Social Psychology
Study Guide # 3
1) Define self-handicapping "strategies" and the attributional functions that they
serve.
2) Describe how the process of misattribution functioned in the study to reduce
speech anxiety.
3) Describe the actor-observer effect and some reasons why it may occur?
4) Discuss the power of social roles and how this can affect the accuracy of the
perceptions of and others (e.g., ability).
5) Explain how extrinsic rewards can affect (reduce) the motivation of people
who intrinsically enjoy a task.
6) Explain the availability heuristic and the consequences it can have.
7) Discuss how schemas can influence how we remember, perceive, and behave
(e.g., effects of occupational labels, use of words ["smashed" vs. "hit"] in car crash
research, phone conversation and physical attractiveness study).
8) Differentiate between internal, external, stable, and unstable attributions.
9) Describe the theories of interpersonal attraction of Byrne (attitude similarity)
and Rosenbaum ("repulsion hypothesis").
10) Discuss the findings of the "bridge" study and the implications it has for how
we label emotional states.
11) Summarize the findings of the study on gender differences in attributions for
friendly behavior.
12) Give some reasons as to why attitude similarity can lead to increased
interpersonal attraction.
13) Explain how Kelley’s dimensions of consistency, consensus, and
distinctiveness can affect attributions.
14) State the benefits of being physically attractive and the "matching"
hypothesis.
15) Discuss the social exchange theory of relationships (e.g., costs, benefits,
comparison level).
16) Explain some of the more recent approaches to understanding interpersonal
relationships (e.g., thoughts about interactions, search/detection process, use of
narratives).
17) Explain how people communicate differently when speaking to a casual
versus an intimate friend.
18) Describe the stages of the "life cycle" of relationships.
19) State the 6 basic (universal) emotions.
20) Describe the various types (e.g., emblems, adaptors) and functions of nonverbal behavior and the gender, status, and cultural differences that exist in their
usage.
21) Explain the various types of love as described by Sternberg.
22) State the gender differences in mate preferences and self-reported sexual
behavior.
23) Describe (and state the effects of) the Death Qualification Procedure.
24) Explain some of the issues related to identifying people through a lineup.
25) State the various issues related to eyewitness testimony.
26) Discuss the effectiveness of various jury selection procedures, pre-trial
publicity, and "inadmissible" evidence.
27) Explain social exchange and equity theories and how they affect
relationships.
28) Describe the spotlight effect and how people tend to overestimate how
people evaluate embarrassing behavior of others.