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Social Psychology > Chapter 2 > Flashcards

Chapter 2 Flashcards

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1
Q

You hear a news story describing the
following research finding: the more fast
food children eat, the lower their scores on
reading, math, and science tests. Even
though this study was with kids, does it
make you want to cut down on the amount
of fast food you eat?

A

yes

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2
Q

Social Psychology Fundamental Principle

A

Social influence can be studied scientifically

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3
Q

Results of some experiments may seem obvious, why?

A

– Familiarity with the subject matter
 Social influence
 Social behavior
– Hindsight bias

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4
Q

Hindsight Bias

A

Tendency to exaggerate prediction of an outcome after

knowing that it occurred

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5
Q

Like other scientists, social psychologists

A 
– Develop theories
– Derive hypotheses from theory
– Test hypotheses
 Based on the results, revise theory
 Formulate and test new hypotheses
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6
Q

new hypothesis and theories tend to come from

A 
• Previous theories and research
– Science is cumulative
 Dissatisfaction with behaviorism (Festinger)
• Personal observation
 Kitty Genovese (Latané and Darley)
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7
Q

Observational method

A

focused on Description, and answers What is the nature of the phenomenon

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8
Q

Correlational method

A

focused on Prediction, and answers From knowing X, can we predict Y?

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9
Q

Experimental method

A

focused on Causality, and answers Is variable X a cause variable of Y?

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10
Q

about The Observational Method

A

• Researcher observes people and systematically
records behavior.
– Used to describe behavior

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11
Q

Observational Method Example

A

• Research Question
– How much aggression do children exhibit during school
recesses?
• Method
– Behaviors concretely defined before observation
– Observer systematically looks for and records
behaviors
– Accuracy of observer is assessed
 Interjudge reliability

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12
Q

Interjudge Reliability

A

The level of agreement between two or more people who

independently observe and code a set of data

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13
Q

Limits of the Observational Method

A

• Certain behaviors difficult to observe
– Occur rarely
– In private
• Archival analysis
– Original may not have all information researchers need
• Does not allow prediction and explanation
– Limited to description

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14
Q

about The Correlational Method

A

Two or more variables are systematically
measured and the relation between them is
assessed.

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15
Q

Correlation Coefficient

A

A statistical technique that assesses how well you can

predict one variable from another

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16
Q

Positive Correlation

A

Increases in the value of one variable are
associated with increases in the value of the
other variable

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17
Q

Negative Correlation

A

Increases in the value of one variable are
associated with decreases in the value of the
other variable

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18
Q

Surveys

A

– Representative sample of people asked about attitudes
or behavior
– Correlations computed using responses to questions

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19
Q

Random Selection

A

A way of ensuring that a sample of people is
representative of a population by giving everyone in the
population an equal chance of being selected for the
sample

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20
Q

Surveys Advantages

A

– Investigate relations between variables difficult to
observe
 Sexual behavior & knowledge of HIV
– Sample representative segments of population

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21
Q

Surveys Disadvantages

A

– Accuracy of responses:

 People may not know the answer—but they think they do!

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22
Q

Limits of the Correlational Method

A

• Correlation does not equal causation!
• Correlational method tells us only that two
variables are related

23
Q

about The Experimental Method

A

• Researcher randomly assigns participants to
different conditions
• Conditions are identical except for the
independent variable (the one thought to have a
causal effect on people’s responses).
– Use to answer causal questions

24
Q

Independent Variable (IV)

A

is what researchers manipulate to see if it

has a causal effect

25
Q

Dependent Variable (DV)

A

is what researchers measure to see if it is

affected

26
Q

Internal Validity

A

Making sure that nothing besides the independent

variable can affect the dependent variable

27
Q

to Increase Internal Validity

A

• Control extraneous variables
• Randomly assign people to experimental
conditions

28
Q

Random Assignment

A

Ensure all participants have equal chance of being
in any experimental condition
– Ensures that differences in participants’ personalities or
backgrounds are distributed evenly across conditions
This powerful technique is the most important part of the
experimental method.

29
Q

Probability Level (p-value)

A

• A number calculated with statistical techniques
• Indicates likelihood results of experiment occurred
by chance instead of the IV(s)
• The convention in science is to consider results
significant when p

30
Q

Limits of Experimental Method

A 
• Experimental situations can be
– Artificial
– Distant from real life
 Tradeoff with increasing control over the situation to make it
similar for all participants
31
Q

External Validity

A

The extent to which the results of a study can be

generalized to other situations and to other people

32
Q

Generalizability across

A
  1. Situations
     the extent to which we can generalize from the experimental
    situation to real-life situations
  2. People
     the extent to which we can generalize from the people who
    participated in the experiment to people in general
33
Q

Psychological Realism

A

Psychological processes triggered by experiments are

similar to psychological processes in real life

34
Q

Cover story

A

A description of the purpose of a study, given to
participants, that is different from its true purpose, used
to maintain psychological realism

35
Q

Random selection of participants from population

A

– Impractical and expensive for most social psychology
experiments
– Address by studying basic, fundamental psychological
processes that may be universal

36
Q

Improving External Validity

A

• Field Experiments:
– Experiments conducted in natural settings rather than
in the laboratory
• Advantages:
– Participants unaware that they are in an experiment
– Participants more diverse than typical college sample

37
Q

Trade-Off Between

Internal and External Validity

A

• Internal validity: randomly assign to conditions and
control for extraneous variables
• External validity: generalize to everyday life
• “Basic dilemma of the social psychologist”
(Aronson & Carlsmith, 1968)
– Too much control, generalizable?
– Too much like real life, control all extraneous variables?
• The way to resolve this basic dilemma is not to try
to do everything in a single experiment!

38
Q

Replications

A

– Repeating a study, often with different subject
populations or in different settings
– Ultimate test of external validity

39
Q

Meta-analysis

A

– A statistical technique that averages the results of two
or more studies to see if the effect of an independent
variable is reliable
– Test of internal validity

40
Q

Basic Research

A

– Designed to find the best answer to why people
behave as they do
– Conducted purely for reasons of intellectual curiosity

41
Q

Applied Research

A

– Designed to solve a particular social problem
• “There is nothing so practical as a good theory.”
(Lewin, 1951)
– To solve social problems, one must understand
underlying psychological dynamics

42
Q

Cross-Cultural Research

A

Conducted with different cultures, to see if
psychological processes are present in both
cultures or specific to the culture in which people
were raised

43
Q

Issues in Cross-Cultural Research

A

• Researchers must:
– Guard against imposing their own cultural viewpoints
onto an unfamiliar culture
– Ensure that IV & DV are understood in the same way in
different cultures

44
Q

Evolutionary Theory

A

Developed by Charles Darwin to explain how animals

adapt to their environments

45
Q

Natural Selection

A

– How heritable traits that promote survival in a particular
environment are passed along to future generations
– Organisms with those traits are more likely to produce
offspring

46
Q

Evolutionary Psychology

A

Attempts to explain social behavior in terms of
genetic factors that have evolved over time
according to the principles of natural selection.
• Core idea: Social behaviors prevalent today are due, in part, to
adaptations to past environments

47
Q

Social Neuroscience

A

• Examines the connection between biological
processes and social behavior
• Technologies used include:
– Electroencephalography (EEG)
 electrodes are placed on the scalp to measure electrical
activity in the brain
– Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
 in which people are placed in scanners that measure changes
in blood flow in their brains

48
Q

Ethical dilemma

A
  1. Create experiments that resemble the real world and
    are well controlled
  2. Avoid causing participants stress, discomfort, or
    unpleasantness
49
Q

Informed Consent

A

– Agreement to participate in an experiment
– Full nature of the experiment explained in advance
– Sometimes this is not feasible

50
Q

Deception

A

– Misleading participants about the true purpose of a
study or the events that will actually transpire
– People do not object to mild discomfort and deception
– Not all research in social psychology involves
deception!

51
Q

Debriefing

A

Explaining to participants, at the end of an experiment,
the true purpose of the study and exactly what
transpired

52
Q

Guidelines for Ethical Research

A

– Ensures the safety and dignity of research participants
– Must include at least one scientist, one nonscientist,
and one person who is not affiliated with the institution
– Reviews all research proposals
– Approves studies before research conducted
– Procedures judged to be overly stressful or upsetting
must be changed or deleted before the study can be
conducted

53
Q

Methods

A

– Observational
– Correlational
– Experimental

54
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of different

methods

A

Internal and External Validity

Social Psychology (9 decks)

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