Social Psychology (EPPP) Exam Questions with Complete Solutions

Primacy Effect - ANSWER-- our impressions are usually swayed the most by information received early in an interaction False Consensus Bias - ANSWER-- overestimation of the degree to which the beliefs and opinions of others are similar to our own Factors that Affect Impression Formation: Central Traits - ANSWER-- certain descriptions (e.g., a warm vs. cold person) influence impressions more than others because they provide unique information and are associated with a large number of other characteristics Factors that Affect Impression Formation: Schemata - ANSWER-- organized mental networks that are based on previous personal and social experiences and that are used to judge or interpret current circumstances - pay more attention to and have better recall for evidence that confirms our mental networks Illusory Correlation - ANSWER-- belief that two characteristics, events, or variables are related when they are not - ex. believe a politician is dishonest based on schema for politicians Factors that Affect Impression Formation: Social Context - ANSWER-- behaviors of others tend to be perceived in a manner that is consistent with the social environment in which they occurred Rosenhan's Social Context Study - ANSWER-- confederates who admitted themselves to a psyc hospital were inappropriately diagnosed with Schizophrenia Factors that Affect Impression Formation: Base Rate Fallacy - ANSWER-- when making probabilistic inferences about an event or characteristic, individuals rarely consider the prior probability of that event but rely, instead, on case-specific information Factors that Affect Impression Formation: Representativeness Heuristic - ANSWER-- tendency to assume that an individual belongs to a certain category if s/he has certain characteristics associated with that category Attribution - ANSWER-- the process of determining or inferring why a behavior occurred Dispositional vs Situational Attributes - ANSWER-- behavior can be attributed to the person's internal characteristics or to situational, external characteristics