Social Psychology Exam 2 Chapters 5, 6, 7 + 8

Describe the five components of emotion and give an example of each.

-Appraisal process: patterns of construal for evaluating events and objects in the environment based on their relation to a current goal -Physiological responses: blushing, sweating of palms etc. -Expressive behavior: -Subjective feelings: describing an emotion using words, metaphor, or a narrative -Action tendencies:

Give two examples of how emotions can influence moral judgments.

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What is an emotion? Explain how emotions differ from other states such as moods and emotional disorders.

A brief, specific response, both psychological and physiological, that helps people meet goals, including a social goal. Emotions only last for seconds or minutes while moods can last for hours or days and emotional disorders last for weeks or months.

What are the advantages of having an optimistic explanatory style?

An optimistic explanatory style is the tendency to attribute successes to internal, stable, and global causes and to attribute failures to external, unstable, and specific causes. An optimistic explanatory style is associated with higher grades and better physical health outcomes later in life.

Compare and contrast the discounting and augmentation principles.

Both the discounting and augmentation principles are logic used to infer the cause of a particular behavior based on how most people would behave in a given situation. With the discounting principle, people should assign reduced weight to a particular behavior if other causes are present that might have produced it. With the augmentation principle, people should assign greater weight to a particular behavior if other causes are present that would normally produce the opposite outcome.

What is a counterfactual thought? Explain the circumstances under which it is most likely to occur.

Counterfactual thoughts are thoughts of what might have, could have, or should have happened "if only" something had occurred differently. Determinants of how easy it is to imagine the event not happening include time and distance. Additionally, events that occur during a departure from an individual's routine also instigate counterfactual thoughts.

Challenge the perspective that all aspects of emotion are universal. In what ways might culture influence the display or experience of emotion?

Emotion accents are a specific way people from different cultures express a particular emotion. In India, embarrassment can be signaled by biting one's tongue

Challenge the position that people within the United States are all equally likely to commit the fundamental attribution error. What aspects of American identity relate to this tendency?

Not all people within the United States are equally likely to commit the fundamental attribution error. For example, bicultural people may be more or less likely to commit the fundamental attribution error depending on what culture is primed. People with Puerto Rican and Mexican heritage are less likely to use trait words to describe their own and others' behaviors. Moreover, people from lower- class backgrounds are more likely to consider situational influences on behavior than people from higher-class backgrounds.

Describe how the appraisal processes give rise to the experience of emotion.

Patterns of construal for evaluating events and objects in the environment based on their relation to a current goal.

Explain the concept of affective forecasting and how it is relevant to two biases—namely, immune neglect and focalism. For each bias, write a specific example of how that bias can influence how we think we will feel in response to some future event.

Predicting future emotions, such as whether an event in happiness or anger or sadness, and for how long. Immune neglect is when people tend to underestimate that humans are remarkably resilient in responding to painful setbacks, therefore they'll overestimate how upset they'll be after a stressful or traumatic experience. Focalism is the tendency to focus too much on one event in our lives and forget that other aspects of our lives also shape our satisfaction.

Describe an instance in which you have committed the self-serving bias. Clearly explain how it demonstrates this attributional phenomenon.

Several examples of the self-serving attributional bias are acceptable as long as students describe a situation in which they attributed a failure or another bad event to external circumstances and/or a success or another good event to themselves.

Hannah and Damian disagree on the cause of Damian's recent automobile accident. Describe how the actor-observer difference might explain the disagreement between the two.

The actor-observer difference is a difference in attribution based on who is making the attribution. The actor is more inclined to make situational attributions, while the observer is more likely to make dispositional attributions. In this situation, Damian, the actor, is likely to attribute the automobile accident to the situation, such as another driver's behavior or the icy roads. In contrast, Hannah, the observer, is likely to attribute the automobile accident to Damian, such as the fact that he was not paying attention or is a bad driver.

Explain the covariation principle and the three types of covariation information that people use to understand the causes of everyday social behavior.

The covariation principle is the idea that behavior should be attributed to causes that covary with the behavior. Three types of covariation information are significant in determining whether a behavior should be attributed to the person or the situation. Consensus refers to what most people do in a given situation. The more an individual's reaction is shared by others, the less it says about him or her and the more it says about the situation. Distinctiveness refers to what the individual does in different situations. The more someone's reaction is confined to a particular situation, the less it says about the individual and the more it says about the situation. Consistency refers to what the individual does in the given situation on different occasions. The more an individual's reaction varies across occasions, the harder it is to make an attribution either to the person or the situation.

What is the just world hypothesis? In addition, explain how this hypothesis is relevant to the fundamental attribution error.

The just world hypothesis is the belief that people get what they deserve in life and deserve what they get. This belief is a potential cause of the fundamental attribution error—the tendency to overestimate dispositional causes of an event and to underestimate situational causes. When making a dispositional attribution, we are claiming that the person was the cause of the event and this gives us comfort and peace of mind. It suggests that people determine their own circumstances and that bad things will not just happen to them.

Peterson and Seligman examined the impact of attributions on academic success. Name the three dimensions along which Peterson and Seligman have assessed a person's explanatory style. Then give an example of a belief or type of thought that characterizes each of those dimensions.

The three attribution dimensions that make up explanatory style include internal/external, stable/unstable, and global/specific. Several examples of beliefs or types of thought are acceptable. An example that is internal mentions the self, while an external one does not. An example that is stable implies things will never change, while an unstable one implies that change is possible. An example that is global affects many areas of life, while a specific one applies to just a few areas.

What does it mean to say that some emotions are "universal"? In addition, describe how researchers have tested the universality hypothesis and summarize the results of these tests.

To say that some emotions are universal means that emotions are biologically based behavioral adaptations meant to promote survival and reproduction

Explain the fundamental attribution error. Provide three explanations for why it occurs.

influences on behavior, and the corresponding tendency to overemphasize the importance of dispositions on behavior. People may be more likely to attribute a behavior to dispositional causes because of their belief in a just world, the idea that good things happen to good people, which provides comfort and reassurance. Other causes of the fundamental attribution error include perceptual salience, the idea that features of the environment that more readily capture attention (i.e., the person) are more likely to be seen as the cause of an effect. Finally, it is less cognitively demanding to make dispositional attributions. When tired or unmotivated, people are less likely to do the additional work of considering the situation.

Describe the four components of emotional intelligence and give an example of each.

•The ability to accurately perceive others' emotions being able to tell when someone is upset •The ability to understand one's own emotions •The ability to use current feelings to aid in making good decisions •The ability to manage one's emotions that fit the current situation -being able to hold in your laughter when it is quiet