Exam 3 Review – Spring 2012
(Note: Material for Ch 9 may change slightly depending on how much is covered in
class. Check back after Tuesday 4/3 for updates to this outline)
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 (pinpoint of light)
 How was the study done?
 What was found?
o Asch’s study – line judgments
 How was the study done?
 What was found?
o Why do people conform?
 Information purposes
 Normative 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 the effect of seeing other nonconformists?
 What if the other nonconformists agree or disagree with
you?
 Gender effects on conformity – do they exist?
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?
 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?
 Impact of the situation on obedience: how did each affect
obedience?
 Location of the experiment
 Experimenter characteristics
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 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
o Criticisms of Milgram’s experiment
 Deception
 No true informed consent
 Created distress
 Did participants know of right to withdraw?
 Inflicted insight
o Burger’s replication of Milgram – how was the procedure similar or
different from Milgram?
 Results of Burger’s replication?
o Ethics of Milgram’s research –
 What were the concerns here?
 What effects did participants report and how did Milgram respond?
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. emotional
o Group cohesiveness
How does the presence of others affect us?
o Social facilitation – what is it?
o Triplett experiment with kids & fishing line – results?
o Different results for easy versus difficult tasks –
 Zajonc’s research – concept of dominant response (how does it
help explain the different results?)
 Animal research (cockroaches) and social facilitation –
what is found?
o What is evaluation apprehension? How does it impact social facilitation?
Social loafing – what is it? Why does it occur?
o What is the best solution to reduce social loafing?
o Gender & cultural differences in social loafing – who loafs the most?
Deindividuation –what is it? Why does it occur?
o Diener’s Halloween study – how did the kids behave depending on
anonymity?
Group performance
o What is process loss and how does it impact performance?
 Brainstorming example – individuals vs. groups
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Group polarization – what is it?
o Risky shift effect – how does it work?
 Pooling ideas
 Social comparison
Groupthink – what is it? Why does it occur?
o 8 symptoms –
 Illusion of Invulnerability
 Belief in Group’s Moral Superiority
 Rationalization
 Stereotypes of Opponents
 Pressure to Conform
 Self-Censoring
 Illusion of Unanimity
 Mindguarding
o How to reduce groupthink?
 Focus on leadership, decision making, or group members (how?)
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?
 What effects does arbitration have on relationships?
Ch 9 – Attraction (note that this material may change slightly depending on how far we
progress in class through the topics below)
 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?
 Standards of beauty – women vs. men
o Liking and similarity
 Which influences which? 2-step process?
 Complementarity hypothesis - any evidence for this?
 First Encounters
o Similarity, reciprocity work here
o Online meeting – increasing impact
 Distinguish between naturally forming relationships,
networked relationships, targeted relationships (examples of
each?)
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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)?
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 date; to come to apartment; to
have sex?
 Criticisms of evolutionary explanations
Attachment & love
o How is attachment studied (infant research)
o What are 3 attachment styles?
o Links to commitment and satisfaction for each style
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 – relationship enhancing attributions?
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus video – main points?
Predictors of divorce
Satisfaction after divorce