Download Chapter 14 Objectives

Psychology, A Journey 3e Objectives
Chapter 14
OBJECTIVE 14.1 — Define social psychology; discuss our need to afflilate, including a description
of Schachter’s classic experiment on affliliation; and describe the social comparison theory,
including how meaningful evaluations take place.
OBJECTIVE 14.2 — Define interpersonal attraction; describe the following factors that influence
interpersonal attraction: a. physical proximity; b. physical attractiveness, including the halo effect; c.
competence; and d. similarity, including homogamy; and discuss the effects of varying degrees of
self-disclosure on interpersonal relationships.
OBJECTIVE 14.3 — Discuss Rubin’s studies of romantic love, including the differences between
loving and liking, the differences between male and female friendships, and the concept of mutual
absorption; and describe the field of evolutionary psychology and how this field of study explains
the different mate selection preferences of males and females.
OBJECTIVE 14.4 — Discuss the following dimensions of being in a social group: a. social roles,
including ascribed roles, achieved roles, and role conflict; b. group structure; c. group cohesivenss,
d. in-groups and out-groups; e. status; and
f. group norms.
OBJECTIVE 14.5 — Discuss the process of attribution, including the difference between external
and internal causes; explain the fundamental attibution error and the actor-observer bias; and
describe gender differences in attributing success.
OBJECTIVE 14.6 — Define social influence and explain the different kinds of social influence;
describe Asch’s experiment on conformity; explain how groupthink may contribute to poor decisionmaking and list ways to prevent it; and describe how the following factors affect conformity: a.
group sanctions, b. the importance of the group, c. the number of group members, d. the unanimity
of the group, and e. the power of an ally.
OBJECTIVE 14.7 — Explain how compliance differs from conformity; and describe the following
methods of gaining compliance: a. foot-in-the-door; b. door-in-the-face; and c. low-ball technique.
OBJECTIVE 14.8 — Describe Milgram’s study of obedience; discuss how each of the following
factors affected the degree of obedience in Milgram’s follow-up experiments: a. prestige of the
authority; b. distance between the teacher and the learner; c. distance from the authority; and d.
group support; and give examples of “crimes of obedience” in world events and everyday life.
OBJECTIVE 14.9 — Discuss the following aspects of assertiveness training: a. your three basic
rights, including the concept of self-assertion; b. a comparison of assertive, non-assertive, and
aggressive behaviors (see Table 14.2); and c. the importance of practice, using rehearsal and roleplaying, so that one can be assertive even under stress.
OBJECTIVE 14.10 — Define attitude; describe the belief, emotional, and action components of an
attitude; list and give examples of six ways in which attitudes are acquired; and explain three reasons
why people may exhibit discrepancies between attitudes and behavior and how conviction affects
attitudes.
OBJECTIVE 14.11 — Explain the difference between membership groups and reference groups,
including how one’s point of reference affects attitude change; and define persuasion and explain
how the characteristics of the communicator, audience, and message affect attitude change.
OBJECTIVE 14.12 — Explain cognitive dissonance theory; list five strategies for reducing
dissonance (see Table 14.3); and describe how the amount of justification affects the amount of
dissonance felt and why we are especially likely to experience dissonance after causing an event that
we wish hadn’t happened.
OBJECTIVE 14.13 — Differentiate between brainwashing and other persuasive techniques;
describe the techniques used in brainwashing; indicate how permanent the attitude changes brought
about by brainwashing are; and describe how cults are able to recruit, convert, and retain their
members and how cult leaders differ from true spiritual leaders.
OBJECTIVE 14.14 — Differentiate between the concepts of prejudice and discrimination; describe
how prejudice may be a form of scapegoating; distinguish between the two sources of prejudice,
personal and group prejudices; and explain how prejudice can be considered a general personality
characteristic by discussing the following: a. the authoritarian personality; b. ethnocentrism; c. the
use of the F scale to measure authoritarian beliefs; and d. how authoritarian beliefs are learned as
children.
OBJECTIVE 14.15 — Describe the shared beliefs that tend to trigger intergroup conflict; explain the
characterisitcs of social stereotypes and how they can amplify the conflict between groups; describe
symbolic prejudice; and explain how some elements of prejudice appear to be unconscious.
OBJECTIVE 14.16 — Describe Jane Elliot’s experiment in which prejudice was caused by status
inequalities; explain how reducing the complex American society into two oversimplified
stereotypes, “red and blue states,’ has lead to an increase in between-group prejudice; and describe
how more frequent equal-status contact between groups in conflict could reduce prejudice and
stereotyping.
OBJECTIVE 14.17 — Describe the summer camp experiment in which superordinate goals were
used to help reduce the conflict between the two groups; and explain how superordinate goals can
be applied to reduce global conflict and to reduce prejudices within ordinary classrooms through the
jigsaw classrooms and their goal of mutual interdependence.
OBJECTIVE 14.18 — Define aggression; and discuss the role of each of the following in aggressive
behavior: a. instincts and why psychologists question this theory;
b. biology, including physical
factors and the effects of drugs and alcohol; c. the frustration-aggression hypothesis; d. aversive
stimuli, including the activation of aggressive cues and the weapons effect; and d. social learning
theory.
OBJECTIVE 14.19 — Explain how television can teach new antisocial actions, serve as a
disinhibiting factor, cause desensitization to violence, increase aggressive thoughts, and make one
more prone to aggress when faced with frustrating stiuations or cues; and list seven ways in which
parents can buffer the impact of television on children's behavior.
OBJECTIVE 14.20 — Define prosocial behavior; describe the Kitty Genovese case in terms of
bystander apathy; explain how the presence of other people can influence bystanders’ willingness to
help; describe four conditions that need to exist before bystanders are likely to give help; discuss
factors, such as heightened and emotional arousal and the empathy-helping relationship, that make
one more likely to help; and describe how one can “de-victimize” oneself and be more likely to
receive help.
OBJECTIVE 14.21 — Define the term multiculturalism; discuss eight ways in which a person can
become more tolerant; and explain how a person can develop cultural awareness.