How do psychologists explain the other race effect? Provide both a cognitive and social explanation.
What will be an ideal response?
Answers may vary.Eyewitnesses are usually better at recognizing and identifying members of their own race or ethnic group than members of another race or ethnic group. The chances of a mistaken identification have been estimated to be 1.56 times greater when the witness and suspect are of different races than when they are of the same race. This phenomenon, termed the other-race effect, has been examined extensively in experimental studies involving a variety of racial groups, and archival analysis of DNA exoneration cases shows that it is also a significant problem in actual cases.Understanding the reasons for the other-race effect has vexed psychologists for some time. Racial attitudes are apparently not related to this phenomenon (people with prejudicial attitudes are not more likely to experience the other-race effect than are people with unbiased attitudes). Recent explanations of the other-race effect have tended to involve both cognitive and social processes.Cognitive interpretations hold that there are differences between faces of one race and faces of another race in terms of the variability in features, something called physiognomic variability. Faces of one race differ from faces of another race in terms of the type of physiognomic variability. For example, White faces show more variability in hair color, and Black faces show more variability in skin tone. For eyewitnesses to correctly identify members of other races, they must focus on the characteristics that distinguish that person from other people of the same race.
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Indicate whether this statement is true or false.
Operational definitions of concepts are important because they:
a. provide an objective and reliable basis for communication among scientists. b. are equivalent in many respects to conceptual replication schemes. c. allow the scientist to accumulate hard and absolute facts. d. provide a key operation for our data and facts.
A group of Ray's friends have been waiting for Ray for an hour. One says, "He never remembers anything." Another says, "He's probably caught in rush hour traffic." What are these friends doing that might be of interest to a social psychologist?
a) They are making attributions. b) They are reducing dissonance levels. c) They are engaging in stereotype suppression. d) They are changing attitudes.
John Watson's argument that he could train a child to be any type of specialist he chose reflected his belief that the most important influence on a child's behavior is/are
A) learning. B) behavior genetics. C) nature. D) his or her innate intelligence.