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Ap Psychology Midterm

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1. “Passive, automatic effects change social perception, attitudes and other affective reactions, evaluation and emotion, and even behavioral responses, which are… widely assumed… [to be] under conscious control”. Given the significant effects on behavior in these studies, (how) can we control our behavior?
 We can control our behavior by avoiding environments that the trait relevant behavior might be activated by.
 We can also reduce the membership of perceptions, attitudes, affective reactions, and behavioral responses from our schema.
2. If “behavioral responses to situations are… represented mentally,” what does that teach us about therapy?
 That clients’ behavioral responses are influenced by automatically produced perceptions and …show more content…

3. How can we be responsible for our behavior if so much of it happens without our awareness and even against our values and intentions?
 We can try to avoid making behavioral representations.
 Increase our awareness of the influence or at least the possibility of the influence of our behaviors.
 Use motivation to exert the control
 Try to have enough attentional capacity (or lack of distractions) at the time to engage in the control process.

Steele, C.M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype Threat and the intellectual test-performance of African-Americans. Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 69 (5): 797-811
1. Many of the subjects on which the theory of stereotype threat is based are from Stanford University. How might that change the findings?
 The results may be indicative of a confirmation bias where the researchers may have went in the research expecting a certain outcome.
 The sample size might not have been diverse enough given the reputation of the institution and might be a poor representation of the overall …show more content…

T., & Hixon, J. G. (1991). The trouble of thinking: Activation and application of stereotypic beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(4), 509-517.
1. “Cognitive busyness [load] may decrease the likelihood that a particular stereotype will be activated but increase the likelihood that an activated stereotype will be applied.” This stands in contrast to the common idea that stereotypes are used to simplify cognition and should have greater effects when there aren’t sufficient processing resources. Which makes more sense?
 Despite the use of activation to increase the likelihood of a construct being used in subsequent judgments, it does not mandate such use or determine the precise nature of it.
 Cognitive busyness may decrease the likelihood of locating the tool (activation), while simultaneously may increase the likelihood of applying the tool once it has been found.
 Cognitive busyness may result in behavioral suppression
 The timing of the onset of busyness would appear to be crucial in determining if and when social interaction will better or intensify

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