Chapter 12: Social Psychology
Chapter 12: Social Psychology (Active Learning Activity = 15 points)
Use the crossword puzzle to fill in the blanks on the next page(s). (You do NOT need to actually write your answers in the boxes here).
Part 1—Knowing Key Terms (4 points) :
Fill in the blanks from the crossword puzzle above using key terms from the textbook and/or lecture notes.
Across
2. technique for getting a commitment from a person and then raising the cost of that commitment.-
3. kind of thinking that occurs when people place more importance on maintaining group cohesiveness than on assessing the facts of the problem with which the group is concerned.-
4. changing one’s behavior as a result of other people directing or asking for the change.-
5. behavior intended to hurt or destroy another person.-
7. a set of characteristics that people believe are shared by all members of a particular social category.-
11. changing one’s behavior at the command of an authority figure.-
13. prosocial behavior that is done with no expectation of reward and may involve the risk of harm to oneself.-
14. the process of explaining one’s own behavior and the behavior of others.-
15. any group of people with a particular religious or philosophical set of beliefs and identity.-
16. negative attitude held by a person about the members of a particular social group.-
Down
1. type of love consisting of intimacy and commitment.-
6. the process by which one person tries to change the belief, opinion, position, or course of action of another person through argument, pleading, or explanation.
8. physical or geographical nearness.-
9. changing one’s own behavior to match that of other people.-
10. a tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain person, object, idea, or situation.-
12. treating people differently because of prejudice toward the social group to which they belong.-
17. type of love consisting of intimacy and passion.-
Part 2—Comprehending and Applying Concepts (3 points):
Answer each of the following questions by: (1) Underlining the correct options for multiple choice items, or (2) Providing the correct short answer where appropriate
1. occurs when people begin to think that it is more important to maintain a group’s cohesiveness than to objectively consider the facts.
2. Selena is trying to get her boyfriend to wash the dishes for her. To start with, she asks her boyfriend to cook dinner for her. When her boyfriend refuses, she asks, “Well, will you at least wash the dishes then?” To which he readily agrees. Selena has just used the .
a) foot-in-the-door technique
b) door-in-the-face technique
c) lowball technique
d) that’s-not-all technique
3. Changing one’s behavior due to a direct order of an authority figure is referred to as .
4. Imagine 100 individuals are asked to take part in a replication of Milgram’s famous study on obedience. How are these 100 people likely to respond?
a) The majority would administer 450 volts as instructed.
b) The majority would immediately realize the use of deception and leave.
c) Most of the women would refuse to obey, whereas almost all of the men would obey.
d) Most of the participants would work together to force the experimenter to end the experiment.
5. Ashley has practiced her drum routine over and over. When she gets up to play it at the recital in front of 100 people, she performs it better than she ever has. Her improved performance is an example of .
6. Which of the following is NOT a factor that influences attitude formation?
a) direct contact with an individual
b) DNA inherited from your parents
c) instructions from your parents
d) observing someone else’s actions
7. Which communicator would likely be most persuasive?
a) an attractive person who is an expert
b) a moderately attractive person who is an expert
c) an attractive person who has moderate expertise
d) a moderately attractive person who has moderate expertise
8. describes the situation in which people attend to the content of a message.
9. Which of the following represents an example of cognitive dissonance?
a) a boy learns how to ride a bicycle without the training wheels
b) a father telling his daughter that he will really only be proud of her if she gets all A’s like she did last semester
c) a student stays up all night to study for an upcoming exam
d) a woman who is arguing that it is morally wrong to kill animals for food becomes upset when she is asked to explain why she is wearing a leather belt and leather shoes
10. What is the term for the process of developing an opinion about another person?
11. A bank loan officer thinks people who speak with an accent are lazy; consequently, he refuses to grant them loans. The loan officer’s belief is an example of _______. His refusal to grant them loans is an example of __________ .
a) discrimination; prejudice
b) stereotyping; attribution
c) attribution; stereotyping
d) prejudice; discrimination
12. Which of the following does NOT represent an effective method for reducing prejudice?
a) establishing a jigsaw classroom
b) bringing diverse groups of people into contact with each other
c) learning about people who are different from you
d) establishing equal status contact between different groups of people
13. What are the three components of Robert Sternberg’s triarchtic theory of love?
14. What term refers to helping behavior that is performed voluntarily for the benefit of another person, with no anticipation of reward?
a) altruism
b) collectivism
c) interdependence
d) humanitarianism
15. In a crowded mall parking lot, dozens of people hear a female voice yell, “He’s killing me!” Yet, no one calls the police. What is the reason for the lack of action, according to Darley and Latane?
a) People are too busy to respond.
b) Most people “do not want to become involved.”
c) The fight-or-flight response is not activated when others are in danger.
d) There is a diffusion of responsibility.
Part 3—Underst anding and Analyzing Concepts (3 points) :
Read each statement and decide whether it is TRUE or FALSE based upon your knowledge from the textbook and/or lecture notes.
1. Giving in to pressure to change your behavior and thoughts to be like others is called obedience.
2. Collectivist cultures seem to be more conducive to conformity than individualistic cultures.
3. Research has found a substantial difference in the tendency of men and women to show conformity, with women being far more likely to demonstrate conformity in all situations.
4. Invulnerability, rationalization, and insularity are three characteristics of groupthink.
5. Social loafing occurs when a member of a team slows down, letting others work harder.
6. You receive a call at home from a telemarketer who wants you to listen to a pitch
for aluminum siding. If you agree to listen, you are more likely to buy siding—a phenomenon known as the foot-in-the-door technique.
7. A common strategy for gaining compliance used by car salespeople is the door- in-the-face technique.
8. The participants of Milgram’s obedience study played the role of “learner” in the experiment.
9. The purpose of Milgram’s study on obedience was to find out how many people would obey an authority figure when directly ordered to violate their own ethical standards.
10. Upon review of their participation in Milgram’s obedience study, 84% of the participants reported that they regretted having been involved. In addition, they felt their discovery that they were, in fact, cruel people had caused lasting damage to their self-esteem.
11. Research suggests that we are more easily influenced by an attractive speaker than by an unattractive speaker.
12. The greater the level of fear in a message, the more effective it will be in changing attitudes.
13. One technique that a person may use to reduce cognitive dissonance is changing their conflicting behaviors to match their attitudes.
14. Following their classic study, Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) reported that those who got $1 for a boring task said it was more interesting than those who got $20.
15. Social categorization occurs without conscious awareness.
16. Stereotypes assume that members of the same group must have distinct differences between them.
17. Because of the way that they invariably lead to discrimination, stereotypes are always negative.
18. Alex is standing in line at Wal-Mart waiting to pay for his purchases. A man cuts in front of the line and drops his items on the counter. Alex says, “That man is incredibly rude.” Alex just made a situational attribution.
19. People from collectivist cultures are more likely to make attributions based on external dispositional factors than are people in more individualistic cultures.
20. The basis of the realistic conflict theory is that arguments that occur over genuine problems lead to more violence than arguments that occur over petty or irrelevant issues.
Part 4—Synthes izing and Evaluating Concepts (5 points) :
Using your knowledge from the textbook and/or lecture notes, answer each question by typing your response in the space provided below. For each question, your answer should be one or more healthy paragraphs (Your total answer should be at least 100 words or more).
1. The obedience study conducted by Stanley Milgram has become world famous. More than 1,000 people at several American universities went through replications of the study. In addition, researchers in other countries, such as Spain and the Netherlands, have used Milgram’s procedures. Explain the procedures that Milgram used in his study and then discuss his results. What conclusions did Milgram reach? How have critics reacted to his research?
2. How do advertisers use the principles of persuasion discussed in your chapter?
3. Discuss what happened in the Stanford Prison Study, including what they did, the purpose of the study, and what they found. What were some of the ethical issues involved with this study?
4. Explain the difference between stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.
5. Compare and contrast four ways to gain compliance and provide examples of each technique.