Exam 3 Review – Fall 2011
Ch 7 - Conformity
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Types of Social Influence – conformity, compliance, & obedience (definitions &
how does each differ from the others?)
Effects of mimicking others – automatic process? Social functions of mimicking?
Classic Conformity studies (Sherif & Asch)
o Sherif’s study – autokinetic effect
 How was the study done?
 What was found?
o Asch’s study – line judgments
 How was the study done?
 What was found?
 Differences in tasks between Sherif’s and Asch’s studies
o Why do people conform?
 Information purposes
 Norm purposes
 Public vs. private conformity – what is the distinction?
o Majority influences on conformity
 What is the influence of group size on conformity?
 What is pluralistic ignorance?
 What is the effect of seeing other nonconformists?
 What if the other nonconformists agree or disagree with
you?
 Gender effects on conformity – private vs. face-to-face situations
o Minority influences on conformity –
 Influence based on style – what works best?
 Are there personality predictors of conformity/nonconformity?
Compliance
o Langer’s experiment – Xerox machine & requests to cut in line; what was
found?
o Strategies for compliance –
 Reciprocity norm – are there immediate or delayed responses?
 Foot-in-the door technique – how does it work? Example? Role of
self-perception
 Lowballing technique – how does it work? Example?
 Both F-I-D and Lowballing focus on what?
 Door-in-the-face technique – how does it work? Example? Role
of contrast effect
Obedience
o Milgram’s research:
 Original experiment – what was the procedure? What was found
regarding % of participants who obey?
 What were ‘teachers’ instructions (what did ‘real’
participant have to do to the ‘learner’?)
 What were the ‘learner’s’ (confederate’s) reactions?
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Impact of the situation on obedience: how did each affect
obedience?
 Location of the experiment
 Experimenter characteristics
 Closeness to victim
 Disobedient others
o Reasons for Obeying (in Milgram’s experiment)
 Were participants conforming to the wrong norm?
 Self-justification
 Loss of personal responsibility
 Zimbardo’s study of prison guards on execution teams
o Criticisms of Milgram’s experiment
 Deception
 No true informed consent
 Created distress
 Did participants know of right to withdraw?
 Inflicted insight
o Resulting ethical guidelines after Milgram’s experiment
o Burger’s replication of Milgram
 How was it similar to Milgram’s experiment?
 How did it differ from Milgram’s experiment?
 Results?
o Reeder & Pryor’s analysis of Milgram’s follow up with instructions
“choose any level of shock you want”…results?
o How does the Fundamental Attribution Error relate to Milgram’s study?
Jonestown – cults and mass suicide
o Relate this example to obedience and conformity
o How did the situation play a role in the mass suicide?
Ch 8 – Groups
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Group definition
Functions of groups
o Social interaction need
o Roles within groups – instrumental vs. expressive
o Group cohesiveness
Groupthink – what is it? Why does it occur?
o 8 symptoms – what are each of these?
 Illusion of Invulnerability
 Belief in Group’s Moral Superiority
 Rationalization
 Stereotypes of Opponents
 Pressure to Conform
 Self-Censoring
 Illusion of Unanimity
 Mindguarding
o How do various ‘symptoms’ above combine to have effects?
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o How to reduce groupthink?
 Focus on leadership, decision making, or group members (how?)
Group performance
o What is process loss and how does it impact performance?
 Brainstorming example – individuals vs. groups
Group polarization – what is it?
o Risky shift effect – how does it work?
 Pooling ideas
 Social comparison
Improving Group Performance
o Goal setting effects – what works best?
o Technology effects – how can computerized groups be used (what
techniques work well?)
o Diversity – what are short-term vs. long-term effects of diverse groups?
Conflict in Groups
o Mixed Motives – lead to social dilemmas
 Prisoner’s Dilemma (confess/cooperate with partner)
 Resource Dilemma (commons dilemma with limited resources)
 Results of these conflict games?
o Solutions for social dilemmas?
 What is a ‘non-zero sum game’ and should dilemmas be viewed
this way?
Conflict Management Strategies
o Bargaining vs. Mediation vs. Arbitration
 Win-win (integrative) agreements work best
 How do mediation and arbitration differ?
 Differences between conventional & final offer arbitration?
Group Performance in front of others…
o Social facilitation – what is it? Easy vs. difficult tasks – results?
 Zajonc explanation vs. alternate explanations
Social loafing – what is it? Why does it occur?
o What is the best solution to reduce social loafing?
o Unifying social loafing and social facilitation
Deindividuation –what is it? Why does it occur?
o Consequences?
Ch 9 – Attraction (note that this material may change slightly depending on how far we
progress in class through the topics below – check your class notes)
 Need for affiliation – as individual difference
o Compare to loneliness – when does this often occur?
 Attraction to friendships –
o Proximity – how does this predict our friendships?
o Mere exposure effect – how does this work?
 Psych lecture hall experiment
 Perceptions of ourselves (actual vs. mirror images)
o Physical attractiveness
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Matching phenomenon – how does this work? What effects?
Adults’ judgments of kids – teacher study, employee salaries
‘What is beautiful is good’ stereotype – any truth to this?
Standards of beauty – women vs. men
 Evolutionary explanation for such standards?
o Liking and similarity
 Which influences which? 2-step process?
 Complementarity hypothesis - any evidence for this?
First Encounters
o Similarity, reciprocity work here
o Hard-to-get effect – does this work? Internal vs. external reasons for
it?
o Where/how do people typically meet? Results of Pew (2005) study?
o Online meeting – increasing impact
 Distinguish between naturally forming relationships,
networked relationships, targeted relationships (examples of
each?)
Initiating relationships online/internet vs. face-to-face
o Levinger’s model of relationship development
 Awareness of other – similar or different in online/face-to-face
 Surface contact – online vs. face-to-face
 Mutuality – what does Levinger argue about this stage?
o Factors leading to attraction online
 Person (P) factors – are there differences in who seeks partners
online?
 Other (O) factors – differences in what attracts us to others
online?
 PxO interaction – impact of similarity
 Matching hypothesis in online relationships – what
were results related to compensating factors for men
and women (attractiveness vs. income)?
Mate Selection
o Evolutionary Psych explanations
 Universal patterns?
 Female perspective on selecting mates
 Male perspective on selecting mates
 Direct Request study – gender differences in % of
agreement to request to have sex?
 Criticisms of evolutionary explanations
Exchange perspective to mate selection (deleted 11/7)
o Comparison levels
o Equity theory
Attachment & love
o How is attachment studied (infant research)
o What are 3 attachment styles?
o Links to commitment and satisfaction for each style
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Theories of love
o Passionate/Companionate love – definitions of each
 Excitation transfer – what is it? Effects?
 Changes over time in passionate & companionate love
Patterns of Marriage
o Marital communication
 Negative affect reciprocity
 Role of interactions
 Role of attributions
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus video – main points?
Sexual Orientation research
o Theories to explain orientation differences
o Similarities in research on attraction/relationships
Predictors of divorce
Satisfaction after divorce