Exam 12: Social Psychology

Brainstorming is a technique used in group decision making in which group members are encouraged to offer all of their ideas without internally censoring them. The group has an open discussion, examining all of the ideas and data available to them. As you might expect, brainstorming was developed to counter:

Song and Prakash are both taking a very difficult and quite boring class in symbolic logic. Song is taking the class because she thought it would be interesting; Prakash is taking the class because it is required for his major. Mia asks them both what the class is like. Based upon cognitive dissonance theory, you could predict that Song would say it is ____________ and Prakash would say it is ____________.

When there is an attitude-behaviour conflict, why might dissonance be resolved through changing the attitude rather than the behaviour?

People want admirable personality characteristics in their ____________ and physical attractiveness in their _____.

Diego is telling his roommate about his lab partner in chemistry. Because his lab partner is a straight A pre-med student, Diego believes that he is quiet and spends most of his time studying rather than having fun. Since Diego is drawing conclusions from a stereotype, his roommate should ____________ Diego's description because stereotypes ____________.

Human beings have evolved as social animals that live in groups. As a consequence, we have also evolved mechanisms to:

Researchers in a psychology experiment asked people who were standing in line waiting to bet on a horse race about which horse they planned to bet on and why. Another researcher asked those people the same questions after they had placed the bet. Given your knowledge of social psychology, you could predict that after placing the bet people would be ____________ about their chosen horse because of ____________.

Mandy believes that all engineers are unimaginative. Working on the literary magazine she meets Josiah, who is a fascinating writer and an engineering major. Mandy is likely to handle this contradiction by deciding that:

Weiner's theory argues that in addition to being either personal or situational, attitudes can vary on which dimensions?

Dao has been studying all day for her organic chemistry final. On the way home she stops at the mall and buys a great dress on impulse. When Dao tells her husband, he is annoyed but decides that she was just reacting to the stress of the exam. Dao's husband was making a ____________, suggesting that they are a(n) ____________ couple.

Jagannath's best friend Roger really does not like his new girlfriend Malati. One way that Jagannath might change his friend's attitude is to:

In the medical field, interns and residents are required to work such long shifts that they are perpetually exhausted and do not function optimally. Dissonance theory would suggest that a possible motivation for this policy is to:

If a political candidate wants to create a positive image that will convince people to contribute throughout a long campaign, she should use campaign materials that:

If someone wants to create an attitude that will last a long time, she should use the ____________ method of persuasion. If someone wants to create an attitude that will last only a short time, he should use the ____________ method of persuasion.

Jayden has just received a large bill for his recent surgery and a letter from his insurance company denying coverage for the surgery. Jayden has no idea how he will pay the doctor's bill and he feels both angry and helpless. According to the cognitive-neoassociationistic model, Jayden is most likely to respond to his mail aggressively if he:

Len just got married and he is telling his best friend about his wonderful sexual relationship with his wife. If Len's marriage is typical of those in North American culture, then he can expect that:

Gamiel has taken Aliyah out to dinner for the first time. She is very surprised when he does not leave a tip for the waiter. If Aliyah decides that Gamiel did not leave a tip because he is stingy, she is making a ____________ attribution; if Aliyah decides that Gamiel did not leave a tip because the service was terrible, she is making a ____________ attribution.

Kate comes from a very small town where everyone is white and there is a great deal of prejudice against people of colour. When Kate first meets her university roommate, she is very upset to discover that she is black. Kate quickly discovers that her roommate is smart, funny, and empathetic. Kate starts to like her roommate quite a lot but feels anxious and tense whenever they are together. Kate is experiencing:

In making attributions about the behaviour of people around them, people from Western cultures tend to emphasize ____________ factors and people from Eastern cultures tend to emphasize ____________ factors.

When Dirk fails his calculus exam, he is likely to explain the result as being due to: