## Pond PSY 271 Final Exam Review: Key Concepts & Takeaways This review covers Blaine Chapters 2, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12 and Cohen Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13. The exam will assess your understanding of prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, stigma, and ostracism, including their causes, consequences, and potential reduction strategies. Expect multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions (approximately 100 total). Remember to define, discuss, and provide examples for key terms from each chapter, and be prepared to discuss significant research findings. ### Blaine Chapter 2: Categorization and Stereotyping **Key Terms:** Social categorization, primary social categories (age, race, gender), automatic categorization, solo status, in-group, out-group, stereotype, just-world belief, subtyping, out-group homogeneity effect, ultimate attribution error. * **Social Categorization:** The process of grouping people based on shared characteristics. This is automatic and happens quickly. Seeing a group of people wearing the same uniform and immediately assuming they are on the same sports team. * **Stereotypes:** Generalized beliefs about a group of people. These can be positive, negative, or neutral. Stereotypes are not always negative, but they are always oversimplifications. * **Out-group Homogeneity Effect:** The tendency to perceive members of an out-group as more similar to each other than members of an in-group. "All members of that political party think the same way," while recognizing diversity within one's own party. * **Ultimate Attribution Error:** Attributing negative behaviors of out-group members to internal factors and positive behaviors to external factors, while doing the opposite for in-group members. A member of an out-group commits a crime – it's because they are inherently bad. A member of the in-group commits the same crime – it's due to situational pressures. Consider how these cognitive processes contribute to the formation and maintenance of prejudice. ### Blaine Chapter 3: Stereotypes Expressed: Social Processes that Shape Diversity **Key Terms:** Self-fulfilling prophecy, perceptual bias, synergistic accumulation, linguistic intergroup bias, negation bias, stereotype consistency bias, accents. * **Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:** A belief about someone that influences how you treat them, causing them to behave in a way that confirms your belief. A teacher believing a student is less capable may unintentionally give them less attention, leading to poorer performance. * **Stereotype Consistency Bias:** The tendency to remember stereotype-consistent information better than stereotype-inconsistent information. Remembering negative actions of a minority group member more easily than positive ones. * **Linguistic Intergroup Bias:** Describing in-group positive behaviors with abstract terms and out-group positive behaviors with concrete terms (and vice versa for negative behaviors). In-group: "He is helpful," Out-group: "He helped me move the boxes." Think about how media portrayals and everyday communication reinforce in-group/out-group biases. ### Blaine Chapter 4: Prejudice: Evaluating Social Difference **Key Terms:** Prejudice (negative attitude toward a group), automatic component of prejudice, controlled component of prejudice, justification-suppression model of prejudice, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, social identity theory, in-group bias, backlash, relative deprivation, realistic group conflict, terror management theory, modern prejudice, symbolic prejudice, aversive prejudice, secondary prejudice. * **Justification-Suppression Model:** We suppress prejudiced feelings, but they resurface when we find a justification. * **Modern Prejudice:** Subtle, indirect prejudice expressed through seemingly non-prejudiced behaviors. * **Aversive Prejudice:** Holding egalitarian values but still experiencing negative feelings toward out-group members. Consider the interplay between automatic and controlled components of prejudice, and how different theories explain its origins and maintenance. ### Blaine Chapter 10: Social Stigma: The Experience of Prejudice **Key Terms:** Social stigma, actual identity, virtual identity, ambivalence, courtesy stigma, mindfulness, stereotype threat. * **Social Stigma:** Negative attitudes and behaviors directed toward individuals with a particular characteristic. * **Stereotype Threat:** The fear of confirming a negative stereotype about one's group. A woman in a STEM field might perform worse on a test due to the stereotype that women are less capable in STEM. Think about the five components of stigma and how they interact to create a negative experience. ### Blaine Chapter 11: Coping with Social Stigma **Key Terms:** Stigma consciousness, stigma controllability, just-world theory, stigma visibility, stigma peril, master status attribute, stigma management, passing, withdrawal, capitalizing on one’s own stigma, self-promotion, compensation. * **Stigma Management:** Strategies used by stigmatized individuals to cope with prejudice. These can include passing, withdrawal, or self-promotion. Consider the various coping mechanisms and their effectiveness in different contexts. ### Blaine Chapter 12: Responding to Social Inequality **Key Terms:** Social inequality, contact hypothesis, imagined intergroup contact, stereotype inhibition, stereotype substitution, cross-categorization, cognitive empathy, emotional empathy. * **Contact Hypothesis:** Positive contact between in-group and out-group members can reduce prejudice, under certain conditions (equal status, common goals, cooperation). * **Empathy:** Understanding and sharing the feelings of others. Cognitive empathy involves understanding, while emotional empathy involves feeling. Explore the various interventions aimed at reducing prejudice and promoting social equality. ### Cohen Chapters 4 & 5: Understanding Bias **Key Terms:** Poverty of empathy, fundamental attribution error, confirmation bias, attributional charity, value affirmations, critical mass, Pygmalion effect. * **Fundamental Attribution Error:** Overemphasizing internal factors and underemphasizing situational factors when explaining others' behavior. The fundamental attribution error leads to biased judgments of others, especially out-group members. ### Cohen Chapters 6 & 7: Stereotype Threat & Context **Key Terms:** Stereotype threat, over-efforting. * **Over-efforting:** Exerting excessive effort to compensate for stereotype threat, which can be counterproductive. Consider how context and situational factors influence the impact of stereotype threat. ### Cohen Chapter 8: Privilege & Perspective **Key Terms:** Privilege, perspective-getting, equity, equality. * **Privilege:** Unearned advantages associated with membership in a dominant group. * **Perspective-getting:** Actively seeking to understand another person's perspective. Reflect on the importance of understanding privilege and perspective-taking in addressing social inequalities. ### Cohen Chapter 13 & Key Takeaways: Active Listening & Addressing Inequality **Key Terms:** Active listening, Fundamental Attribution Error, Authoritarianism. * **Active Listening:** Paying close attention to what someone is saying, both verbally and nonverbally. The final exam emphasizes the importance of understanding and applying these concepts to real-world situations.