1
Oakdale High School
Advanced Placement Psychology
Mr. Simoncini
Chapter 14 Reading Response Questions
PP 565-574 (and 582)
1. What are the definitions of “social psychology” and the “social context?”
2. What are the two major themes in social psychology, according to the authors of our
textbook?
3. What is situationism?
4. Think about starting college this coming late summer or fall. Assume that you will be the
only OHS student at your particular institution of higher learning and that you will be
residing in a campus dormitory. Discuss social roles, scripts and social norms in the
aforementioned context—how will those three things affect your initial collegiate
experience?
5. Discuss the process, results and significance of Theodore Newcomb’s Bennington
College experiment.
6. What is the chameleon effect and how does the example of “Shoeness at Yale” apply to
it?
7. Discuss Solomon Asch’s experiment and the resulting Asch Effect.
8. What is individual heroic defiance and how does it apply to the Asch Effect? Be
prepared to discuss examples the textbook provides of this condition.
9. What factors did Asch identify that influence whether a person will yield to group
pressure? Discuss.
10. What additional factors influence conformity?
11. What did Irving Janis mean when he coined the term “Groupthink?” What conditions
promote groupthink? Be prepared to cite historical examples that the authors were
influenced or even caused by groupthink.
12. What examples does the textbook offer regarding people who have commanded the
obedience of groups (or event large masses of people?) Discuss.
PP. 574- 583
13. Discuss the process, results and significance of Stanley Milgram’s experiment.
14. According to Milgram, under what conditions do people tend to be obedient?
15. What lessons can be learned from Milgram’s experiments?
2
16. According to the textbook, what is “the other take-home message from (Milgram’s)
experiments?”
17. Discuss “bystander apathy” as it applied to the Kitty Genovese case.
18. Discuss the process, results and significance of the Latane’ and Darley experiments
regarding bystander apathy. In your discussion, be sure to factor in the concepts of
“diffusion of responsibility” and “conformity.”
19. What did Ted Huston et al (1981) discover in their studies of reactions bystanders have
in actual emergency situations?
20. Discuss the process, results and significance of Tom Moriarty’s 1975 experiments
regarding situational power.
PP. 583-593
21. What is social reality?
22. Discuss in detail Elliot Aronson’s reward theory of attraction and each of the four
“especially powerful sources of reward that predict interpersonal attraction.”
23. What “bad news for exceptionally attractive readers” do the authors discuss?
24. What is the matching hypothesis?
25. What is the expectancy-value theory?
26. What is a “noteworthy exception” to the expectancy-value theory?
27. How can individuals who appear to be extremely competent also be “losers in the
expectancy-value game?”
28. As a review of something we covered earlier this year, discuss cognitive dissonance
theory.
29. Cite examples of how cognitive dissonance theory “explains many things that people do
to justify their behavior.”
30. As a review of another topic we covered earlier this year, discuss fundamental attribution
error (FAE). How does culture factor into FAE?
31. What is self-serving bias?
32. How does our textbook define the term “prejudice?”
33. How does the textbook distinguish prejudice from discrimination?
34. Discuss the five causes of prejudice discussed by the textbook.
3
35. According to the textbook, why have gradual processes of information campaigns and
education not been significantly effective in combating prejudice?
36. What is “equal status contact” and how can it combat prejudice?
37. According to the textbook, is there proof that a society CAN legislate morality?
PP. 593-600
38. Define the following terms that pertain to group dynamics: social facilitation, social
loafing and deindividuation.
39. Why do people join groups?
40. Discuss the terms “group polarization” and “groupthink.”
41. Discuss Robert Sternberg’s triangular theory of love.
42. What statistics does the textbook provide about the divorce rate in the United States
today?
43. What has become the new emphasis on research regarding the success or failure of
marriages? Discuss
44. According to research, what does a relationship need to thrive?
45. Discuss the Robbers Cave experiment.
46. Discuss Jonathan Lash’s findings about the causes of present-day world terrorism.
47. Our textbook’s authors write: “Terrorism is really about psychology.” How do they
support that statement? According to the authors, what can we, as “citizens and critical
thinkers,” do to combat terrorism?
48. How has Herbert Kelman applied psychological research (the Robbers Cave
experiment) to the contemporary political upheaval between the Israelis and the
Palestinians?