PSYC 1F90 TEST QUESTIONS WELL ANSWERED LATEST UPDATE 2026

PSYC 1F90 TEST QUESTIONS WELL ANSWERED LATEST UPDATE 2026 Social Psychology - Answers The study of how people behave in social situations. Social sychology is responsible for the best and worst things humanity has done. Social Groups - Answers • They are groups that help us define who we are • They give us roles to take on, and rules to follow • One social group we are a part of is the fact that we're Brock students • Other social groups include your gender, race, age, religion, mental health status, etc. Ingroups - Answers • They are groups that you personally identify with Outgroups - Answers • Groups that you do not identify with • People tend to see the negativity with groups they do not identify with Social Roles - Answers • Expectations for how people who hold certain positions in a group ought to behave Social Norms - Answers • A widely accepted standard of conduct for appropriate behavior, unspoken agreements Flyers Experiment - Answers • 1, 2, 4, and 8 pieces of litter on the ground • The more litter on the ground, the more likely they were to throw their flyer on the ground • This proves how norms are so important to shaping our behavior • We are a social species Social Cognition - Answers • It is the process of thinking about ourselves and other people in social contexts Social Comparison - Answers • The process of evaluating our abilities, achievements, and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people Downward comparison - Answers • Comparing yourself with a person who ranks lower than you on some dimension • It protects our self-esteem Upward comparison - Answers • Comparing yourself with a person who ranks higher than you on some dimension • It lowers our self-esteem and is motivating to do better • It can be bad for your mental health, especially if you compare yourself to someone who is essentially out of reach • Reasearch shows that role models are most motivating when the level of achievement they have feels attainable • The happiest people will compare themselves to their own internal standards rather than looking to others Attribution - Answers • A theory describing how we assign attributions for other people's behavior Dispositional Attribution - Answers Explaining a persons behavior as a products of their personality Situational Attribution - Answers Explaining a persons behavior as being the product of their situation Fundamental Attribution Error - Answers • The tendency to attribute the behavior of others to dispositional causes, without regard for situational influences • We tend to explain other people's behaviors by their personality more than their situation • Humans are more dispositionalist • The assumptions we make are not always correct Actor Observer Bias - Answers • The tendency to make dispositional attributions for the behaviour of others and situational attributions for our own behavior Self-Serving Attributions - Answers • Positive outcome for self: ○ Explain it in terms of dispositional factors • Negative outcome for self: ○ Explain it in terms of situational factors Self-Handicapping - Answers • Placing obstacles in the way of your success to protect your self-esteem from possible future failure • Like partying the night before a test Self-justification - Answers • We make stories to make us seem like a good person in relation to our own behavior Cognitive dissonance theory - Answers • The idea that people have a distaste for perceiving inconsistency between their thoughts and behaviours • Cognitive dissonance occurs when we hold two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent • Dissonant thoughts cause psychological discomfort • We try to reduce dissonance by making our cognitions more compatible Reducing dissonance - Answers • Change behaviour — Stop smoking • Change the cognition — Smoking doesn't cause cancer • Add consonant thoughts — Smoking reduces stress • Changing the importance of the dissonant thoughts — Smoking is cool • We are skilled at psychological distortion to convince ourselves that what we do is acceptable • We are very hypocritical as a species Social Facilitation - Answers • The tendency to perform better in the presence of other people Tripplett's social facilitation study - Answers • He told children to reel in a fishing rod as fast as they could • Some were alone, some were competing against other children He found that the children reeled faster when they were competing with other children than when they did it alone Social Loafing - Answers • When a person exerts less effort knowing that their individual performance will be hidden in the group product Tug of war study - Answers • Participants told they would pull on a rope as individuals and as part of a team • Participants were blindfolded • Participants led to believe they had teammates exerted less effort Conformity - Answers • When we change our behaviour or opinions to be in agreement with other people • Solomon Asch's (1956) study of conformity • Four lines, the answer is C but everybody else says A • So you say A as well 75% of participants conformed and gave the ground answer at least once in the experiment Compliance - Answers • Bending to the requests of another person who has little or no authority over them Compliance techniques - Answers • Foot in the door: A person who complies with a small request is more likely to comply with a larger demand later (sign on the lawn experiment) • Low balling: You get a person committed to act then, once they are committed, make the terms less desirable • Door in the face: People are more likely to comply with a moderate request after they have first refused a much larger request Obedience - Answers • When you comply with the requests of someone in a position of authority • The Milgram studies Coercion - Answers • Forced to change beliefs of behavior against your will Brainwashing techniques - Answers • Create a feeling of entrapment • Introduce new beliefs Offer friendship, sympathy, and promises of leniency Group Cohesiveness - Answers Refers to the extent to which groups members want to remain in the group - Members of cohesive groups often stick together, and their behavior tends to be closely coordinated. Group Structure - Answers Consists of the network of roles, communication pathways, and power in a group. - Some groups have more structure than others. For example, a sports team has a lot more structure than a friend group Role Conflict - Answers Trying to occupy two or more roles that make conflicting demands on behavior. Social comparison - Answers Making judgments about ourselves through comparison with others. Attitude - Answers Positive or negative perception of people, objects, or issues. Open-ended interview - Answers An interview in which persons are allowed to freely state their views. Social status - Answers The degree of prestige, admiration, and respect accorded to a member of a group. Social power - Answers The degree to which a group member can control, alter, or influence the behavior of another group member. Social cognition - Answers The process of thinking about ourselves and others in a social context. Social Distance Scale - Answers A rating of the degree to which a person would be willing to have contact with a member of another group. Attitude Scale - Answers A collection of attitudinal statements with which respondents indicate agreement or disagreement. Reference Group - Answers Any group that an individual uses as a standard for social comparison. Social Interference - Answers Tendency to perform more poorly when in the presence of others. Mere Presence - Answers The tendency for people to change their behavior just because of the presence of other people. Group Sanctions - Answers Rewards and punishments (such as approval or disapproval) administered by groups to enforce conformity among members. Groupthink - Answers Rewards and punishments (such as approval or disapproval) administered by groups to enforce conformity among members. Persuasion - Answers Rewards and punishments (such as approval or disapproval) administered by groups to enforce conformity among members. Cult - Answers A group that professes great devotion to some person and follows that person almost without question; cult members are typically victimized by their leaders in various ways. Self-Assertion - Answers A direct, honest expression of feelings and desires Shock Experiment - Answers Researchers told participants to do a memory test, with every wrong answer giving a shock. With half the participants they told them that they would get a painful shock, and the other half with mild shocks. With the people who expected to get painful shocks, they were more likely to want other people to sit with them Factors impacting attraction - Answers • Familiarity: We are attracted to people who are familiar • Physical proximity: People we run into often • Similarity: We prefer people who are similar to each other • Physical attractiveness: We prefer people we find physically attractive • Reciprocity: We prefer people who like us Westgate Study - Answers Students in residence were asked to name their three closest friends Results (% close friends by neighbor type): • Next-door neighbors: 41% • 2 doors apart: 22% • Opposite hallways: 10% Self Disclosure - Answers The sharing of intimate information and feelings with another person ○ We disclose to those we like ○ We like those that disclose to us ○ We like those to whom we have disclosed Aaron et al (1997) - Answers Participants sat face to face with opposite sex people and having questions asked, each question getting more personal ○ At the end of the study, they were asked to rate the liking of the other person ○ Disclosure increases liking ○ In fact, two of the participants got married 6 months after the study Social Exchange - Answers A relationship as a cost benefit calculation. How people feel about their relationships will depend of their perceptions of: ○ Rewards ○ Costs ○ Comparison level (Your personal standard that you use to asses the ratio of costs and rewards that you're okay with) When rewards exceed costs, people are more likely to stay. If costs exceed rewards, then they are more likely to end the relationship Love - Answers • Intimacy • Passion • Commitment Three types of Love - Answers 1. Romantic love ○ If you feel intimate with a person and you're passionate about them, it's romantic love 2. Companionate love ○ If you have a high degree of intimacy and commitment, its companionate love. It's a stable feeling of being in love, not falling in love 3. Consummate love ○ When you experience a lot of all three, you have consummate love. It's hard to achieve this state, and the passion does come and go. Consummate love is often replaced with companionate love Bystander Effect - Answers • The greater the number of people who witness a crime, the less likely any one of them is to help • Diffusion of responsibility: Feeling less responsible because other people are able to help Lateness and Darley (1970) - Answers • Participants were told they were going to be talking to other people through headphones • There was a staged emergency • They recorded how long it took for them to call 911 • When they were alone all of them helped within 5 minutes • When there was 1 other witness, 85% would help within 5 minutes • When there was 3 other people, only 60% would help within 5 minute • After one minute, only 30% called within the first minute Pluralistic Ignorance - Answers Assuming that nothing is wrong because no one else looks concerned Dangerous conformity experiment - Answers • There was a staged fire, and when there was a bunch of participants they were less likely to evacuate • It was tried 10 times, and every time they did the same thing • It was an average of 13 minutes to leave, enough to have killed them Aggression - Answers An act intended to cause harm to another person Causes of Aggression - Answers • Alcohol • Discomfort ○ Hunger ○ Heat • Frustration aggression hypothesis ○ Frustration yields discomfort and makes us more prone to aggression Social Learning theory - Answers • We learn to be aggressive by observing aggression in others. • BoBo doll studies by Albert Bandura • Children were shown aggressive behaviour and were told to play with a doll • Children would be very aggressive with the doll, copying the adults • They even added new aggressive behaviours to attack the doll Prejudice - Answers • A negative attitude towards a group of people • Expressed as: ○ Beliefs — Stereotypes about a group ○ Emotions — Feelings about a group ○ Actions — Discriminatory behaviour towards a group Two types of Prejudice - Answers • Explicit prejudice • Symbolic prejudice ○ It's the expression of prejudice through the support of prejudiced ideas and policies • Implicit prejudice Robber's Cave Experiemnt - Answers • 11 year old boys at camp in Robber's Cave National Park • Split into two groups: Rattlers and Eagles • Created Prejudice: ○ Stage 1: Only do activities with own group (increases ingroup identity) ○ Stage 2: Engage in competitive sports with prizes for winning team (competing for scarce resources) § End of stage 2: Competition creates out group prejudice: § Boys name called boys in other groups (eg. Sneaky) § Eagles after winning a tournament steal the Rattlers flag and tear it apart § Rooms get destroyed § Fights break out § Friendship choices are largely with their ingroup • Stage 3: Mere contact: Agganged lunchtime seating assignments so that boys from each team were intermixed ○ However, it did little to help • Stage 4 - Conditions for positive contact ○ Equal status between the groups ○ Common goals • The boys were told that the water supply was broken, and had to work together to fix it • Then they were told to help bring a truck out of the mud • After working together, hostility declined • New friendship formed • Caveat: Ingroup identification was difficult to eliminate entirely • However, the preference was much more equal than before • They even elected to ride one big bus instead of separate buses Positive Contact - Answers 1. Status between the groups 2. Common goals 3. Opportunity for friendship Need to affiliate - Answers The desire to associate with other people Intimacy - Answers Feelings of connectedness and affection for another person Passion - Answers Deep emotional and/or sexual feelings for another person. Commitment - Answers Deep emotional and/or sexual feelings for another person. Evolutionary Psychology - Answers The study of the evolutionary origins of human behavior patterns. Prosocial Behaviour - Answers Any behavior that has a positive impact on other people. Empathy - Answers State in which people, when faced with someone who is suffering, experience a feeling state that parallels that of the person in distress. Altruism - Answers A specific type of prosocial behavior motivated primarily by improving the circumstances of others. Antisocial Behaviour - Answers Any behavior that has a negative impact on other people. Bullying - Answers The deliberate and repeated use of aggression (whether verbal or physical, direct or indirect) as a tactic for dealing with everyday situations. Instinct - Answers Innate impulse that directs or motivates behavior. Microaggressions - Answers Subtle acts of discrimination that may not be intended to hurt the victim but rather reflect a lack of awareness or sensitivity. Scapegoating - Answers Blaming a person or a group for the actions of others or for conditions not of their making. Ethnocentrism - Answers Placing one's own group or race at the center—that is, tending to reject all other groups but one's own. Displaced aggression - Answers Redirecting aggression to a target other than the actual source of one's frustration. Heterosexism - Answers Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination directed against someone based solely on the belief that heterosexuality is better or more natural than homosexuality. Status inequalities - Answers Differences in the power, prestige, or privileges of two or more people or groups Authoritarian personality - Answers A personality pattern characterized by rigidity, inhibition, prejudice, and an excessive concern with power, authority, and obedience. Dogmatism - Answers An unwarranted positiveness or certainty in matters of belief or opinion Dehumanization - Answers Beliefs that outgroups are less human and deserve the discrimination that they are subject to. Self-stereotyping - Answers The tendency to apply social stereotypes to one's self. Stereotype threat - Answers The anxiety caused by the fear of being judged in terms of a stereotype. Equal-status contact - Answers Social interaction that occurs on an equal footing, without obvious differences in power or status. Superordinate goal - Answers A goal that exceeds or overrides all others; a goal that renders other goals relatively less important. Individuating information - Answers Information that helps define a person as an individual, rather than as a member of a group or social category. Just-world beliefs - Answers Beliefs that people generally get what they deserve. Self-fulfilling prophecy - Answers An expectation that prompts people to act in ways that make the expectation come true. Social competition - Answers Rivalry among groups, each of which regards itself as superior to others. Motivation - Answers • The psychological cause of an action