SocPsy 1

What is the core difference between sociology and social psychology?

Social Psychology focuses on the individual versus sociology focusing on groups people

What was the first-ever social psychology experiment, and who conducted it?

Conducted by Norman Triplett in 1897 at Indiana University. Investigated bicycle racers times when competing versus alone

What did Triplett’s laboratory experiment prove with children?

The theory of social Facilitation: the idea that the presence of others biologically “juices up” an individual and releases extra energy, enhancing performance

What is Social inhibition, and when is it most likely to occur?

The decline in performance in the presence of other people. Occurs when an individual does not know the material or task well.

What is Social Loafing?

The tendency for individuals to exert less effort when working collectively in a group than when working alone.

• famously demonstrated in a tug of war experiment

What major methodological advancement occured in social psychology in the late 1930s?

Mathematics attitude scales that allowed researchers to quantitatively measure and distinguish people’s internal thoughts and feelings

Why did prejudice become one of the first major topics of social psychology in the late 1940s?

The rise of fascism, World War II and the Holocaust

What was the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, and what were its economic impacts?

A violent white mob with government permission and assistance, attacked and burned down the prosperous black neighborhood known as Black Wall Street in Tulsa Oklahoma. Over 300 black citizens were killed

How did lynchings in the US operate as a form of “vigilante justice” between 1832 and 1930?

Over 5,000 recorded lynchings occurred, primarily targeting black people in the South. These acts were highly publicized; treated like a festival almost.

What is Sherif’s Autokinetic Effect experiment, and what did it demonstrate about group influence?

An optical illusion where a stationary dot of light in a pitch-black room appears to move due to natural blinking. When individuals guessed the movement distance, hearings another’s guess altered the groups judgement

How does the “Picasso/Miro Museum” example illustrate the power of nominal group perception?

The professor purchased a replica print by Joan Miro because it appeared stunning around other pieces, but at home was less significant

What is “The Authoritarian Personality” theory, and how did its creators explain its origin?

Explains why certain personalities are highly submissive to authority, highly prejudiced against outgroups, and wiling to participate in genocide

Describe the experiment involving the razor blade illustration and its findings

Researchers showed participants a picture of a white blue-collar man holding a razor blade during an altercation with a well-dressed black man on a subway. When asking participants to describe the altercation, while people claimed the black man was harassing the white man when in reality the opposite occurred

What is the “Shooter Bias” paradigm, and what does it reveal about automatic associations?

A reaction-time experiement where participants watch a screen and shoot or not shoot when black and white targets pop up unexpectedly holding or not holding a weapon. Findings show that white participants are likely to shoot black targets holding weapons and unarmed.

What was the purpose and setup of Solomon Asch’s classic 1950s Conformity study?

To see how far an individual would go to conform to a group, even on an obvious matter of fact. Participants conformed to the wrong answer to avoid going against the group.

What is Cognitive Dissonance Theory and what motorcycle example was used to illustrate it?

States that when our actions conflict with our thoughts, we experience psychological discomfort and must alter our thinking to justify what we did. Motorcyclist rides loudly to please attractive girl

What does Cognitive Dissonance Theory predict about how we handle information after making a difficult choice?

It predicts that after making a difficult decision,we actively avoid discrepant information that might create doubts or regrets about our choice

Describe the Bandura and Walters “Bobo Doll” experiment and its implications

Children watched a film of an adult repeatedly beating up an inflatable doll. When asked to play with the same doll, children repeated the actions they watched

What was the setup of Stanley Milgram’s Obedience studies at Yale?

A subject was instructed by an experimenter to administer severe electric shocks every time a mistake was made

What were the findings of Milgram’s Obedience studies?

The subject obeyed the experimenter’s commands to go all the way to the maximum

What ethical issue does deception present in social psychology experiments?

Deception involves misleading or lying to participants. Some of the most famous experiments could not have occurred without deception

How does eating food or snacks affect an individual’s receptivity to persuasion?

Eating pleasant foods (popcorn candy snacks) makes people more receptive to persuasive appeals

What is the Facial Feedback Hypothesis?

The idea that physical facial muscle movements directly influence your cognitive mood

What is a Culture of Honor?

A society where men feel a powerful social obligation to protect their reputation, dignity, and integrity through physical aggression or violence when insulted

What is a independent variable

the variable being manipulated or controlled by the experimenter (the “cause” or treatment)

What is a dependent variable

the variable measured to see if it changes in response to the IV (the effect or behavior)

What is a 2×2 factorial design?

An experiemental design that evaluates the effects of two independent variables simultaneously, with each variable having two distinct levels

What is the formal definition of Social Psychology according to the lecture notes?

Social psychology is defined as the scientific study of the nature and causes of an individuals behavior, feelings and thoughts in social situations. It is considered the science of “everyday” human behavior

What are the four core values of Social Psychology as a scientific field?

Accuracy, objectivity, skepticism, and open-mindedness

What is widely recognized as the first experiment in Social Psychology, and what did it investigate?

Norman Triplett’s 1897 study on social facilitation- observed that bicycle racers had faster times competing against each other than by themselves

What major theoretical perspectives dominated Social Psychology from the 1990s through today?

Modern social psychology emphasizes cognitive processes, evoluntonary-biological perspectives,…

Why are correlational research methods (surveys, participant observation…) incapable of establishing causality?

Correlational methods can establish that two variables are related or co-occur, but they cannot prove that one variable causes the other. There is always the possibility of a third, unmeasured confounding variable (Variable C) that explains the observed relationship.

Random Assignment

Participants must have an equal chance of being placed in any condition to control for individual differences.

Controlled Variables

Holding all external environmental variables constant across conditions

What is a "Culture of Honor," and what historical example was cited in the lecture?

A Culture of Honor exists when individuals (particularly men) feel socially obligated to respond with physical aggression to personal insults or threats that offend their sense of dignity, integrity, or honor. A historical example cited is the early 1800s duel between Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

What were the findings and ethical status of Walter Mischel's "Marshmallow Study"?

Children were given one marshmallow and told if they waited alone without eating it, they would receive a second one. Those able to delay gratification showed higher goal orientation, academic success, and self-discipline decades later. The study is considered ethical as it posed no significant emotional harm.

What were the ethical concerns surrounding the "Bad Personality Feedback" study?

Participants were given false, highly negative personality feedback claiming they had unappealing traits before being intercepted by an attractive confederate. It was deemed unethical because telling participants they have a flawed/depressed personality inflicts uncompensated emotional harm.

Why is the Bouchard/Minnesota Separated Twins study viewed as a historical ethical disaster?

An adoption agency and researchers deliberately separated identical triplets/twins at birth, placing them in different socioeconomic households without informing the adoptive parents or children that they were part of a longitudinal study on nature vs. nurture.

Define Social Perception.

Social Perception is the study of how we form impressions of, make judgments about, and come to know other people and ourselves.

What does the evolutionary perspective suggest about human reactions to severe body odor (BO)?

Evolutionary psychology posits that our primitive brain is programmed to feel disgust and avoid individuals with strong, foul body odors because odor historically signaled disease, infection, open wounds, or impending mortality.

What is the "V-Maxing" or "Caromaxing" trend, and how does social psychology evaluate it?

a social trend where individuals abstain from showering, soap, or deodorant under the belief that natural body oils/pheromones will attract the opposite sex. Social psychology notes that while pheromones exist in animals, extreme body odor in humans generally triggers evolutionary avoidance rather than attraction.

How do non-verbal visual symbols on clothing/body influence impression formation?

Symbols act as non-verbal shortcuts signaling character and group identity.

What does research show regarding tattoos, extreme piercings, and body modifications?

• Frequently serve as memory markers (e.g., 9/11 memorials, memorializing lost loved ones with ashes mixed in ink) or cultural heritage

• Mainstream ear piercings carry neutral/positive perceptions, but extreme gauging, facial scarring, split tongues, or animal transformations (e.g., "Catman", "Lizardman") push beyond cultural norms, causing observers to infer instability or danger.

How do dangerous individuals often use clothing in social situations?

Rather than wearing threat symbols, dangerous individuals (such as high-profile assassins) frequently conform perfectly to mainstream social uniforms (e.g., standard student jeans and T-shirts) to blend into the crowd and avoid triggering brain threat detectors.

What are the six universal facial emotions recognized across all human cultures?

Happiness

Sadness

Anger

Surprise

Disgust

Fear

Q: What is a "Duchenne Smile," and how is it distinguished from a fake smile?

A Duchenne Smile is a genuine expression of true pleasure. Fake or polite smiles engage only the mouth muscles without eye engagement.

What is the "Face-in-the-Crowd Effect"?

The visual phenomenon where humans detect an angry, threatening facial expression in a crowd of smiling/neutral faces far more rapidly than a happy face in a crowd of angry faces. This is an evolutionary survival adaptation wired into the brain's threat-detection system.

How do visual angles versus soft curves impact threat perception in logos and uniforms?

The human brain interprets sharp, acute geometric angles as non-verbal signals of threat, aggression, and danger (e.g., sports team logos with sharp teeth/angles). Soft, rounded curves signal safety, approachability, and warmth.

How did COVID-19 face masks alter facial perception and non-verbal communication?

Masks covered the lower half of the face, obliterating mouth-based emotional cues. To compensate, people developed exaggerated upper-face expressions (eyebrow flashing, eye widening) to communicate emotions clearly.

What is "Postural Echo" (Posture Mirroring), and what does it signify?

Postural Echo occurs when two or more individuals unconsciously mirror each other's physical posture, seating position, or hand gestures. It indicates high rapport, mutual comfort, familiarity, and a lack of perceived threat between friends or partners.

What is a "Microexpression" in deception detection?

A microexpression is an involuntary, fleeting facial expression lasting only a fraction of a second that flashes a person's true underlying emotion before they can consciously mask it with a false facial expression.

What linguistic and vocal cues are associated with lying?

Hesitations, unnatural pauses before answering, self-corrections, pitch jumps (vocal cords tighten under stress), micro-smirks, and speech disfluencies (excessive "ums" and "ahs").

Central Traits

Core personality traits that exert a powerful, overarching influence on the entire impression. "intelligent and cold" person is viewed as calculating/calculating, whereas an "intelligent and warm" person is viewed as wise/kind).

Peripheral Traits

Minor traits (e.g., "Polite" vs. "Blunt") that produce only minor shifts in overall impression.

Halo Effect (Angel Effect)

When an initial positive trait (or attractive appearance) leads observers to assume the person possesses other positive, unrelated qualities.

Horns Effect (Devil Effect)

When an initial negative trait or blunder causes observers to assume the person has a flawed, negative character overall.

What is the Negativity Effect in social perception, and why does it occur?

The Negativity Effect refers to the fact that negative information about a person carries significantly more weight in shaping an impression than equivalent positive information

Implicit Personality Theories

Personal beliefs and assumptions about which traits, habits, and behaviors co-occur in people (e.g., assuming a friendly person is also honest).

Schemas

Organized cognitive frameworks stored in memory representing knowledge about specific social categories (e.g., "College Freshman", "Senior", "Biker").

Define the Fundamental Attribution Error

The universal tendency for observers, when evaluating another person's behavior, to overestimate internal dispositional factors (ability, character, effort) and underestimate external situational/environmental causes.

Define the Actor-Observer Difference

The tendency to attribute our own negative actions/failures to external situational factors (e.g., "I spilled coffee because the cup was too hot"), while attributing others' identical failures to internal dispositional flaws (e.g., "He spilled coffee because he is clumsy").

Better-than-Average Effect:

Believing we are superior to the average person across desirable skills and moral traits.

Actor-Observer Difference:

Extending grace to ourselves via situational explanations while judging others harshly.

I-Do-More-Than-Others Effect

Believing we contributed a larger share of work to group projects than co-members because our own efforts are directly experienced and remembered.

Define an "Attitude" in social psychology

An attitude is a relatively enduring state of mind—encompassing beliefs, feelings, and behavioral intentions—directed toward specific objects, people, groups, or events.

Define Leon Festinger's Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance is an uncomfortable state of psychological tension that arises when an individual holds two contradictory cognitions, or when their behavior conflicts with their underlying attitude. Driven to reduce this tension, individuals modify their beliefs, alter their behavior, or rationalize the conflict.