Deck 14: Social Psychology

Question 1

Social _________ refers to the enhancement of performance that results from the presence of others.

Answer 1

Social facilitation is effect of a group on person's behavior. It can be defined as improvement of an individual's performance in presence of others. It means performance of a person increased in presence of other with same behavior.
The presence of other in same task increases one's level of motivation. This term is explained by co-action effect which means presence of other in same task improves performance of an individual.
For an example, if a person rides a cycle alone against the time will take more time, if he rides cycle in a competition with others. The speed of cyclist increases in presence of others.
However, Social facilitation can be easily influenced by evaluation. Presence of other can sometime destroy the performance. A speech in front of audience can be disturbed by the distraction created by audience.
So, the given blank can be filled with .

Question 2

If there had been two teachers acting together rather than one in Milgram's experiment, and the teachers could discuss the situation before complying with the demands of the experimenter, this change in procedure would probably have

A) decreased the level of obedience.
B) had no affect on obedience.
C) increased the level of obedience.
D) none of these

Answer 2

Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University determines obedience to authorities. In some cases most of the people obey the order of others even when they know they are involved in wrong tasks. Factors Contributing to Obedience to Authority are described below:
1. Socialization is the term which describes that the people are social towards each other. Children are socialized and they obey their parents and teacher's authority figures.
2. Lack of social comparison means people in same situation cannot discuss their ideas with others. According to Milgram's experiment participants cannot share their feeling.
3. Perception of legitimacy of authority figures is explained in Milgram's experiment performed at Yale University. According to his experiment, legitimacy is a source of power for authorities
4. The foot in door technique always contributes towards teacher's obedience. It is method in which a small request is always followed by others.
5. Inaccessibility to values means people react according to their assessable attitudes. Some people think that this method is harmful for innocent people.
The teachers in the given case are not social; they do not discuss their ideas with researcher. This leads to decrease in level of obedience. This will never ever increase the obedience of authority.
Hence, the options b, c and d are incorrect.
If two teachers are present together rather than one in experiment of Milgram. Teachers discuss the situation without complying the demands of the researcher; this will for sure decrease the level of obedience. This is because teachers in this case are not showing their social behavior required for obedience of authority.
Hence, the correct answer is option .

Question 3

Attitudes are acquired through conditioning, observational learning, and ________ appraisal.

Answer 3

Attitude of a person is shown by its favor and disfavor towards a place, person, event or thing. Attitude is an expression of feelings (liking or disliking) and evaluation (approval or disapproval) and behavior of a person. Processes which help in formation of attitude are described below:
1. Conditioning play in key role in attitude formation. How a person reacts in different situations or conditions develops attitude of a person. For an example, patriotism is encouraged in children by allowing them to sing national anthem or wave national flag.
2. Observational learning is the mainly responsible for attitude formation. Most of the person acquire attitude by observing, reading or learning the work done by other people.
3. Cognitive appraisal is personal interpretation of an event. How a person react immediately towards a situation. People can change their reaction with time as per changing world.
So, the given blank can be filled with .

Question 4

Members of a group may experience--, which is a state of reduced self- awareness and lowered concern for social evaluation.

Question 5

The A-B problem focuses on

A) activities we do and behaviors we avoid.
B) attitudes and beliefs.
C) the relationship between achievement and behavior.
D) consistency between our attitudes and behavior.

Question 6

The process by which the presence of others improves our performance is known as

A) reciprocation.
B) social facilitation,
C) social lubrication.
D) reciprocity.

Question 7

According to cognitive-________ theory, we are motivated to make our cognitions consistent with one another and with our behavior.

Question 8

Kitty Genovese's death has been attributed to the ________ effect.

Question 9

Mary prefers living in the country away from the noise and crowds of the city, but her sister Denise prefers the excitement and pace of city life. They differ in _______.

A) avoidance
B) attitude
C) polarization
D) deindividuation

Question 10

The self-serving bias is the tendency to

A) repeat ourselves when we think we're right.
B) take care of our own needs first, and worry about others later.
C) credit our successes to internal, dispositional factors and our failures to situational influences.
D) describe our successes in greater detail than our failures.

Question 11

One factor in prejudice is social ______ or the tendency to divide the world into us and them.

Question 12

One major reason that groups tend to take greater risks than their members would take as individuals is

A) diffusion of responsibility.
B) the reciprocity norm.
C) group intelligence.
D) all of these.

Question 13

According to the._______ hypothesis, we tend to be attracted to people who are similar to ourselves.

Question 14

The _______ route is to facts and research results as the ________ route is to status and prestige.

A) peripheral; central
B) central; peripheral
C) secondary; primary
D) primary; secondary

Question 15

According to the triangular model of love, love can include combinations of intimacy, ________, and commitment.

Question 16

The "Save the World by Praying" association predicted the world would end on Nov. 1,1999. When the world did not end on that day their group made a statement that supported the theory of cognitive dissonance. Which of the statements below would fit that description?.

A) "We were wrong, prayer does not help."
B) "God did not listen to us."
C) "Our praying must have saved the world."
D) "We are confused about all this."

Question 17

The tendency to perceive others in terms of first impressions is an example of the _______ effect.

Question 18

The first time you met your fiancee you fell down and spilled a glass of wine on her dress. You obviously didn't make a very good first impression. However, it was several months later before you saw her again. Your second meeting went much better and it was almost as if your first encounter never happened. This change in her perception of you is probably due to the

A) primary effect.
B) recency effect.
C) repression.
D) discrimination.

Question 19

The following factors contribute to obedience: socialization, lack of ________ comparison, perception of experimenters as legitimate authority figures, the foot-in-the-door technique, and inaccessibility of values.

Question 20

Yevhen is standing in line in school. While he isn't looking, another boy steps on his toe. Yevhen says to himself: "He must have stepped on my toe because it's so crowded in here and somebody else pushed this guy; it was probably an accidenf'Yevhen is making a _______ attribution.

A) dispositional
B) situational
C) fundamental
D) motivational