Social Psychology (EPPP) Questions And Answers With Latest Study Solutions

Primacy Effect - Answer-- our impressions are usually swayed the most by information received early in an interaction False Consensus Bias - Answer-- overestimation of the degree to which the beliefs and opinions of others are similar to our own Factors that Affect Impression Formation: Central Traits - Answer-- certain descriptions (e.g., a warm vs. cold person) influence impressions more than others because they provide unique information and are associated with a large number of other characteristics Factors that Affect Impression Formation: Schemata - Answer-- organized mental networks that are based on previous personal and social experiences and that are used to judge or interpret current circumstances - pay more attention to and have better recall for evidence that confirms our mental networks Illusory Correlation - Answer-- belief that two characteristics, events, or variables are related when they are not - ex. believe a politician is dishonest based on schema for politicians Factors that Affect Impression Formation: Social Context - Answer-- behaviors of others tend to be perceived in a manner that is consistent with the social environment in which they occurred Rosenhan's Social Context Study - Answer-- confederates who admitted themselves to a psyc hospital were inappropriately diagnosed with Schizophrenia Factors that Affect Impression Formation: Base Rate Fallacy - Answer-- when making probabilistic inferences about an event or characteristic, individuals rarely consider the prior probability of that event but rely, instead, on case-specific informationFactors that Affect Impression Formation: Representativeness Heuristic - Answer-- tendency to assume that an individual belongs to a certain category if s/he has certain characteristics associated with that category Attribution - Answer-- the process of determining or inferring why a behavior occurred Dispositional vs Situational Attributes - Answer-- behavior can be attributed to the person's internal characteristics or to situational, external characteristics Stable vs Unstable Attributes - Answer-- behavior can be the result of enduring factors (e.g., personality) or temporary factors (e.g., fatigue) Specific vs Global Attributes - Answer-- behavior can be restricted to a limited number of circumstances or may occur in many different situations Fundamental Attribution Bias - Answer-- overestimate the role of internal factors and underestimate the role of situational factors in a person's behavior Actor-Observer Effect - Answer-- tendency to make different attributions about our own behaviors vs those of others - (we are more likely to attribute our own behaviors to situational factors, especially if the consequences were negative) Self-Serving Bias - Answer-- tendency to blame external factors for our failures and take credit for our successes - opposite (e.g., learned helplessness) occurs in individuals with depression Affiliation - Answer-- innate motive that contributes to the initiation and maintenance of interpersonal relationships - increases with anxiety and female gender Attraction - Answer-- a special type of affiliation, liking- we tend to like competent and intelligent people that occassionally make small blunders Gain-Loss Effect - Answer-- attraction is maximized when the person's evaluation of us is initially negative, but then becomes positive - most likely to occur when the person's change of opinion is gradual and reflects a true change of heart Social Exchange Theory - Answer-- we are likely to stay in a relationship when rewards exceed costs but leave when the costs are greater than the rewards - may be more applicable with acquaintances than family and close friends Equity Theory - Answer-- more likely to stay in a relationship when our reward/cost ratio is proportional to the reward/cost ratio of the other person Emotion-in-Relationship Model - Answer-- intense emotions are most often elicited when one partner in the relationship disrupts everyday routines and interactions (e.g., affair) Self-Perception Theory - Answer-- people identify their own internal states by observing their external behaviors and/or the context in which those behaviors occur Epinephrine Studies (Schachter & Singer) - Answer-- participants were injected with epinephrine to cause mild physiological arousal - those who were misinformed about the physiological arousal were more likely to model a confederates mood (e.g., anger or euphoria) - in ambiguous situations, people look at cues in the external environment to identify their internal states Overjustification Hypothesis - Answer-- when an external reward is given to a person for performing an intrinsically rewarding activity, the person's intrinsic interest in the activity decreases Social Comparison Theory - Answer-- we frequently evaluate our own opionions and behaviors by comparing ours to other people's opinions and behaviorsSelf-Verification Theory - Answer-- preference for accurate information from others - ex. partners with a negative self-view reported higher levels of commitment when partners confirmed their negative self-perceptions