Chapter 1 Flashcards
Social Psychology
The scientific study of the causes and consequences of people thoughts, feelings, and actions regarding themselves and other people
Social cognition
the way an individual understands his or her own social world
Social cognition perspective
A view that focuses on how people perceive, remember, and interpret events and individuals, including themselves, in their social world
Evolutionary perspective
A view that humans are a species of animal and that their social behavior is a consequence of particular evolved adaptions
Cultural persepctive
a view that focuses on the influence of culture on thought, feeling, and behavior.
Cultural animals
Humans are animals who view reality through a set of symbols provided by the culture in which they are raised
Existential perspective
A view that focuses on the cognitive, affective, and behavioral consequences of basic aspects of the human condition such as the knowledge of mortality, the desire for meaning, and the precarious nature of identity.
Neuroscience perspective
The study of the neural processes that occur during social judgment and behavior. Neuroscience involves assessments of brain waves, brain imaging, and cardiovascular functioning.
Dispositions
Consistent preference, ways of thinking, and behavioral tendencies that manifest across varying situations and over time.
Scientific method
The process of developing, testing, and refining theories to understand the determinants of social behavior
Attribution theory
The view that people act as intuitive scientist when they observe other people behavior and infer explanations as tho why those people acted the way they did.
Causal attributions
Explanations of why an individual engaged in a particular action
Cultural knowledge
A vast store of information, accumulated within a culture, that explains how the world works and why things happen as they do
A priori casual theories
Preexisting theories, acquired from culture or factors that are particularly prominent in conscious attention at the moment.
Cognitive misers
A term that conveys the human tendency to avoid expending effort and cognitive resources when thinking and to prefer seizing on quick and easy answers to questions.
Confirmation bias
The tendency to view events and people in ways that fit how we want and expect them to be
Confederate
A supposed participant in a research study who actually is working with experimenters, unknown to the real participant.
Theory
An explanation for how and why variables are related to each other
Research
the process whereby scientist observe events, look for patterns, and evaluate theories proposed to explain those patterns
Hypothesis
An “if then” statement that follows logically from a theory and specifies how certain variables should relate to each other if the theory is correct
Correlational method
Research in which two or more variables are measured and compared to determine to what extend if any they are associated
Correlational coefficent
A positive or negative numerical value that shows the direction and strength of a relationship between two variables
Reverse causality problem
A correlation between variables x and y may occur because one causes the other, but it is often impossible to determine if x causes y or if y causes x.
Third variable problem
The possibility that two variables may be correlated but do not exert a causal influence on one another;rather, both are caused by some additional variable
