BAPSY Social Psychology Principles 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When a person attributes their own aggressive behavior to provocation but attributes another's aggression to bad character, this illustrates:
- The fundamental attribution error
- The actor-observer effect (Correct answer)
- Self-serving bias
- The halo effect
Correct answer: The actor-observer effect
The actor-observer effect describes how we attribute our own behavior to situations while attributing others' behavior to their dispositions.
Question 2: Contact hypothesis proposes that prejudice between groups decreases when contact occurs under which condition?
- Brief and superficial interaction
- Equal status and cooperative goals (Correct answer)
- Competition for shared resources
- Institutional authority endorsing separation
Correct answer: Equal status and cooperative goals
Allport's contact hypothesis states that prejudice reduction requires equal-status contact, cooperative interdependence, and institutional support.
Question 3: The phenomenon where the presence of others improves performance on well-learned tasks but impairs performance on complex or novel tasks is called:
- Social loafing
- Deindividuation
- Social facilitation (Correct answer)
- Audience inhibition
Correct answer: Social facilitation
Social facilitation occurs because an audience increases arousal, which enhances the dominant (well-practiced) response but hurts performance on difficult tasks.
Question 4: Which persuasion route in the Elaboration Likelihood Model involves careful consideration of argument quality?
- Peripheral route
- Heuristic route
- Central route (Correct answer)
- Automatic route
Correct answer: Central route
The central route of the ELM involves deep processing of message content and leads to more durable attitude change when strong arguments are presented.
Question 5: Minimal group paradigm research by Tajfel demonstrated that in-group favoritism occurs even when:
- Groups have long histories of conflict
- Groupings are based on trivial and arbitrary criteria (Correct answer)
- Individuals have stable social identities
- Economic competition is high between groups
Correct answer: Groupings are based on trivial and arbitrary criteria
Tajfel's minimal group studies showed people favor their own group over others even when assigned to groups arbitrarily, such as by a coin flip or art preference.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes the concept of 'deindividuation'?
- Reduced effort in group tasks
- Loss of self-awareness and restraint in group settings or anonymity (Correct answer)
- Increased personal responsibility in crowds
- Conformity to group norms through internalization
Correct answer: Loss of self-awareness and restraint in group settings or anonymity
Deindividuation occurs when anonymity and group immersion reduce self-awareness, lowering inhibitions and increasing impulsive or antisocial behavior.
Question 7: Self-perception theory (Bem) proposes that people infer their attitudes by:
- Comparing themselves to reference groups
- Observing their own behavior when internal cues are weak (Correct answer)
- Resolving cognitive dissonance through rationalization
- Seeking feedback from trusted others
Correct answer: Observing their own behavior when internal cues are weak
Bem's self-perception theory suggests that when attitudes are unclear, we infer them from observing our own actions, much as we would infer others' attitudes.
BAPSY Social Psychology Principles 3
When a person attributes their own aggressive behavior to provocation but attributes another's aggression to bad character, this illustrates: