AP Psychology Chapter 14: Social Psychology

The tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational causes and the behavior of others to personal causes is an example of: A) Self-Fulfilling Prophecy B) Actor-Observer Bias C) Dispositional Attribution D) Attribution Theory E) Just-World Phenomenon

B) Actor-Observer Bias

Reciprocity

Small gift makes others feel obligation to agree to later request.

Social Psychology

Study of how groups influence individuals' attitudes and behavior.

Mere Exposure Effect

Increased liking for a person or another stimulus resulting from repeated presentation (exposure).

Aggression

The intention to do harm to others.

Instrumental Aggression

To achieve some goal.

Prejudice

Unjustified attitudes we hold about others.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A tendency to let preconceived expectations influence one's behavior, thus evoking those very expectations.

Attribution Theory

A way to understand how people explain others' behaviors.

Diffusion of Responsibility

An explanation of the failure of bystander intervention stating that when several bystanders are present, not one person assumes responsibility for helping.

David has always opposed the death penalty, believing it is not the place of the government to take the life of another person. After his best friend was murdered, David wanted nothing more than to see the murderer get the justice he or she deserved. Because the murder occurred in the state of Texas, this would mean justice would be served with the death penalty. The dissonance theory would state that: A) David would have no conflict in seeing the murderer put to death. B) David would have to change one of his attitudes to feel less tension. C) Justification of the death penalty would be appropriate in this situation. D) Morally, David would not support the death penalty under any circumstance. E) David would change his opinion in support of the death penalty.

B) David would have to change one of his attitudes to feel less tension

A person who agrees to a small request initially is more likely to comply with a larger demand later. This describes which phenomenon? A) Door-In-Face Effect B) Foot-In-Door Effect C) Low-Ball Technique D) High-Ball Technique E) Door-In-Foot Technique

B) Foot-in-the-Door Effect

When making the "attribution error," we tend to overestimate the importance of __________ when judging the behaviors of others. A) Situational Factors B) Personal Factors C) Gender D) Intelligence E) Age

B) Personal factors

Ethnocentrism

Belief that our culture or social group is superior to others.

Damion rewrote his paper at the suggestion of his professor, even though he did not agree with the suggestions. This is an example of: A) Obedience B) Conformity C) Compliance D) Diffusion E) Cognitive Dissonance

C) Compliance

According to the theory of cognitive dissonance, attitudes are changed because: A) We are rewarded by society when our beliefs coincide with the majority. B) Logical arguments compel us to alter our attitudes. C) Emotionally persuasive arguments motivate us to change our thought process. D) A state of tension motivates us to change our cognitive inconsistencies by making our beliefs more consistent. E) When our beliefs and behaviors are too similar it causes an unpleasant psychological state of tension.

D) A state of tension motivates us to change our cognitive inconsistencies by making our beliefs more consistent

When asked what they would do if they could be totally invisible and there would be no recrimination, most people answered that they would commit an antisocial act. Which of the following social phenomena might best be able to explain this response? A) Reciprocity B) Group Polarization C) Social Loafing D) Deindividuation E) Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

D) Deindividuation

In a situation in which an individual is having a seizure on the street, helping could be inhibited by which of the following concepts? A) Groupthink B) Social Comparison Theory C) Risky Shift D) Diffusion of Responsibility E) Compliance

D) Diffusion of Responsibility

Of the following, which would be a good example of a self-serving bias? A) Carlos, who feels that everyone should strive to help themselves as well as others B) Antoine, who says that he has bombed a test even though he always gets an A C) Mai, who works harder for teachers who compliment her on her efforts D) Lina, who overestimates the degree to which people agree with her opinions E) Betty, who believes that she works harder than others and is underappreciated

E) Betty, who believes that she works harder than others and is under-appreciated

A young woman was gunned down at a gas station. A busload of onlookers saw the entire event and no one did anything. The bus driver even stepped over the body to pay for his gas. What social psychological phenomenon best accounts for this behavior? A) Groupthink B) Altruism C) Social Impairment D) Superordinate Goals E) Diffusion of Responsibility

E) Diffusion of Responsibility

Through his experiments, Solomon Asch was able to demonstrate that: A) People will always conform in a group setting. B) Obedience to authority is determined by the perceived power of the authority figure. C) Size of majority does not influence how many people will conform. D) Compliance occurs in large groups. E) Lack of unanimity greatly reduces the pressure to conform.

E) Lack of unanimity greatly reduces the pressure to conform

Which of the following is not a key determinant of whether or not two people will become friends? A) Similarity of interests and social backgrounds B) Proximity C) Physical Attractiveness D) Utilitarian Value E) Opposing views on key social issues

E) Opposing views on key social issues

Norms

Either implicit or explicit rules that govern the behavior of group members.

Compliance

Engaging in a particular behavior at another person's request.

Situational Factors

Environmental stimuli that affect a person's behavior.

Jigsaw Classroom

Expert groups with diverse backgrounds learn one part of a lesson and share information in jigsaw groups. Students are dependent upon others; self-esteem and achievement of "poorer" students improve; former stereotypes are diminished. Friendships are based on proximity, similarity, reciprocal liking, and utilitarian value.

Normative Social Influence

Going along with the decisions of a group in order to gain its social approval.

In-Groups

Groups to which we belong and tend to favor.

Contact Theory

If members of two opposing groups are brought together in an emergency situation, group cooperation will reduce prejudicial thinking.

Social Facilitation

Improved performance of well-learned tasks in front of others.

Dispositional Factors

Individual personality characteristics that affect a person's behavior.

Groupthink

Individuals self-censor beliefs to preserve harmony in the group.

Attitudes

Learned predisposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to certain people, objects, or events.

Group Polarization

Like-minded people share ideas resulting in a more extreme position for every individual.

Deindividuation

Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in situations that promote high arousal and anonymity in groups.

Peripheral Route of Persuasion

Pairs superficial positive factors (supermodels and celebrities) with an argument leading to less stable change in a attitudes.

Central Route of Persuasion

Relatively stable change by carefully scrutinizing facts, statistics, and other information.

Stereotype

Scheme used to quickly judge others; can be an overgeneralized belief about the characteristics of members of a particular group.

Roles

Social positions and defined behavior expectations in groups.

Bystander Intervention

The active involvement of a person in a situation that appears to require his or her aid.

Conformity

The adoption of attitudes and behaviors shared by a particular group of people.

Social Loafing

The tendency of individuals to put less effort into group projects than when they are individually accountable.

Altruism

The unselfish concern of one individual for the welfare of another.

Social Group

Two or more people sharing common goals and interests interact and influence behavior of the other(s).

One reason why many groups have some form of initiation rites and rituals is to have: A) Group Norms B) Deindividuation C) Group Cohesion D) Task-Oriented Groups E) Socially Oriented Groups

C) Group Cohesion

John F. Kennedy's Bay of Pigs failure was caused in large part by: A) Brainstorming B) Group Cohesion C) Groupthink D) Deindividuation E) Diffusion of Responsibility

C) Groupthink

Some difficult cuts needed to be made in the school board budget and everyone on the board knew that there had to be consensus and cooperation. Even though many members disagreed with certain proposals, each one met with unanimous support or defeat. To preserve cooperation, no one offered conflicting viewpoints. Which of the following concepts is best described by this example? A) Group Polarization B) Fundamental Attribution Error C) Groupthink D) Role Schema E) Reciprocity

C) Groupthink

Which of the following social psychological experiments has been considered the most unethical and led to sweeping reforms in the APA ethical guidelines? A) Bandura's Bobo study of TV aggression B) Asch's line test for conformity C) Milgram's obedience to authority study D) Sherif 's boys' camp study E) Jane Eliot's brown-eyed/blue-eyed study of prejudice

C) Milgram's obedience to authority study

In Milgram's experiment, subjects who gave large shocks rationalized that they were not personally responsible for their actions. This raises questions about our willingness to commit inhumane acts as a result of: A) Coercive Power B) Expert Influence C) Obedience to Authority D) Conformity to Group Pressure E) Individual Compliance

C) Obedience to Authority

Ethnocentrism is the belief that A) Ethnic foods are all good B) Human diversity is a positive force C) One's own culture is superior to others D) Other people are all pretty much alike in their opinions E) Cultural pluralism is a destructive goal that fosters conflict

C) One's own culture is superior to others

According to the diffusion of responsibility theory, the biggest factor in predicting whether or not a bystander will help someone in need is: A) The duration of the situation B) Whether or not the person in need of help is male or female C) The number of other bystanders at the scene D) The level of perceived threat E) Whether or not the person actually asked for help

C) The number of other bystanders at the scene

You read in the newspaper that survivors in a plane accident in the Andes were discovered to have eaten other survivors during their 32-day ordeal. You will have committed the fundamental attribution error if you A) Attribute the behavior to dispositional (personal) factors B) Attribute the behavior to situational factors C) Think you would have done the same thing if you had been there D) Consider the behavior as a signal for the moral degradation of our society E) Decide never to fly in a plane again

A) Attribute the behavior to dispositional factors

Solomon Asch is most famous for his research on: A) Conformity B) Obedience C) Compliance D) Cohesion E) Polarization

A) Conformity

The Stanford Prison experiment was a prime example of which of the following concepts? A) Conformity B) Compliance C) Obedience D) Cohesiveness E) Identification

A) Conformity

Which of the following was a factor in determining the degree of obedience in Milgram's series of experiments? A) Distance between the teacher and the learner B) Tone of voice of the teacher C) Whether or not the teacher was male or female D) Whether or not the teacher was an expert in his or her field E) The age of the teacher

A) Distance between the teacher and the learner

Which of the following factors probably plays the least important role in explaining why children often share the same political and economic values as their parents? A) Exposure to Mass Media B) Operant Conditioning C) They have never questioned these beliefs and do not really understand them D) Modeling E) Mere Exposure Effect

A) Exposure to Mass Media

When group discussions change individuals' judgments, it is known as: A) Risky Shift B) Groupthink C) Group Polarization D) Social Comparison E) Group Cohesion

A) Risky Shift

After Jean was told by one of her professors that she would never succeed in law school, she stopped reading and completing her assignments. Eventually Jean did drop out of law school. This is an example of: A) Self-Fulfilling Prophecy B) Self-Serving Bias C) Social Loafing D) Groupthink E) Diffusion of Responsibility

A) Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

In a jigsaw classroom, A) Students are dependent upon each other to learn all parts of a lesson B) Learning is enhanced by simulations and lectures run by teachers C) Competition encourages kids to achieve their full potential D) Outcome research has shown limited success beyond the elementary school level E) Individualism is encouraged to foster self-esteem

A) Students are dependent upon each other to learn all parts of a lesson

Foot-In-The-Door

Agreement to smaller request leads to agreement to larger request later.

Informational Social Influence

Accepting others' opinions about reality, especially under conditions of uncertainty.

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

Attitudinal change through two route: central or peripheral.

Scapegoat Theory

Attributes prejudice to frustration; when own self-worth is in doubt or in jeopardy, we find others to blame.

Which of the following examples best illustrates a way to avoid groupthink from occurring? A) Choose a group captain to make all the final decisions. B) Allow the group's members the freedom to express differing opinions. C) Have every group member come in with a specific idea to bring to the table. D) Only allow one person in the group to speak at a time. E) Make the group socially oriented before making any final decisions.

B) Allow the group's members the freedom to express differing opinons

Donald believes himself to be a patriotic citizen, but he also does not believe in attacking countries that are technologically no match for the United States. If the United States was to go to war and Donald were to be drafted, dissonance theory predicts that A) He would have no conflict in going off to war B) He might have to change one of his attitudes to feel less tension C) Justification of the military position would have to be internalized by him D) Morally, he would have to become a conscientious objector E) Morally, he must fight and defend his country

B) He might have to change one of his attitudes to feel less tension

The Lapierre experiment proved that: A) People's behavior usually corresponds with their attitudes. B) People's attitudes do not necessarily reflect their behavior. C) People tend to lie when asked to fill out a survey. D) People are obedient in front of any person of authority. E) Most people conform because of fear of embarrassment.

B) People's attitudes do not necessarily reflect their behavior

Although Graham has not yet met his future college roommate, he learned that the roommate is a football player. He is anxious and unhappy about sharing his room with a football player because he expects that his roommate will be a "party animal" who makes studying in his room difficult. Graham's attitude can be classified as A) Stereotype Threat B) Prejudice C) Discrimination D) Scapegoating E) Fully Justified

B) Prejudice

A charity sends you some greeting cards and you feel that you should send them a small contribution. This feeling comes from the persuasion technique called A) Foot-In-The-Door B) Reciprocity C) Door-In-The-Face Technique D) Low-Ball Technique E) Central Route

B) Reciprocity

When we perform well on a task we typically attribute our success to our internal characteristics. This is known as: A) Fundamental Attribution Error B) Self-Serving Bias C) Self Schema D) External Attribution Error E) Person Schema

B) Self-Serving Bias

Evidence suggests that individuals tend to be attracted to others who are: A) Nearly opposite in all areas B) Similar to themselves in terms of perspective and values C) Physically more attractive than they are D) Unlikely to criticize or judge them E) Less intelligent than themselves

B) Similar to themselves in terms of perspective and values

Out-Group Homogeneity

Belief that members of another group are more similar in their attitudes than they actually are.

Of the following examples, which would be the best example of self-serving bias? A) Michael, who believes that everyone should give to charities B) Paris, who believes she failed her math test even though she always gets an A in math C) Janet, who is always her teacher's favorite student D) Randy, who believes he works harder than others and is underappreciated E) Rebi, who overestimates her ability to run the after-school program for young children

D) Randy, who believes he works harder than others and is under-appreciated

Mr. Moffatt overheard another teacher describe one of his students as lazy and unmotivated. Though Mr. Moffatt had not previously noted this tendency, he began to see exactly what the other teacher had noted. What might account for this phenomenon? A) Norms B) Deindividuation C) Social Loafing D) Self-Fulfilling Prophecy E) Representativeness Heuristic

D) Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

The tendency to "blame the victim" in a rape case is an example of which of the following terms? A) Fundamental Attribution Error B) Deindividuation C) Self-Serving Bias D) The Just-World Phenomenon E) Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

D) The Just-World Phenomenon

The effect of one confederate selecting a different line from the others in the Asch conformity test was A) Continuing conformity by the participant to avoid looking bad to the others B) The participant asking to vote privately on a separate piece of paper C) A boost to the self-efficacy of the participant D) To release the participant from the conformity effect E) To cause the experimenter to release that confederate in the next trial period, thus ensuring continued conformity by the participant

D) To release the participant from the conformity effect

Which of the following scenarios is an example of deindividuation? A) Cindy finds that working in her group brings high levels of performance compared to students who work alone. B) Mindy forms a study group because she wants academic help, social support, and motivation. C) Amy has a poor running performance in competition; she performs even worse in front of a larger crowd. D) Torrie honks her horn loudly for quite a while because she has little chance of being personally identified. E) Jamie does not help the girl being attacked because the other bystanders are taking little action.

D) Torrie honks her horn loudly for quite a while because she has little chance of being personally identified

In the presence of the largest crowd she has ever seen, Heather gives her finest piano performance. This is an example of: A) Group Cohesion B) Deindividuation C) Group Polarization D) Social Inhibition E) Social Facilitation

E) Social Facilitation

Out-Groups

Groups to which we do not belong, we tend to attribute negative qualities to out-groups.

Actor-Observer Bias

Tendency to attribute our behaviors to situational factors and others' behaviors to dispositional factors.

Just-World Phenomenon

Tendency to believe in fairness, that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Tendency when judging others' behaviors to overestimate the role of personal factors and underestimate situational factors.

Social Cognition

The way people gather, use, and interpret information about their social world.

Hostile Aggression

To inflict pain upon someone else.

Self-Serving Bias

To take personal credit for our own achievements and blame our failures on situational factors.

Discrimination

Unjustified action against an individual or group based on prejudice.