Chapter 1: Introducing Social Psychology Flashcards
What is social psychology?
The scientific study of how people think about, influence and relate to one another. It pertains to how people view and affect one another. (p.1)
What are some of the “big ideas” mentioned in the text?
Social Thinking
- We construct our own reality
- Our social intuitions are powerful, sometimes perilous
- Attitudes shape, and are shaped by, behavior
Social Influences
- Social influences shape behavior
- Disposition shape behavior
Social Relations
- Social behavior is also biological behavior
- Feelings and actions towards people are sometimes negative (prejudices, aggressive) and sometimes positive (helpful, loving) (p.3-7)
What place does intuition have in social psychology?
We rely on two levels - intuitive (system 1) and “deliberate” (system 2).
Our intuitive capacities explain:
- -automatic processing
- -implicit memory
- -heuristics
- -instant emotions
- -nonverbal communication.
Intuition is powerful, but also perilous. We rely on that which we can think of most easily. We trust memories more than we should. We mis-predict our feelings and even the future. (p.4-5)
What influences social behavior?
Personal attitudes and dispositions shape behavior
–e.g., our attitudes towards alcohol influence our susceptibility to peer pressure to drink alcohol.
Social behavior is also influenced by biology
–e.g., hormones affect how we think and act. (p.6)
How do values enter the work of social psychologists?
Obvious — Values may impact when social psychologists choose research topics. Values also influence the types of people who are attracted to various disciplines. Social psych and sociology students may attract people who are eager to challenge tradition and to shape the future.
Values obviously enter the picture as the object of social psychological analysis. They investigate how values form, why they change and how they influence attitudes and actions.
Subtle — science is not purely subjective. We view the world through the lends of our preconceptions. Some assumptions may go unchallenged when they share the same culture. We take some beliefs for granted (social representations). Preconceptions guide our interpretations. Psychologists may talk as if stating facts when they are really making value judgements. Values also seep into research-based concepts. Labels also reflect judgment. (p.8-10)
What is the “I knew it all along” phenomenon, and how does this relate to “hindsight bias?” What are the “down sides” of these?
We invoke common sense after we know the facts. Events are far more “obvious” and predictable in hindsight than beforehand. When people learn the outcome of an experiment, that outcome suddenly seems unsurprising. We may misremember our earlier view. (p.10-13)
One downside is when reading material in a textbook it all seems obvious and makes sense, but then may be difficult to recall when taking the test. It is conducive to arrogance - an overestimation of our own intellectual powers. It makes people overconfident about the validity of their judgements and predictions.
Hindsight Bias
The tendency to exaggerate after learning an outcome, one’s ability to have foreseen how something turned out. Also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon. (p.11)
What is a theory?
Theory — A theory is an integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events. Theories are scientific shorthand.
Facts are agreed-upon statements about what we observe. Theories are ideas that summarize and explain facts.
A good theory effectively summarizes many observations, and makes clear predictions that we can use to confirm or modify the theory, generate new research, and suggest practical applications.
What is a hypothesis?
Hypothesis — A testable proposition that describes a relationship that may exist between events.
Hypotheses allow us to test a theory by suggesting how we might falsify it. They give direction to research. The predictive features of good theories can also make them practical. (p.14)
Random Sampling
Random Sampling — survey procedure in which every person in the population being studies has an equal chance of inclusion. Any subgroup of people will tend to be represented in the sample to the extent that they are represented in the total population.
Representative Sample
Representative Sample — The people who participate in the research are representative of the larger population - aka there aren’t differences between the people who take the survey vs. those who do not (p.15)
Correlational Research
Correlational Research— The study of the naturally occurring relationships among variables. Correlations indicate a relationship, but that relationship is not necessarily one of cause and effect. Correlations quantify the degree of relationship between two factors from -1.0 (as one goes down the other goes down) to +1.0 (as one goes up the other goes up)
Advantage — examining important variables in natural settings
Disadvantage — ambiguous interpretation of cause and effect
Experimental Research
Experimental Research — Studies that seek clues to cause-effect relationships by manipulating one or more factors (independent variables) while controlling others (holding them constant). (p.17-20)
With which of method of research can you make statements about cause?
Experimental Research
What is meant by “random assignment” in experimental research?
Random Assignment — The process of assigning participants to the conditions of an experiment such that all persons have the same chance of being in a given condition. Random assignment helps bus infer cause and effect (whereas random sampling helps us generalize to a population. (p.19)
