SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS 2025/2026 ALL RATED A+
✔✔Learned Helplessness - ✔✔The hopelessness and resignation learned when a
human or animal perceives no control over repeated bad events; when animals and
people experience uncontrollable bad events, they learn to feel helpless and resigned.
✔✔Self-Serving Bias - ✔✔The tendency to perceive oneself favorably.
✔✔Self-Handicapping - ✔✔Protecting one's self image with behaviors that create a
handy excuse for later failure.
✔✔Self-Monitoring - ✔✔Being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social
situations and adjusting one's performance to create the desired impression
✔✔Self-Presentation - ✔✔The act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways
designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one's
ideal.
✔✔Attribution Theory - ✔✔The theory of how people explain others' behavior; for
example, by attributing it either to internal dispositions (enduring traits, motives, and
attitudes) or to external situations.
✔✔Dispositional Attribution - ✔✔Attributing behavior to the person's disposition and
traits.
✔✔Situational Attribution - ✔✔Attributing behavior to the environment
✔✔Harold Kelley's Theory of Attributions - ✔✔3 factors - consistency, distinctiveness,
and consensus - influence whether we attribution someone's behavior to internal or
external causes. (p.87)
✔✔Fundamental Attribution Error - ✔✔The tendency for observes to underestimate
situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon others behavior
(also called correspondence bias because we see behavior as corresponding to a
disposition)
✔✔An actor-observer difference... - ✔✔When we act, the ENVIRONMENT commands
our attention. When we watch another person act, that PERSON occupies the center of
our attention and the environment becomes relatively invisible.
✔✔"Point of View" - ✔✔When acting/behaving we view the situation and environments,
but when we witness someone else act/behave, we see the person as the focus (not the
situation).
, ✔✔The Camera Perspective Bias - ✔✔The camera perspective influenced people's
guilt judgements based on who the camera focused on during the tape; suspect =
genuine confession/office = coerced confession.
✔✔Self-Awareness - ✔✔A self-conscious state in which attention focuses on oneself. It
makes people more sensitive to their own attitudes and dispositions. (Ex: mirrors in
dressing rooms prevent theft).
✔✔Belief Perseverance - ✔✔Persistence of one's initial conception, as when the basis
for one's beliefs is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true
survives.
✔✔False memory - ✔✔We reconstruct our distant past by using out current feelings and
expectations to combine information fragments.
✔✔Misinformation Effect - ✔✔Incorporating "misinformation" into one's memory of the
event, after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it.
✔✔Controlled Processing - ✔✔"Explicit" thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and
conscious.
✔✔Automatic Processing - ✔✔"Implicit" or intuitive thinking that is effortless, habitual,
and without awareness.
✔✔Overconfidence Phenomenon - ✔✔The tendency to be more confident than correct -
to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs.
1)Incompetence feeds overconfidence
2)People tend to recall their mistaken judgements at times when they were almost right.
✔✔Confirmation Bias - ✔✔A tendency to search for information that confirms one's
preconceptions.
✔✔Reducing Overconfidence - ✔✔1) Prompt feedback
2) Get people to think of one good reason why their judgements might be wrong
✔✔Heuristics - ✔✔A thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgments
✔✔Representativeness Heuristic - ✔✔The tendency to presume, sometimes despite
contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling
(representing) a typical member.
Ex: Carlos is a trucker instead of a librarian because he better represents one's image
of a trucker.
ANSWERS 2025/2026 ALL RATED A+
✔✔Learned Helplessness - ✔✔The hopelessness and resignation learned when a
human or animal perceives no control over repeated bad events; when animals and
people experience uncontrollable bad events, they learn to feel helpless and resigned.
✔✔Self-Serving Bias - ✔✔The tendency to perceive oneself favorably.
✔✔Self-Handicapping - ✔✔Protecting one's self image with behaviors that create a
handy excuse for later failure.
✔✔Self-Monitoring - ✔✔Being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social
situations and adjusting one's performance to create the desired impression
✔✔Self-Presentation - ✔✔The act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways
designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one's
ideal.
✔✔Attribution Theory - ✔✔The theory of how people explain others' behavior; for
example, by attributing it either to internal dispositions (enduring traits, motives, and
attitudes) or to external situations.
✔✔Dispositional Attribution - ✔✔Attributing behavior to the person's disposition and
traits.
✔✔Situational Attribution - ✔✔Attributing behavior to the environment
✔✔Harold Kelley's Theory of Attributions - ✔✔3 factors - consistency, distinctiveness,
and consensus - influence whether we attribution someone's behavior to internal or
external causes. (p.87)
✔✔Fundamental Attribution Error - ✔✔The tendency for observes to underestimate
situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon others behavior
(also called correspondence bias because we see behavior as corresponding to a
disposition)
✔✔An actor-observer difference... - ✔✔When we act, the ENVIRONMENT commands
our attention. When we watch another person act, that PERSON occupies the center of
our attention and the environment becomes relatively invisible.
✔✔"Point of View" - ✔✔When acting/behaving we view the situation and environments,
but when we witness someone else act/behave, we see the person as the focus (not the
situation).
, ✔✔The Camera Perspective Bias - ✔✔The camera perspective influenced people's
guilt judgements based on who the camera focused on during the tape; suspect =
genuine confession/office = coerced confession.
✔✔Self-Awareness - ✔✔A self-conscious state in which attention focuses on oneself. It
makes people more sensitive to their own attitudes and dispositions. (Ex: mirrors in
dressing rooms prevent theft).
✔✔Belief Perseverance - ✔✔Persistence of one's initial conception, as when the basis
for one's beliefs is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true
survives.
✔✔False memory - ✔✔We reconstruct our distant past by using out current feelings and
expectations to combine information fragments.
✔✔Misinformation Effect - ✔✔Incorporating "misinformation" into one's memory of the
event, after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it.
✔✔Controlled Processing - ✔✔"Explicit" thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and
conscious.
✔✔Automatic Processing - ✔✔"Implicit" or intuitive thinking that is effortless, habitual,
and without awareness.
✔✔Overconfidence Phenomenon - ✔✔The tendency to be more confident than correct -
to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs.
1)Incompetence feeds overconfidence
2)People tend to recall their mistaken judgements at times when they were almost right.
✔✔Confirmation Bias - ✔✔A tendency to search for information that confirms one's
preconceptions.
✔✔Reducing Overconfidence - ✔✔1) Prompt feedback
2) Get people to think of one good reason why their judgements might be wrong
✔✔Heuristics - ✔✔A thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgments
✔✔Representativeness Heuristic - ✔✔The tendency to presume, sometimes despite
contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling
(representing) a typical member.
Ex: Carlos is a trucker instead of a librarian because he better represents one's image
of a trucker.
