PSYCH 102 UBC -Second Half Exam Questions and Answers Latest Update
2026/2027
Bystander Effect - Answers a phenomenon where individuals fail to help a victim when
others are around; the more people are around, the less likely the person is to help out
Social Psychology - Answers the science that causes and consequences of social
behaviour (both good and bad) What is the biggest field of psychology? - Answers Social
Psychology Theory of Mind - Answers the ability to represent the beliefs and the desires
of people who are not you Problem of Altruism - Answers who do some animals
cooperate with others at the cost to themselves, even when they do not share any
genes Three Benefits of having a theory of mind - Answers 1. Predict what other people
do 2. Explain motives behind actions 3. Reason about where you agree and disagree
with them Attribution - Answers an inference about the cause of a person's behaviour
typically - is it their disposition/personality or the situation? Which factors push u
towards a dispositional/ personally attribution? - Answers (+) Consistency: does the
person usually do this is other situations (the higher the consistency the more likely you
are to attribute the situation) (-) Consensuality: do other people regularly act this way?
(-) Distinctiveness: does this person regularly do other similar things? the more
consistency and the less consensual and distinctive behaviour, the more likely we are
to attribute it to disposition rather than the situation. Fundamental Attribution Error -
Answers the general tendency for people to make dispositional attributions when we
should make situational ones "The most important effect in psychology" - Answers
Fundamental attribution error Examples of the FAE - Answers a driver runs a red light:
you infer they are a terrible driver not that they are in a hurry to get to the hospital Actor-
Observer Effect - Answers the fact that we commit the fundamental attribution error
when we are judging others, but we are rarely decide that our bad behaviour is because
of our own dispositions Connection between FAE and ACE - Answers We are quick to
assume things about others even if we do the same thing ourselves ex. running a red
light if you are in a hurry Social Norms - Answers perceived rules of behaviour that are
considered acceptable in a group of people Norm of Reciprocity - Answers When
somebody is generous to another person, they should be rewarded and the favour
should be returned Social Schemas/ Roles - Answers representations of how social
groups work and the kinds of things they can or cannot do Zimbardo- Prison Study -
Answers one of the most controversial and infamous experiments in social psychology
where subjects were either assigned to be the guards or the prisoners. Persuasion -
Answers changing somebody's beliefs and desires by appealing to them
psychologically. Intimidation - Answers changing somebody's beliefs and desires
through dominance and social status. Attitudes - Answers enduring feelings and beliefs
that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events. If
every time you see a dog you feel uneasy, you have a negative attitude towards dogs
(maybe caused by previous incident with a dog). If you love eating and frequently crave
, tiramisu, you have a very positive attitude towards tiramisu. belief - Answers enduring
knowledge about the object, person, or event. Beliefs are often (though not always) the
causes for our attitudes. If you were bitten by a dog as a child, you probably have a
belief that dogs are dangerous. If you've ever eaten tiramisu before, you probably
believe it is delicious. Cognitive Dissonance - Answers the highly negative feeling we
experience when our attitudes and/or beliefs conflict with each other or with our recent
behaviour. For example, you believe that it is important to take care of the environment,
but you didn't recycle today. How to solve cognitive dissonance? (3) - Answers
1.Change one of your attitudes (easiest). ex. you decide that smoking is not that
pleasurable after all. 2. Acquire new information. ex. you realize that you are getting a
big tax rebate and can afford the new phone after all (or read reviews saying that the
phone is terrible). 3. Downplay the importance of those attitudes or beliefs. ex. you
decide that treatment of employees is none of your business. Hazing - Answers a set of
rituals that involve abusing, harassing, and humiliating a person as an initiation for
joining a group. This is very common in the army, frats, cults, and sports teams. Why is
hazing effective? - Answers Because of dissonance: • The person being hazed feels a lot
of dissonance because they are going through something terrible. • The easiest way to
resolve it is to say that this initiation is important and that the club must be very special.
Elaboration Likelihood Model - Answers model of persuasion that argues that people
can be influenced through one of two "routes" Two Routes of Elaboration Likelihood
Model - Answers Systematic Route to Persuasion: persuading somebody through
reason, logic, and sound arguments. Usually targets beliefs. "straightforward" Heuristic
Route to Persuasion: persuading somebody by appealing to their emotions, habits, or
even appealing to them implicitly (without them realizing you are trying to persuade
them at all). Usually targets attitudes. "sneaky" Heuristic Route tricks - Answers Appeal
to Emotion: emotional advertisement - especially when it involves fear or sex - captures
our attention automatically and makes us feel drawn towards or against the stimuli
presented. Expertise: when not motivated to attend to the argument, we will frequently
just agree if the person arguing is an expert. "Guru Effect" Guru Effect - Answers if an
expert says something incomprehensible, we are more like to assume that the idea
must be very complex, not that the expert isn't very good at communicating the simple
idea to us! Foot-in-the-Door Technique - Answers make a small request first, and, once
the person complies, make a bigger one. ex. when experimenters went door-to-door
fund raising, people who were first asked to sign a petition were later more likely to give
money than vice-versa. Door-in-the-Face Technique - Answers make a impossibly huge
request first, and when the person declines make ex. when experimenters asked for a
$5000 donation, people were more likely to give $100 after first rejecting than vice-
versa. Implicit Priming - Answers a method of persuasion that subtly suggests an idea,
belief, or concept to the participant and affects their subsequent behaviour without
their realization. Milgram Obedience Experiments - Answers social psychology's most
famous and (by far) most controversial experiment that focused on how obedience can
2026/2027
Bystander Effect - Answers a phenomenon where individuals fail to help a victim when
others are around; the more people are around, the less likely the person is to help out
Social Psychology - Answers the science that causes and consequences of social
behaviour (both good and bad) What is the biggest field of psychology? - Answers Social
Psychology Theory of Mind - Answers the ability to represent the beliefs and the desires
of people who are not you Problem of Altruism - Answers who do some animals
cooperate with others at the cost to themselves, even when they do not share any
genes Three Benefits of having a theory of mind - Answers 1. Predict what other people
do 2. Explain motives behind actions 3. Reason about where you agree and disagree
with them Attribution - Answers an inference about the cause of a person's behaviour
typically - is it their disposition/personality or the situation? Which factors push u
towards a dispositional/ personally attribution? - Answers (+) Consistency: does the
person usually do this is other situations (the higher the consistency the more likely you
are to attribute the situation) (-) Consensuality: do other people regularly act this way?
(-) Distinctiveness: does this person regularly do other similar things? the more
consistency and the less consensual and distinctive behaviour, the more likely we are
to attribute it to disposition rather than the situation. Fundamental Attribution Error -
Answers the general tendency for people to make dispositional attributions when we
should make situational ones "The most important effect in psychology" - Answers
Fundamental attribution error Examples of the FAE - Answers a driver runs a red light:
you infer they are a terrible driver not that they are in a hurry to get to the hospital Actor-
Observer Effect - Answers the fact that we commit the fundamental attribution error
when we are judging others, but we are rarely decide that our bad behaviour is because
of our own dispositions Connection between FAE and ACE - Answers We are quick to
assume things about others even if we do the same thing ourselves ex. running a red
light if you are in a hurry Social Norms - Answers perceived rules of behaviour that are
considered acceptable in a group of people Norm of Reciprocity - Answers When
somebody is generous to another person, they should be rewarded and the favour
should be returned Social Schemas/ Roles - Answers representations of how social
groups work and the kinds of things they can or cannot do Zimbardo- Prison Study -
Answers one of the most controversial and infamous experiments in social psychology
where subjects were either assigned to be the guards or the prisoners. Persuasion -
Answers changing somebody's beliefs and desires by appealing to them
psychologically. Intimidation - Answers changing somebody's beliefs and desires
through dominance and social status. Attitudes - Answers enduring feelings and beliefs
that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events. If
every time you see a dog you feel uneasy, you have a negative attitude towards dogs
(maybe caused by previous incident with a dog). If you love eating and frequently crave
, tiramisu, you have a very positive attitude towards tiramisu. belief - Answers enduring
knowledge about the object, person, or event. Beliefs are often (though not always) the
causes for our attitudes. If you were bitten by a dog as a child, you probably have a
belief that dogs are dangerous. If you've ever eaten tiramisu before, you probably
believe it is delicious. Cognitive Dissonance - Answers the highly negative feeling we
experience when our attitudes and/or beliefs conflict with each other or with our recent
behaviour. For example, you believe that it is important to take care of the environment,
but you didn't recycle today. How to solve cognitive dissonance? (3) - Answers
1.Change one of your attitudes (easiest). ex. you decide that smoking is not that
pleasurable after all. 2. Acquire new information. ex. you realize that you are getting a
big tax rebate and can afford the new phone after all (or read reviews saying that the
phone is terrible). 3. Downplay the importance of those attitudes or beliefs. ex. you
decide that treatment of employees is none of your business. Hazing - Answers a set of
rituals that involve abusing, harassing, and humiliating a person as an initiation for
joining a group. This is very common in the army, frats, cults, and sports teams. Why is
hazing effective? - Answers Because of dissonance: • The person being hazed feels a lot
of dissonance because they are going through something terrible. • The easiest way to
resolve it is to say that this initiation is important and that the club must be very special.
Elaboration Likelihood Model - Answers model of persuasion that argues that people
can be influenced through one of two "routes" Two Routes of Elaboration Likelihood
Model - Answers Systematic Route to Persuasion: persuading somebody through
reason, logic, and sound arguments. Usually targets beliefs. "straightforward" Heuristic
Route to Persuasion: persuading somebody by appealing to their emotions, habits, or
even appealing to them implicitly (without them realizing you are trying to persuade
them at all). Usually targets attitudes. "sneaky" Heuristic Route tricks - Answers Appeal
to Emotion: emotional advertisement - especially when it involves fear or sex - captures
our attention automatically and makes us feel drawn towards or against the stimuli
presented. Expertise: when not motivated to attend to the argument, we will frequently
just agree if the person arguing is an expert. "Guru Effect" Guru Effect - Answers if an
expert says something incomprehensible, we are more like to assume that the idea
must be very complex, not that the expert isn't very good at communicating the simple
idea to us! Foot-in-the-Door Technique - Answers make a small request first, and, once
the person complies, make a bigger one. ex. when experimenters went door-to-door
fund raising, people who were first asked to sign a petition were later more likely to give
money than vice-versa. Door-in-the-Face Technique - Answers make a impossibly huge
request first, and when the person declines make ex. when experimenters asked for a
$5000 donation, people were more likely to give $100 after first rejecting than vice-
versa. Implicit Priming - Answers a method of persuasion that subtly suggests an idea,
belief, or concept to the participant and affects their subsequent behaviour without
their realization. Milgram Obedience Experiments - Answers social psychology's most
famous and (by far) most controversial experiment that focused on how obedience can
