Exam 1 Flashcards
Features of science
Logical-systematic observation, repeatable- public verification, open to disconfirmation-solvable probelms
Observational/ethno graphy studies
observe behavior where it typically happens. Strengths- high in external validity (ability to generalize conclusions to other stimuli/groups) limitations- can only describe, no private/rare events, subject to observer bias, absent internal validity (support causal claims)
Correlational studies
Determine how much in what way two pre-exisitng variables are related. Strengths- Can study things you can’t or shouldn’t manipulate, get lots of data, often relatively cheap and easy. Limitations- response bias, sampling errors( deviation of sample from population), cannot interpret causality, Correlation DOES NOT prove causation.
Experimental Studies
manipulate one or more variables while controlling others (holding things constant). Strengths- high internal validity, CAN conclude causality. Limitation- may be relatively expensive, subject to demand characteristics (responses changing to fit participant belief about the study), low external validity.
Independent vs dependent variables
Independent variable: The variable that is manipulated by the experimenter
Dependent variable: The measurement of the consequences
Theory vs hypothesis
Theory: An integrated set of statements that describes, predicts, or explains behavior. Backed by logic or reasonable evidence
Hypothesis: Specific, testable, and disconfirmable statement about the behavior we want to study or theory we want to test
Construct vs operationalization
Construct: The conceptual representation of the phenomenon around which research is beased. Intangible- does not exist in the physical reality. Ex. “venting frustration”
Operationalization: Defines a construct in concrete terms “throwing a chair at one’s boss”
Goals of research
describe a behavior, predict behavior, and explain behavior
External and internal validity
External: an indication of how well the results of a study generalize beyond the sampling from the experiment
Internal: confidence that only the manipulated independent variable. No other external influence could have produced the results.
Reliability
The degree to which a particular way of measuring a variable yield consistent results
Problem in studies
Response bias- people tend to lie or bend the truth
Sampling error- error that occurs when a sample somehow does not represent the target population
Demand characteristics-cues in experiment that tell the participant what behavior is expected
Social desirability bias -the tendency to respond to questions in a socially desirable manner
Third variables
A variable, often measured in correlational research, that can be the true explanation for the relationship between two other variables
IRB and ethical concerns
IRB:institutional review board monitors activies and approves studies before running them
Ethical concerns: Require informed consent so people know what they are getting into. Attempt to minimize discomfort, only do worthwhile research, ensure confidentiality of identity/data, debrief participants to the true nature of the study after it’s over, including any decpetion
Replication
reproduction of research results by the original investigator or by someone else
Better-than-average-effect
tendency to perceive ourselves better than everyone else or the average person. Peoples tend to think they’re better than most people even if they’re not.
Contingencies of self-worth
Fluctuations in self-esteem depend on how important the domain is.
Direct feedback
the information received from others abouttraits and abilities-explicit or objective feedback
Dunning-kruger effect
Low performers think they are BETTER than the reality, high performers think they are WORSE than reality
Impression management
strategic control of information comunicated to audiences. Can be trivial information or more important. Audience can be real, imagined, or self.
Introspection
you know yourself better than anyone.. Looking inward. There are limits on that knowledge
Promotion vs. prevention focus
focusing your life on self betterment and positive things versus focusing on avoiding negative
Reflected appraisals
our PERCEPTION of how others percieve and evaluate us (if i am picked last for the basketbal team then I will assume I am bad at basketball)
Self evaluation maintence model
A theory predicting under what conditions people are likely to react to the success of others with either pride or jealousy using social comparison and reflection
Self-affirmation theory
The idea that people can maintain an overall sense of self-worth following psychologically threatening information by affirming a valued aspect of themselves unrelated to the threat
Self-assessment
desire for accurate self-knowledge (want to be right and feel good about myself)
Self-awareness
A theory maintaining that when people focus their attention inward on themselves. They become concerned with self-evaluation and how their current behavior conforms to their internal standards and values
Self-consistency-
an absence of conflict among self-perceptions
Self-deception
The action or practice of allowing oneself to believe that false or unvalidated feelings, ida, or situation is true
self -discrepancy theory
Actual, Ideal, Ought. A theory that behavior is motivated by standards reflecting ideal and ought selves. Falling short of these standards produces specific emotions: dejection-related emotions in the case of actual-idea discrepancies and agitation-realted emotions in the case of actual-ought discrepancies
Self-enhancement
need for positive self-view and to protect against negative feedback
Self-esteem (trait, state)
Most people have high self esteem (trait), fluctuations in self-esteem over time and in different domains (state).
Self-handicapping
protecting one’s self image by creating a handy excuse for failure. “Didn’t study because they knew they were going to fail”
Self-monitoring
monitoring how one is being perceived in social settings. High self-monitors: “social chameleons” low self-monitors- prefer consistency across situations and audiences
Self-perception theory
The theory that people come to know their own attitude by looking at their behavior and the context in which it occurred and inferring what their attitudes must be
Self- presentation
controlling, regulating, and monitoring information about the self. One kind of impression management. Presenting a desired but plausible identity to others. Audience may be external, imaginary, or self
Self-reference effect
information is better recalled when it is related to itself.
Self-schemas
A cognitive representation of a person’s belief and feelings about the self in general and in certain situations
Self-verification
need to maintain a stable, subjectively accurate self-concept (being right, the views I have about are accurate. Being stable)
Self-regulation
processes by which people initiate, alter, and control their behavior in the pursuit of goals, including the ability to resist short-term rewards that thwart the attainment of long-term
Social comparison theory
(festinger 1954) when an objective standard is not available, people will use a social standard instead. Most informative when people compare themselves to similar others-because it is not fair to compare yourself out of standards, possibly demotivating. The people around you affect you in your life compared to everyone, morerealistic feedback.
Social comparison
the act of comparing our traits and abilities with the traits and abilities of others
Sociometer theory
Evolutionary purpose: protects against isolation, measure of social inclusion/exclusion
System 1 vs. system 2 processing
System 1: fast, automatic, frequent, emotional sterotypic, unconscious
System 2: slow, efforful, infrequent, logical, deliberative, conscious
Top-down vs. bottom-up processing
Top down: is when people interpret new information in light of pre-exisiting knowledge and expectations (thoery driven)
Bottom up: is when an individual forms conclusions based on the stimuli encountered in the environment (data driven)
Schemas
a collection of related beliefs or ideas that people use to organize their knowledge about the world.
-Script: how to do something -like how to act on a date
-Stereotypes: schemas for people- like who is a “jock”
-Self-schemas: generalization/beliefs about the self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information
Priming
The presentation of information designed to activate a concept (such as a stereotype) and hence make it accessible. A prime is the stimulus presented to activate the concept in question
Why do we use heuristics
social cognition is affected by our limited cognitive capacity when we navigate through the complicated self world, this leads us to apply cognitive heuristics to conserve mental efforts
Representativeness heuristic
a mental shortcut people use to classify something as belonging to a certain catgeoy to the extent that it is similar to a typical case from that category- tendency to ignore statistical information in faovor of stereotypical information
Availability heuristic
a mental shortcut people use to estimate the likelihood of an event by the ease with which instances of that event come to mind
Base-rate neglect
tendency to ignore statistical information in favor in vivid case histories
Anchoring and adjustment
a mental shortcut through which people begin with a rough estimaton as a starting point and then adjust this estimate to take account unique characteristics of the present situation
Fluency
The feeling of ease (or difficulty) associated with processing information
Framing effects
the way an issue is posed can significantly affect our decisions and judgements
Illusory correlation
overestimating the relationship between two variables (where none actually exists)- think athletes ritual (false belief of causation)
Assimilation
interpreting new information in terms of existing beliefs (like a schema)
Regression fallacy
misunderstanding the statistical tendency for extreme behavior to return one’s average
Pluralistic ignorance
phenomenon in which people mistakenly believe that others predominatly have a different opinion then their own.
Self-fufulling prophecy
our expectations lead us to act in ways that cause others to confirm our expectation
Belief perseverance
persistence of one’s initial conceptions, even in the fact of opposing evidence. (firefighter example, they told participants they got it wrong but people persevered and kept their original opinion)
Primacy and recency effects
Primacy effects: information presented at the beginning is most persuasive
Recency effect: information presented at the end is most persuasive
Construal level theory
A theory about the relationship between temporal distance (and other kinds of distance) and abstract or concrete thinking: psychologically distant actions and events are thought about in abstract term; actions and events that are close at hand are thought about in concrete terms
Confirmation bias
tendency to search for information that confirms our preconceptions
change/inattentional blindness
suggest selective attention needed for awareness. Suggests attention necessary for stimulus awareness.
“Cognitive misers”
people expend no more than the minimum effort necessary to make social judgments (one end of the extremes)
“Naive scientists”
people act as untrained scientist, objectively looking at behaviors and making accurate judgements
False-consensus effect
the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors
Illusion of control
people’s belief that they can influence events, even when they have no control over what will happen
External attribution
The inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in; the assumption is that most people would respond the same way in the situation (high consensus, high distinctiveness, high consistency)
Internal attribution
The inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character, or personality. (low consensus, low distinctiveness, high consistency) - dispositional
Correspondence inference theory
does the behavior correspond to the personality trait- one time thing.
Kelley’s theory of attribution
people don’t always focus on single situations.
-Consensus: do other people do this behavior?
-Distinctiveness: does the person behave this way only in this situation
-Consistency: does this pairing occur repeatedly
Explanatory style
A person’s habitual way of explaining events, typuclaly assessed along three dimensions: interla/external, stable/unstable, and global/specific
Fundamental Attribution error
tendency for people (in westen cultures) to underestimate situation influences and overestimate dispositional influences on others’ behavior
Just-world hypothesis
The belief that people get what they deserve what they get
Perceptual salience
When we act, we notice the situation. When other’s act, we notice the person
actor -observer bias
the tendency to attribute one’s own behavior to situational causes and others behaviors to person causes
Self-serving bias
tendency to attribute bad events to external circumstances and attributes good events to oneself
Misattribution of arousal
arousal from one experience carries over to a new experience. Emotional response comes from our attribution about the cause of an event
Culture and casual attribution
fundamental attribution error impacted by culture-independent vs interdependent. Social class (lower class tend to commit the fundamental attribution error less) decontextual vs. holistic thinking, east Asians in interdependent cultures attribute more to situation and less prone to fundamental attribution error than western independent cultures who attribute more dispositions
Discounting and augmentation principles
Discounting: The idea that people should assign reduced weight to a particular cause of behavior if other plausible causes might have produced it.
Augmentation: The idea that people should assign greater weight to a particular cause of behavior if other causes are present that normally would produce a different outcome
Counterfactial thinking
thoughts of what might have, could have, or should have happened “if only” something had occurred differently
Emotional amplification
an increase in an emotional reaction to an event that is proportional to how easy it is to imagine the event not happening
Emotion vs mood
Mood: relative to emotions, less intense, longer lasting and less focused on specific targets or elicitors
Emotion: Organized by psychological and physiological reactions to change our construal of the world
-Usually temporary- clear beginning and end
-Are valanced- positive, negative, or a mixture of oth
-Alter thought process. Negative-narrow attention, may increase processing effort. Positive- wident attention, may relax processing effort
Features and functions of emotion
Emotions are expressed to help it work better: facial motions alter sensory processing. And to communicate/coordinate with others: people express emotions more in social situations.
Basic emotion theory
a behavioral theory that suggests there are six universal emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, suprise, and disgust
Cultural differences (e.g., focal emotions, affect valuation theory, display rules)
-Focal emotions: emotions especially common within a particular culture
-Display rules: cross culture guidelines for how and when to express emotions
-Affect valuation theory: emotions that promote important cultural ideals are valued and will tend to play a more prominent role in the social lives of individuals
-Ideal emotions:cultures differ in the emotions they value or idealize. Associated with cultural values, US values excitement and East Asian cultures value calmness and contentness
Broaden-and-build hypothesis
The idea that positive emotions broaden thoughts and actions, helping people build social resources
James-Lange theory
The theory that emotions result from physiological states triggered by stimuli in the environment. Physiological responses cause emotion, each emotion has different pattern of physiological change, somatic theory.
-Perceived event-> physiological and behavioral responses-> emotional experience
Cannon-Bard theory
Emotion and physiology are simultaneous. Emotion is created directly in the brain- the brain sends signals simultaneously to the cerebral cortex and body,.
Appraisal theory
emotions are influenced by how we interpret an event or our physiological arousal- what influences interpretation
Feelings-as-informaiton
we use our emotions as a guide to decision making. When only asked about life satisfaction, people were most satisfied with their lives on sunny days- when people were asked about the weather, the life satisfaction, they reported equal life satisfaction despite the weather (mood attributed to weather not life satisfaction)
Affective forecasting
predicting future emotions.
Focalism
tendency to focus too much on central aspect of an event while neglecting the possible impact of associated factors or other events
Immune neglect
the tendency for people to underestimate their capacity to be resilient in responding to difficult life events, which leads them to overestimate the extent to which life’s problems will reduce their personal well-being
Duration neglect
giving relative unimportance of the length of an emotional experience, whether pleasurable or unpleasant, in judging and emembering the overall experience
Social intuitionist model
The idea that people first have fast, emotional reactions to morally relevant events, which influence the way they reason to arrive at a judgemnet of right or wrong.
Emotions in social relationships(commitment, coordinated action, status)
-Commitment: The expression of certain emotions signals our commitment to others’ well being, emotions can motivate us to promote the well being of others
-Coordinated Actions: relationship develop for a purpose, completion of a task or project that one individual could not manage alone
-Status: Emotions help us find our status within groups
Moral foundations theory
A theory proposing that there are five evolved, universal moral domains in which specific emotions guide moral judgments
Pursuit of happiness
The inalienable right that allows people to gain their goals that will make them happy (as long as it doesn’t infringe on anyone elses’ rights
Detercting deceit through communication channels
-Words: someone with a reason to lie cannot be trusted
-Body: Shifting of body, restless movement of feet and hands
-Voice: pitch increases, speeach hesitations increase, and speech slows when lying
-Face: Microexpressions (involuntary expressions) are hard to hide duchenee vs. deceptive smile
ABC’s of attitudes
-Affect: emotional experience; how much you like/dislike
-Behavior: behavioral tendency to approach or avoid
-Cognition: thoughts that reinforce people’s feelings
Attitude strength
we follow through on strongly held consistent attitudes. Higher in commitment=higher certainty of correctness. Higher in embeddedness= connection to other features of the attitude holder. More resistant to change. More likely to to influence behavior
Implicit attitudes
attitudes that aren’t puriposefully hidden and or not fully recognized. Measure immediate evalutve reactions that may be unconscious to the person
Explicit attitudes
Measure that directly ask respondents to think about and report and attitude. Likert scale.
How to address problems with attitude measurement
Measure at same level of same level of specificity: action, target, context. Use multiple act criterion: measure across many different attitudes and behaviors
Attitude-behavior consistency (why and when)
refers to the extent to which a strong relationship exists between between attitudes and actual behavior for example, a person with a positive attitude toward protecting the environmen who recycles paper and bottles shows high attitude- bahavior consistency.
Functions of attitudes
they give us knowledge about function, an identity function, and a behavioral function
Self-perception theory
when are uncertain of our attitudes and feelings we make inferences about traits by observing our own behavior
Balance theory
attitudes in a system. We are happy as long as there is equilibrium, were uncomfortable with imbalance (think of arrow system)
Cognitive dissonance
the aversive emotional state resulting from an inconsistency between one’s beliefs/attitudes and behaviors. We are motivated to reduce dissonance and restore consistency
Insufficient justification
reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one’s behavior when the external justification is insufficient (I can’t be bought for one dollar so i changed my attitude- change something ab ourselves
Over-justification
The effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do. The person may now see the reward, rather than intrinsic interest, as the motivation fro performing the task
Likert scale
A numerical scale used to assess people’s attitudes; a scale that includes a set of possible answers with labeled anchors on each extreme
Post-decisional dissonance
state of psychological dissonance that often occurs after making important decision
Spreading of alternatives
Rationalizing a choice you have made to reflect greater confidence in the choice you made versus the choice you rejected. (you’ve spread your choices farther apart by making one seem clearly better)
Self- perception vs. dissonance
self-perception theory explains the creation of new self-knowledge following behavior that does not conflict with clear initial self-views whereas cognitve dissonance explains change in existing self-knowledge following freely chosen behavior that does conflict with clear inital self-views
Effort justification
the tendency to reduce dissonance by justifying the time, effort, or money devoted to something that turned our to be unpleasant or disappointing
Attitude centrality
report attitudes about several topics within a domain, the more a topic is linked to ther topics the more central the toppic is to a person
System justification theory
The theory that people are motivated to see the existing sociopolitical system as desirable, fair, and legitimate
Terror management theory
The theory that people deal with the potentially crippling anxiety associated with the knowledge of the inveitability of death by striving for symbolic immortality through preserving valued culture’s standards
Implicit association test
A technique for revealing nonconscious attitudes towards different stimuli, particularly groups of people
Agenda control
Effors of the media to select certain events and topics to emphasize, thereby shaping which issues and events people think are important
Attitude inoculation
small attacks on people’s beliefs that engage their preexisting attitudes, prior commitments, and background knowledge, enabling them to counteract a subsequent larger attack and thus resist persuasion
Attractiveness
Physical appeal, celebrity adds things. Similarity- we like people who are similar to us
Audience effects
characteristics of those who receive a persuasive message, including need for cognition, mood, age, and audience size and diversity
Bandwagon technique
an appeal to follow the crowd, to join because others are doing so well
Credibility
perceived expertise, trustworthiness. Arguing against self-interest. Speaking quickly and without hesitation.
Cults
Distinctive ritual and beliefs related to its devotion to a god or person, usually far outside the mainsteal, isolation from the surrounding “evil culutre” with a charismatic leader
Elaboraiton likelihood model
A model of persuasion maintaining that there are two different routes to persuasion: the central route and the peripheral route
Fear appeals
Only effective in some conditions. When coupled with behavior recommendations. Not effective in domains that are already scary
Glittering generalities technique
words that have different positive meaning for individual subjects but are linked to highly valued concepts
Identifiable victim effect
The tendency to be more moved by the vivid plight of a signle individual than by a more abstract number of people
Lesser of two evils technique
presenting an idea or proposal as the least offensive option
One-sided appeals
Isolated from friends and family who could help counter argue
Message effects
Features of the message itself, like logic and number of key points. Length of speech and complexity included.
Metacognition
secondary thoughts that are reflections on primary thoughts (cognitions)
Mood
a positive mood may lead to greater persuasion. Misattribute good mood to the message
Movement
head nodding
Perceived expertise
when someone is perceived as habing experience in a subject, help with credibility (speaker effect)
Physical appeal
more persuaded by message if the speaker is physically attractive
Pinpointing the enemy technique
oversimplifying a complex situation by presenting one specific group or person as the enemy
Plain folks technique
convincing audiences that one’s views are those of the common person and benefit the common person
Reactance
A motive to protect or restore one’s sense of freedom. Reactance arises when someone threatens our freedom of action.
Similarity
more persuaded by message if there is a similarity when the speaker and message (they look like you)
Source effect
The characteristics of the person or venue delivering the message, such as expertise, knowledge, and trustworthiness (credibility)
Sleeper effects
delayed impact of a message that occurs when we remember the message but forgot the reason for discounting it (the source)
Testimonials technique
quotations or endorsements, in or out of context, that connect a famous or respectable person with a product or item.
Speaker effects
the “who” . the exception to the speaker effect is the sleeper effect.
Thought polarization
mental elabroation on an issue can lead to attitude extremity on that issue, preventing change
Third-person effect
The assumption by most people that others are more prone to being influenced by persuasive messages (such as those in media campaigns) than they themselves are.
Trustworthiness
arguing against self-interest. Speaking quickly and without hesitation.
Two-sided appeals
audience may NOT be on your side. Audience is or will be AWARE of both side. Audience disagrees with you. Then acknowledge the other side.
Yale Model
-who: source characteristics, Charismatic & Trustworthy “Leader”
-what: message characteristics, Fear + Recommendation “It’s scary out there but we have the ‘answers’” Distraction Participation in rituals Drug use
One-sided appeals Isolated from friends and family who could help counter-argue
-whom: audience characteristics, People at a crossroads, looking for direction Often under 25, educated, & middle-class
When does propaganda work?
When it is based upon credible truth
Presented in an attractive form
Arouses a need
Suggest satisfaction
Promoting your position: message effects
Assertion- an enthusiastic or energetic statement presented as a fact, although it is not necessarily true
Card-staking-presented information that is positive to an idea or proposal and omitting information contrary to it
Glittering generalities- words that have different positive meaning for individual subjects but are linked to highly valued concepts
Promoting your position: normative effects- propaganda
Bandwagon-an appeal to follow the crowd, to join because others are doing so as well
Plain folks- convincing the audience that one’s views are those of the common person and that they are also working for the benefit of the common person
Testimonials- quotations or endorsements, in or out of context, that connect a famous or respectable person with a product or item
Derogating the other side- propaganda
Name calling- derogatory language or words that carry a negative connotation when describing an enemy
Pinpointing the enemy- oversimplifying a complex situation by presenting one specific group or person as the enemy
Comparing both sides- propaganda
Lesser of two evils- presenting an idea or proposal as the least offensive option
Transfer- an attempt to create an association between a person or idea and another item , either good or bad
