Psychology 11
Concept Topics for Segment 2
Fall, 2002
Listed below are approximately 50 Concept Topics which represent the
core ideas for this segment of the course. The test will consist of 50
questions with each question generated by one of the topics listed here.
You should be able to generate a definition of each concept, an explanation
of its central ideas and terms, an understanding of why it is important, and be
comfortable creating or recognizing an example of the concept. The tests
are unlikely to contain the specific examples of the concept as used in the
text or lecture. You will need to be able to make use of the concept and
understand when you are faced with an illustration of it. Page references are
to the text (or Cialdini where indicated).
EVOLUTION AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
- the principles of Darwinian
evolution and natural selection (405-408 & lecture)
- the difference between
personal and genetic survival; fitness (405-408)
- distinguish between growth
and differentiation (534-535)
- appreciate the common
features of human motor development (537-539)
- understand phenotype vs
genotype, and the significance of dominant and recessive genes (541)
- recognize the developmental
change in what is 'environment' (541-544)
- know what the fields of
ethology and sociobiology are all about (408 & rest of chpt)
- understand the relationships
between fixed action patterns, species specific behaviors and releasing
stimuli or triggers; what are advantages to automatic responding (408-409;
Cialdini 1)
- how predation and defense
differ from aggression (410-416)
- why stake out a territory and
how dominance hierarchies, and threat & appeasement displays influence
aggression (410-416)
- role of testosterone in
aggression (411)
- territoriality in humans
(415-416)
- possible reasons for
courtship rituals in animals (418-420)
- influence of testosterone and
estrogen on animal and human sexual behavior; are humans emancipated from
hormonal control ? (420-422)
- understand polygyny,
polyandry, and monogamy and relationship between polygyny and sexual
dimorphism (422-424)
- appreciate the
sociobiological vs cultural explanation for human mating systems (422-426)
- the biological perspective on
bonding between infants & parents (426-428; & lecture)
- understand how human
emotional expressions are products of biology and culture (429-430)
- what is social cognition
(430-432)
- be familiar with
kin-selection and other explanations of altruism (435-436)
SOCIAL PROCESS (from relating to ourselves to relating to
others)
- appreciate what Asch's
experiment on physical 'reality' says about social cognition (442-443)
- what are attitudes and how do
they differ from beliefs (446-447)
- what is the significance of
the route of a message (448-449)
- attitude change through
dissonance change; cognitive dissonance, justification of effort, forced
compliance (445-451; Cialdini 2,3)
- what kinds of factors account
for the stability of most attitudes (452; Cialdini 3)
- how is visual perception
analogous to social perception (453)
- what's impression management
and relation to embarrassment (457-450)
- appreciate Asch's experiments
on impression formation (454)
- understand Attribution theory
and situational vs dispositional aspects (460-461)
- what is the fundamental error
of attribution and why does it occur (461)
- what is the actor-observer
bias and the self-serving bias in attribution (462-463)
- what is self-perception
theory; evidence for influence of one's own behavior on attitudes
(465-466)
- recognize why James-Lange
theory poses a fundamental question in understanding behavior
(471-472;& lecture)
- relation between Schacter
& Singer's attribution-of-arousal theory and James-Lange (471-475)
- interpretations and
hypotheses about facial display (478-480)
- how to understand complex
emotions (481-484)
- relationship between social
exchange and the reciprocity principle (491-492; Cialdini 2)
- be able to apply idea of
reciprocal-concession; self-disclosure (493-494; Cialdini 2)
- what is the
rejection-then-retreat technique and why does it work (Cialdini 2)
- a biological basis for
reciprocity ? (494)
- what is bystander effect
(495-496; Cialdini 4)
- appreciate explanations;
ambiguity, pluralistic ignorance; diffusion of responsibility (495-497;
Cialdini 4)
- how does Werther effect
explain relationship between suicide stories and an increase in accident
fatalities (Cialdini 4)
- know the evidence for
proximity, similarity, and physical appearance as the basis for
'attraction' (499-502; Cialdini 5)
- relationship of Pavlovian
conditioning to 'liking' (Cialdini 5)
- what do you think about the
arousal theory explanation of romantic love and the of the
Romeo-and-Juliet effect (503-506)
- what is social influence
(506- chpt)
- what is social facilitation
and when does it occur (507)
- understand that factors that
have been proposed to explain conformity (508-510)
- what is the ally effect; when
do minorities succeed against the conformity influence of the majority
(509-510)
- what are authoritarian
personalities (511-512; Cialdini 6)
- understand Milgram's
experiment on the role of situation in obedience (512-516; Cialdini 6)
- recognize explanations:
another's agent & psychological distance; cognitive reinterpretation;
slippery slope (514-516; Cialdini 6)
- how does the scarcity
principle work (Cialdini 7)
- what is social impact theory
(516-517)
- understand the differences
between situational and dispositional factors in leadership (518-519)
- do people become 'primitive'
or 'irrational' in crowds (522)
- when does a crowd panic
(522-523)
- understand the implications
of the prisoner's delima problem for social processes (523-526)