UNIT 9: Social Psychology

Question 1

Social Psychology

Answer 1

The study of how humans behave and interact with each other, mainly in specific situation.

Examines how we think about, influence, and relate to one another in certain situations.

Question 2

Attribution Theory

Answer 2

We can explain someone’s behavior by crediting either their stable, enduring traits or the situation at hand.

We can credit (attribute) the behavior to the person’s stable, enduring traits (a dispositional attribution), or we can attribute it to the situation (a situational attribution).

Question 3

Preipheral Rout Persuasion

Answer 3

This influences people the way of incidental cues like speaker’s physical attractivness or personal reliability.

Question 4

Central Route Persuasion

Answer 4

Involves calling on basic thinking and reasoning to convince people.

Question 5

Foot-In-The Door Phenomenon

Answer 5

The tendency for people to more readily comply with certain big request after they’ve first agreed to smaller more innocuous requests.

Question 6

Situational Attribution (Dispositionism)

Answer 6

(not fair)
We blame or credit the situation with causing the behavior.

EXAMPLE: The sun was in my eyes.
The test was unfair.
Today is my lucky day :)

Question 7

Dispositional Attribution (Situationism)

Answer 7

(It’s their fault) (victim blaming)
We blame or credit a relatively permanent trait of the person.

EXAMPLE: I’m a hard worker, she’s just lazy. That’s just how we are.

Question 8

Outgroup homogeneity

Answer 8

Allows for all types of bias, prejudice, and discrimination.

Question 9

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 9

Tendency to overemphasize internal factors as attribution for behavior and underestimate the power of the situation.

Question 10

Self-Serving Bias

Answer 10

Tendency for individuals to take credit by making dispositional or internal attribuations for positive outcomes and situational.

Protecting self-esteem
Avoid blaming ourselves

Question 11

Just-World Hpothesis

Answer 11

The false idea that the world is fair.
Ideology common in the United States that people get the outcomes they deserve.

Can lead to victim blaming.

Question 12

Conformity

Answer 12

When individuals change their behaviors to go along with the group even if they don’t agree with the group.

Question 13

Fritz Heider (1958)

Answer 13

Proposed an attribution theory

Question 14

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 14

We overestimate the influence of personality and underestimate the influence of situations.

EXAMPLE: In class, Jack may be as quiet as Juliette. Catch Juliette as the lead in the high school musical and you may hardly recognize your quiet classmate.

Question 15

Leon Festinger’s (1957)

Answer 15

Leon Festinger was one of the most important figures in modern psychology and contributed several theories that are still important today for our understanding of the communication process, particularly the individual’s exposure to communication and processes of opinion formation and judgment. (→ Cognitive Dissonance

Question 16

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Answer 16

A situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of mental discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance.

FOR EXAMPLE: When we become aware that our attitudes and our actions don’t match, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes.

Question 17

Norms

Answer 17

Rules for expected and acceptable behavior.

Norms prescribe “proper” behavior.

Question 18

What do we call the tendency for observers to underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition?

Answer 18

Fundamental Attribution Error

Question 19

Social Contagion

Answer 19

The spread of behaviors, attitudes, and affect through crowds and other types of social aggregates from one member to another.

EXAMPLE: You yawn because you saw someone else yawn.

Question 20

Conformity

Answer 20

Adjusting our behavior or thinking toward some group standard.

Conformity can be bad—leading people to agree with falsehoods or go along with bullying. Or it can be good—leading people to give more generously after observing others’ generosity.

Question 21

Solomon Asch (1955)

Answer 21

Studied Conformity

Question 22

Normative Social Influence

Answer 22

Influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.

We are sensitive to social norms because the price we pay for being different can be severe. We need to belong. At other times, we conform because we want to be accurate.

Question 23

Informational Social Influence.

Answer 23

Influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality.

When we accept others’ opinions about reality, as when reading online movie and restaurant reviews

Question 24

Confirmation Bias

Answer 24

The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values.

Question 25

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Answer 25

An individual's expectations about another person or entity eventually result in the other person or entity acting in ways that confirm the expectations. We'll blame the situation if it doesn't go accordingly.

Question 26

False Consensus Effect

Answer 26

The belief that lots of people think the way we do, which allows us to keep using heuristics and tricks to continue in ways that benefit us.

Question 27

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Answer 27

A theory that is based how much a person thinks about the relevant information in a persuasive argument.

Question 28

Stanley Milgram (1933–1984)

Answer 28

This social psychologist’s obedience experiments “belong to the self-understanding of literate people in our age”

Question 29

Milgram’s follow-up obedience experiment

Answer 29

In Milgram’s original experiment, participants took part in what they thought was a “learning task.” This task was designed to investigate how punishment—in this case in the form of electric shocks—affected learning. Volunteers thought they were participating in pairs, but their partner was in fact a confederate of the experimenter. A draw to determine who would be the “teacher” and who would be the “learner” was rigged; the true volunteer always ended up as the teacher and the confederate as the learner.

Question 30

Social Facilitation

Answer 30

Improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.

Question 31

Social Loafing

Answer 31

The perceived psychological phenomenon is that team members do less in a group setting. The social loafing effect states that individuals don't pull their own weight when they're judged as part of a group. It can diminish their feelings of responsibility

Question 32

Deindividuation

Answer 32

This process of losing self-awareness and self-restraint often occurs when group participation makes people both aroused and anonymous.

Question 33

Deindividuation

Answer 33

This process of losing self-awareness and self-restraint often occurs when group participation makes people both aroused and anonymous. EXAMPLE: The anonymity of online discussion boards and blog comment sections can unleash mocking or cruel words. Online bullies, who would never say “You’re the ugliest person I know” to someone’s face, will hide behind their anonymity.

Question 34

Group Polarization

Answer 34

The tendency for a group to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members. The enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group.

Question 35

Groupthink

Answer 35

The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.

Question 36

Irving Janis (1982)

Answer 36

Studied the decision-making process leading to the ill-fated invasion.

Question 37

Culture Shock

Answer 37

An experience we get when we don’t understand what’s expected or accepted.

Question 38

Prejudice

Answer 38

Meaning “prejudgment.” It is an unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members—who often are people of a particular racial or ethnic group, gender, sexual orientation, or belief system.

Question 39

Stereotypes

Answer 39

Are generalized beliefs about a group of people. Our stereotypes sometimes reflect reality.

Question 40

Discriminate

Answer 40

To act in negative and unjustifiable ways toward members of the group.

Question 41

Ingroup

Answer 41

“us”—people with whom we share a common identity.

Question 42

Outgroup

Answer 42

“them”—those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup.

Question 43

Ingroup Bias

Answer 43

The tendency to favor our own group.

Question 44

Outgroup Homogeneity

Answer 44

Is the perception of out-group members as more similar to one another than are in-group members. EXAMPLE: "they are alike; we are diverse"

Question 45

Aggression

Answer 45

Is hostile (unfriendly) behavior toward another person or their interests,

Question 46

Passive Aggression

Answer 46

Is still aggression because the aggressor is still trying to harm by indirect means (withholding affection, not being "present")

Question 47

William James

Answer 47

Suggests everything in our body serves a function, including and especially the amygdala.

Question 48

Scapegoating

Answer 48

Is blaming innocent person (or group) for faults of others. The projection of blame by scapegoating is a form of anger and fear.

Question 49

Hostile Aggression

Answer 49

Is when causing physical or emotional harm is the goal. More emotional.

Question 50

Instrumental Aggression

Answer 50

Is when aggression is a tool used to acquire what the aggressor desires. More Cognitive. Premeditative Crime

Question 51

Superordinate Goal

Answer 51

The groups need each other to achieve the goal.

Question 52

Companionate Love

Answer 52

A type of attraction that is deeper than friendship. It has intimacy and commitment, but might not have or has lost the passionate aspect. We are using intimacy as closeness. Knowing all your secrets. EXAMPLE: Brother, Sister, BFF

Question 53

Passionate Love

Answer 53

This is one of the most people know about even if they haven't experienced it. Intimate and physical, but it doesn't have commitment to longevity unless it evolves.

Question 54

Consummate

Answer 54

Passion, intimacy, and commitment. You can also draw a link to the idea of Maslow's pyramid, where a relationship is actualized.

Question 55

Mere-Exposure Effect

Answer 55

People tend to develop an interest for things merely because they are familiar with them.

Question 56

Equity

Answer 56

A sense of fairness in the exchange of goods, services, time, and effort.

Question 57

Self-Disclosure

Answer 57

Sharing personal information – such as your thoughts, dreams, fears, goals, preferences, and experiences.

Question 58

Which of the following terms describes our geographic nearness to another person?

Answer 58

Proximity

Question 59

Over time, which of the following is typically true of the relationship between passionate love and companionate love?

Answer 59

Passionate love decreases. | Companionate love increases.

Question 60

Which of the following is the best term or phrase for the unselfish concern for the welfare of others?

Answer 60

Altruism

Question 61

Altruism

Answer 61

Behavior that benefits another individual at a cost to oneself. EXAMPLE: Giving your lunch away is altruistic because it helps someone who is hungry, but at a cost of being hungry yourself.

Question 62

What do we call a situation in which the conflicting parties, by rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior?

Answer 62

Social Trap

Question 63

Social Trap

Answer 63

A short-term solution to a problem that ultimately causes a long-term loss.

Question 64

What do we call a belief that leads to its own fulfillment?

Answer 64

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Question 65

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Answer 65

Process through which an originally false expectation leads to its own confirmation. EXAMPLE: A child who recently moved to a new school. If the child believes that he or she is awkward, unlikeable, or unpopular, they may also believe that they won’t be able to make any friends or that no one will be willing to sit with them during lunch. The strongly-held beliefs – whether they are initially true or not – affect the way the child acts when he or she enters the lunchroom. This may evoke an awkwardness or shyness in the child’s behavior that may not otherwise be apparent.

Question 66

The enhancement of a group's prevailing tendencies occurs when people within a group discuss an idea that most of them either favor or oppose. What is this tendency called?

Answer 66

Group polarization

Question 67

Believing that your school is better than all the other schools in town is an example of what psychological concept?

Answer 67

Ingroup Bias

Question 68

Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy is called

Answer 68

Aggression

Question 69

bystander effect

Answer 69

the greater the number of people present, the less likely people are to help a person in distress.

Question 70

social exchange theory

Answer 70

a person will weigh the cost of a social interaction (negative outcome) against the reward of that social interaction (positive outcome). These costs and rewards can be material, like money, time or a service.

Question 71

reciprocity norm

Answer 71

we repay in kind what another has done for us. It can be understood as the expectation that people will respond favorably to each other by returning benefits for benefits

Question 72

Mirror-image perception

Answer 72

the human tendency to see oneself (especially while in the throes of conflict) as the opposite of the person with whom they are having a conflict.

Question 73

The social responsibility norm

Answer 73

tells us that we should try to help others who need assistance, even without any expectation of future paybacks.