Applied Psychology - Quiz #1

Quiz Date: Friday, 2/14

Definition of applied psychology:

the application of psychological knowledge, principles, and techniques in areas of every life 

Differences between applied psychology and other psychologies:

• Pure psychology: focus on developing and testing theories, conducting basic psychological research ad the collection and analysis of data to help support or refute a given theory 

• Pure psychology: understanding is the end goal - why and how do effects occur?

• Applied psychology: focuses on practical goals

• Applied psychology rests on bedrock of academic research 

Stereotypes with degree’s in psychology:

• Limited to working in clinical, counseling, or mental health care services 

• Low paying jobs 

• Few career opportunities 

Strong growth areas for applied psychology: 

• Master’s degrees 

• Doctoral degrees 

• Bachelor degrees 

Focus of areas of applied psychology:

• Clinical psychology

• I/O psychology 

• Educational psychology 

• Environmental psychology 

• Counseling psychology 

• Health psychology 

• Sports psychology 

6 powerful psychological effects that explain how the brain ticks: 

1. Pratfall effect 

   1. Your likeability will increase if you aren’t perfect 

2. Pygmalion effect 

   1. Greater expectations drive greater performance 

3. Paradox of choice 

   1. The more choices we have, the less likely we are to be content with our decision 

4. Bystander effect 

   1. The more people who see someone in need, the less likely that person is to receive help

5. Spotlight effect 

   1. Your mistakes are not noticed as much as you think

6. Focusing effect 

   1. People place too much importance on one aspect of an event and fail to recognize other factors 

What are the reasons suggested by Zimbardo (the chapter author) to account for many psychology departments lack of acceptance over George Millers inspirational speech on giving psychology away to the public?

• Modesty 

• Ignorance 

• Clueless 

• Lack of concern 

What is the field of psychometrics, and how is it related to applied psychology?

• Psychometrics: dedicated to the study and development of methods for measuring psychological constructs and focusing on the theory and techniques behind psychological testing 

• Applied psychology takes the psychometric measurements and uses them to solve practical problems in real-world settings. 

What is the difference between structured/objective tests and projective tests?

• Structured tests: typically self report 

  • Rosenberg self-esteem scale 

• Projective tests: stimulus and/or response ambiguous 

  • Rorschach inkblots 

Who was James Warren Jones, and why is he important for the area of social influence and persuasion?

• He was the creator of Jonestown in 1978 and was responsible for the mass suicide/murders of the followers of the cult. 

Explanation and differences between the concepts of Normative and Informational social influence:

• Normative: going along with the crowd to be liked

  • Private acceptance 

• Informational: going along with the crowd because you believe the crowd knows more than you do

  • Public acceptance 

Informational social influence is most likely in what types of situations:

• Ambiguous situation 

• Crisis situation 

Compare and contrast the various social influence techniques: 

Compare and contrast the various social influence techniques: 

• Commitment and consistency 

  • Foot-in-the-door technique 

  • Low-ball technique 

  • Bait-and-switch technique 

  • Labeling technique 

  • Ligitmization-of-paltry-favors technique 

• Reciprocation

  • Door-in-the-face technique 

  • That’s-not-all technique 

• Capturing and Disrupting Attention

  • Pique technique 

    • Catching attention by making a novel request 

  • Disrupt-then-reframe technique 

• Scarcity 

  • Psychological reactance 
    

Three components of persuasion:

• Who: source of message 

• Say what: actual message

• To whom: audience 

Strategies for resisting persuasion attempts: 

• Attitude inoculation 

  • Exposing people to counterarguments (even weak) will reduce the influence of a persuasion attempt 

• Advance warning of a persuasive message 

  • Forewarned is forearmed - elicit a psychological reactance 

  • Less persuaded by it 

• Need cognitive energy 

  • Need cognitive resources to resist attempts 

    • Sleep deprivation decreases resistance 
      

Sleeper effect and stealing thunder:

• Sleeper effect: over time, people separate the message from the messenger 

• Stealing thunder: revealing potentially incriminating evidence/information to negate its information 

Factors related to the three components of persuasion:

• Who

  • Source credibility and likeability 

• Say what 

  • Reason vs emotion 

  • One vs two-sided 

  • Stealing thunder 

  • Repetition 

• To Whom: Audience 

• “Overheard” messages are more persuasive 

  • Messages thought to be directly aimed at them

• Distraction (helps keep one from developing counterarguments)

  • Effective if the message is weak 

  • Less effective with a strong message 

When might a person be persuaded by one route over another?

• When they are tired 

• When they are in a bad mood 

• When their interest is low 

Two routes to persuasion specified by the Elaboration Likelihood Model: 

• Central route 

  • Involves conscious processing 

  • Careful and thoughtful consideration 

• Peripheral route 

  • Involves automatic processing 

  • Influenced by some simple cue