PSYC 1F90 (2ND SEMESTER) | 346 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
| 2026 UPDATE | WITH COMPLETE SOLUTION.
Social Psychology Answer - The study of how people behave in social
situations. Social sychology is responsible for the best and worst things
humanity has done.
Social Groups Answer - • They are groups that help us define who we are
• They give us roles to take on, and rules to follow
• One social group we are a part of is the fact that we're Brock students
• Other social groups include your gender, race, age, religion, mental health
status, etc.
Ingroups Answer - • They are groups that you personally identify with
Outgroups Answer - • Groups that you do not identify with
• People tend to see the negativity with groups they do not identify with
Social Roles Answer - • Expectations for how people who hold certain
positions in a group ought to behave
Social Norms Answer - • A widely accepted standard of conduct for
appropriate behavior, unspoken agreements
Flyers Experiment Answer - • 1, 2, 4, and 8 pieces of litter on the ground
,• The more litter on the ground, the more likely they were to throw their flyer
on the ground
• This proves how norms are so important to shaping our behavior
• We are a social species
Social Cognition Answer - • It is the process of thinking about ourselves and
other people in social contexts
Social Comparison Answer - • The process of evaluating our abilities,
achievements, and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people
Downward comparison Answer - • Comparing yourself with a person who
ranks lower than you on some dimension
• It protects our self-esteem
Upward comparison Answer - • Comparing yourself with a person who ranks
higher than you on some dimension
• It lowers our self-esteem and is motivating to do better
• It can be bad for your mental health, especially if you compare yourself to
someone who is essentially out of reach
• Reasearch shows that role models are most motivating when the level of
achievement they have feels attainable
• The happiest people will compare themselves to their own internal
standards rather than looking to others
Attribution Answer - • A theory describing how we assign attributions for
other people's behavior
,Dispositional Attribution Answer - Explaining a persons behavior as a products
of their personality
Situational Attribution Answer - Explaining a persons behavior as being the
product of their situation
Fundamental Attribution Error Answer - • The tendency to attribute the
behavior of others to dispositional causes, without regard for situational
influences
• We tend to explain other people's behaviors by their personality more than
their situation
• Humans are more dispositionalist
• The assumptions we make are not always correct
Actor Observer Bias Answer - • The tendency to make dispositional
attributions for the behaviour of others and situational attributions for our own
behavior
Self-Serving Attributions Answer - • Positive outcome for self:
○ Explain it in terms of dispositional factors
• Negative outcome for self:
○ Explain it in terms of situational factors
Self-Handicapping Answer - • Placing obstacles in the way of your success to
protect your self-esteem from possible future failure
• Like partying the night before a test
Self-justification Answer - • We make stories to make us seem like a good
person in relation to our own behavior
, Cognitive dissonance theory Answer - • The idea that people have a distaste
for perceiving inconsistency between their thoughts and behaviours
• Cognitive dissonance occurs when we hold two cognitions that are
psychologically inconsistent
• Dissonant thoughts cause psychological discomfort
• We try to reduce dissonance by making our cognitions more compatible
Reducing dissonance Answer - • Change behaviour —> Stop smoking
• Change the cognition —> Smoking doesn't cause cancer
• Add consonant thoughts —> Smoking reduces stress
• Changing the importance of the dissonant thoughts —> Smoking is cool
• We are skilled at psychological distortion to convince ourselves that what we
do is acceptable
• We are very hypocritical as a species
Social Facilitation Answer - • The tendency to perform better in the presence
of other people
Tripplett's social facilitation study Answer - • He told children to reel in a
fishing rod as fast as they could
• Some were alone, some were competing against other children
He found that the children reeled faster when they were competing with other
children than when they did it alone
Social Loafing Answer - • When a person exerts less effort knowing that their
individual performance will be hidden in the group product
| 2026 UPDATE | WITH COMPLETE SOLUTION.
Social Psychology Answer - The study of how people behave in social
situations. Social sychology is responsible for the best and worst things
humanity has done.
Social Groups Answer - • They are groups that help us define who we are
• They give us roles to take on, and rules to follow
• One social group we are a part of is the fact that we're Brock students
• Other social groups include your gender, race, age, religion, mental health
status, etc.
Ingroups Answer - • They are groups that you personally identify with
Outgroups Answer - • Groups that you do not identify with
• People tend to see the negativity with groups they do not identify with
Social Roles Answer - • Expectations for how people who hold certain
positions in a group ought to behave
Social Norms Answer - • A widely accepted standard of conduct for
appropriate behavior, unspoken agreements
Flyers Experiment Answer - • 1, 2, 4, and 8 pieces of litter on the ground
,• The more litter on the ground, the more likely they were to throw their flyer
on the ground
• This proves how norms are so important to shaping our behavior
• We are a social species
Social Cognition Answer - • It is the process of thinking about ourselves and
other people in social contexts
Social Comparison Answer - • The process of evaluating our abilities,
achievements, and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people
Downward comparison Answer - • Comparing yourself with a person who
ranks lower than you on some dimension
• It protects our self-esteem
Upward comparison Answer - • Comparing yourself with a person who ranks
higher than you on some dimension
• It lowers our self-esteem and is motivating to do better
• It can be bad for your mental health, especially if you compare yourself to
someone who is essentially out of reach
• Reasearch shows that role models are most motivating when the level of
achievement they have feels attainable
• The happiest people will compare themselves to their own internal
standards rather than looking to others
Attribution Answer - • A theory describing how we assign attributions for
other people's behavior
,Dispositional Attribution Answer - Explaining a persons behavior as a products
of their personality
Situational Attribution Answer - Explaining a persons behavior as being the
product of their situation
Fundamental Attribution Error Answer - • The tendency to attribute the
behavior of others to dispositional causes, without regard for situational
influences
• We tend to explain other people's behaviors by their personality more than
their situation
• Humans are more dispositionalist
• The assumptions we make are not always correct
Actor Observer Bias Answer - • The tendency to make dispositional
attributions for the behaviour of others and situational attributions for our own
behavior
Self-Serving Attributions Answer - • Positive outcome for self:
○ Explain it in terms of dispositional factors
• Negative outcome for self:
○ Explain it in terms of situational factors
Self-Handicapping Answer - • Placing obstacles in the way of your success to
protect your self-esteem from possible future failure
• Like partying the night before a test
Self-justification Answer - • We make stories to make us seem like a good
person in relation to our own behavior
, Cognitive dissonance theory Answer - • The idea that people have a distaste
for perceiving inconsistency between their thoughts and behaviours
• Cognitive dissonance occurs when we hold two cognitions that are
psychologically inconsistent
• Dissonant thoughts cause psychological discomfort
• We try to reduce dissonance by making our cognitions more compatible
Reducing dissonance Answer - • Change behaviour —> Stop smoking
• Change the cognition —> Smoking doesn't cause cancer
• Add consonant thoughts —> Smoking reduces stress
• Changing the importance of the dissonant thoughts —> Smoking is cool
• We are skilled at psychological distortion to convince ourselves that what we
do is acceptable
• We are very hypocritical as a species
Social Facilitation Answer - • The tendency to perform better in the presence
of other people
Tripplett's social facilitation study Answer - • He told children to reel in a
fishing rod as fast as they could
• Some were alone, some were competing against other children
He found that the children reeled faster when they were competing with other
children than when they did it alone
Social Loafing Answer - • When a person exerts less effort knowing that their
individual performance will be hidden in the group product
