Psychological Studies
This famous study looked at conformity by having participants and confederates estimate the length of a line.
What were the Asch conformity experiments?
Joanna is in the audience at a comedy show. The room is very loud so she can't hear the comedian's jokes, but when she sees everyone in the room laughing, she laughs too. Joanna is displaying this type of conformity.
Allison is driving and gets cut off by another driver at a traffic light. That driver is on his way to the hospital, but Allison assumes he is simply a rude person. She is displaying this phenomenon.
What is the fundamental attribution error?
When working on a group presentation, Karen puts in much less effort than when she is assigned to give a presentation by herself. Karen is exhibiting this group phenomenon.
What is social loafing?
Priya recently stopped talking to one of her friends. She often finds herself feeling very sad and lonely. However, today, she decided to see this situation differently: she is telling herself that by losing that friendship, she is now going to be able to find better and more supportive friends. She is using this emotion regulation technique.
What is cognitive change/reappraisal?
This landmark study on obedience asked "teachers" to give progressively more intense shocks to help "learners" learn given material.
What was the Milgram obedience study?
Anish is bookbagging classes for next semester. He doesn't know what to select to fill his last spot, so he goes on Rate My Professor to browse reviews of classes and see what other students have liked. Anish is displaying this type of conformity.
What is informative conformity?
This idea was on the display in the study that asked people to complete a boring task, and then gave them $1 or $20 to tell the next participant that the study was fun.
What is cognitive dissonance?
Asha is a big supporter of climate change research. She attends a climate change rally and leaves with even more strongly held beliefs about climate change than she had before. This phenomenon explains why she becomes more confident in justifying her beliefs.
What is group polarization?
Tom opens up a present from his mother that he absolutely hates. She got him the spiderman shorts he used to wear when he was five. He is now 32 years old. But, his mother is smiling and asking him what he thinks. He decides to smile and give her a hug, instead of yelling. He is using this emotion regulation technique.
What is response modulation?
This technique was used to get participants to put up massive "Drive Safe" billboards in their yard after initially asking them to take a small sticker for safe driving.
What is the foot-in-the-door technique?
Aaron is staying at a hotel. In his hotel room, there is a sign that says "In the last five years, 50% of people have started choosing not to have their linens washed every day for sustainability purposes." The hotel is using this type of norm to influence behaviour.
What is a dynamic norm?
Frank is a Duke student who genuinely believes that all it takes to get into a good college like Duke is working hard. He thinks that hard work is the ultimate key to success in life. He is displaying an explicit attitude, which is guided by this system of thinking.
What is System 2?
Juan's friend group is talking about going to Shooters tonight. Juan doesn't really want to go and thinks going to see a movie would be more fun, but he wants to preserve harmony and doesn't say anything in the group due to this phenomenon.
What is groupthink?
Monica is in class and someone in her class keeps chewing gum extremely loudly. After that, they start to whisper to the person sitting next to them and loudly tapping their knee on the table. She starts to feel extremely annoyed, but decides to tune into the lecture. She is using this emotion regulation technique.
What is attentional deployment?
This phenomenon was used as an explanation for the murder of Kitty Genovese in the courtyard of her apartment complex, despite the numerous people who could hear her cries of help.
What is the bystander effect?
In the U.S., you are not legally allowed to drink alcohol before the age of 21. However, many younger students often go to social events where there are many underage people consuming alcohol. In these situations, people are more likely to follow this norm.
What is a descriptive norm?
Tony works in customer service and is having a bad day, so he accidentally snaps at a customer. The customer says that he is rude and not fit to work in customer service. The customer is making this type of attribution.
What is a dispositional attribution?
Kiara is normally a law-abiding and nonviolent person. During a city-wide riot, Kiara gets caught up in breaking windows and damaging buildings by going along with the rioting groups. This unusual behavior is an example of this phenomenon.
What is deindividuation?
Maya is eating grilled cheese when she sees a very mean person approach her table. She decides to invite her friend over to sit at the table so she can converse with her and try to avoid feeling sad and upset at the mean person’s comments. She is using this emotion regulation technique.
What is situation modification?
This key term explains why Manchester United fans were more likely to help a jogger wearing a Manchester shirt compared to a Liverpool shirt.
What is in-group/out-group?
In replication of Milgram's experiment, changing this detail was likely to increase obedience from participants.
What is a lab coat/increased authority?
When Duke wins a basketball game, the fans credit the win to the team's talent. When Duke loses a basketball game, the fans credit the loss to the poor decisions of the referral. Duke fans are displaying this phenomenon in their thinking.
What is self-serving bias?
Sarah is giving her first piano recital. Because she is performing an easy piece, she does extra well in front of the audience compared to how she played it alone in practice. Sarah is experiencing this phenomenon.
What is social facilitation?
What is situation selection?