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SOC 340 exam 1 > exam 1 > Flashcards

exam 1 Flashcards

1
Q

what is social psychology?

A

scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by real or imagined presence of others

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2
Q

at heart of social psychology is…

A

social influence

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3
Q

what is social influence?

A

the effect that words, actions, or mere presence of other people have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behavior

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4
Q

what are empirical questions?

A

questions that can be answered by observation or real-world experience

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5
Q

what is folk wisdom and common sense?

A

folk wisdom = common sense

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6
Q

how is folk wisdom and common sense different from social psychology?

A

social psychologists predict behavior by forming hypotheses and test them scientifically

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7
Q

why can’t we rely on folk wisdom and common sense?

A

hindsight bias

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8
Q

what is the fundamental attribution error?

A

tendency to explain our own and other people’s behavior entirely in terms personality traits

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9
Q

what is hindsight bias?

A

tendency people have to assume they knew the outcome of the event after it has already been determined

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10
Q

what happens when we fail to take into account the power of the situation

A

we oversimplify complex situations
decrease our understanding of the true causes of behaviors
blame the victim when people are overpowered by social forces

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11
Q

what is a hypothesis similar to?

A

a hunch

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12
Q

what is behaviorism?

A

understanding human behavior by focusing on the effects of their environment

an objective worldview

ignores construals/definitions of a situation
does not look at situation from viewpoint of people in it to see how they construe the world around them

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13
Q

what does a scientist do if they think someone else’s research is flawed?

A

replicate study to verify findings

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14
Q

Why did Latane and Darley think no one helps out in an emergency?

A

diffusion of responsibility (Kitty Genovese)

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15
Q

What is observational research?

A

researcher observes people and records behavior, used to describe behavior

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16
Q

What are observational method limitations?

A

certain behaviors are hard to observe (rarely occur, in private)
archival analysis (original sources may not have all needed info)
does not allow prediction and explanation (only limited to description)

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17
Q

What does a schema encompass?

A

our knowledge and impression of others, ourselves, social roles, specific events

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18
Q

How can a schema become accessible? (3 reasons)

A

chronically accessible due to past experience
it is related to a current goal
temporarily accessible because of our recent experience

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19
Q

What is/are the downside(s) to
using schemas?

A

seen as stereotypes, can affect perception

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20
Q

what is social cognition?

A

how people think about themselves and the social world
how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgements and decisions

21
Q

What happens when people encounter a new situation?

A

automatic thinking - relate it to past experiences, use schemas

22
Q

What is automatic thinking?

A

thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless

23
Q

How does automatic thinking differ from controlled thinking?

A

automatic = quick, no conscious deliberation of thoughts, perceptions, assumptions
controlled = effortful, deliberate, thinking about self/environment, carefully selecting right course of action

24
Q

What is the self-fulfilling prophecy?

A

people have an expectation about what another person is like, influencing how they act toward that person
causes that person to behave consistently with people’s original expectations - makes expectation come true

25
Q

What is priming?

A

process by which recent experiences increase accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept

ex: being primed with yellow will make you think of bananas

26
Q

Why is reality tv so attractive to people?

A

we can relate and empathize with the people on the show

27
Q

what is social perception?

A

study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about others

28
Q

What did Darwin assume about facial expressions? Are they culture specific?

A

nonverbal forms of communication is species specific (NOT CULTURE SPECIFIC)

29
Q

What is thin-slicing? How is it used?

A

drawing meaningful conclusions about another person’s personality/skills based on extremely brief sample of behavior
making quick judgements about something

30
Q

What are cultural display rules?

A

dictate what kinds of emotional expressions people are supposed to show (is culture specific)

31
Q

Do great apes have a sense of self? How do we know?

A

Yes - they can recognize themselves in a mirror

32
Q

What is the self-concept?

A

overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributes

33
Q

how does our self-concept change with age?

A

we focus less on our physical characteristics and more on psychological states/how others judge us
it is shaped by the people around us

34
Q

Where do we learn causal theories and what are some examples?

A

from our culture; perception, social comparison

35
Q

what is self-esteem

A

people’s evaluation of their own self-worth - the extent to which they view themselves as good, competent, and decent

36
Q

what is cognitive dissonance?

A

discomfort that people feel when two cognitions (beliefs/attitudes) conflict, or when they behave in ways that threaten their self-esteem

37
Q

what does cognitive dissonance lead to?

A

important and provocative social psychological theory and threats to self-image

38
Q

how do we reduce cognitive dissonance?

A

change behavior, justify behavior by changing one of the dissonant cognitions. justify behavior by adding new cognitions

39
Q

what is post decision dissonance?

A

dissonance aroused after making a decision

40
Q

what happens when decisions are irrevocable?

A

dissonance & motivation to reduce dissonance increases

41
Q

what is rationalizing?

A

using logical explanations to justify behavior, thoughts, or feelings

42
Q

why do so many people use rationalizing?

A

protects themselves from anxiety, guilt, or criticism

43
Q

what are the traits of a narcissist?

A

do less well academically
less successful in business
more violent/aggressive
disliked by others
won’t admit they’re wrong
self-love and lack of empathy

44
Q

what represents the “generalized other”?

A

a person’s (ME) understanding of common expectations/norms of their society

45
Q

what are Mead’s 3 stages in role-taking process?

A

Preparatory Stage (birth - 2/3) - they are the focus of their world
Play Stage (3-6) - pretend to be their significant others
Game Stage (7+) - development of your “me”

46
Q

what was the difference between Mead and Cooley’s beliefs on the looking-glass self?

A

both theorized that your sense of self comes from reflecting on your interactions with others BUT
- Cooley theorized that this happened throughout your life with anyone you encountered
- Mead theorized that this happened at particular points in your life and when you reflected on particular people (especially during first 3 stages of life)

47
Q

what is direct vs. indirect social influence?

A

direct - when someone directly affects another’s behavior through open interaction
indirect - when someone’s behavior is impacted by observing others without direct contact

48
Q

what is self-awareness theory?

A

when people focus their attention on themselves, evaluating and comparing their behavior to their internal standards/values

49
Q

what happens when we bring our self-concept into our consciousness?

A

we recognize our worth

SOC 340 exam 1 (1 decks)

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