Unit 4

Social Psychology and Personality

8 practice questions · Free response

Notes

Attribution theory: we explain behavior by dispositional (personal traits) or situational causes.
Fundamental attribution error: overestimating personality and underestimating the situation when judging others. Actor-observer bias and self-serving bias (taking credit for success, blaming failure on the situation).
Cognitive dissonance: discomfort when actions and beliefs clash, so we change one to match (Festinger).
Persuasion: the central route uses strong arguments; the peripheral route uses surface cues like attractiveness. Foot-in-the-door and door-in-the-face techniques.
Stereotypes (beliefs), prejudice (attitudes) and discrimination (actions). In-group bias, out-group homogeneity, and the just-world phenomenon.

Conformity: Asch's line studies showed people go along with a wrong group answer. Normative influence (to be liked) vs informational influence (to be right).
Obedience: Milgram found most participants obeyed an authority to give what they thought were dangerous shocks.
Group behavior: social facilitation (better on easy tasks in front of others), social loafing (less effort in groups), deindividuation (losing self-awareness in crowds), group polarization, and groupthink.
Bystander effect: people are less likely to help when others are present (diffusion of responsibility).
Altruism, the mere exposure effect, and the role of proximity and similarity in attraction.

Psychodynamic (Freud): id, ego, superego; defense mechanisms like repression, projection, displacement and denial. Projective tests (Rorschach).
Humanistic (Maslow, Rogers): self-actualization, unconditional positive regard.
Social-cognitive (Bandura): reciprocal determinism (behavior, thoughts and environment influence each other), self-efficacy, and locus of control.
Trait theories: the Big Five (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism), measured with self-report inventories.

Drive-reduction theory, arousal theory (Yerkes-Dodson law: moderate arousal is best for performance), and self-determination theory (intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation).
Emotion theories: James-Lange (body first), Cannon-Bard (at the same time), and the Schachter-Singer two-factor theory (arousal plus a cognitive label).

Assuming a classmate is lazy for being late, without considering traffic, is an example of:

In Asch's experiments, participants gave obviously wrong answers to match the group. This shows:

A student who works less hard on a group project than alone shows:

A person sees an accident in a crowded mall, but no one helps. This illustrates:

After buying an expensive phone, Sam convinces himself it was worth it despite bad reviews. This shows:

A person who is organized, careful and dependable scores high on which Big Five trait?

According to the Yerkes-Dodson law, performance on a test is usually best with:

A salesperson first asks for a small favor, then a bigger one. This is the:

Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.

Free-response question

Kai joins a club. At the first meeting, everyone quickly agrees on a fundraising plan, even though Kai has doubts.

(a) Explain how groupthink could affect the club's decision.

Show the answer and scoring guide

The members want harmony, so they don't raise objections or consider alternatives, which can lead to a poor plan.

Check off the points you earned:

(b) Explain how normative social influence might keep Kai quiet.

Show the answer and scoring guide

Kai wants to be accepted by the new group, so he goes along rather than risk disapproval.

Check off the points you earned:

(c) Explain how Kai's self-efficacy could affect whether he speaks up at future meetings.

Show the answer and scoring guide

If Kai believes he can make a useful contribution (high self-efficacy), he's more likely to share his ideas; low self-efficacy would keep him silent.

Check off the points you earned: