exam3

1. What is the representativeness heuristic?

It’s when we decide what group something belongs to based on how much it looks like what we think is typical for that group.

2. What are base rates?

Base rates are how often something usually happens in the real world.

3. What is the base-rate fallacy?

This happens when we ignore how common something really is because we focus too much on how typical it seems.

4. What is the availability heuristic?

It’s when we judge something based on how easily we can remember examples of it.

5. What is the simulation heuristic (counterfactual thinking)?

It’s when we imagine “what could have happened” and that changes how we feel about what actually happened.

6. What are the outcomes of bilingualism?

Being bilingual can improve thinking skills, help students do better in school, boost self-control, and activate more parts of the brain.

7. What is the perseverance effect (belief perseverance)?

It means we keep believing something even when we’re shown it’s wrong.

8. What is confirmation bias?

It’s when we only look for or believe information that agrees with what we already think.

9. What is a stereotype threat?

It’s the stress people feel when they’re in a situation where a negative stereotype about their group might apply to them.

10. How can stereotype threat be combatted?

You can reduce it by seeing role models, building confidence, and believing that abilities can grow with effort.

11. What are fixed and growth mindsets?

A fixed mindset means you believe your abilities can’t change. A growth mindset means you believe you can improve with effort.

12. Which results in more effort and persistence?

A growth mindset leads to more effort and sticking with challenges because you believe you can get better.

1. Internal (dispositional) attribution: Behavior is due to the person.

2. External (situational) attribution: Behavior is due to the situation.

3. Fundamental attribution error: Blaming the person instead of the situation.

4. Jones & Harris (1967): People still believed the writer supported Castro, even when told they were forced to write the essay.

5. Actor-observer effect: We blame the situation for our behavior but blame others’ behavior on their personality.

6. Self-serving attribution: We credit ourselves for success but blame the situation for failure.

7. Social roles: Expected behavior from certain positions (e.g., guard, student) can shape actions.

8. Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment: People acted cruelly or submissively just because they were assigned guard or prisoner roles.

9. Cognitive dissonance: Feeling uncomfortable when actions don’t match beliefs.

10. Factors of cognitive dissonance:

• Counterattitudinal behavior: Acting against your belief.

• Insufficient justification: No good reason for the behavior.

• Choice: You chose to do it.

• Effort: You put effort into it.

11. Festinger & Carlsmith (1959): $1 group felt more dissonance and changed their attitude more than the $20 group.

12. Normative social influence: Wanting to fit in.

13. Informational social influence: Wanting to be correct.

14. Asch’s conformity study: 75% of people gave wrong answers at least once just to go with the group. Shows normative influence.

15. Milgram’s obedience study: Most people (65%) kept shocking the “learner” to the highest level just because they were told to.

16. Social loafing: People try less hard in groups.

17. Deindividuation: In a group, people feel anonymous and lose self-awareness, leading to bad behavior.

18. Group polarization: Groups make more extreme decisions than individuals.

19. Groupthink: Group ignores other opinions and assumes they’re right to keep harmony.

20. Prejudice: Negative attitude about a group.

21. Stereotyping: Overgeneralizing traits to a group.

22. Discrimination: Acting unfairly toward a group.

23. Explicit prejudice: Obvious and spoken.

24. Implicit prejudice: Hidden and unconscious.

25. Implicit Association Test: Measures hidden biases by testing reaction speed.

26. Just-world phenomenon: Belief that people get what they deserve (leads to victim blaming).

27. Realistic conflict theory: Competition for resources causes prejudice.

28. Sherif’s Robber’s Cave: Two groups of boys became hostile when competing.

29. Social identity theory: We get self-esteem from our group identity.

30. In-group bias: Favoring your own group.

31. Minimal groups (Tajfel, 1971): Even meaningless group labels cause favoritism.

32. Categorization: Our brain groups people fast, which leads to stereotypes.

33. Confirmation bias: We notice things that support our beliefs and ignore what doesn’t.