PSYC 3520 EXAM 1 QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026

PSYC 3520 EXAM 1 QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026 Social psychology - Answers Scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another Theory - Answers Integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events Impression management - Answers Assumes that people, especially those who self-monitor their behavior hoping to create good impressions, will adapt their attitude reports to appear consistent with their actions is a conscious or subconscious process in which people attempt to influence the perceptions of other people about a person, object or event. They do so by regulating and controlling information in social interaction. Experimental Research - Answers Seeks clues to cause-effect relationships by manipulating one or more variables while controlling others Belief perseverance - Answers Persistence of one's initial conceptions, as when the basis for one's belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survive (Beliefs can grow their own legs and survive discrediting) Example: Obama as a Muslim or illegitimate president Overconfidence - Answers Tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs Incompetence feeds overconfidence Remedies for overconfidence: Give prompt feedback to explain why statement is incorrect For planning fallacy, ask one to "unpack a task" - break it down into estimated time requirements for each part Get people to think of one good reason why their judgements might be wrong Confirmation bias - Answers Tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions We want to be right, so we look for information that will prove we are right Attitude - Answers Favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction toward something or someone Made up of an affect (emotion), cognition (belief or judgement) and a behavior Cognitive dissonance theory - Answers basically when you hold two contradictory beliefs but believe in them the same, creating an internal disagreement within yourself; e.g. a woman thinks that all dogs are vicious but also loves her dog for how sweet it is Tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions To reduce discomfort, we justify our actions to ourselves Self-perception theory - Answers proposed by Daryl Bem, suggests that people develop attitudes and opinions by observing their own behavior and drawing conclusions from it. This theory also downplays the roles of internal thoughts and emotions in attitude formation. When we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them much as would someone observing us, by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs Self-fulfilling beliefs/prophecies - Answers Belief that leads to its own fulfillment Foot-in-the-door - Answers Tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request Example used in class: He asked student to stand up, then jump, then give him money Social movements and race relations in behavior/attitude formation - Answers Racial behaviors help shape our social consciousness Political and social movement may legislate behavior designed to lead to attitude change on a mass scale Hindsight bias - Answers The tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one's ability to have foreseen how something turned out Claiming that you could have intuited something right after you learn the concept; e.g. "OH, I knew that we all have a self-concept that can inform your behavior, attitudes, and beliefs." Sure you did. HINDSIGHT BIAS. Spotlight effect - Answers Belief that others are paying more attention to one's appearance and behavior than they really are Example: Students wore a shirt with "American Eagle" on it and 40% were sure that other students would remember what the shirt said but only 10% actually did Illusion of transparency - Answers Illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others Self-concept - Answers What we know and believe about ourselves A person's answer to the question, "Who am I?" Schemas - Answers Mental templates by which we organize our worlds Self-schema - beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information Possible selves - Answers Images of what we dream of or dread becoming in the future Looking-glass self - Answers How we think others perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves Individualism vs. collectivism - Answers Individualism - concept of giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications; western cultures Collectivism - giving priority to the goals of one's group and defining one's identity accordingly; Asian, African, and Central and South American cultures How good are you at predicting your own behavior - Answers Planning Fallacy - tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task and overestimate how well you will do on it Predicting emotions - Answers "Affective forecasting" People have the greatest difficulty predicting the intensity and the duration of their future emotions Impact bias - overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events Immune neglect - tendency to neglect the speed and strength of the "psychological immune system" which enables emotional recovery and resilience after bad things happen Implicit vs. explicit attitudes - Answers Dual attitude system - automatic implicit attitudes regarding someone or something often differ from our consciously controlled explicit attitudes about the same object A review of the available research reveals that both implicit and explicit attitudes help predict people's behavior better than either alone Self-esteem and narcissism - Answers Self-esteem - our overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth Boosting one's specific self-esteem is more impactful than one's global self-esteem Narcissism - having an inflated sense of self; feeling better than everyone else Narcissism and self-esteem interact to influence aggression The "Dark Triad" - narcissism, machiavellianism, antisocial psychopathology Priming - Answers Activating particular associations in memory Example: watching a scary movie at home may prime us to interpret furnace noises as a possible intruder Behavior-attitude /attitude behavior relationships - Answers We like to think that if we think favorably about something, we will act favorably, but this is not the case Example in class: we all feel negatively about cheating but we have all cheated Our behavior seems to come first