Social Psychology
Concepts and
Experiments
Practice Questions &
Answers
Comprehensive Explanations
& Rationales
Key Concepts • Review
Questions • Exam Preparation
, Wall Street vs. Community Game The study tested whether personality or the situation would better predict
cooperative versus competitive behavior.
Wall Street vs. Community Game - Participants Participants had been identified by dorm RAs as either highly competitive or highly
cooperative.
Wall Street vs. Community Game - Manipulation The exact same game was called either the "Community Game" or the "Wall Street
Game."
Wall Street vs. Community Game - Community Result Both competitive and cooperative participants cooperated about 70% of the time
when it was called the Community Game.
Wall Street vs. Community Game - Wall Street Result Only about 30% cooperated when the same game was called the Wall Street
Game.
Wall Street vs. Community Game - Main Lesson The situational label and social norm influenced behavior more strongly than
participants' personality classifications.
Pygmalion Effect The idea that expectations about another person can influence how that person is
treated and cause the expected behavior to occur.
Pygmalion Rat Experiment Experimenters were told that some rats were "maze bright" and others were "maze
dull," even though the rats were actually equivalent.
Pygmalion Rat Experiment - Result Rats believed to be bright performed better than rats believed to be dull.
Pygmalion Rat Experiment - Meaning The experimenters' expectations somehow affected how they treated the rats and
therefore affected performance.
Bloomers Classroom Experiment Teachers were told that a special test identified certain randomly chosen students
as future "intellectual bloomers."
Bloomers Classroom Experiment - Reality The supposed special test did not actually identify future intellectual growth; the
bloomers were chosen randomly.
Bloomers Classroom Experiment - Teacher Expectancy Only the teachers were given the false expectation that certain children would show
unusually large intellectual gains.
Bloomers Classroom Experiment - Result The randomly labeled bloomers gained about four more IQ points than the other
students.
Bloomers Classroom Experiment - Unexpected Finding Students not labeled bloomers who nevertheless showed large IQ gains were
viewed less favorably by their teachers.
Concepts and
Experiments
Practice Questions &
Answers
Comprehensive Explanations
& Rationales
Key Concepts • Review
Questions • Exam Preparation
, Wall Street vs. Community Game The study tested whether personality or the situation would better predict
cooperative versus competitive behavior.
Wall Street vs. Community Game - Participants Participants had been identified by dorm RAs as either highly competitive or highly
cooperative.
Wall Street vs. Community Game - Manipulation The exact same game was called either the "Community Game" or the "Wall Street
Game."
Wall Street vs. Community Game - Community Result Both competitive and cooperative participants cooperated about 70% of the time
when it was called the Community Game.
Wall Street vs. Community Game - Wall Street Result Only about 30% cooperated when the same game was called the Wall Street
Game.
Wall Street vs. Community Game - Main Lesson The situational label and social norm influenced behavior more strongly than
participants' personality classifications.
Pygmalion Effect The idea that expectations about another person can influence how that person is
treated and cause the expected behavior to occur.
Pygmalion Rat Experiment Experimenters were told that some rats were "maze bright" and others were "maze
dull," even though the rats were actually equivalent.
Pygmalion Rat Experiment - Result Rats believed to be bright performed better than rats believed to be dull.
Pygmalion Rat Experiment - Meaning The experimenters' expectations somehow affected how they treated the rats and
therefore affected performance.
Bloomers Classroom Experiment Teachers were told that a special test identified certain randomly chosen students
as future "intellectual bloomers."
Bloomers Classroom Experiment - Reality The supposed special test did not actually identify future intellectual growth; the
bloomers were chosen randomly.
Bloomers Classroom Experiment - Teacher Expectancy Only the teachers were given the false expectation that certain children would show
unusually large intellectual gains.
Bloomers Classroom Experiment - Result The randomly labeled bloomers gained about four more IQ points than the other
students.
Bloomers Classroom Experiment - Unexpected Finding Students not labeled bloomers who nevertheless showed large IQ gains were
viewed less favorably by their teachers.
