Psychology 360: Introduction to Social Psychology

Study Guide for Midterm 4--Fall 2007

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

Group Influence (NOTE Change from syllabus: Read Chpt 8, pp 263-276; 280-286; 294-297)

1. How does the presence of other people facilitate performance? How does the presence of others impair performance? *Describe 3 reasons for why the mere presence of others is arousing. If you know you need to perform well in front of an audience, what should you do and why?

2. What is social loafing? How does it influence performance on a complex vs. simple task? What factors makes it operate? Are there gender and cultural differences in who loafs? Describe the collective effort model and how it explains the social compensation and sucker effect in social loafing.

3. What is deindividuation? How do accountability and attentional cues produce deindividuation? How does the social identity model explain positive behavior when deindividuation occurs?

4. What is group polarization? What 3 factors contribute to it?

5. What is groupthink? What are the symptoms of groupthink? How can it be prevented?

6. What is a social dilemma? What is the prisoner's dilemma? What is the best strategy for solving a prisoner's dilemma and why? What is a resource dilemma? How is a commons dilemma different from a public-goods dilemma? What psychological factors and structural arrangements can solve social dilemmas?

Attraction and Close Relationships (Chpt 9)

1. What is the need for affiliation and how does it influence attraction to others? Why does loneliness cause people to suffer?

2. What is the proximity effect on attraction? How does mere exposure relate to the influence of proximity on attraction? *How does proximity explain why long-distance relationships are so hard to maintain?

3. What physical characteristics do people find attractive? Why are the symmetry and averageness of facial features attractive? What is the evolutionary explanation for these characteristics? *How does comparison and perceptual contrast influence our perceptions of who is beautiful?

4. What is the general stereotype of physically attractive people? *Describe the experiment performed by Snyder, Tanke, & Berscheid. What do the results suggest about the accuracy of the physical attractiveness stereotype? What are some of the costs associated with being physically attractive?

5. What types of similarity enhance attraction? Is similarity attractive or is dissimilarity attractive? What is the matching hypothesis? When do opposites attract?

6. Does liking reciprocate liking? When does flattery fail? Whom do we find more attractive: people who like us immediately or people who come to like us over time? Why? Describe research that supports your answer. When does playing hard to get really work?

7. According to evolutionary psychologists, why do humans exhibit common mate selection patterns? What explains the gender differences in these patterns? What explains the age differences in who men and women desire? How does the evolutionary perspective explain jealousy? How does the sociocutural perspective differ from the evolutionary viewpoint on these issues?

8. How do rewards and costs factor into our thinking about the relationships we enter into and maintain? Describe how social exchange, equity, and social interdependence rely on a cost/benefit analysis. *What does investment add to the equation?

9. What is the difference between exchange and communal relationships? What is a secure, avoidant and anxious attachment style? How do people develop a style and how does their style show up in everyday behavior?

10. What are the differences between romantic, companionate, fatuous and consummate love? What is excitation transfer and how does it relate to passion in a relationship? How do partners achieve intimacy in a romantic relationship? *What usually signals the transition from romantic to companionate love? Are there cultural and gender differences in the experience of love?

11.* What is romantic jealousy? Is it only a problem for people who are insecure in a relationship? What two psychological factors contribute to a jealous reaction?

12. What was the main finding in the Mehl and Pennebaker supplemental article regarding the role of relationships when people experience trauma? What do you think this says more generally about how people respond to instances of upheaval?

13. How do men and women differ in their perceptions of sex? Define sexual orientation. According to the text, what evidence indicates that sexual orientation is determined by biology, socialization processes, or both? What factors account for the general decline in marital satisfaction over time?

14.* What are the four types of responses to relationship distress? Which are passive vs. active? Which are constructive vs. destructive to the relationship? What 7 things can we do to keep the flame burning?

Helping behavior (Chpt 10)

1. What is the evolutionary explanation for why people help others? What is kin selection? What does the concept of reciprocal altruism add to the explanation? Why would these behaviors have evolved? Does the group benefit from these behaviors? How?

2. How does the arousal: cost-reward model explain helping behavior? What role do positive feelings play in helping? What is moral hypocrisy and how does it relate to helping behavior. How do the costs of NOT helping impact helping behavior?

3. Describe altruistic and egoistic motives in helping. What is genuine altruism? According to Batson, what has to occur for people to become genuinely altruistic? What experimental evidence supports the idea that helping can be motivated by genuine altruism? What is the negative state relief model and how does it explain the data on altruism? Why should we care that helping is driven by altruistic vs. egoistic motives?

4.* Describe the analysis of helping in an emergency situation using Latane & Darley's Bystander Decision Tree (figure 10.3). At what point(s) in the decision process does helping decrease?

5.* What effects do other bystanders have on our perceptions of an emergency? How does informational social influence and pluralistic ignorance contribute to this effect? What is diffusion of responsibility? How does it influence helping behavior? What three things must you do to increase your chances of getting help in an emergency?

6. *Once bystanders have decided that it is up to them to help, what considerations influence whether they will follow though and help? *How do costs like time pressure impact helping? How does location and culture impact the bystander effect?

7. How does mood impact helping? Why does feeling good lead to helping? When does feeling good reduce helping? When does feeling bad increase helping? Does feeling bad ever decrease helping? If so, why?

8. How do social norms influence helping? Define the norm of social responsibility and the norm of self-interest. What is the ironic role played by the norm of self-interest in helping?

9. To what degree is helping a function of personality? What to aspects of personality seem to be most important for creating an altruistic personality? Thought question: If everyone could be taught to have these attributes, would everyone become more helpful?

10. What perceived characteristics of the victim impact whether or not they get help? What role does similarity and closeness play in helping? Are there gender differences in helping? Are there gender differences in who seeks for help? What explains the gender differences?

11. If helping is such a good thing, why does it ever threaten the self-esteem of the individual who receives our help? What factors contribute to the threat? How does stigma play a role in these reactions to being helped?

Social Psychology and the Law (Chapter 12, pp 443-466)

1. How are juries selected? How do implicit theories of personality and stereotypes impact a lawyer's decision to keep or reject a potential juror? Describe some of the studies that contradict popular "folkwisdom" or intuitive theories about how issues of race and sex impact juror decision making. How does scientific jury selection attempt to overcome these problems?

2. What is a "death-qualified" jury? What are the implications of a death-qualified jury for the defendant?

3.* What is a coerced confession? What tactics can the police use to get a confession? How do juries treat information about a coerced confession? When should we believe the results of a lie detector test?

4. How accurate are eyewitnesses? What 3 steps contribute to errors in eyewitness testimony? How does the weapons focus effect, the cross-race identification bias, and the misinformation effect influence eyewitness testimony? How persuasive is eyewitness testimony?

5. How does pretrial publicity influence the jury pool? How does inadmissible testimony influence the jury? Can people easily and effectively wipe away their memory for this information?

6. What are some of the problems that jurors face when trying to follow a judge's instructions? What can be done to reduce these problems? What is jury nullification and how does it impact a trial?

Social Psychology and Health (Chapter 14, pp 513 - 545)

1. What is stress? Describe the stress and coping process depicted in Figure 14.2. What are some of the common examples of stressors? Describe the three stages in the general adaptation syndrome.

2. What characteristics were associated with the original definition of the Type A behavior pattern? What appears to be the main toxic ingredient in the Type A? Why is this ingredient thought to contribute to coronary heart disease? What is the relationship between stress and the immune system? What evidence suggests that stress can cause humans to become ill?

3. What is depression? What is learned helplessness and how does it relate to depression? What is an “explanatory style” and how does it relate to depression? How do perceptions of control influence the way people cope with stress?

4. What is the role of optimism in health? What is the evidence that optimism and positive illusions about health are functional? Why might positive illusions be functional?

5. What is the difference between problem-focused, emotion-focused, and proactive coping? According to research, is it better to suppress your emotions or to distract yourself from feeling them? Why does opening up about your problems facilitate coping? Why does social support influence coping?

6. The text presents a 5 step model that describes how people can adopt more healthy behaviors. What social psychological principles are present in the various steps of the model?