Exam 1 Flashcards
what is social psychology?
scientific study of feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social situations.
hindsight bias
tendency to believe you could have predicted outcome after the fact (aka “i-knew-it-all-along”
phenomenon)
the A in the ABCs of social psych stands for:
affect
the B in the ABCs of social psych stands for:
behavior
the C in the ABCs of social psych stands for:
cognition
what does social psychology focus on?
the individual (sometimes small groups)
what is a construal?
an interpretation of stimuli
what is a hypothesis?
a specific, testable prediction; often with 2+ variables
what are variables?
anything that can change
what is an operational definition?
the concrete way you can define a variable in study (such as how you would define how much someone loves someone/thing)
what is non-experimental research?
has a focus on observing and measuring. what does … look like? how often does … occur? what predicts …?
what is experimental research?
manipulate, then measure. why does … occur? what causes …?
observational research
observing occurances at close range
archival research
researching through reports: census reports, police reports, newspaper…
survey research
conducted through interviews or questionnaires
correlational research
measuring two variables and assessing their relationship
what do experiments require?
at manipulated variable to test for causal effect, a control (non-manipulated) variable, random assignment, and a consistent situation
what is an independent variable?
what is changed/manipulated
what is a dependent variable?
what is measured
internal validity
was the independent variable (and only the independent variable) what caused the results?
external validity
do the results generalize? how do they apply outside of the experiment?
what is the self concept?
the beliefs and feelings you have about yourself (self-schema)
what is introspection?
observing yourself, your thoughts, and your feelings
what is reflected self-appraisal?
your beliefs about what others think of you
what is social comparison?
comparing yourself to those around you and noticing what is different/unique about yourself. you’re more likely to note your hair color than the fact that you’re human when you look in the mirror.
what is a currently activated self-concept?
how your perception of yourself changes depending on what situation you’re in. both stable and malleable; some things change, some things stay the same
what is an independent self-construal?
the concept of being distinct, separate, and unique; more common in western cultures
what is an interdependent self-construal?
focuses more on one’s relationships, roles, and concepts (ex. father, worker…); more common in eastern cultures
what is self-esteem?
the overall evaluation of yourself
what is functionalism?
the idea that all psychological processes serve a purpose
what is sociometer theory?
theory that your self-esteem tracks your current social standing in order to protect yourself.
what is trait self-esteem?
a self-esteem concept that is stable and enduring; doesn’t have major fluctuations depending on rejection or approval
what is state self-esteem?
a self-esteem concept that fluctuates temporarily depending on rejection or approval
what are the REAL benefits of high self esteem?
positive emotions and a higher initiative
what is self-enhancement?
the motivation to maintain or increase positive self-views; doesn’t wish to make efforts to improve self, but to continue feeling good about yourself anyway
what is the better-than-average effect?
the belief that you are often above average, but is scientifically impossible for everyone to be above average
what is self-handicapping?
engaging in self-defeating behaviors the provide excuses for failure (ex: going to a party instead of studying and using it as an excuse for bad grades)
what is self verification?
the motivation to maintain our existing self-view; varies on if someone has a positive or negative self view; doesn’t wish to make efforts to improve self, and prefers to continue seeing self as they believe they are.
when there is a high rejection risk, people are more likely to…
self-enhance; trying to make yourself look better than you believe you are
when there is a low rejection risk, people are more likely to…
self-verify; trying to make others see you as you see yourself
what is the common theme of cognitive psychology?
automacy; mental shortcuts that sometimes lead to error
what are snap judgements of personality?
interpretations we automatically make of others based on clothing, hair, faces…
what is pluralistic ignorance?
when everyone misperceives a group norm because everyone is worried about violating it
what is confirmation bias?
the tendency to test propositions by seeking information that supports it; asking “am i right?” instead of “am i wrong?”
what is a self-fulfulling prophecy?
acting in ways that lead others to confirm our expectations of them
what is a schema?
a knowledge structure or mental framework made from things you’ve already learned
what types of schemas are there?
self, individual, places, social roles, events, groups (stereotypes)
what are the benefits of schemas?
they save mental energy and let us draw inferences beyond the information we’re given
what are the drawbacks of schemas?
they can sometimes be wrong!
what do schemas influence?
attention, behavior, construals, memory
what is accessibility when referring to schemas?
the ease and speed with which concepts/schemas come to mind; things brought to more more recently will come to mind first (think of the junk drawer!)
what is priming?
presenting stimuli to temporarily activate a concept/schema
what are heuristics?
basically mental shortcuts; automatic, and used if low motivation / ability for controlled processing
what are representative heuristics?
judging likelihood based on similarity of person/object to category prototype (ex: the feminist bank teller) (if it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it must be a duck)
what is base-rate neglect?
when one ignores the logical likelihood and focuses on how something fits into a stereotype (ex: the computer science/humanities man)
what are availability heuristics?
judging frequency or probability based on how easily examples come to mind (ex: watching the news often and assuming crime is bad in your area)
Taylor wants to conduct an experiment to see if keeping a gratitude journal makes people happier.
What would the dependent variable be in this situation?
if the participants feel happier by the end of the study
Taylor believes that keeping a gratitude journal will make people happier.
This is her…
hypothesis
Create an operation definition for Taylor’s experiment.
Participants will keep a journal for a month, taking 10 minutes every night to write down things they are grateful for.
Will lives in the country with his grandparents. After going to college, Will decides to move back to his hometown and continue to help out his family’s business. He believes that helping others is more important than going off on his own. Will could be described as…
interdependent
Kim and Laura both take an art class, but don’t believe they’re very good. The teacher takes both to the side and lets them know they have potential. KIm is delighted to hear this, and goes to tell her friends the news. Laura doesn’t believe this, and wonders if the teacher got someone else’s work mixed up as hers. These are examples of
self enhancement and self verification
Rebecca watches a lot of news, and sees a lot of stories about crime on FaceBook. Because of this, she believes she is in danger of a crime, despite living in a good area. This is an example of…
Availability heuristics
