Social Influence and Conformity
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Course Introduction
This course explores the psychological mechanisms, theories, and real-world applications of social influence and conformity. Students will examine how individuals thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are shaped by group dynamics, societal expectations, and persuasive communication. Key topics include classic and contemporary studies on group pressure, obedience to authority, minority influence, cultural norms, compliance strategies, and resistance to social influence. Through case studies and empirical research, students will analyze the impact of conformity on decision-making and consider ethical dimensions of influencing others.
Recommended Textbook
Social Psychology 9th Edition by Elliot Aronson
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16 Chapters
2963 Verified Questions
2963 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introducing Social Psychology
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184 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) When Mark goes to give Sven a congratulatory pat on the back after a job well done, he jumps and turns away.Mark has just read Chapter 1, and fancies himself something of a Gestalt psychologist.What is he likely to think about Sven's behavior?
A) "Sven must have been abused as a child."
B) "What's his problem? A pat on the back is a reinforcer."
C) "Sven must have interpreted my gesture differently than I intended."
D) "Sven must have low self-esteem."
Answer: C
Q2) Like social psychologists, personality psychologists focus on
A) individuals rather than collectives or institutions.
B) the cultural context.
C) individual differences.
D) the power of construals to shape human behavior.
Answer: A
Q3) Explain what the role of common sense is (and is not) in social psychology.
Answer: Common sense can be used as a springboard for formulating new research ideas. Common sense is not a substitute for using the scientific method because it is filled with contradictions and is subject to biases in thinking.
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Methodology: How Social Psychologists Do Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Based on the idea of "telling more than you can know" from your text, which of the following survey questions would be least likely to yield accurate responses?
A) Would you ever consider physician-assisted suicide?
B) Have you ever been the victim of a violent crime?
C) How many different magazines do you subscribe to?
D) In your opinion, who performed better in the last presidential debate?
Answer: A
Q2) In their experiment, why did Bibb Latané and John Darley (1968) expose all participants to the same audiotaped seizure? They wanted
A) the independent variable to be the same for all participants.
B) the independent variable-the overheard seizure-to be different for different participants.
C) to be able to assign participants at random.
D) to control extraneous variables, such as the quality of the fake seizure.
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: Social Cognition: How We Think About the Social World
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Sample Questions
Q1) Automatic thinking is ________ while controlled thinking is ________.
A) effortful; effortless
B) nonconscious; unconscious
C) involuntary; voluntary
D) accurate; inaccurate
Answer: C
Q2) When Becky meets her new roommate, she sees that she has her hair dyed blue and has decorated her side of the room with lots of handmade ceramic pots and paintings.She then assumes that her roommate has multiple piercings and listens to punk rock.She has used the ________ heuristic in making this assumption.
A) base rate
B) availability
C) representativeness
D) anchoring and adjustment
Answer: C
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Social Perception: How We Come to Understand
Other People
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Sample Questions
Q1) When we make note of an actor's personality, attitudes, values, or character, we are forming a(n)
A) speculative attribution.
B) implicit personality theory.
C) internal attribution.
D) external attribution.
Q2) Research on people's use of the covariation model in making attributions suggests that people are less likely to use ________ information than Kelley's model predicts.
A) consistency
B) consensus
C) distinctiveness
D) heuristic
Q3) Police interviewed witnesses who saw a truck leave the scene of a robbery.Based on the research by Hedden, who is more likely to have seen the text with the business name on the side of the truck?
A)Mark, who is Irish
B)Ren, who is Japanese
C)Yejun, who is Korean
D)Mei, who is Chinese
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Chapter 5: The Self: Understanding Ourselves in a Social Context
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190 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) In Japan, you can rent fake guests for a wedding, a fake audience for a public lecture, and fake mourners for a funeral.These "convenience agencies" (benriya) exist because
A) many Japanese spend so much time at work that they do not have time to attend special events.
B) many Japanese spend so much time at work that they don't have time to develop friendships.
C) the "fake" guests are a longstanding Japanese tradition, which villagers used to do for free but which now has become commercialized.
D) the Japanese are very concerned with avoiding the public embarrassment of not having "enough" attendees at social events.
Q2) Kevin just got a low grade on his term paper.If Kevin has a ________ mindset, he would be most likely to give up and reduce his efforts in the class, feeling as though he is just "a bad writer."
A) fixed
B) growth
C) pessimistic
D) sensitive
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Chapter 6: The Need to Justify Our Actions: the Costs and Benefits
of Dissonance Reduction
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197 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) ________ refers to long-lasting attitude change that arises from attempts to reduce cognitive dissonance.
A) Self-verification
B) Self-persuasion
C) Self-focused attention
D) Self-esteem maintenance
Q2) According to the authors of your text, people experience dissonance
A)every time they make a decision.
B)when they know they did the wrong thing.
C)when their goals do not match what society expects of them.
D)when they make biased decisions.
Q3) Lisa and Marcie have a really tough exam in anthropology.Both women are considering cheating on the exam.Based on what you read about cognitive dissonance, Lisa, who ________, is likely to later report that all cheaters should be punished severely, and Marcie, who ________, is likely to report that cheating really is no big deal because there are no victims.
A)cheated; did not cheat
B)cheated; cheated
C)did not cheat; cheated
D)did not cheat; did not cheat
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Attitudes and Attitude Change: Influencing
Thoughts and Feelings
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Sample Questions
Q1) Donald didn't attend carefully to the substance of the persuasive communication, but instead paid attention to some irrelevant cues.He's using the ________ route to persuasion.
A) peripheral
B) systematic
C) central
D) indirect
Q2) Describe when people are more likely to use the central route to persuasion, and when they are more likely to use the peripheral route.When people are using the central route, what will make an appeal more persuasive? When they are using the peripheral route, what will make an appeal more persuasive?
Q3) According to the authors of your text, why are attitudes important?
A) They determine what we do.
B) They are a crucial part of the self.
C) They are key to eliminating prejudice.
D) They are malleable in different situations.
Q4) How can cognitive dissonance create attitude change? Why isn't it used on mass scales in advertising?
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Chapter 8: Conformity: Influencing Behavior
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the moral or the take-home message of Solomon Asch's (1951, 1956, 1957) series of experiments in which participants were asked to judge the lengths of lines? People will go to great lengths
A) to please people on whom they depend.
B) not to look like fools in front of others.
C) to assert their independence.
D) to convince others of their points of view.
Q2) ________ conformity is to the desire to be right as ________ conformity is to the desire to be liked.
A) Normative; informational
B) Mindless; normative
C) Informational; mindless
D) Informational; normative
Q3) Emily is a member of a collectivist culture, and she has just conformed with her social group.That behavior is considered a(n)
A) sign of mental weakness and stupidity.
B) act of cowardice and submission.
C) act of sensitivity and tact.
D) act of ultimate self-sacrifice.
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Group Processes: Influence in Social Groups
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Sample Questions
Q1) Ted is a manager who effectively motivates his employees to complete their short-term projects in a timely manner without sacrificing quality.Ted always rewards the employees who meet these goals.Ted has a ________ leadership style.
A) paternalistic
B) transactional
C) relationship-oriented
D) transformational
Q2) Dr.Garrett is Chris's supervisor at work.If Dr.Garrett acts communally, as women are supposed to act in the workplace, she will be evaluated ________.If Dr.Garrett acts agentically, as leaders are supposed to act in the workplace, she will be evaluated ________.
A) negatively; positively
B) positively; negatively
C) positively; positively
D) negatively; negatively
Q3) Compare the great person theory of leadership with the contingency theory of leadership.With which theory would a social psychologist be most likely to agree?
Q4) Compare and contrast deindividuation and social loafing.
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Chapter 10: Interpersonal Attraction: From First Impressions to Close Relationships
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Sample Questions
Q1) Jacob is about to start a new job.Given that he wants to make lots of new friends, he should choose the office that is located
A) by the vending machines.
B) in the far corner.
C) in the basement, away from the other offices.
D) at the far end of the hall.
Q2) One reason that social psychology took a long time to begin studying long-term relationships was because watching humans behave can change their natural behaviors.This is an example of ________ and something researchers have to be very concerned about.
A) debriefing
B) social influence
C) persuasion
D) informed consent
Q3) In what sense is the concept of romantic love culture-specific?
Q4) Gan qing is a Chinese concept of love which is achieved by A) obtaining the approval of both partners' families. B) being completely dependent on one another.
C) helping and working for another person.
D) married couples who are sexually satisfied.
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Chapter 11: Prosocial Behavior: Why Do People Help
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following best describes the urban-overload hypothesis (Milgram, 1970)? People who
A) live in cities feel out of touch with others, so use helping as a way to "reach out."
B) live in cities often feel overwhelmed, so simplify things by keeping to themselves.
C) visit cities from rural areas feel overwhelmed, so avoid the urban dwellers.
D) visit cities from rural areas feel isolated, so use helping as way to "reach out" to others.
Q2) Men are more likely to help in ________, whereas women are likely to help in ________.
A) heroic ways; altruistic ways
B) ways that involve a long-term commitment; heroic ways
C) communal ways; exchange ways
D) heroic ways; ways that involve a long-term commitment
Q3) It would seem reasonable to assume that people would be more likely to help others who are part of their in-groups than their out-groups.It is not quite as simple and straightforward as that, however.Explain.
Q4) Briefly summarize the social exchange perspective of helping behavior.
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Aggression: Why Do We Hurt Other People Can
We Prevent It
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Sample Questions
Q1) Jim watches a heavy dose of violent TV cop shows.According to research presented in the text, what is one likely outcome of this behavior? Jim will
A) feel indifferent when he hears a violent argument between his neighbors.
B) become more aware of his own violent behavior and try to stop it.
C) be less likely to recognize his own feelings of aggression. d become more upset when he sees aggression that is not fictionalized.
Q2) According to research on the effects of apologies in reducing later aggression, which of the following statements is true about the effects of apologies? Apologies
A) are most effective if the offender can also right the wrong.
B) that are sincere and include an explanation are the most effective of all.
C) are more effective when made in public than when made in private.
D) serve to reduce dissonance in both the giver and the receiver.
Q3) Which of the following is the best example of hostile aggression?
A) Bernie is angry at his mother and screams at her, "I hate you!"
B) Angela threatens her younger brother to force him to give up a toy that belongs to her.
C) A lineman sacks a quarterback to put him out of the game.
D) An angry driver loses control and runs his car into a ditch.
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Chapter 13: Prejudice: Causes Consequences and Cures
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Sample Questions
Q1) Stereotypes are beneficial to the extent that they A) are selectively applied.
B) simplify a complex social world.
C) are reserved for ambiguous situations.
D) minimize differences within a group of people.
Q2) When asked to imagine someone who fits the description "construction worker," many people picture a man in a hard hat and work clothes.Such mental images of a group of people are examples of A) prejudices.
B) stereotypes.
C) evaluations.
D) scripts.
Q3) One of your friends holds very negative stereotypes about Ugandans.Which of the following is the best way to change your friend's stereotypes?
A) Give your friend a couple of examples of Ugandans who are good people.
B) Argue logically with your friend.
C) Tell your friend he or she is just wrong.
D) Give your friend many examples of great Ugandans-and some time.
Q4) What is stereotype threat, why does it arise, and what are the consequences?
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Chapter 14: Making a Difference With Social Psychology: Attaining a Sustainable Future
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113 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is out of place?
A) satisfying relationships
B) making lots of money
C) engaging in something you enjoy
D) helping others
Q2) Based on the idea of "flow" presented in your text, which of the following people is likely to be the happiest?
A)Joe, who has just won a basketball game
B)Kelly, who has just spent several hundred dollars on new clothes to make herself feel better
C)Tyler, who is in the middle of writing the final draft of his novel
D)Olga, who is thinking about starting a project
Q3) Based on research in your text, burn victims who did not undergo CISD were ________ than those who did.
A) less likely to have anxiety disorders
B) more likely to have anxiety disorders
C) equally likely to have anxiety disorders
D) less likely to develop anxiety disorders if they were women
Q4) What is the role of money in determining how happy a person will be?
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Social Psychology and Health
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Sample Questions
Q1) Contrast the definition of stress used by Holmes and Rahe (1967) with the definition used by Lazarus (1966) in his approach to studying stress.
Q2) According to research on perceived control, even when people experience life-threatening chronic diseases such as cancer or AIDS, they can maintain a sense of perceived control over ________, and thus maintain psychological adjustment.
A) the consequences of a disease
B) their social networks
C) the course of their treatment
D) the course of the disease
Q3) Based on the information from your text, complete the following analogy.External control: internal control :: ________: ________.
A) chance; circumstance
B) luck; God
C) chance; self
D) self; willpower
Q4) Given daily and even more major life stressors, explain how people tend to respond.
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Page 17
Chapter 16: Social Psychology and the Law
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Sample Questions
Q1) The process whereby information obtained after an event alters memories of the event is known as
A) reconstructive memory.
B) unconscious transference.
C) selective memory.
D) node integration.
Q2) ________ refers to the process by which people recall information stored in memory.
A) Recovery
B) Acquisition
C) Retrieval
D) Recognition
Q3) Which of the following is an error in eyewitness testimony that occurs in the storage phase of memory?
A) the own-race bias
B) the best-guess phenomenon
C) source monitoring errors
D) focus on weapons
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