PSYC 2600 EXAM 1 EXAM QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS 2026 VERIFIED.
Social psychology - ANS Scientific study of the way in which people's thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people
Social influence - ANS The effect that the words, actions, or mere presence of other people
have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behavior
Construal - ANS The way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social
world
Evolutionary psychology - ANS The attempt to explain social behavior in terms of genetic
factors that have evolved over time according to the principles of natural selection; human
social behavior is adapted to the ecological niche of our evolutionary ancestors
Biology and neuroscience - ANS The study of genes, hormones, or physiological processes in
the brain
Personality psychology - ANS The study of the characteristics that make individuals unique
and different from one another
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,Sociology - ANS The study of groups, organizations, and societies, rather than individuals
What is true about evolutionary psychology? - ANS Evolutionary approaches can generate
novel hypotheses about social behavior that can then be tested with experiments
What is the "level of analysis" for a social psychologist? - ANS The individual in the context of
a social situation
Fundamental attribution error - ANS Tendency to overestimate the extent to which people's
behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational
factors
Behaviorism - ANS A school of psychology maintaining that to understand human behavior,
one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment (fails to consider how
people interpret or construe their environments); behaviors that are rewarded will be repeated
and behaviors that are punished will become less frequent
Gestalt psychology - ANS A school of psychology stressing the importance of studying the
subjective way in which an object appears in people's minds rather than the objective, physical
attributes of the object
What theory does the emphasis on construal have its roots in? Social psychology has its origins
in this... - ANS Gestalt psychology
Naive realism - ANS The conviction that we perceive things "as they really are,"
underestimating how much we are interpreting or "spinning" what we see (most people believe
they perceive things accurately)
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,Two central motives in steering people's construals - ANS The need to feel good about
ourselves and the need to be accurate (people often choose feeling good over representing the
truth)
Self-esteem - ANS People's evaluations of their own self-worth; that is, the extent to which
they view themselves as good, competent, and decent; internal monitor of how valued you are
as a relational partner
Social cognition - ANS How people think about themselves and the social world; more
specifically, how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make
judgments and decisions
Power of the situation - ANS Individual behavior is powerfully influenced by the social
environment, but many people don't want to believe this
What do social psychology and personality psychology have in common? - ANS They both
focus on the individual
What was the main contribution of Gestalt psychology to social psychology? - ANS It showed
that the whole is larger than the sum of its parts
Ecological niche - ANS Habitat or place where something has evolved to thrive in (match of a
species to a specific environmental condition)
What is the ecological niche of humans? - ANS The company of other humans; the human
habitat
What is social psychology the study of? - ANS How the human habitat shapes our thoughts,
feelings, and behavior (and vice-versa)
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, What are Niko Tinbergen's 4 questions about human social behavior? - ANS Ontogeny,
phylogeny, mechanism, function
Ontogeny - ANS Developmental explanations for changes across individual's lifespan. Often
concerned with the role of learning
Ontogeny synonym - ANS Development
Phylogeny - ANS Evolutionary explanations that describe the history of the behavior, such as
which ancestor first possessed the trait and what selective pressures shaped behavior
Phylogeny synonym - ANS Evolution
Mechanism - ANS Causal explanations of what behavior is and how it's constructed.
Morphology, molecular mechanisms, biological factors, external stimuli
Mechanism synonym - ANS Causation
Function - ANS Functional explanations regarding the current form of the behavior increasing
organism's lifetime success. In other words, what purpose does the behavior serve
Function synonym - ANS Adaptation
Aye aye - ANS Primate relative with specialized set of adaptations; belongs in very narrow
ecological niche in Madagascar (very specialized unlike humans who are generalists and adapt)
@COPYRIGHT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PAGE 4 OF 31
AND ANSWERS 2026 VERIFIED.
Social psychology - ANS Scientific study of the way in which people's thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people
Social influence - ANS The effect that the words, actions, or mere presence of other people
have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behavior
Construal - ANS The way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social
world
Evolutionary psychology - ANS The attempt to explain social behavior in terms of genetic
factors that have evolved over time according to the principles of natural selection; human
social behavior is adapted to the ecological niche of our evolutionary ancestors
Biology and neuroscience - ANS The study of genes, hormones, or physiological processes in
the brain
Personality psychology - ANS The study of the characteristics that make individuals unique
and different from one another
@COPYRIGHT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PAGE 1 OF 31
,Sociology - ANS The study of groups, organizations, and societies, rather than individuals
What is true about evolutionary psychology? - ANS Evolutionary approaches can generate
novel hypotheses about social behavior that can then be tested with experiments
What is the "level of analysis" for a social psychologist? - ANS The individual in the context of
a social situation
Fundamental attribution error - ANS Tendency to overestimate the extent to which people's
behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational
factors
Behaviorism - ANS A school of psychology maintaining that to understand human behavior,
one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment (fails to consider how
people interpret or construe their environments); behaviors that are rewarded will be repeated
and behaviors that are punished will become less frequent
Gestalt psychology - ANS A school of psychology stressing the importance of studying the
subjective way in which an object appears in people's minds rather than the objective, physical
attributes of the object
What theory does the emphasis on construal have its roots in? Social psychology has its origins
in this... - ANS Gestalt psychology
Naive realism - ANS The conviction that we perceive things "as they really are,"
underestimating how much we are interpreting or "spinning" what we see (most people believe
they perceive things accurately)
@COPYRIGHT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PAGE 2 OF 31
,Two central motives in steering people's construals - ANS The need to feel good about
ourselves and the need to be accurate (people often choose feeling good over representing the
truth)
Self-esteem - ANS People's evaluations of their own self-worth; that is, the extent to which
they view themselves as good, competent, and decent; internal monitor of how valued you are
as a relational partner
Social cognition - ANS How people think about themselves and the social world; more
specifically, how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make
judgments and decisions
Power of the situation - ANS Individual behavior is powerfully influenced by the social
environment, but many people don't want to believe this
What do social psychology and personality psychology have in common? - ANS They both
focus on the individual
What was the main contribution of Gestalt psychology to social psychology? - ANS It showed
that the whole is larger than the sum of its parts
Ecological niche - ANS Habitat or place where something has evolved to thrive in (match of a
species to a specific environmental condition)
What is the ecological niche of humans? - ANS The company of other humans; the human
habitat
What is social psychology the study of? - ANS How the human habitat shapes our thoughts,
feelings, and behavior (and vice-versa)
@COPYRIGHT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PAGE 3 OF 31
, What are Niko Tinbergen's 4 questions about human social behavior? - ANS Ontogeny,
phylogeny, mechanism, function
Ontogeny - ANS Developmental explanations for changes across individual's lifespan. Often
concerned with the role of learning
Ontogeny synonym - ANS Development
Phylogeny - ANS Evolutionary explanations that describe the history of the behavior, such as
which ancestor first possessed the trait and what selective pressures shaped behavior
Phylogeny synonym - ANS Evolution
Mechanism - ANS Causal explanations of what behavior is and how it's constructed.
Morphology, molecular mechanisms, biological factors, external stimuli
Mechanism synonym - ANS Causation
Function - ANS Functional explanations regarding the current form of the behavior increasing
organism's lifetime success. In other words, what purpose does the behavior serve
Function synonym - ANS Adaptation
Aye aye - ANS Primate relative with specialized set of adaptations; belongs in very narrow
ecological niche in Madagascar (very specialized unlike humans who are generalists and adapt)
@COPYRIGHT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PAGE 4 OF 31
