Social Psychology Mid Term Outline
Please see the list of terms/ topics below. You are required to use this as a comprehensive outline for your mid term exam. Define the topics and familiarize yourselves with each.
Social Psychology Foundation
1. Social Psychology
2. Attitude and three components
3. Cognitive Consistency
4. Dissonance Theory and Three ways to remove dissonance
5. Variable relating to persuasion: communicator, message, audience variable
6. Stereotype
7. Stereotype Threat
8. Discrimination
9. Prejudice
10. How can one reduce prejudice via contact hypothesis?
11. Social Norms
12. Conformity vs Normative Conformity
13. Group Think
14. Compliance
15. Sociometer Hypothesis
16. Fragile, inflated egotism
17. Students should be able to adopt a topic discussed in class such as (cognitive dissonance, social identity theory, attribution, ect.) and be able to explain the process in a scientist manner (i.e. using the scientific method).(SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY)
a. i.e. What is a suggested hypothesis for your topic of choice
b. What is the relationship between the two variables
c. What methods would be used
d. Discuss outcomes and results, etc.
Chapter 2: Culture and Nature
1. Social Animal vs. Culture Defined Animal
2. The Duplex Mind: Autonomic vs Deliberate Systems (Thinking)
3. Social Acceptance
a. Question to think about. Why are people influence more by others who are perceived as similar to themselves?
4. Why Does Nature makes us selfish?
Chapter 3: The Self (in a Social World)
1. What is Self?
2. What are the three main jobs of the self?
3. Three parts of the Self
4. Self-awareness (private vs public self-awareness)
• Questions to consider:
i. How does self-awareness lead to self regulation?
ii. How does self awareness help us adopt the perspective of other people?
5. Theory of Social Comparison
6. Self-perception Theory
7. Over-justification Effect
8. Self Esteem
9. Benefits of Self Esteem
10. Self-esteem vs Self Efficacy
Chapter 4: Choices and Actions in Control
1. Reactance Theory
2. Entity Theory
3. Incremental Theory
4. Zeigarnik effect
5. Automatic and Deliberate Systems
• Questions to consider:
i. Which system helps people set goals?
ii. Which helps us resume activity after interruption?
iii. Which system reminds us of the goal when we lose our focus?
iv. How can the Zeigarnik effect explain how the two systems work together?
6. Self-regulation theory
7. Habits
• Questions to consider:
i. How do habits represent past goals?
ii. How can habits help you pursue current goals?
iii. How can habits be detrimental to achieving goals?
8. Self-defeating acts
Chapter 5: Social Cognition
1. Social Cognition
2. Stroop Effect
3. Cognitive Dissonance
4. Persuasion
a. Central Route to Persuasion
b. Peripheral Route to Persuasion
5. Compliance
a. Foot in the Door Technique
b. Door in the Face
c. Low Balling
6. External versus Internal Attributions
7. Fundamental Attribution Error
8. Heuristics
a. Availability
b. Representativeness
c. Anchoring and Adjustment
d. Simulation (similarity)
• Social Cognition Questions to consider:
o Can you be prejudice and not know it?
o If you go out of your way not to discriminate, is that the same thing as not being prejudice?
o Can you learn a stereotype, without conscious awareness—if so, how does that happen?
