Exam 4 Review – Spring 2013
Note: because I am posting this outline before we have covered all of the material, check
back periodically for updates based on material actually covered in class
Ch 11 – Attraction & Intimacy
 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?
 Perceptions of ourselves (actual vs. mirror images)
o Physical attractiveness
 Matching phenomenon – how does this work?
 Adults’ judgments of kids – teacher study, employee salaries
 ‘What is beautiful is good’ stereotype – any truth to this?
 Mate Selection
o Evolutionary Psych explanations
 Universal patterns? What gender differences exist in the type
of mate males/females are looking for?
 Video/Univ of Florida example of male/female confederates
approaching strangers on campus and asking for dates/sex
 Criticisms of evolutionary explanations
 First Encounters
o Online meeting:
 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-toface?
 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)?
 Attachment & love
o How is attachment studied (infant research)?
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o What are the 3 attachment styles?
o Links to commitment and satisfaction?
Theories of love
o Passionate/Companionate love – definitions of each
 Excitation transfer – what is it? Effects? (“Bridge study”)
 Changes over time in passionate & companionate love?
Patterns of Marriage – when does satisfaction typically decrease?
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus video – main points?
Ch 12 – Helping Others
 Motives for altruism
 Evolutionary explanations
 Kin Selection – what evidence supports this?
 Reciprocity
 Empathy – cognitive and emotional components?
 Toddler research – results from 14-18 mo. olds & empathy?
 Cost-reward model
 Social exchange: possible rewards from helping?
 When is helping egoistic vs. altruistic?
 Research on volunteering – possible motives
 Modeling, threat to community, negative state relief
 Bystander Effect (Latane & Darley’s research)
 Kitty Genovese example that started research on bystanders
 Latane & Darley’s follow-up experiments (confederate having a seizure,
smoke-filled room) to examine the bystander effect – what is found?
 What is diffusion of responsibility?
 What is pluralistic ignorance?
 Shotland experiment on intervening in male/female violence:
 Impact of assumptions about their relationship
 Other Situational Influences (rural, culture, role models, attractiveness) – how do
these influence helping?
 Ways to increase helping
 Awareness of the bystander effect
 Avoid overjustification – how?
Chapter 15 – Social Psych and the Courtroom
(Note: one small change below – see the strike-through):
 Eyewitness memory – concern over recent exonerations using DNA and erroneous
eyewitness accounts
 Jennifer Thompson case as an example (know the general facts of the case)
– 3 stages of memory critical to eyewitness accounts:
 Acquisition - Role of stress, weapons, and race
 Storage - What is the misinformation effect (Loftus’ research)?
 Retrieval - Lineup format (Wells’ research)
 Sequential or simultaneous?
 Instructions to eyewitnesses
 Jurors’ perceptions of eyewitness testimony
– Confidence vs. accuracy
– What type of eyewitness is found most believable by jurors?
– What is a good predictor of eyewitness accuracy?
 Interrogations & Confessions
– Impact of social influence, fatigue, stress
– Effect of compliance in false confessions
– Effect of internalization in false confessions
 Jury deliberations
– Processing info – story order vs. witness order (how does each work?)
– Death-qualified jurors – who are they?
 Criticisms of jury research