Exam 1 Flashcards
Social Psych, Self, Biases, Psych basics
Social Psychology (what is it)
The study of individuals in social situations
- Scientific study of how people think, influence, and relate to one another
father of social psychology
Kurt Lewin
main sub areas of social psych
cognition, influence, relations
descriptive methods
- observational research (or naturalistic)
- correlation/survey research
correlational research + it is often done through…
looks at the relationship of two or more vars (no causality)
- uses the correlation coefficient (r)
–> questionnaires or interviews
experimental methods
lab + field experiments
good and bad of correlational research
Pros: easy to collect data, high external val.
cons: unmeasured vars, no causality, low internal val
understanding correlations
- a relationship can still exist without being positive or linear
- positive = no sign, negative = sign in front
- no correlation = unrelated vars
Experimental/lab
- manipulated IV, measured DV
- Controlled extraneous vars
- causal relationships
- high internal, low external
- random assignment
good and bad of the lab method
pros: assess causality, high internal val, experimental realism
cons: generalizability?, mundane realism?, low external val
experimental realism
does the participant feel like they are engaging in something real (produced results depend on emotional/cognitive realism)
random assignment
everyone in the study has a shot at being in any condition
random assignment vs sampling
everyone in the population you want to study has a shot to be in it
control condition
IV is not manipulated opposed to the experimental condition where it is (by researchers in lab method)
Major advantage of experimental designs
CAUSALITY –> IV impacts DV
Mundane realism
How well does the experiment exemplify the real world? is it realistic and reflective of real-world circumstances?
Generalizability
can the results of a study be attributed to the real world, different populations, or people in the real world effectively…high external validity = good generalizability
hind sight bias
the belief that the outcome was obvious after the experimental result occurs
is social psychology common sense
individuals can predict outcomes of research no better than chance
- there are always exceptions
- social psych looks at the AVERAGE performance across groups
- hindsight bias
Replicability/reproducibility crisis
the growing belief that the results of many scientific studies cannot be reproduced and are thus likely to be wrong
replication
ability to reproduce/repeat an experiment to confirm the findings…to determine the extent to which they are generalizable across time, different settings, and people.
- EXTERNAL VALIDITY
Open Science Collaboration
- 2015, Brian Nosek
attempted to directly replicate 100 studies from several top-ranked journal studies - replication rate was low and effects were smaller (36% replicated)
Famous failed replications
- marshmallow + kids
- pencil between teeth + mood
- feet/posing on decision making
Marshmellow test
Famous replication fail
- told a child that they could eat a marshmellow right now or wait and get more –> decision making/delayed gratification
- stronger study but weaker correlation (by half)
- none after demographic vars