Psychology 360:  Introduction to Social Psychology

Study Guide for Midterm 2--Fall 2007

Note:  Topics marked with a * are primarily or exclusively from lecture

 

Attitudes and Behavior  (Chpt. 6)

 

From Attitudes To Behavior

 

1.         What is an attitude?  According to the supplemental paper by Rudman, what are implicit attitudes? *How do implicit attitudes develop?  *What four functions are served by the attitudes we hold?  

 

2          How do we measure attitudes?  Describe the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches. 

 

3.*       What research provides evidence against the claim that attitudes guide behavior?  Can you think of problems with the studies that support this conclusion?

 

4.         *How does minimizing social influences on attitude expression and the specificity of an attitude enhance our ability to predict behavior?  What is attitude strength and what factors influence it?  Is it possible to strengthen an attitude by attacking it? 

 

5.*       Describe the Theory of Planned Behavior.  According to the theory, what psychological variable best predicts behavior?  In order to measure this psychological variable, what other psychological factors must be measured in order to predict behavior? 

 

6.*       Describe the Theory of Attitude Accessibility.  According to the theory, under what conditions do attitudes guide behavior?  What factors make attitudes more likely to guide behavior? 

 

Persuasion

           

1.         What is persuasion?  *What is the relationship between persuasion and recall of a persuasive message?  *What are cognitive responses and how do they relate to persuasion?  *What is counter-argument and how does it affect persuasion?

 

2.         What are the persuasive factors in the formula Who said What to Whom?  Under what conditions does each variable in the formula lead to attitude change?  NOTE:  Be sure you can describe how all of the different source, message, and audience factors covered in pages 198-211 in the text can influence persuasion.   

 

3.         What is the difference between the central and peripheral route to persuasion? What factors influence the use of each route? What is elaboration?  *Which route produces longer lasting attitude change and higher attitude-behavior correlations?  *Why is the other route less likely to cause lasting changes in attitudes and behavior?

 

5.*       By what route to persuasion do TV commercials operate?  What two problems do TV commercials have to overcome in order to be persuasive?  What 3 strategies do TV commercials employ to overcome these problems?  Give an example of each.

 

6.*       What is pre-persuasion?  How do "packages" and "words of influence" pre-persuade?  Give examples of each. 

 

7.*       What is the scarcity principle?  What are two ways to make a product seem scarce?  How does each influence your thinking about a product?  How do we defend against the use of scarcity? 

 

8.*       What is a decoy?  Give an example.  How does a decoy persuade?  How do we defeat a decoy?

 

9.*       How do skillful persuaders get us to use our imagination to persuade ourselves?  What are the psychological processes that contribute to this persuasion strategy?  How can we nullify the use of "imagine this..." strategies?

 

10.       According to the text and to the lecture, what strategies can we rely on to avoid being persuaded?  

 

Behavioral influences on Attitudes:  Cognitive Dissonance 

 

1.         How does role-playing influence attitudes?  What is cognitive dissonance?  In what way(s) can we reduce it?   

 

2.*       Reward theory predicts that the more money someone is paid, the more that person will enjoy his or her job.  Dissonance theory, however, predicts that the less money a person is paid, the more he or she will enjoy the job.  Why does dissonance theory make this prediction?   

 

3.*       According to dissonance theory, why do we love the objects or people for whom we suffer? 
What role, if any, does choosing to suffer play in our liking for an object or person? 

 

4.*       According to dissonance theory, how does a difficult decision produce a need to believe we made the right choice?  How do we convince ourselves that we made the correct decision?  

 

5.*       According to dissonance theory, why would the threat of a severe punishment FAIL to keep someone from sleeping in class?  Based on dissonance principles, what might work better and why?

 

6.*       Describe the aversive consequences model of cognitive dissonance.  How is it different than FestingerŐs view of dissonance?  What research supports it? 

 

7.         Describe self-perception theory and impression management theory.  How does each differ from cognitive dissonance theory? 

 

8.         According to the text, what is the self-esteem version of dissonance theory?  According to the supplemental paper by Aronson, what role does the self play in dissonance?  Describe how an act of hypocrisy induces dissonance.  How have dissonance researchers used an act of hypocrisy to encourage prosocial behavior? 

 

9.         How is self-affirmation theory different from the self-esteem account of dissonance?  What evidence supports the self-affirmation interpretation of dissonance? 

 

Conformity (Chpt 7)

 

Conformity

 

1.         Define Conformity.  Describe Sherif's autokinetic effect experiments.  Do they illustrate informational or normative influence?  *Is the influence persistent or temporary?  Why? 

 

2.         Describe Asch's line-judging experiments.  What factors influence conformity in this situation?  Is it informational or normative influence?  *Is the influence persistent or temporary?  Why? 

 

3.         *In general, under what conditions does informational influence operate?  *Under what conditions does normative influence operate?  How do gender and culture influence conformity? 

 

4.         What is minority influence?  According to the text, how does consistency relate to minority influence?  How does gaining idiosyncrasy credits impact minority influence?  What is the difference between the single and dual process explanations for minority influence?  What effect do dissenters have on the way majority members think? 

 

5.         What is compliance?  In what ways does the simple use of language gain compliance?  What is the norm of reciprocity and can it be used to gain compliance? 

 

6.*       What is a sequential request strategy?  What are the foot-in-the-door and low-ball strategies, and why do they work?  What is the door-in-the-face tactic and what two principles does it rely on to be an effective tool of influence?  How is it different from the "that's not all" strategy?  How do you avoid being influenced by each of these strategies?  

 

7.         According to the supplemental paper by Cialdini and colleagues, what is the difference between injunctive and descriptive norms?  What was the problem with the "Iron Eyes Cody" ad campaign that was designed to reduce littering behavior?  What would solve the problem with this ad campaign?  Should influence agents always focus people on the descriptive or injunctive norm?  Explain your answer. 

 

8.         How does being assertive help us resist the pressure to conform? 

 

Obedience to Authority

 

1.         What is obedience?  Give a real-life (non-laboratory) example.

 

2.         What factors did Milgram investigate that influence the level of obedience in his experiments?

 

3.*       What evidence suggests that informational social influence was operating in the Milgram studies?  What evidence suggests that normative social influence was operation in the Milgram studies? 

 

4.*       What are five features of the Milgram situation that helped to determine the level of obedience?

 

5.         How can people avoid being obedient to an authority figure?  Describe social impact theory.  How do the strength, immediacy, and number of sources determine the level of their influence on others?