Exam 2 Review – Fall 2011 – updated 10/11
(note: since I am posting this a week in advance of the exam, be sure to review your class notes on Ch 6 to determine if we actually covered all material listed below)
Chapter 4 – Perceptions of Others
· Importance of social perception in gaining information about people
o First impressions – facial features (baby-faced vs. mature features)
o Situational cues used to interpret behavior
o Deriving interpretations from nonverbal behaviors
§ 6 primary universal emotions
§ Mastumoto’s research on blind vs. sighted people’s facial expressions for these universal emotions
§ Eye contact & touch
· Interpretations of avoiding eye contact?
§ Cross-cultural differences in nonverbal behaviors
§ Detecting deception from nonverbal cues:
· Facial expressions vs. body movements
· Are experts or novices better at detecting deception?
· How can microexpressions be used to detect deception? (Ekman’s research)
· Security screening applications – what are other options for detecting deception?
· Attributions
o Heider’s distinction between personal vs. situational explanations for behaviors
o Attribution theories –
§ Jones’ Correspondent Inference theory –
· Infer whether an action corresponds to personality based on
o Did the person have a choice?
o Was the behavior expected?
o How many positive effects were there?
§ Kelly’s Covariation theory – attribute behavior to person/situation
· Consensus – what is the information we seek here?
· Distinctiveness – what is the information we seek here?
· Consistency – what is the information we seek here?
· How do consensus, distinctiveness, consistency combine to determine personal or situational attributions?
o Attribution biases – what are heuristics and how can they create bias?
§ Availability heuristic – what is it and what is an example?
· Can lead to false consensus – what is it?
· Can lead to baserate fallacy – what is it?
§ Counterfactual thinking – what is it?
· How and when can it lead to dissatisfaction?
· Kray & Tetlock’s research on positive effects
o Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) – what is it?
§ 2-step model – quick attribution then adjust initial impression
o Sources of the FAE:
§ Actor-observer difference – how does this cause the FAE?
· How could we reduce the FAE based on this?
§ Time perspective – how does this cause the FAE?
§ Cultural differences – how does this cause the FAE?
· Motivational Biases
o Self-serving bias – how does it influence perception?
§ Importance of need for self-esteem
§ Belief in a just world – what is it and how is it used?
· How does belief in a just world affect our perceptions of victims?
· Impression Formation
o Summation versus averaging models – how do they differ?
§ Which model has more support?
o Deviations from averaging model?
· Implicit Personality Theory – info about one trait informs perceptions of other traits
o Link with primacy effect – what trait info is received first vs. later?
· Confirmation Biases
o Example from “On Being Sane in Insane Places”
o Belief Perseverance – what is it?
§ What is a remedy for this problem?
o Self-fulfilling prophecy – what is it?
§ Criticisms of this research
§ How can we change/reduce self-fulfilling prophecy?
Chapter 5 – Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination
· Distinctions between definitions of stereotype, prejudice, discrimination
o How do each relate to affective, behavioral, & cognitive components?
· Racism
o Differences between overt racism and ‘modern’ racism
o What is implicit racism?
§ Eberhardt (2006) study of white defendants judging black defendants
o How to best measure racism?
§ Problems with self-reports
§ Implicit Association Test (IAT) – how does it work?
o Perceptual differences based on race
§ Ingroup vs. outgroup member judgments
§ Interracial interactions
· “Guess Who” study by Norton (2006) – what were behavioral differences exhibited by adults and kids?
· Sexism
o Prescriptive vs. descriptive gender stereotypes – what are they?
o Ambivalent sexism – components of hostile and benevolent sexism (what are each of these?)
o Links to discrimination – occupational differences & sex segregation
§ Example of gender gap in wages
· Stereotype Threat – research by Claude Steele
o What is it and how does it affect performance?
o Steele & Aronson’s experiments – how did they prompt stereotype threat in participants?
o How can positive stereotypes be used?
o How can people protect against stereotype threat?
· Sources of Prejudice
o Motivational Factors
§ Optimal distinctiveness – what is it? Outgroup/ingroup difference
§ Intergroup conflict:
· Sherif’s Robber’s Cave experiment – what happened? What was the effect of competition? How did Sherif resolve the conflict?
§ Realistic Conflict theory – focus on limited resources
§ Social Identity theory – importance of self-esteem and the role of group status in boosting self-esteem
o Cognitive Factors
§ Blue-Eyed/Brown Eyed Experiment as example
· Be familiar with the details of Jane Elliott’s work – the original study of 3rd graders and their experiences ‘on the bottom’ and ‘on the top’. What are her main points?
§ Categorization effects – role of heuristics in info processing
§ Outgroup homogeneity effect – what is it? Why does it happen?
§ Perpetuating Stereotypes – what cognitive factors influence how they persist?
· Illusory correlations – linking 2 variables that aren’t related
· Attributions – focus on explanations for behavior
· Subtyping – allows us to hold onto our stereotypes – how?
§ Confirmation bias – role of searching for confirming info
· Stone’s experiment – listen to audiotape of ‘Mark Flick’s” performance & rate it.
§ Are stereotypes automatic?
· Devine’s research distinguishing automatic and controlled processing. Cognitive effort involved in controlled processing.
· When is it difficult to control stereotypes (2nd step of process)?
o Culture
§ Socialization effects
§ Gender stereotypes example – links between parenting attitudes and kids’ play behavior.
§ Media effects – how does the media portray men and women differently?
· Archer’s research on ‘face-ism’
· Reducing Prejudice
o Via intergroup contact – simple contact isn’t as effective as using certain conditions– importance of equal status, etc.
o Via Jigsaw classroom – how does it work? What are effects?
o Education
o Motivation – differences between low and high prejudiced individuals
Chapter 6 – Attitudes (note that this material may change slightly based on class coverage 10/5 - 10/10 – check your notes to determine what was covered in class)
· Definition of attitude – affective, behavioral, cognitive components
· Attitude assessment – problems with self-reports?
o LaPiere’s research on self-reports versus behavioral observations
o Fishbein & Ajzen’s research:
§ Principle of Aggregation – how could this improve self-reports?
§ Level of Specificity – how could this improve self-reports?
§ Theory of Planned Behavior (see Fig 6.4)
· Intention is the closest predictor of behavior
· What are 3 antecedents to intention?
o Covert measures as alternatives to self-report
§ Facial assessments – still problematic
§ Implicit Association Tests (IAT) – how does it work?
· Criticisms of IAT
· Importance of roles in determining our behaviors & influencing attitudes
o Stanford Prison Experiment as example
§ What are details of the study – how were participants assigned to roles of ‘guard’ and ‘prisoner’?
§ How did the role play impact their behavior & attitudes?
§ How/why did the study end?
· Persuasion
o Central route to persuasion – how does it work? Example?
o Peripheral route to persuasion – how does it work? Example?
§ What determines which route we use?
o Source of Persuasion:
§ Importance of credibility – how does this work?
§ Self-interest might change this effect
§ Importance of likeability – based on similarity and physical attractiveness
§ Sleeper effect – short vs. long term persuasion
o Message:
§ Primary vs. recency effect for information & persuasion?
§ Fear-based messages – what kinds are most effective?
§ Positive emotions & use of peripheral route
§ Subliminal messages – what are they?
· Greenwald experiment – self-help tapes with self-esteem vs. memory focus; what were the results?
· Murphy experiment – with Chinese characters – what were the results?
o Audience
§ How do individual differences affect our ‘persuadability’?
§ Inoculation effect – how does this work?
· Cognitive Dissonance – what is its role in persuasion?
o Festinger’s original experiment
§ Reconciling behavior that doesn’t match our attitudes
§ Results of his study?
o Refining the theory – recent research on dissonance
§ What are main steps in reducing dissonance?
§ Other explanations for changing attitudes to match behavior:
· Self-perception
· Impression management
· Self-esteem