Chapter 13

Question 1

Social Psychology

Answer 1

The study of how people influence others behaviour, beliefs, and attitude - for good and bad.

Question 2

Need-to-Belong Theory

Answer 2

Humans have a biologically based need for interpersonal connections. We seek out social bonds when we can and suffer negative psychological and physical consequences when we can’t.

Question 3

Upward Social Comparison

Answer 3

We compare ourselves with people who seem Superior to us in some way.

Question 4

Downward Social Comparison

Answer 4

We compare ourselves with others who seem inferior to us in some way.

Question 5

Mass Hysteria

Answer 5

A contagious outbreak of irrational behavior that spreads much like a flu epidemic.

Question 6

Collective Decisions

Answer 6

When many people simultaneously come to be convinced of bizarre things that are false.

Question 7

Urban Legends

Answer 7

False stories that have been repeated so many times that people believe them to be true.

Question 8

Attributions

Answer 8

Assigning causes to behavior some are internal and others are external.

Question 9

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 9

Refers to the tendency to overestimate the impact of dispositional influences on others behavior.

Question 10

Dispositional Influences

Answer 10

Enduring characteristics such as personality traits, attitudes and intelligence.

Question 11

Conformity

Answer 11

Refers to the tendency of people to alter their behavior as a result of group pressure.

Question 12

Unanimity

Answer 12

If all confederates gave the wrong answer, the participant was more likely to conform. If one Confederate gave the correct response, the level of Conformity plummeted by ¾.

Question 13

Difference in the Wrong Answer

Answer 13

Knowing that someone else in the group deferred from the majority, even if that person held a different view from the participant, made the participant less likely to conform.

Question 14

Size

Answer 14

The size of the majority made a difference, but only up to about five or six confederates. People were no more likely to conform in a group of 10 than in a group of five.

Question 15

Deindividualization

Answer 15

The tendency of people to engage in atypical behavior when stripped of their usual identities.

Question 16

Group Think

Answer 16

An emphasis on group unanimity at the expense of critical thinking

Question 17

Cults

Answer 17

Groups that exhibit intense and unquestioning devotion to a single cause.

Question 18

Inoculation Effect

Answer 18

The best way to immunize people against an undesirable belief is to first gently introduce them to reasons why this belief seems to be correct, which gives them the chance to generate their own counter-arguments against these reasons.

Question 19

Obedience

Answer 19

When we take our marching orders from people who are above us in the hierarchy of authority, such as a teacher, parent, or boss.

Question 20

Prosocial Behaviour

Answer 20

Behaviour intended to help others

Question 21

Bystander Effect

Answer 21

Bystanders in emergencies typically want to intervene, but often find themselves frozen, seemingly helpless to help.

Question 22

Pluralistic Ignorance

Answer 22

The error of assuming that no one in the group perceives things as we do.

Question 23

Diffusion of Responsibility

Answer 23

The more people present at an emergency, the less each person feels responsible for the negative consequences of not helping.

Question 24

Social Loafing

Answer 24

A phenomenon in which people slack off in groups.

Question 25

Altruism

Answer 25

Helping others for unselfish reasons.

Question 26

Enlightenment Effect

Answer 26

Learning about psychological research can change real-world behaviour for the better.

Question 27

Aggression

Answer 27

Behaviour intended to harm others, either verbally or physically.

Question 28

Interpersonal Provocation

Answer 28

We’re especially likely to strike out aggressively against those who have provoked us.

Question 29

Frustration

Answer 29

We’re especially likely to behave aggressively when frustrated - that is, thwarted from reaching a goal.

Question 30

Media Influences

Answer 30

Watching media violence increases the odds of violence through observational learning.

Question 31

Aggressive Cues

Answer 31

External cues associated with violence, such as guns and knives, can serve as discriminative stimuli for aggression, making us more likely to act violently in response to provocation.

Question 32

Arousal

Answer 32

When our autonomic nervous systems hype us, we may mistakenly attribute this arousal to anger, leading us to act aggressively.

Question 33

Alcohol and Other Drugs

Answer 33

Certain substances can disinhibit our brain’s prefrontal cortex, lowering our inhibitions toward behaving violently.

Question 34

Temperature

Answer 34

Rates of violent crime in different regions of the United States mirror the average temperatures in these regions.

Question 35

Relational Aggression

Answer 35

More common in girls than boys is a form of indirect aggression marked by spreading rumours, gossiping, social exclusions, and nonverbal putdowns for the purposes of interpersonal manipulation.

Question 36

Culture of Honour

Answer 36

A social norm of defending one’s reputation in the face of perceived insults.

Question 37

Attitude

Answer 37

A belief that includes an emotional component.

Question 38

Recognition Heuristic

Answer 38

Our experiences shape our attitudes and make us more likely to believe something we’ve heard many times.

Question 39

Religiosity

Answer 39

The depth of our religious convictions.

Question 40

Cognitive Dissonance

Answer 40

An influential model of attitude change. Occurs when we alter our attitudes because we experience an unpleasant state of tension called cognitive dissonance - between two or more conflicting thoughts.

Question 41

Self-Perception Theory

Answer 41

Proposes that we acquire our attitudes by observing our behaviours.

Question 42

Impression Management Theory

Answer 42

Proposes that we don’t really change our attitudes in cognitive dissonance studies; we only tell the experimenters we have.

Question 43

The Central Route

Answer 43

Leads us to evaluate the merits of persuasive arguments carefully and thoughtfully.

Question 44

The Peripheral Route

Answer 44

Leads us to respond to persuasive arguments on the basis of snap judgments.

Question 45

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

Answer 45

Following on the heels of cognitive dissonance theory, this technique suggests that we start with a small request before making a bigger one.

Question 46

Door-in-the-Face Technique

Answer 46

Alternatively, we can start with a large request, before asking for a small one.

Question 47

Lowball Technique

Answer 47

The seller of a product starts by quoting a price well below the actual sales price. Once the buyer agrees to purchase the product, the seller mentions all of the desirable or needed “add-ons” that come along with the product.

Question 48

But-you-are-Free Technique

Answer 48

One easy but powerful means of getting people to agree to requests is giving them the sense that they’re free to choose whether to perform the act.

Question 49

Implicit Egotism Effect

Answer 49

The finding that we’re more positively disposed toward people, places, or things that resemble us - across many domains.

Question 50

Name-Letter Effect

Answer 50

We’re more likely than chance would predict to select people whose names contain the first letters of our first or last names.

Question 51

Prejudice

Answer 51

To prejudge something negatively - to arrive at an unfavourable conclusion before we’ve evaluated all the evidence.

Question 52

Stereotype

Answer 52

A belief - positive or negative - about a group’s characteristics that we apply to most members of that group.

Question 53

Ultimate Attribution Error

Answer 53

The mistake of attributing the negative behaviour of entire groups to their dispositions.

Question 54

Adaptive Conservatism

Answer 54

Better safe than sorry.

Question 55

In-group Bias

Answer 55

The tendency to favour individuals inside our group relative to members outside our group.

Question 56

Out-group Homogeneity

Answer 56

The tendency to view all people outside of our group as highly similar.

Question 57

Discrimination

Answer 57

The act of treating members of out-groups differently from members of in-groups.

Question 58

Scapegoat Hypothesis

Answer 58

Prejudice arises from a need to blame other groups for our misfortunes.

Question 59

Just-World Hypothesis

Answer 59

Implies that many of us have a deep-seated need to perceive the world as fair - to believe that all things happen for a reason.

Question 60

Extrinsic Religiosity

Answer 60

People with high levels view religion as a means to an end, such as obtaining friends or social support, tend to have high levels of prejudice.

Question 61

Intrinsic Religiosity

Answer 61

For whom religion is a deeply ingrained part of their belief system - tend to have equal or lower levels of prejudice than nonreligious people.

Question 62

Explicit Prejudice

Answer 62

Prejudice that we are aware of.

Question 63

Implicit Prejudice

Answer 63

Prejudice that we are unaware of.

Question 64

Jigsaw Classrooms

Answer 64

Teachers assign children separate tasks that need to be fitted together to complete a project. The students then cooperate to assemble the pieces into an integrated lesson.

Question 66

Social Psychology

Answer 66

The study of how people influence others behaviour, beliefs, and attitude - for good and bad.