eatures of stimuli, simple, complex, and hypercomplex cells

Question 31

Young-Helmotz Theory/Trichromatic Theory

Answer 31

retina contains three different types of color receptors (cones) which are differentially sensitive to different colors, one maximally sensitive to red, one to blue, and one to green. all colors are produced by combined stimulation, ratio of stimulation that determines color

Question 32

Ewalt Hering’s criticism of trichromatic theory/opponent-process theory of color vision

Answer 32

yellow must be primary color, along with red blue and green, arranged in opposing pairs including black and white, inspired by afterimages

Question 33

Law of pragnanz

Answer 33

gstalt, perceptual organization will always be regular, simple and symmetric as possible

Question 34

Theory of Isomorphism

Answer 34

wolfgang kohler, one to one correspondence between the object in the perceptual field and the patter on fsstimulation int eh brain, has not faired well empirically

Question 35

Emmert’s Law

Answer 35

size constancy depends on apparent distance, farther away the object appears to be the more scaling devce in the brain will compensate for its retinal size by enlarging our perception of hte object

Question 36

Helmholtz’s Place-Resonance Theory

Answer 36

each different pitch causes a different place on the basilar membrane to vibrate, each causing a different hair cll to bend, regular and higher tones

Question 37

Frequency Theory

Answer 37

basical membrane vibrates as a whole, rate of vibration equals the frequency of the stimulus, low frequency to regular frequency

Question 38

Von Bekesy’s Travelling Wave Theory

Answer 38

movement of basilar membrane is maximal at a different place along the basilar membrane for each different frequency, hwole thing vibrates for any given stimulus, high frequenies vibrate close to the oval window, low near the apex or tip of the cochlea