BAD NEWS MEMO

Psychology

In this exam, you will be answering 10 short answer questions (most have multiple parts) in your own words. Yes, use your learning resources in the class to review and understand the material, but the goal here is for you to demonstrate your deep understanding of Week 1-4s topics by explaining them in your way. This isn’t an essay assignment – I’m not assessing your writing ability here. What does matter is that I can tell that you understand the answers to these questions based on you having read the material, discussed it in class, reviewed it for this midterm, and can now explain these concepts from your own knowledge bank (vs. “finding” the answers in the reading). This exam is open book – you can use the reading and our ol’ friend Google to help you.

1. In your own words, define the study of social psychology and give an example of a topic social psychologists would be particularly interested in.

2. A) Describe why social psychological research is so important.

B) Describe the methods and tools that researchers use to study social psychological phenomena (hint: hit on topics such as operational definition, neuroscience, observational research, and correlational and experimental research).

C) Why is deception necessary in social psychology research and how do researchers deceive participants ethically?

3. Define each of these key terms – social affect, social cognition, and social behavior – and, for each one, provide

A) An everyday example (not one from your reading) and

B) A very brief summary of a related study (one from the reading is okay).

4. Identify and provide one example (each) of the four kinds of social learning: Operant, associational, observational, and schema-based Learning.

5. A) What is happening in the human body when we experience an intense emotion? Describe this in terms of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), and the amygdala.

B) How and why are these systems particularly activated in social situations?

6. Choose one of the studies on social affect presented in your reading, summarize it (methods and results) and the describe a real world situation where this phenomenon might apply.

7. A) Define the concepts of self-concept, self-awareness, self-esteem, self-monitoring, and self-presentation. Give an example of each (can be brief).

B) What has the research told us about the nature of “self-complexity?”

C) Choose one of the experiments on “the self” discussed in the Week 3 materials, summarize it (methods and results) and identify a real world application of this finding.

8. A) Define the concept of attitude as it applies to social psychology and describe at least one factor that determines the strength of the attitude-behavior relationship.

B) Discuss and give an example of one variable that makes us more or less resistant to persuasive appeals.

C) Define the concept of cognitive dissonance and how it affects behavior and attitude.

9. A) Discuss how we use behaviors and traits to form initial impressions or perceptions of others.

B) What role do nonverbal behaviors play in person perception?

C) What is the co-variation principle and how does it differ from Weiner’s model of success and failure?

D) Are causal attributions accurate? What is the relationship between attributions and mental health?

10. A) How does informational conformity differ from normative conformity?

B) Provide examples (one each) of how majority and minority social influence are created.

C) What situational variables influence how much we conform?

D) What does the research say about the differences in conformity between men and women?

E) What is psychological reactance? When does it occur?