Social Psychology
Paper instructions:
Write approximately 8-10 pages (double-spaced) total for the following questions.
1) a) Explain how the concept of misattribution of arousal is related to aggression.
b) Some people have argued that aggression is biologically-determined, whereas other have argued that it is determined by environmental factors (e.g., social factors, situational factors, culture, learning). Describe some of the evidence for these two different points of view.
2) a) One of the interesting features of stereotypes is that they can continue to exist even if they are completely false. Imagine that Jennifer falsely believes that all Canadians are unintelligent. Describe some of the mechanisms that might maintain Jennifer’s belief in this false stereotype, despite it being completely untrue. According to social psychological research, what might be a good approach to take in order to reduce the likelihood of Jennifer using such stereotypes?
3) I have said in class that almost everyone within a culture holds certain negative stereotypes at an unconscious level, even if they don’t explicitly believe them. Explain what this means, and describe how we know that people hold these beliefs.
4) Jake is a firefighter. One night he is called to his neighbor’s house, which is on fire. He sees his neighbor in an upstairs window, and rushes into the burning building to try to save him.
a) How might an empathy-altruism hypothesis researcher explain Jake’s behavior?
b) How might a social-exchange theorist explain Jake’s behavior?
c) Imagine that before the firefighters got there, numerous bystanders happened to come across the same burning house, but no one did anything to help the man trapped inside. According to Darley and Latane’s five steps to helping, what might have stopped the bystanders from providing help?