2 Exam Study Guide PSYCH 350 Spring 2008 I Overall 1. There will be 50 multiple-choice questions on the exam. 2. Overall, the test will be about 60% from material covered both in lecture and book, 20% from material only covered in the book, and 20% from material only covered in lecture. 3. Know all bold words from the text and lecture and be able to apply them. Many of the questions on the test do not ask for specific definitions of concepts, but instead require you to recognize examples of the concept. 4. Be familiar with the movies that we watched in class. Attitudes (Chapter 6-7) 1. What are attitudes? What are the 3 parts of attitudes? Attitudes: An individual's evaluation of a target along a good-bad dimension Attitudes can rely on all or one of these 3 parts: Affective- feelings Behavioral- prior action of intention to act Cognitive- knowledge of thoughts 2. What are ambivalent, implicit and explicit attitudes and how do they relate to behavior? Ambivalent Attitudes: o Evaluations of targets that include both (+) and (-) elements Can lead to variable behavior depending on the situation Chocolate cake Implicit Attitudes: o Automatic evaluative responses to a target, which may occur without awareness Subconscious immediate reactions Explicit Attitudes: o Consciously reported Greatly determines behavior 3. Be familiar with self-report measures and their strengths and weaknesses. Self Reports: Lickert Scale, Thurston Scale, Semantic Differential Scale, Opinion Surveys o Pros: Easy to construct Clear and simple to answer o Cons: Assumes that people know their attitudes Ambivalent attitudes pose a problem Socially desirable responding: When participants give answers that portray them in a positive light Bogus Pipeline Cant measure implicit attitudes 4. Be familiar with nonverbal measures of attitudes, especially the IAT and its strengths and weaknesses. Nonverbal Measures o Behavioral Measures: Rely on someone's overt behavior to infer attitudes (ex: how close you sit next to outgroup member) o Physiological Measures: Assess physiological responses to attitude object (ex: heart rate facial EMG, GSR) o Implicit Measures
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Implicit Association Test (IAT): compare reaction times to see if association is positive or negative Pros: o Cant easily distort answers o Has been shown to predict nonverbal behaviors Cons: o Doesn't relate to explicit attitudes o With time and motivation, we can override implicit attitudes 5. How do attitudes form? Know and be able to recognize examples of affective sources (evaluative conditioning, mere exposure effect), cognitive sources, and behavioral sources of attitudes. Affective sources of attitudes: o Evaluative conditioning: (+) feelings become associated with a previously neutral object through classical conditioning o Mere exposure effect: Repeated exposure can increase liking for an object Cognitive sources of attitudes: o Attitude toward a target depends on your analysis of the rational arguments for or against it Behavioral sources of attitudes: Judge actions by reflecting on own actions o Group initiation: tough initiations lead to stronger ties o Saying is believing: act of saying or writing leads to endorsement of that opinion o Evil and moral acts: sometimes leads to changes in attitude toward the person Execution staff has less favorable attitude toward victims When you do a favor for someone, it makes you like them more 6. Be familiar with LaPiere's study. Restaurants serving well-dressed Chinese people Results seem to imply that attitudes do not predict behavior strongly Measures did not match--serving Chinese race is broad, action of serving certain couple is narrow o When measures do match then attitudes will predict behavior strongly. 7. When do attitudes predict behavior? Be familiar with the compatibility principle and the aggregation principle. Be very familiar with the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior and the difference between the two theories. Attitudes predict behavior when: o The attitude is strong o The behavior is moderately difficult o The behavior is controllable o The attitude and behavior match: Compatibility Principle: A-B will correlate highly only when they are measured at the same level of specify Aggregation Principle: Attitudes are better predictors of aggregate behavior than isolated acts--ex: church THIS Sunday vs. church over next month Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA): Behavior is rational and results from logical beliefs Intention is a primary predictor of behavior Assumes people have complete control over behavior (good night's sleep, regular exercise)
Behavioral Beliefs (beliefs about the consequences of behavior) Attitude toward behavior (Evaluation of consequences of behavior) Intention (Plan to perform act) Behavior Normative Beliefs (Belief that other people want you to do a behavior) Subjective Norm (feelings of social pressure to perform action) Intention (plan to perform act) Behavior Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB): came about because TRA assumes you have complete control over behavior Behavioral Beliefs (beliefs about the consequences of behavior) Attitude toward behavior (evaluation of consequence of behavior) Intention (plan to perform act) Behavior Normative Beliefs (belief that other people want you to do a behavior) Subjective Norm (feelings of social pressure to perform action) Intention (plan to perform act) Behavior Control Beliefs (beliefs that factors are present that make a behavior easier or harder to perform) Perceived behavioral control (perception that that one is capable of performing behavior) 8. Under what circumstances does behavior predict attitudes? Be familiar with cognitive dissonance theory and Festinger and Carlsmith (1959)'s turning knobs study. Know the results of Aronson and Mills (1959) sexual discussion group study. Be familiar with post decisional dissonance and spreading of alternatives. Behavior Predicts attitude when: o We have weaker and less-developed attitudes--when we do not do something often, we might base your attitude toward and activity by reflecting on past actions Do you like hiking? "no not really, I haven't gone hiking in a couple of years" Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger, 1957): cognitions can either be consistent (constant) or inconsistent (dissonant) with one another o Dissonance: Tension that arises when one is aware of two inconsistent cognitions Festinger and Carlsmith's Turning Knobs Study (1959)- used to test dissonance theory o Participants induced to comply with an experimenter's request that they behave in a way that is inconsistent with their attitudes (knowingly lie to another person) o Completed 2 boring tasks then induced to tell someone else the tasks were fun o Those paid $20 to say it was fun enjoyed it less than those paid $1 to say it was fun o Those paid $1 had high dissonance: they thought it was interesting but had insufficient justification to say it was boring. Maybe wasn't that bad. o Those paid $20 had low dissonance, thought it was interesting but they had sufficient justification to know it was boring. Aronson and Mills Sexual Discussion Group Study: o Effort Justification Study: severity of initiation leads to greater liking of the group Post Decisional Dissonance: Chosen option always has some negative features and the rejected option always has some positive features so person is confused after making choice. Spreading of Alternatives: Exaggerate the difference between the chosen and rejected items after making a decision. Chosen=more favorable, rejected=less favorable 9. Be familiar with the alternate explanations to Festinger and Carlsmith's study: Self-perception theory, impression management theory, self-affirmation theory. Alternate explanations to Festinger and Carlsmith's Study: o Self Perception Theory:
People logically infer their attitudes from their behavior and the circumstances in which the behavior occurred, without any arousal. o Impression Management Theory: People in dissonance experiments want to appear consistent to the researcher and therefore lie about their attitudes. They falsely report attitudes that are relatively consistent with their behavior in the study. o Self-affirmation Theory: Recognition that their actions have been irrational or erroneous threatens people's positive self-views, which causes unpleasant arousal. People can reduce this arousal by doing anything that reaffirms their value and worth as individuals. III Persuasion (Chapter 7) 1. What is persuasion? Be familiar with the dual-process models: Heuristic-Systematic Model (Chaiken, 1987) and Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Know when attitude change is likely to come from the central and/or peripheral routes and how attitude change along these two routes is different. Persuasion: Attitude change that results from an influential communication initiated by someone else Dual-process models of Persuasion: Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM- Heuristic/systematic routes) and Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM-central/peripheral routes) a. Both argue that there are 2 routes to persuasion i. 1st route: Effortful (Rational) Processing 1. HSM: Systematic Processing 2. ELM: Central Route 3. Carefully scrutinize arguments in a message 4. Elaborate on message (ELM some HSM) 5. Persuasion occurs through central route if audience is high in motivation/ability and the message is strong nd ii. 2 route: Less Effortful (Superficial) Processing 1. HSM- Heuristic Processing 2. ELM- Peripheral Route 3. Superficially analyze message 4. focus on quick decision rules and environmental cues 5. Persuasion occurs through Peripheral route if audience is low in motivation/ability and the external cues in the environment are favorable iii. When recipients of a message are processing systematically (which activates the central route to persuasion) the main determinant of attitude change is the strength of the argument iv. When processing heuristically (which activates the peripheral route to persuasion) the main determinant of attitude change is the presence of simple features or heuristics that the recipient assumes indicates that the message is valid ex: famous person 2. Know which characteristics of the communicator, message, and audience make a message more persuasive. Be able to define the sleeper effect. Know when a fear appeal is most effective. How to make a message more persuasive a. Communicator Characteristics: i. Credibility -- state expertise, speed up by 25%, height, no hesitation, good posture
ii. Attractiveness-- both physical attractiveness and similarity attractiveness to audience b. Message Characteristics i. # of arguments/length of message ii. Include humor iii. Fear appeals most effective when describing fear as life-threatening c. Audience Characteristics are operationalized to have: i. personal relevance ii. need for cognition iii. 18-25 yr olds easiest to persuade 3. Be able to define propaganda. a. Propaganda: a persuasive attempt that is motivated by an ideology, or set of values, and that is deliberately biased in its presentation of info 4. Understand what a cult is, how they recruit and retain members and be familiar with Jonestown. a. Cult: a rigidly structured group, lead by a charismatic leader, recruits and retains members by using manipulative and deceptive techniques b. Jonestown Settlement: 900 people killed themselves with poisoned kool-aid. Reverend Jim Jones led the peoples temple 5. Be able to define inoculation theory and reactance theory and recognize examples of each. a. Inoculation Theory: i. Exposure to a weakened form of arguments makes us less susceptible to attitude change because we know the Example: counterarguments. smoking ads expose people to reasons its bad b. Reactance Theory: i. A model of how people respond to threats on their freedoms. Cant go to partyreally really want to go IV Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience (Chapter 8) 1. Be able to define conformity, compliance, and obedience. a. Conformity: changing behavior to match the actions of a group b. Compliance: a change in behavior that is requested by another person or group c. Obedience: A change in behavior that is ordered by another person or group 2. Be very familiar with Sherif's study and Asch's study. Know the definitions of informational and normative influence. Know the conditions that foster conformity. a. Sherif's Study: conformity experiment using the autokinetic effect (stationary light appears to move when in a darkened room) i. participants made judgments alone and together and then converged ii. group standard persisted over generations b. Asch's Study: conformity experiment using an obvious wrong answer i. Correct like answer was obvious. Participants often conformed on a line judgment task when severl experimental confederates had unanimously given the same clearly wrong answer. c. Informational influence: i. Influence from other people that is motivated by a desire to be correct and to obtain accurate info d. Normative influence: i. influence from other people that is motivated by a desire to gain rewards or avoid punishment. e. Conditions that foster Conformity:
i. Task are ambiguous and difficult ii. Larger groups (up to 5) iii. Collectivist cultures iv. Women conform more than men when in public 3. Know the definition of social norms, injunctive norms, and descriptive norms and be able to recognize them in an example. Be familiar with Schultz's (2007) energy use study and what he found regarding feedback stressing descriptive and injunctive norms. a. Social norms: i. Rule or guideline in a group or culture about which behaviors are proper and which are not b. Injunctive norms: i. Communicates whether the culture approves of that behavior or not c. Descriptive norms: i. Communicates what the majority of the people do d. Schultz's energy use study i. Injunctive norms used to say if approval was given of their energy usage with emoticons ii. Descriptive norms compared actual energy usage of household in relation to others 4. Be familiar with compliance techniques, be able to recognize examples of each, and explain why they work: foot in the door, door in the face, free gift, low ball, scarcity, liking, pique. a. Foot in the door i. Strategy to increase compliance, based on the fact that agreement with a small request increases the likelihood of agreement with a subsequently larger request. 1. example: small sign in yard, then big sign in yard later 2. it works because of self-perception and consistency b. Door in the face i. Ask big then more likely to take small 1. example: bartering in Mexico 2. it works because of the norms of reciprocity c. Free gift i. Butter-up with free gift. ii. Works because norm of reciprocity d. Low ball i. Agreement on higher price ii. Works because committed to the action so don't want to change e. Scarcity i. Temporary availability ii. Works because of reactance f. Liking i. Comply with request of those we like ii. Works because we like to please people we like. Heuristics- help those we like g. pique i. ask for abnormal request ii. works because it catches the attention 5. Be very familiar with Milgram's study and the variations that increase and decrease obedience, including social impact theory. a. Milgram's Study: i. Social impact theory
1. strength/status/prestige of person giving commands 2. immediacy/closeness of person giving commands 3. number of people giving you commands ii. emotional distance of victim-obedience increases with distance iii. institutional authority- yale increased obedience iv. presence of resisters decreased obedience v. passive observers more obedient than active observers vi. experimenter disagreement led to decreased obedience 6. Be able to define and recognize examples of reactance and asserting uniqueness. a. Reactance examples (motive to protect or restore ones sense of freedom): i. Romeo and Juliet ii. Undergraduate Drinking b. Asserting uniqueness examples (no one wants to be similar to everyone else): i. Spontaneous self concepts ii. Choice of baby names V Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination (Chapter 9) 1. Be able to define stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice. a. Stereotypes: i. Belief that members of a group share particular attributes b. Discrimination: i. Negative, harmful behavior toward members of a group c. Prejudice: i. Blatant "old fashioned" racism is declining ii. Aversive racism 1. less overt 2. ambivalent, conflicted feelings about race a. positive and negative attitudes about something 2. Does racism still exist in society? Know the difference between aversive and blatant racism and the results of Dovidio and Gaertner's (2000) Job Recommendations Study. i. Racism still exist? 1. blatant "old-fashioned" racism is declining 2. aversive racism is still present a. less overt b. ambivalent, conflicted feelings about race ii. Dovidio and Gaertner's Job Recommendations Study: 1. White Americans continue to harbor prejudice against minority groups but either lie about it when reporting their attitudes or perhaps even deny it to themselves. 2. Recommended whites more than blacks when qualifications were ambiguous. 3. Know the results of Payne's studies on recognizing tools vs weapons after being primed with a Black vs. White face. What happened when Payne added goal conditions? Where people able to overcome their implicit stereotypes? Can we ever override implicit stereotypes? i. Results 1. Quick to say blacks armed, slower to say blacks unarmed ii. What happened when goal conditions added? 1. iii. Were implicit stereotypes overcome? 1. no iv. Can we ever override implicit stereotypes?
1. With time and motivation, we can override implicit attitudes 4. Be familiar with the theories of prejudice and be able to recognize examples of each: scapegoat theory, realistic group conflict theory, social identity theory, and integrated threat theory. What is the minimal group effect? i. Scapegoat theory 1. people vent their frustrations from daily life by lashing out against members of a weak minority group a. Jews targeted during times of economic difficulty in Nazi Germany b. Gay bashing: looking for gay men to beat up simply because it gets rid of feelings of frustration and stress ii. Realistic group conflict theory 1. people dislike members of a group who are thought to be competing for scarce resources such as jobs or land a. Prejudice against immigrants because they are believed to take jobs away from native-born workers iii. Social identity theory 1. People form negative impressions of members of an outgroup in order to make their group seem superior a. Laughing at the unusual customs or beliefs of a minority religious group in order to make the majority religious view seem superior iv. Integrated threat theory 1. people dislike members of a group who are competing for scarce resources, hold different attitudes and values, arouse anxiety, or are believed to possess undesirable characteristics a. avoiding contact with disabled people because interactions are awkward and anxiety-provoking v. Minimal group effect 1. Assigning individuals to groups based on a trivial feature such as whether they allegedly over or underestimate the number of dots shown on a screen. Even when groups are formed in a meaningless manner, ingroup favoritism is still shown 5. Know the results of Sherif's robbers cave study and Jane Elliot's brown eyes-blue eyes classroom demonstration. i. Sherif's Robber's Cave study 1. effects of competition on 11 year old boys at summer camp 2. introducing competition between two groups elicited strong dislike and derogation of the outgroup ii. Jane Elliot's brown eyes- blue eyes classroom 1. Told third grade class one day that blue eyes were superior to brown and the next day the opposite. The superior group's personalities drastically changed into arrogant, viscous, and discriminatory kids. 6. Be able to define gender stereotypes and know the origin of them. What is the difference between old-fashioned sexism and modern sexism? What is the difference between benevolent sexism and hostile sexism? i. Gender sterotypes: beliefs about the characteristics that are associated with men and women
1. origin: parental socialization, religious institutions, mass media, distorted interpretations and self-fulfilling prophesies serve to strengthen gender stereotypes ii. old fashioned sexism vs modern sexism 1. old fashioned is saying women are inferior and endorse gender roles. Modern sexism reflects perceptions that women are no longer disadvantaged and discourages women's demands for special treatment iii. benevolent sexism vs hostile sexism 1. benevolent sexism is paternalistic attitudes toward women (need protection) and hostile sexism is the negative attitudes toward women who violate the traditional stereotype of women. 7. Know the consequences of prejudice. Be able to define and recognize examples of stereotype threat and know the results of experiments discussed in class on stereotype threat. What is the self-fulfilling prophecy and how does it apply to prejudice and discrimination? i. Consequences of prejudice 1. emotional distress 2. greater use of alcohol and drugs 3. stereotype threat 4. distorted information processing 5. interpersonal aggression 6. job discrimination 7. genocide ii. Stereotype threat: the pressure experienced by individuals who fear that if they perform poorly on a task, their performance will appear to confirm an unfavorable belief about their group iii. Results of experiments discussed in class on "stereotype threat" 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. performance by black and white participants in nonthreatening and stereotype threat test conditions for intellectual test at Stanford University 6. performance by women and men in nonthreatening and stereotype threat test conditions for math performance at U of Michigan iv. What is the self-fulfilling prophecy and how does it apply to prejudice and discrimination? 1. vicious cycles lead people to behave toward members of a group in ways that actually elicit the expected actions from those members 2. when this happens, it strengthens stereotypes which encourage prejudice and discrimination 8. How can we reduce prejudice and discrimination? Be familiar with dissonance and prejudice reduction, the contact hypothesis, categorization processes, and antidiscrimination legislation. i. Reduce prejudice and discrimination by 1. dissonance and prejudice reduction: dissonance theory: people want attitudes beliefs and behaviors to be consistent, if they become aware of their inconsistencies, they feel bad and are motivated to restore consistency 2. contact hypothesis: contact with outgroup members will increase the liking of them
3. categorization processes: the color blind approach, superordinate, multiculturalism (mutual respect for different groups) 4. antidiscrimination legislation: same sex marriage laws, norms against discrimination 9. What is genocide? What are the precursors of genocide? Who commits genocide? a. Genocide: Attempt to systematically eliminate an ethnic group through banishment or murder b. Precursors of genocide: i. difficult life conditions ii. dehumanization or devaluation of the outgroup iii. excessive respect for authority iv. gradual escalation of aggression and violence v. passive bystanders c. gangs of thugs, observers, and passive bystanders all commit genocide