MCAT Psychological Social Foundations Flashcards: 8c Social Behavior Attraction Aggression Altruism

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This deck focuses on 8c Social Behavior Attraction Aggression Altruism, giving you a quick way to review the definitions, rules, and examples that matter most for MCAT Psychological Social Foundations.

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Work through these flashcards in short sessions. Try to answer each prompt before flipping the card, then revisit any cards you miss until the explanation feels automatic.

Flashcard 1: What is the matching hypothesis in interpersonal attraction?

Answer: People tend to pair with others of similar physical attractiveness. Based on research showing couples typically have comparable attractiveness levels.

Flashcard 2: What does the frustration-aggression hypothesis propose?

Answer: Frustration increases the likelihood of aggression. Blocked goals create negative affect, which can displace onto available targets, increasing aggressive tendencies.

Flashcard 3: What does the social exchange theory propose about relationship satisfaction?

Answer: Satisfaction depends on perceived rewards minus costs. We evaluate relationships like economic transactions.

Flashcard 4: What is the matching hypothesis in interpersonal attraction?

Answer: People tend to pair with others of similar physical attractiveness. This hypothesis posits that individuals form romantic relationships with those who match their own level of attractiveness to ensure mutual acceptance and relationship stability.

Flashcard 5: What is the operational definition of aggression in psychology?

Answer: Behavior intended to harm another person who wants to avoid harm. This definition distinguishes aggression from accidental harm by emphasizing intentionality and the victim's desire to avoid it.

Flashcard 6: What are the three components of Sternberg's triangular theory of love?

Answer: Intimacy, passion, and commitment. Complete love requires all three; absence creates different love types.

Flashcard 7: What is the frustration-aggression hypothesis?

Answer: Frustration increases the likelihood of aggression. Blocked goals create negative arousal that motivates harm.

Flashcard 8: What is the halo effect in person perception?

Answer: A global positive impression biases ratings of specific traits. One positive trait colors our view of all other traits.

Flashcard 9: What is the mere exposure effect in interpersonal attraction?

Answer: Increased liking due to repeated exposure to a stimulus or person. Familiarity breeds liking through unconscious processing.

Flashcard 10: What does social learning theory predict about aggression after observing a model?

Answer: Aggression increases via observational learning and reinforcement. We imitate aggressive behaviors that are rewarded.

Flashcard 11: What is the difference between hostile aggression and instrumental aggression?

Answer: Hostile: anger-based; instrumental: goal-oriented. Hostile seeks to hurt; instrumental uses harm as a means.

Flashcard 12: Identify the term: attraction to those physically or psychologically nearby.

Answer: Propinquity (proximity) effect. Physical closeness increases interaction opportunities.

Flashcard 13: What is the social exchange theory of relationships?

Answer: Relationships persist when perceived rewards exceed perceived costs. Views relationships as cost-benefit analyses of interpersonal exchanges.

Flashcard 14: What are the three components of Sternberg's triangular theory of love?

Answer: Intimacy, passion, and commitment. These elements form the vertices of the triangle, with different combinations yielding various types of love relationships.

Flashcard 15: Identify the correct term: Helping increases after observing someone else help.

Answer: Prosocial modeling (social learning of helping). Observing altruistic models provides vicarious reinforcement, encouraging imitation through social learning processes.

Flashcard 16: What is the reciprocity principle as a determinant of attraction?

Answer: People tend to like those who communicate liking toward them. We tend to return the feelings others express toward us.

Flashcard 17: What is the difference between reactive and instrumental aggression?

Answer: Reactive: anger response; instrumental: harm as a means to a goal. Reactive stems from emotional provocation, while instrumental uses aggression strategically to achieve non-aggressive objectives.

Flashcard 18: Identify the key factor that increases helping most: anonymity or being identifiable.

Answer: Being identifiable (reduced anonymity) increases helping. Accountability and social evaluation motivate prosocial behavior.

Flashcard 19: What is the bystander effect in emergencies?

Answer: Helping decreases as the number of bystanders increases. Responsibility dilutes across multiple potential helpers.

Flashcard 20: What is the frustration-aggression hypothesis?

Answer: Frustration increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior. Blocked goals create negative arousal that can trigger aggression.

Flashcard 21: What is the social learning theory explanation for aggression?

Answer: Aggression is learned via observing and being reinforced for aggressive acts. Bandura showed modeling and rewards shape aggressive behavior.

Flashcard 22: What is the self-serving bias?

Answer: Attributing successes to self and failures to external factors. We protect self-esteem by biasing causal attributions.

Flashcard 23: What is the similarity-attraction effect?

Answer: Perceived similarity increases interpersonal liking. We like those who share our attitudes, values, and interests.

Flashcard 24: What is the frustration-aggression hypothesis?

Answer: Blocked goals increase the likelihood of aggressive behavior. Frustration from unmet goals can trigger aggressive responses.

Flashcard 25: What is the empathy-altruism hypothesis?

Answer: Empathy can produce helping motivated by concern for others. True altruism stems from empathic concern, not self-benefit.

Flashcard 26: What is diffusion of responsibility as it relates to helping behavior?

Answer: Responsibility to help is spread across observers, reducing action. Each bystander assumes others will act, so no one does.

Flashcard 27: What is the definition of passionate love in social psychology?

Answer: Intense longing and physiological arousal, often early in relationships. This form of love involves high emotional intensity and physical desire, driven by novelty and uncertainty in initial romantic stages.

Flashcard 28: What is group polarization?

Answer: Group discussion strengthens the group's initial attitudes toward extremes. Like-minded people reinforce each other's views.

Flashcard 29: What is the self-serving bias in explaining social outcomes?

Answer: Success to internal causes; failure to external causes. We protect self-esteem by attributing differently based on outcomes.

Flashcard 30: What is the bystander effect in emergency helping situations?

Answer: Helping decreases as the number of bystanders increases. Group presence dilutes individual responsibility, leading to inaction in ambiguous emergencies.

Flashcard 31: What is the similarity-attraction effect?

Answer: Greater attraction to others with similar attitudes, values, or traits. We're drawn to those who share our beliefs and characteristics.

Flashcard 32: What is the similarity-attraction principle?

Answer: People are more attracted to others who share attitudes and values. We like those who are like us - a fundamental principle of attraction.

Flashcard 33: Which option best defines altruism in social psychology?

Answer: Helping motivated primarily by concern for others. Pure altruism lacks self-interested motives.

Flashcard 34: What does the empathy-altruism hypothesis claim about why people help?

Answer: Empathic concern can produce genuinely altruistic helping. Perspective-taking evokes empathy, motivating aid purely to alleviate the other's distress, not for self-benefit.

Flashcard 35: What is diffusion of responsibility in group emergencies?

Answer: Each person feels less personal obligation to help in a group. Responsibility gets diluted across multiple potential helpers.

Flashcard 36: What is reciprocal altruism as an evolutionary explanation for helping?

Answer: Helping occurs with expectation of future return from the recipient. This mechanism promotes cooperation in social species by fostering long-term mutual benefits through tit-for-tat exchanges.

Flashcard 37: What is kin selection as an evolutionary explanation for helping?

Answer: Helping relatives increases inclusive fitness. Helping kin preserves shared genes indirectly.

Flashcard 38: What is the frustration-aggression hypothesis?

Answer: Frustration increases the likelihood of aggression. Blocked goals create negative arousal expressed as aggression.

Flashcard 39: What is the bystander effect?

Answer: Helping decreases as the number of bystanders increases. More witnesses paradoxically means less individual helping.

Flashcard 40: What is the definition of companionate love in social psychology?

Answer: Deep affection, trust, and commitment with lower arousal. It emphasizes emotional bonding and loyalty, sustained by shared experiences and mutual support over time.

Flashcard 41: What is the bystander effect in emergencies?

Answer: Helping decreases as the number of bystanders increases. More witnesses paradoxically leads to less individual helping.

Flashcard 42: What is the mere exposure effect in interpersonal attraction?

Answer: Repeated exposure increases liking, even without interaction. Familiarity breeds comfort and positive feelings.

Flashcard 43: What is diffusion of responsibility in group bystander situations?

Answer: Each bystander feels less personal obligation to help. In groups, responsibility is shared, reducing the perceived urgency for any single person to intervene.

Flashcard 44: What is the social learning theory explanation for aggression?

Answer: Aggression is learned via observation and reinforcement. Bandura's theory highlights modeling and vicarious reinforcement as mechanisms for acquiring aggressive behaviors from social environments.

Flashcard 45: What is the difference between passionate and companionate love?

Answer: Passionate: arousal; companionate: intimacy and commitment. Passionate fades quickly; companionate grows over time.

Flashcard 46: What is the catharsis hypothesis regarding aggression?

Answer: Expressing aggression reduces aggressive drive (not well supported). Research shows venting anger often increases, not decreases, aggression.

Flashcard 47: What is the negative-state relief model of helping?

Answer: People help to reduce their own distress or negative mood. Helping others can be a strategy to improve our own emotional state.

Flashcard 48: Which term describes helping that is motivated by expected personal benefit?

Answer: Egoistic helping. Self-serving helping contrasts with purely altruistic helping.

Flashcard 49: What is the social exchange theory view of relationship maintenance?

Answer: People seek to maximize rewards and minimize costs in relationships. Relationships are evaluated based on a cost-benefit analysis, where perceived equity influences decisions to maintain or dissolve ties.

Flashcard 50: What is the social learning theory account of aggression?

Answer: Aggression is learned through observation and reinforcement. Bandura showed children imitate aggressive models they observe.

Flashcard 51: What is pluralistic ignorance in the context of the bystander effect?

Answer: People misread others' calm as evidence no help is needed. Collective inaction creates a false consensus that the situation is not emergent, inhibiting helping responses.

Flashcard 52: What does equity theory predict about relationship satisfaction?

Answer: Satisfaction is highest when partners perceive fair input-output balance. Partners compare their contribution-benefit ratios for relationship health.

Flashcard 53: What is the mere exposure effect in social psychology?

Answer: Repeated exposure to a stimulus increases liking for it. Familiarity breeds liking, not contempt, in most neutral contexts.

Flashcard 54: What is the general role of serotonin in aggression regulation?

Answer: Lower serotonin activity is associated with increased impulsive aggression. Serotonin modulates impulse control, with deficiencies impairing inhibition of aggressive responses to provocations.

Flashcard 55: Which term describes helping motivated by increasing one's own welfare?

Answer: Egoistic (self-interested) helping. Helping serves personal goals like reputation or reciprocity.

Flashcard 56: What is the halo effect as it relates to physical attractiveness?

Answer: Attractiveness leads to assuming other positive traits (for example, kindness). Physical beauty creates a cognitive bias affecting all trait judgments.

Flashcard 57: What is the definition of aggression used in social psychology?

Answer: Behavior intended to harm another person. Intent to harm is key, regardless of actual damage.

Flashcard 58: What is the social learning theory account of aggression?

Answer: Aggression is learned via observing and being reinforced for it. We model aggressive behaviors we see rewarded in others.

Flashcard 59: What is diffusion of responsibility in group settings?

Answer: Individuals feel less personal obligation to act when others are present. Shared responsibility reduces individual accountability.

Flashcard 60: What is the reciprocity principle as it relates to attraction?

Answer: People tend to like those who express liking for them. We're attracted to those who show they're attracted to us.

Flashcard 61: What are the three components of Sternberg's triangular theory of love?

Answer: Intimacy, passion, and commitment. These three dimensions combine to create different types of love.

Flashcard 62: What is the self-disclosure reciprocity norm in relationship development?

Answer: Disclosure by one person tends to elicit disclosure by the other. Social norms encourage equivalent vulnerability, building trust and intimacy through balanced emotional exchanges.

Flashcard 63: What is the matching hypothesis regarding romantic attraction?

Answer: People tend to pair with others of similar perceived attractiveness. Partners typically match in physical attractiveness levels.

Flashcard 64: Which theory predicts helping driven by empathic concern for another person?

Answer: Empathy-altruism hypothesis. True altruism stems from feeling another's distress.

Flashcard 65: What is the definition of altruism in social psychology?

Answer: Helping behavior intended to benefit another without expected reward. It represents selfless motivation, distinguishing it from egoistic helping driven by personal gains or obligations.

Flashcard 66: What is the difference between passionate love and companionate love?

Answer: Passionate: arousal/intense; companionate: intimacy/commitment. Distinguishes initial intense attraction from deeper, stable attachment.

Flashcard 67: What is the reward theory of attraction?

Answer: Attraction increases when someone is associated with rewards. Classical conditioning associates individuals with positive outcomes, strengthening attraction through reinforcement principles.

Flashcard 68: What is the matching hypothesis in romantic attraction?

Answer: People prefer partners with similar physical attractiveness. We seek partners at our own attractiveness level to avoid rejection.

Flashcard 69: What is the halo effect as a bias in person perception?

Answer: One positive trait leads to globally positive judgments. Initial impressions color all subsequent evaluations.

Flashcard 70: What is pluralistic ignorance during an ambiguous emergency?

Answer: People misread others' calm as meaning no help is needed. We assume others' inaction means the situation is not serious.

Flashcard 71: What is the halo effect as it relates to attraction judgments?

Answer: One positive trait (often attractiveness) biases overall evaluation. A single salient positive attribute creates a cognitive bias, leading to overly favorable impressions in unrelated domains.

Flashcard 72: Identify the term: helping that benefits another at a cost or risk to the helper.

Answer: Altruism. Selfless helping despite personal sacrifice or danger.

Flashcard 73: What is the empathy-altruism hypothesis?

Answer: Empathy for a person in need can produce altruistic helping. True altruism may exist when we feel another's pain as our own.

Flashcard 74: What is the matching hypothesis in romantic partner selection?

Answer: People tend to pair with others of similar perceived attractiveness. We seek partners at our own attractiveness level to avoid rejection.

Flashcard 75: Which option best describes the effect of perceived similarity on attraction: increase, decrease, or no effect?

Answer: Increase. Similarity consistently enhances interpersonal attraction.

Flashcard 76: What is the halo effect in judgments of attractiveness and personality?

Answer: Attractiveness biases observers to infer other positive traits. Physical beauty creates a cognitive bias affecting all trait judgments.

Flashcard 77: What is the role of testosterone in aggression on the MCAT?

Answer: Higher testosterone is associated with increased dominance/aggression. Testosterone influences neural circuits related to social dominance, correlating with assertive and competitive behaviors.

Flashcard 78: What is the norm of social responsibility?

Answer: People should help those who depend on them or are in need. Society expects us to assist vulnerable individuals.

Flashcard 79: What is the empathy-altruism hypothesis?

Answer: Empathy can produce altruistic helping independent of self-gain. True empathy creates selfless motivation to help.

Flashcard 80: What is kin selection as an evolutionary explanation for altruism?

Answer: Helping relatives increases inclusive fitness via shared genes. Evolutionary theory explains preferential helping of genetic relatives to enhance the survival of shared alleles.

Flashcard 81: What is the mere exposure effect in social psychology?

Answer: Increased liking due to repeated exposure to a stimulus. Familiarity breeds liking, not contempt, in most contexts.

Flashcard 82: What is the norm of reciprocity in prosocial behavior?

Answer: People should help those who have helped them. Social obligation to return favors maintains cooperation.

Flashcard 83: What is the mere exposure effect in attraction?

Answer: Repeated exposure increases liking, even without interaction. Familiarity through repeated exposure fosters positive feelings due to reduced uncertainty and increased comfort with the stimulus.

Flashcard 84: What is reciprocal altruism?

Answer: Helping with expectation of future help in return. Evolutionary strategy of mutual benefit over time.

Flashcard 85: What is the similarity principle in interpersonal attraction?

Answer: Similarity in attitudes and values increases attraction. Shared beliefs and characteristics promote rapport and validation, reducing conflict and enhancing mutual understanding.

Flashcard 86: What is the difference between instrumental aggression and hostile aggression?

Answer: Instrumental: goal-oriented; hostile: driven by anger to harm. Distinguishes calculated aggression from emotion-driven aggression.

Flashcard 87: What is the self-disclosure reciprocity norm in relationship development?

Answer: Disclosure by one person tends to elicit disclosure by the other. Sharing personal information creates mutual vulnerability and trust.

Flashcard 88: Which brain region is classically linked to fear and aggression responses?

Answer: Amygdala. The amygdala processes emotional threats, triggering fight-or-flight responses that can manifest as aggressive behavior.