Culture, Norms, and Conformity

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AP Psychology › Culture, Norms, and Conformity

Questions 1 - 10
1

What is social loafing?

An individual makes less effort when they are part of a group working towards a common goal

An individual makes less effort in making new friends, since they already have enough to keep them happy

An individual makes less effort in all social endeavors

An individual adopts the beliefs, morals, and customs of the group to which they belong

None of these

Explanation

Social loafing is a social phenomenon whereby an individual makes less effort towards a goal when they are working towards it with others. The most relatable example is when students are put together for projects at school. In these circumstances, there is considerably less effort put into the project than if everyone was working separately.

2

Which pioneer of social psychology conducted a famous conformity experiment requiring subjects to match lines?

Solomon Asch

Sigmund Freud

Alfred Binet

William James

Ancel Keys

Explanation

This particular conformity experiment was conducted using 123 male participants under the guise that the experiment was testing visual judgment. Participants were shown a series of cards, each with varying lengths. This experiment showed that the majority of participants would conform to the responses of the "confederates" instead of trusting in their own perceptive faculties.

3

The difference between prejudice and discrimination is __________.

discrimination involves an action

discrimination does not involve an action

discrimination is an attitude

prejudice involves an action

None of the other answers is accurate; prejudice and discrimination are the same thing

Explanation

The difference between prejudice an discrimination is that discrimination MUST involve an action, whereas prejudice can simply be an attitude. For example, a cat may be prejudiced against a dog on his street. The dog, however, is discriminating against the cat by eating the cat's food and chasing the cat every time he sees her.

4

All of the following are stages experienced by people facing grief or death except __________.

mistrust

denial

anger

bargaining

Explanation

Mistrust is not one of the five stages of grief described by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. These stages are, in order: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

5

What is a morpheme?

The smallest unit of language that can carry meaning

A type of medication used to treat people in great pain

A way to study behavioral psychology in animals

The smallest distinctive unit of sound

How children explore the world through sensorimotor skills

Explanation

A morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit of language. A morpheme is not necessarily a word, but it can be. It can also be part of a word. For example, the word "smaller" is made up of two morphemes.

  1. small: adjective and root of this word

  2. er: morpheme that changes the word into a relative adjective, as opposed to a stand alone adjective

A phenome is the smallest distinctive unit of sound in language.

6

Toward what kind of people do we generally feel romantic attraction?

All of these

People who are similar to ourselves

People with whom we come into frequent contact

People who display positive feelings towards us

None of these

Explanation

Contrary to "opposites attract," more generally speaking we are attracted to people who are very similar to us physically, emotionally, morally, and interest-wise. More than this, the more we see a person, the more we will like them. If they return positive feelings, than we will like them even more!

7

Solomon Asch's conformity study is most known for making which of the following discoveries?

People rarely contradict the opinions of the group, even if that opinion is clearly wrong

People only conform with the group if they agree with the opinions of the group

Young adults are less likely to conform than middle aged adults

People conform only when there is some type of reward

Explanation

In Asch's study, people rarely contradicted the opinions of the group, even if that opinion was clearly wrong. 70% of the people reported at least one obviously incorrect answer. Asch's study did not possess elements regarding rewards and it was not designed to study the effects of age on conformity.

8

A person walks into a library and begins to whisper because this is considered to be socially acceptable behavior. This scenario is an example of which f the following psychological phenomena?

Injunctive norm

Social conditioning

Behavior expectations

Descriptive norm

Environmental conditioning

Explanation

An injunctive norm is constructed when there is a set of expected behaviors in a designated space or place, such as whispering in a library. Injunctive norms are socially constructed behaviors of what one “ought to do.” On the other hand, descriptive norms represent behaviors that are accompanied by a pattern.

9

According to John Santrock, in male adolescent culture, many perceive that they will be thought of as more masculine if they engage in which of the following activities?

Engage in premarital sex, drink alcohol and take drugs, and participate in delinquent activities.

Play sports and engage in athletic activities

Get good grades and do well academically

Hang around many male acquaintances

Explanation

In Adolescence by John Santrock, male behaviors are said to have been taught as masculine, although they lack social approval. As a result, doing things like engaging in premarital sex, drinking alcohol and taking drugs, and participating in delinquent activities, make adolescent males feel like they are being manly and masculine.

10

What phenomenon was Milgram investigating in his famously controversial shock experiment?

Obedience

Operant conditioning

Classical conditioning

The bystander effect

The halo effect

Explanation

Milgram led people to believe that they were shocking a person in another room in response to incorrect answers on a memory test. The levels of shock administered by some got to be deadly and the person being "shocked" (they were an actor) repeatedly cried out in pain. Many people in the study obeyed the researcher, especially if the researcher was from a presitigious university. The effect was also stronger in unfamiliar environments.

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