People are motivated to be consistent. Given that, explain “cognitive dissonance.” What is Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory?
What are three primary ways to reduce dissonance?
When choosing between two options (e.g., buying a car when there are two good ones to choose from), why do we feel dissonance? How do people cope with that post-choice dissonance?
When people say something that they don’t really believe, they can feel dissonance. Explain Festinger’s classic induced compliance study. Which group ended up liking the task the most? Why?
Explain how each of these tends to increase dissonance: weak external justification, choice, commitment, foreseeable aversive consequences.
How does effort justification explain why people love what they suffer for? (Think of boot camp, group initiation)
Define “self-esteem.”
How does self-esteem function as a trait? As a state? What are some sources of self-esteem?
People use strategies to enhance their self-esteem. Explain the following. Be able to give/recognize an example of each: self-serving attributions, self-handicapping, the better than average effect, self-affirmation, upward/downward comparisons, basking in reflected glory (BIRG).
Your text has four important conclusions about self-esteem (see the section called “the good, the bad, and the ugly of self-esteem”). What are the four?
Some researchers argue that people are performing in social interactions. Explain each of these strategies that we use to influence how we present ourselves to others: honing an image (include ingratiation), segregating the audience, maintaining face, lying.
Define “self-monitoring.” What is the difference between a person who is high in self-monitoring and one who is low?
Define the “spotlight effect.” Give/recognize an example.
What is the “self-determination theory”?
Define extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Give/recognize an example of each.
Define “internal locus of control” and “external locus of control.”
Define the “overjustification effect.” Give/recognize an example.