Psyc 150: Chapter 13a) Social Thinking

Gussie and Max have been happily married for 54 years. This morning, however, Gussie made an unkind remark about Max's table manners. Given research findings on marital satisfaction and attribution, what did Max think of this comment?

She must be having a bad day.

Erin tells her mother that when she talks with male classmates they regularly think she is flirting with them. Erin is upset by this and wants her mother's advice. What is her mother likely to say?

This is pretty common as about 70 percent of men mistake the friendliness of a woman as her flirting.

Joleen has just pulled into the parking lot of her local grocery store. As soon as she gets out of the car, a homeless woman approaches her and asks for money. Joleen gives the woman a few dollars and then goes inside the store to do her shopping. Joleen believes that the woman is homeless because she has not been given the same opportunities as others. Joleen is most likely a member of the:

Democratic Party.

This psychologist proposed cognitive dissonance theory.

Leon Festinger

Early one Halloween evening, Bart's friends asked him to join them in smashing their neighbors' decorative pumpkins. He complied. Later, he was surprised by his own failure to resist them when they asked him to throw eggs at passing police cars. Bart's experience best illustrates the:

foot-in-the-door phenomenon.

Charlie's friend yells at him for being five minutes late for lunch. Rather than believe his friend is a rude jerk, he decides that she may be having difficulties with her partner. Therefore, he makes a _____ about her behavior.

situational attribution

Cheree is trying to convince her parents to send her to Europe. First, she asks them for a small favor (a bus ticket to a local city), hoping that later they will be more willing to send her on the longer trip. This technique is known as:

the foot-in-the-door phenomenon.

When people experience an unpleasant state of psychological tension resulting from two inconsistent thoughts or perceptions, they are said to be experiencing

cognitive dissonance.

The fundamental attribution error is more apparent in _____ than it is in _____.

individualistic European countries; East Asian cultures

Researchers asked homeowners for permission to install a large, poorly-lettered sign in their front yards. Only 17 percent of the homeowners consented to the installations. Researchers then approached different homeowners and asked if they could post a small sign. Nearly all agreed. Then, when asked two weeks later if they could post the large, ugly sign, 76 percent consented. The results of this experiment support:

the foot-in-the-door phenomenon.

Marilyn thinks a strict class attendance policy is an indication of her professor's overly-controlling personality rather than a necessity dictated by the limited number of class sessions (the course meets only once a week). Her judgment best illustrates:

the fundamental attribution error.

The common tendency in individualistic cultures to attribute the behavior of others to internal, personal characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the effects of external or situational factors, is called:

the fundamental attribution error.

While eating at the university cafe, students see a waiter's serving tray tilt and the food and beverages spill all over four people. "What a careless, clumsy idiot," they mumble to themselves as they resume eating. They have just committed an attributional bias called:

the fundamental attribution error.

"Fake it until you make it" is a saying of Alcoholics Anonymous and represents:

the power of acting a new role.