Social Psychology Final Exam Study Guide UPDATED
ACTUAL Questions and CORRECT Answers
Social Psychology The scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to others.
Social Learning Theory A modern offshoot of behaviorism that places primary emphasis on how
people learn social behaviors from one another, especially through social
reinforcement and modeling.
Frustration-aggression Hypothesis In its most absolute form, this hypothesis asserts that frustration always creates
feelings of aggression and that aggression is always caused by frustration.
Decision Making Theory People calculate the costs and benefits of various actions and select the best
alternative in a fairly logical way.
Interdependence Theory The theory that because members of a couple or group are interdependent
(i.e., the outcomes one person experiences depend on what others do and
vice versa), individuals must coordinate their behavior to maximize their joint
benefits. This is the most important social exchange perspective in social
psychology.
Social Exchange Theory A Theory that analyzes the interaction between people in terms of the
outcomes (rewards minus costs) that the individuals exchange with each other.
Operational Definition The specific procedure or operation that is used to measure or manipulate a
variable in a research study.
Independent Variable The variable in a study that is interpreted as the cause of changes in the
dependent variable. This variable may be systematically manipulated by the
researcher in an experiment or passively measured in a correlational study.
Dependent Variable In an experiment, the responses to the independent variable being
manipulated or measured.
Person Perception The mental processes we use to form judgments and draw conclusions about
the characteristics and motives of other people; the process of forming
impressions of others.
Implicit Personality Theory The ordinary person's theory about which personality traits go with other traits,
such as "weak" going with "cowardly" and "calm" going with "decisive."
Social Categories groups that share a social characteristic such as age, gender, or religion
Stereotype Beliefs about the typical characteristics of members of a group or social
category. In the study of prejudice, are the cognitive component of group
antagonism.
Assimilation IN the study of attitude change, the tendency to perceive a communicator's
position as closer or more similar to the individual's own position than it actually
is.
, Exemplar An example of a category that embodies the significant attributes of the
category or the ideal of that category. Example: a robin is an exemplar of the
category "bird."
Social Learning A modern offshoot of behaviorism that places primary emphasis on how
people learn social behaviors from one another, especially through social
reinforcement and modeling.
Prejudice The affective component of group antagonisms/ disliking a group or the
members of a group.
Fundamental Attribution Error The tendency for observers to overestimate the causal importance of a
person's dispositions and to underestimate the importance of the situation
when they explain the person's actions.
ACTUAL Questions and CORRECT Answers
Social Psychology The scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to others.
Social Learning Theory A modern offshoot of behaviorism that places primary emphasis on how
people learn social behaviors from one another, especially through social
reinforcement and modeling.
Frustration-aggression Hypothesis In its most absolute form, this hypothesis asserts that frustration always creates
feelings of aggression and that aggression is always caused by frustration.
Decision Making Theory People calculate the costs and benefits of various actions and select the best
alternative in a fairly logical way.
Interdependence Theory The theory that because members of a couple or group are interdependent
(i.e., the outcomes one person experiences depend on what others do and
vice versa), individuals must coordinate their behavior to maximize their joint
benefits. This is the most important social exchange perspective in social
psychology.
Social Exchange Theory A Theory that analyzes the interaction between people in terms of the
outcomes (rewards minus costs) that the individuals exchange with each other.
Operational Definition The specific procedure or operation that is used to measure or manipulate a
variable in a research study.
Independent Variable The variable in a study that is interpreted as the cause of changes in the
dependent variable. This variable may be systematically manipulated by the
researcher in an experiment or passively measured in a correlational study.
Dependent Variable In an experiment, the responses to the independent variable being
manipulated or measured.
Person Perception The mental processes we use to form judgments and draw conclusions about
the characteristics and motives of other people; the process of forming
impressions of others.
Implicit Personality Theory The ordinary person's theory about which personality traits go with other traits,
such as "weak" going with "cowardly" and "calm" going with "decisive."
Social Categories groups that share a social characteristic such as age, gender, or religion
Stereotype Beliefs about the typical characteristics of members of a group or social
category. In the study of prejudice, are the cognitive component of group
antagonism.
Assimilation IN the study of attitude change, the tendency to perceive a communicator's
position as closer or more similar to the individual's own position than it actually
is.
, Exemplar An example of a category that embodies the significant attributes of the
category or the ideal of that category. Example: a robin is an exemplar of the
category "bird."
Social Learning A modern offshoot of behaviorism that places primary emphasis on how
people learn social behaviors from one another, especially through social
reinforcement and modeling.
Prejudice The affective component of group antagonisms/ disliking a group or the
members of a group.
Fundamental Attribution Error The tendency for observers to overestimate the causal importance of a
person's dispositions and to underestimate the importance of the situation
when they explain the person's actions.
