The Social Animal Winter 2026 Midterm Study Guide

Introduction

What is social psychology?

How does it differ from other subfields in psychology (e.g., abnormal, personality, cognitive

psychology) and from other fields in general (e.g., anthropology, sociology)?

What is the person x situation matrix and how does it relate to personality and social

psychology?

Four themes to keep in mind: importance of construal, culture, natural selection, and people

Research Design

What are the three goals of science?

What are the key aspects of experimental and correlational studies and how do they differ?

What is the third variable problem in correlational studies?

How do you interpret a correlational study?

What other types of research designs do social psychologists use (e.g. observational research,

archival research)?

How does random assignment work in experimental designs?

What is the validity tradeoff?

Key Terms:

Internal validity

External validity

Reliability

Confounds

Extraneous variables

Correlation

Operationalization

Participant reactivity

Muller-Lyer illusion

Social Influence

What is the difference between conformity, compliance, and obedience?

What factors lead to an increase/decrease in conformity (e.g., group size, group unanimity,

culture, etc.)?

How does conformity differ across cultures?

What is automatic mimicry and are there cultural differences in the extent people engage in

this behavior?

Key Studies:

Harold Garfinkel: breaching studies

Middlemist et al: urinal study

Sherif: autokinetic effect

Asch line study (and all the follow-up studies)

Milgram obedience study (and all the follow-up studies)

Key Terms:

Norms: descriptive and injunctive

Normative and informational social influence

Social exclusion

Door-in-the-face technique

Foot-in-the-door technique

Groups

What are some of the physical and psychological effects of social exclusion?

What is the difference between authority, dominance, and power?

What is group polarization? What are some of the factors that contribute to it?

What is social facilitation? Are the effects the same for well-learned tasks and new tasks?

Key Studies:

Triplett: bicycles and fishing reels

Diener et al: deindividuation with children at Halloween

Suicide baiting

Key Terms/Theories:

Deindividuation

Groupthink

Pluralistic ignorance

Social loafing

Risky shift

Approach/inhibition theory

Distraction-conflict theory

Persuasion

What are the three different components of attitude?

What are the two routes of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion and when is

each most likely to be used?

What are some source characteristic, message characteristics, and receiver characteristics that

make a message more or less persuasive in the ELM?

Is there a subliminal route to persuasion? Under which circumstances is subliminal priming

most likely to be effective?

How does the media use persuasion techniques (e.g. consumer advertising, political

advertising)? How is fear used in advertising?

Key Studies:

Petty and Cacioppo ELM studies: end of course exam for college students

Janis: wine ‘em and dine’em

Lord, Ross, and Lepper: death penalty attitudes study

Key Terms:

The sleeper effect

Attitude inoculation

Mere exposure effect

Attitudes

What is cognitive dissonance theory? Which kinds of inconsistencies are most likely/least likely

to produce dissonance?

What is self-perception theory? How does it differ from cognitive dissonance theory?

Key studies

Festinger and Carlsmith: cognitive dissonance experiment

Key terms/theories

Balance theory

Effort justification

Self-affirmation

System justification theory

Terror management theory

Blink

What happened in the debate surrounding the Getty museum's purchase of the kouros statue?

What role do intuitive judgments played in that debate?

What is thin slicing, and how accurate is it?

Key Studies

John Gottman and his research on marriage quality

"The Four Horseman"-the 4 features of troubled marriages that Gottman has identified

Sam Gosling's dorm room study and its main findings

Nalini Ambady's research on judgments of professors

Nalini Ambady's research predicting doctors who get sued

John Bargh studies on unconscious priming (i.e., the study that primes people with words about

old people)

Antonio Damasio and the main findings of the Iowa Gambling Experiments

Sheena Iyengar and Raymond Fisman and the main findings of their speed dating research