482 CHAPTER 12
- One of your friends tells you, “I didn’t like the environmental-awareness
presentation today. First of all, it was too long, not to mention the per-
son that gave it was drinking out of a polystyrene cup and drove away
in a huge SUV.” What kind of processing might your friend be using?
a. central-route processing
b. peripheral-route processing
c. cognitive-route processing
d. visual-route processing - Kohanna thinks that everyone who smiles must always be happy,
and those people who are quiet must be naturally shy. Such
assumptions are the basis for
a. stereotypes.
b. implicit personality theory.
c. attribution theory.
d. attitudes.
5. Caleb almost always shows up late for work. His friends attribute
this to Caleb’s laziness. This is an example of a __ cause.
a. situational c. dispensational
b. dispositional d. superficial
6. How might someone who unknowingly is committing the
fundamental attribution error explain Stanley Milgram’s
obedience study?
a. Subjects in that study were highly influenced by the power
of Milgram and his team.
b. Subjects in that study desired a high degree of positive
reinforcement.
c. Subjects in that study wanted to be part of Milgram’s group.
d. Subjects in that study must have been the kind of people that
like to hurt others.
Social Interaction
Social influence and social cognition are two of three main areas included in the field of
social psychology. The third major area has to do with social interactions with others, or
the relationships between people, both casual and intimate. Social interactions include
prejudice and discrimination, liking and loving, and aggression and prosocial behavior.
Prejudice and Discrimination
12.10 Distinguish between prejudice and discrimination.
We’ve seen how stereotypes, a set of characteristics that people believe is shared by all
members of a particular social category or group, can be formed by using only superficial
information about that person or group of people. When a person holds an unsupported
and often negative stereotyped attitude about the members of a particular social group,
it is called prejudice. The video Are Stereotypes and Prejudices Inevitable? explains the con-
nection between stereotypes and prejudice.
prejudice
negative attitude held by a person
about the members of a particular
social grouR.
CC
Watch the Video Are Stereotypes and Prejudices Inevitable?