Psychology 360
Fall 2005
Professor Pietromonaco
Study Questions for Exam 3
Exam date: Nov. 15 (Tues); exam covers Chapters 6, 7, 9, 13 and lectures from 10/20
through 11/10.
Chapter 6 and associated material
1. What are the main ideas of Leon Festinger’s (know this name) cognitive dissonance
theory? What are the three basic ways through which people can reduce cognitive
dissonance?
2. Know the design and findings from the following dissonance studies: (a) the
Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959, which was depicted in the video in class (boring task, Ps
asked to tell a lie), (b) the Aronson & Carlsmith (1963) study in which preschoolers were
faced with either a mild threat or a strong threat if they played with a “forbidden toy,”
and (c) the Aronson & Mills, 1959 study in which college women were invited to join a
discussion group about sex and were faced with either a severe, mild, or no initiation.
3. What is meant by insufficient justification? What was the role of insufficient
justification in the Festinger and Carlsmith study? What is meant by external
justification? Justification of effort? Internal justification? Insufficient punishment?
These terms can sound alike, so compare and contrast them to clarify the differences.
4. What is post-decision dissonance?
5. According to the authors of your text, what do people learn from threats of severe
punishment?
6. What is the Earning by Learning program? Under what conditions will rewards
increase or decrease a child’s desire to learn?
7. According to Cooper and Fazio (lecture), what steps are necessary for dissonance
arousal to occur?
Chapter 7 and associated material
1. What is an attitude?
2. Explain how attitudes might develop from (a) classical conditioning (Pavlovian), (b)
operant conditioning (Skinnerian), (c) modeling, (d) direct experience. (Note: Know the
difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning.)
3. Define and compared and contrast the peripheral versus central routes to persuasion.
4. In a study (Petty, Cacioppo, & Goldman, 1981), students listened to a speech arguing
that all college seniors should be required to pass a comprehensive exam before
graduation. What were the findings of this study? What general rule about persuasion is
demonstrated by these findings?
5. What is a fear-arousing communication? When are fear-arousing messages most likely
to change attitudes and behavior? (See work by Leventhal et al., 1967)
6. What is attitude inoculation? Why does it appear to work?
7. Under what conditions are better (or weaker) predictors of behavior? What was the
main point of LaPiere’s demonstration in which he first toured the U.S. with a Chinese
couple and later wrote to restaurants they had visited and asked if they would serve
Chinese people?
8. Explain Icek Ajzen and Martin Fishbein’s theory of planned behavior (see text and
lecture) How does it related to the idea that attitudes are sometimes poor predictors of
behavior? Using the theory of planned behavior, what would you need to know in order
to predict someone’s behavior?
9. How effective are subliminal advertising attempts such as the infamous “Eat Popcorn”
campaign or those supposedly showing hidden sexual messages? From a scientific
perspective, what is a major problem in evaluating the impact of such subliminal
advertising attempts in everyday life? What has research by Greenwald and colleagues
(1991) shown about the effectiveness of subliminal self-help tapes (designed to improve
self-esteem or memory)?
10. According to Robert Cialdini, what is the “principle of social proof” (discussed in
lecture)? How might it provide a partial explanation for the mass suicide at Jonestown?
11. What aspects of communicators can serve as peripheral cues to persuasion? What
were the findings of the study (Erickson et al., 1978) in which students evaluated the
credibility and competence of witnesses who spoke in either a hesitating or
straightforward manner?
12. What is the foot-in-the-door technique? How was it demonstrated in the California
study in which people were asked to place a large, ugly billboard on their front lawn? In
what way did Jim Jones appear to use this technique to get money and possessions from
members of the Peoples Temple?
13. Compare and contrast explicit vs. implicit attitudes.
14. What is need for cognition? How is it related to being persuaded? (Which route
works best for whom?)
15. How might role-playing prevent attitude change?
16. Define psychological reactance.
17. What kind of attitudes best predict spontaneous behavior?
Chapter 13 (Prejudice) and Associated Material
1. Prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination are associated with different attitudinal
components. What are they?
2. Define the “principle (or law) of least effort” (Gordon Allport).
3. “A Class Divided” video: What happened when Jane Elliott divided her 3rd graders by
eye color? What did she observe in intergroup behavior? Academic performance? Selfesteem? Did the results of the original "study" replicate with an adult group? If so, what
were some of the apparent behaviors? What may be a social psychological explanation
for the results of this "study"? (For this question, you should go back to your lecture
notes and the textbook chapter on stereotyping and prejudice.)
4. In lecture, we discussed the meaning of “race.” Is race a biological category? Why or
why not? What are some alternative ways of classifying people into “races”? What kind
of category does race seem to be?
5. Define illusory correlation. Explain how the results of the study (Hamilton & Gifford,
1976) discussed in lecture are relevant to understanding illusory correlation. In this
study, students read descriptions of positive and negative behaviors performed by
members of “Group A” or “Group B.” (Know the independent and dependent variables,
and the main finding.)
6. What are the main ideas of social identity theory?
7. What ideas from social identity theory were tested in the study (discussed in lecture;
Fein & Spencer, 1995) in which people received positive or negative feedback on a test,
and then evaluated a job applicant who appeared to be Jewish or non-Jewish? (Know
IV(s), DV(s), and findings of this study.)
8. Define the following terms: in-group bias, outgroup homogeneity.
9. In a study (see text; Greenberg & Pyszczynski, 1985), participants watched a debate
between an African-American and a European-American and then rated the debaters’
skills. Know the IV(s), DV(s), and main findings of this study.
10. How have self-reported prejudiced attitudes changed over the years? What might
account for this change?
11. How are automatic and controlled processing different? What is Devine’s (may be
helpful to know name) two-step model of the cognitive processing of stereotypes? What
did Devine show in her 1989 study in which she first divided people into high and low
prejudice groups and then had them complete a task where stereotyped or neutral words
were flashed subliminally? (Know the findings and general structure of the experiment.)
12. Describe Bargh’s research on the automatic link between power and sex. What was
the design? What were the findings?
13. What is the ultimate attribution error?
14. Define stereotype threat. What were the findings of studies by Steele and Aronson
(discussed in class)?
15. What is a self-fulfilling prophecy? How is it relevant to the domain of stereotyping
and prejudice?
16. What is the main idea of realistic conflict theory?
17. Compare and contrast modern racism and old-fashioned racism.
18. What is the bogus pipeline? How is it used to study prejudice?
19. What were the three phases of the Robbers Cave study (Sherif)? How was conflict
started? How was it successfully reduced?
20. Describe Aronson’s jigsaw technique, and the elements that make it successful.
21. In a study (Rogers & Prentice-Dunn, 1981) demonstrating a more subtle form of
racism, white participants met an African-American or Caucasian confederate who either
insulted or did not insult them. Later, they were able to choose the intensity of shocks to
be given to the confederate. What were the findings?
22. What is a basic idea of theories of modern racism?
23. In class, you performed the Implicit Association Task (IAT; Greenwald & Banaji), in
which you tapped your right and left knee when you saw particular names or words.
What general effects have been shown with the IAT? What are the effects if the audience
is Caucasian? Asian? African-American?
24. Ironic processes can occur with stereotypes. Explain how this concept was
demonstrated in the study by Macrae and colleagues. In this study, half of the
participants were asked to suppress their stereotype when evaluating a photo (of a male
skinhead) and half did not receive these instructions. What were the findings? How is
the concept “rebound effect” relevant here?
25. According to Claude Steele, what do “wise” educational environments include that
might reduce stereotype threat?
26. According to the text and lecture, what are the conditions that are likely to reduce
prejudice? (Hint: These are conditions that were not met in the effort to desegregate
schools in the U.S.)
Chapter 9 (Groups) and the Stanford Prison Simulation (class)
1. What were the general points demonstrated by the Stanford Prison Simulation
(Zimbardo)? For example, how were the participants assigned to be prisoners or guards?
How did each group respond to the study? What are the
2. What is social facilitation? What is the role of simple versus difficult tasks? Arousal
and the dominant response (Zajonc—know this name)? What consistent findings have
emerged across many studies of social facilitation?
3. Why does the presence of others cause arousal? Discuss explanation involving
arousal/alertness, evaluation apprehension, and distraction.
4. Define deindividuation. Why does it often lead to destructive behaviors?
5. What is groupthink? Under what conditions is it most likely to occur? What
conditions reduce its likelihood?
6. What is social loafing? Which types of people (e.g., from which cultures, which
gender) are most likely to engage in social loafing?
7. What is group polarization? Compare and contrast the persuasive arguments
interpretation and the social comparison interpretation for this effect.
8. Describe Fred Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership. Identity the 2 kinds of
leaders and the 2 kinds of leaders and the difference between high control and low
control situations.
9. Define transactive memory and explain its relevance to groups.
10. Research by Quinn and Schlenker (2002) examined the role of accountability and
accuracy in group decision making. Know what was manipulated in the study and what
was measured. State the findings and their implications for who is likely to make more
conforming decisions and who is likely to make more independent (nonconforming)
decisions.