Social Psychology Exam 1 Practice Questions and Answers

Social Psychology Exam 1 Practice Questions and Answers Construal - Answer️️ -...how people perceive their environment and experiences Why do social psychologists study construal rather than simple objective environments of people? - Answer️️ -People's behavior depends on their interpretation or construal of their social environment and it is important to understand why people behave the way they do Compare and contrast social psychology with sociology and personality psychology. - Answer️️ -Personality psychology focuses on individual differences. Social psychologists believe that explaining behavior through personality ignores the critical role of social influence. Sociology focuses on analysis at the level of the group or institution. The goal of social psychology is to identify universal properties of human nature that make everyone susceptible to social influence regardless of class or culture. Define the fundamental attribution error. - Answer️️ -...the tendency to explain our own and other people's behavior entirely in terms of personality traits; to underestimate the power of social influence and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition Identify the consequences of making the fundamental attribution error and underestimating the power of the situation. - Answer️️ -By failing to fully ©SOPHIABENNETT@ Monday, August 19, 2024 12:35 AM Page 2 of 13 appreciate the power of the situation, we tend to oversimplify the problem, which then decreases our understanding of the causes of many human actions. Explain how social psychology is influenced by behaviorism and Gestalt psychology. - Answer️️ -Behaviorism is the belief that looking at the external factors of a subject's environment helps us understand human behavior. The Gestalt psychology stresses the importance of studying the subjective way in which an object appears in people's minds rather than the objective physical attributes of the object, so social surroundings could influence the subjective perception of an object. Social psychology is a combination of both because it analyzes the external factors (behaviorism) and the internal factors (Gestalt). Identify two basic motives that underlie people's construal. - Answer️️ - The esteem approach is the need to feel good about ourselves and to justify our past behaviors, suffering and self justification. The social cognition approach is the need to be accurate (try to understand and predict) on expectations (self fulfilling prophecy), and other motives such as biological drives and need for control. Explain how expectations about the social world interfere with people's desire for accuracy? - Answer️️ -The self-fulfilling prophecy makes us feel the need to fill gaps that we don't know so we use expectations to fill them in and interpret the world around us. We use schemas and apply them to similar experiences we've had in the past. ©SOPHIABENNETT@ Monday, August 19, 2024 12:35 AM Page 3 of 13 Identify some of the social problems that social psychologists research and attempt to remedy. - Answer️️ -Social psychologists research and attempt to remedy reducing violence and prejudice and increasing altruism and tolerance. Studies such as identifying how to best promote awareness about AIDS have been done. The scare tactic promoted denial so it was found to spread awareness through a different tactic. Distinguish between theory and hypothesis. - Answer️️ -A theory is an integrated set of principles that explain and predict phenomenon. A hypothesis is derived from a theory and is a testable prediction; the result continues to shape the theory. Explain the hindsight bias and its relevance to research conducted in psychology. - Answer️️ -...whereby after people know that something occurred, they exaggerate how much they could have predicted it before it occurred; a well-known human tendency that expresses our need to be accurate What are the strengths and weaknesses of field research.? - Answer️️ - Field research yields a higher external validity. Pros: allows researchers to obtain data in people in their natural environments, especially using ethnology; unaware they a