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Social Psychology - PS261 > Exam 1 > Flashcards

Exam 1 Flashcards

Social Psych, Self, Biases, Psych basics

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1
Q

Social Psychology (what is it)

A

The study of individuals in social situations
- Scientific study of how people think, influence, and relate to one another

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2
Q

father of social psychology

A

Kurt Lewin

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3
Q

main sub areas of social psych

A

cognition, influence, relations

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4
Q

descriptive methods

A
  • observational research (or naturalistic)
  • correlation/survey research
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5
Q

correlational research + it is often done through…

A

looks at the relationship of two or more vars (no causality)
- uses the correlation coefficient (r)
–> questionnaires or interviews

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6
Q

experimental methods

A

lab + field experiments

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7
Q

good and bad of correlational research

A

Pros: easy to collect data, high external val.

cons: unmeasured vars, no causality, low internal val

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8
Q

understanding correlations

A
  • a relationship can still exist without being positive or linear
  • positive = no sign, negative = sign in front
  • no correlation = unrelated vars
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9
Q

Experimental/lab

A
  • manipulated IV, measured DV
  • Controlled extraneous vars
  • causal relationships
  • high internal, low external
  • random assignment
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10
Q

good and bad of the lab method

A

pros: assess causality, high internal val, experimental realism

cons: generalizability?, mundane realism?, low external val

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11
Q

experimental realism

A

does the participant feel like they are engaging in something real (produced results depend on emotional/cognitive realism)

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12
Q

random assignment

A

everyone in the study has a shot at being in any condition

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13
Q

random assignment vs sampling

A

everyone in the population you want to study has a shot to be in it

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14
Q

control condition

A

IV is not manipulated opposed to the experimental condition where it is (by researchers in lab method)

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15
Q

Major advantage of experimental designs

A

CAUSALITY –> IV impacts DV

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16
Q

Mundane realism

A

How well does the experiment exemplify the real world? is it realistic and reflective of real-world circumstances?

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17
Q

Generalizability

A

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

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18
Q

hind sight bias

A

the belief that the outcome was obvious after the experimental result occurs

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19
Q

is social psychology common sense

A

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

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20
Q

Replicability/reproducibility crisis

A

the growing belief that the results of many scientific studies cannot be reproduced and are thus likely to be wrong

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21
Q

replication

A

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

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22
Q

Open Science Collaboration

A
  • 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)
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23
Q

Famous failed replications

A
  1. marshmallow + kids
  2. pencil between teeth + mood
  3. feet/posing on decision making
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24
Q

Marshmellow test

A

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

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25
Q

pencil and pen on mood study 1988

A

failed replication attempt
- pencil in between teeth –> increased mood
- pen in between lips –> decreased
- 17 replications –> none successful (over 2000 participants)

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26
Q

Feet Posing and Leaning on desk study

A

famous failed replication study
- doing feet apart and leaning on desk will increase riskier deiciosn making
- saw higher testosterone and cortisol at first
- unsuccessful attempts later on

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27
Q

reduce the replication crisis

A
  • pre-registered studies
  • reporting effect sizes and confidence intervals for statistical tests
  • recruiting large samples
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28
Q

the self

A

we are the center of our social world

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29
Q

spotlight effect

A

the belief that everyone is focused and observant of you…you think more people are concerned/attentive to another person’s behavior
- Gilovich (2000) –> FANILOW t-shirts but estimated amount of people that noticed was higher than the actual

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30
Q

“every one is looking at the coffee stain on my shirt omggg” is an example of

A

spotlight effect

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31
Q

illusion of transparency

A

illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others
- driven partly by spotlight effect

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32
Q

self-reference effect

A
  • we process infor more quickly and remember it better when it related to us in some way
  • remembering bias
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33
Q

the self-concept

A

what we know and understand about ourselves
- thoughts, beliefs, felling about the self
- organized through schemas
- malleable and open to change
- myers and twinge

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34
Q

SELF schemas

A

mental representations/templates that help people organize and interpret information about themselves
- derived from experience, predict the future, guide processing, shapes self-perception, motivation, and behavior

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35
Q

Self schema examples

A
  • athletic self schema –> pay attention to sports
    intellectural self schema
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36
Q

what impacts self-concept

A
  1. genetic influences (twin studies)
  2. social experiences
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37
Q

self esteem

A

the sum of all our self views across various domains
- schadenfreude = joy at anothers misfortune

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38
Q

self-efficacy

A

how competent we feel on a task
- self efficacy language was more successful than self esteem language in performance on children

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39
Q

self serving bias

A

a tendency to perceive oneself favorably
- bias blind spots
- ex: ethics, health, attractiveness, driving, virtues, professional competence, intelligence, etc
- subjective topics give leeway for cognitive negotiation

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40
Q

self serving attributions (bias)

A

attributing positive outcomes to oneself and negative ones to external factors (situation, etc)

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41
Q

Satvinksy said (2005)

A

people working in a group each estimated their total percentage of contribution and it totally more than 100%

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42
Q

illusory optimism

A

making ourselves immune to the bad/misfortune…no need to take precautions

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43
Q

defense pessimism

A

anticipates problems and motivates effective coping
- can promote precaution and inspired hard work

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44
Q

false consensus effect

A

we find support for our positions by overestimating how much others agree
(related to confirmation bias/similar)

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45
Q

self-handicapping

A

people sabotage their chances for success by creating impediments that make success less likely
- fears of failure = cause
- self-protective aim
- protecting one’s self-image through handy excuses

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46
Q

why self-handicapping

A
  • avoid work/preparation
  • lower initial expectations to boost the outcome
  • give the opponent the advantage
  • attach failure to something external and temporary
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47
Q

self presentation

A

tactics driven by our wanting to present a desired image both to an external audience and to an internal audience (ourselves) –. you change the way you behave with different people

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48
Q

self-monitoring

A

adjusting/changing the way you behave with different people/to each situation
(low self-esteem related)

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49
Q

Social role

A

set of behaviors, attitudes, functions and responsibilities associated with a particular position in society
(ex: moms clean/cook)
preconceived notions
playacting that becomes reality when these roles solidify

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50
Q

Social comparison

A

others help us define the standards by which we define ourselves…where you stand relative to others…evaluations of self based on others
-upward vs downward comparisons
ex: “am i rich” by looking at rich people
- incomplete information –> social media withholding to create a + image

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51
Q

success and failure

A

our daily experiences may lead to empowerment or to lower self esteem

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52
Q

Looking Glass Self (Cooley + Mead)

A

we perceive ourselved based on how we believe others perceive us
- our reflection of how we think we appear to others

53
Q

Individualism

A

own needs and goals are important to self/identity/life
- western cultures
- autonomous to self
- prioritize own goals
- personal attributes

54
Q

collectivism

A

group identities…interrelated self
- prioritizes goals of one’s group
- group identies
- Eastern/Asian cultures

55
Q

Culture and Cognition implications (why)

A

Self-worth + changes to self-esteem

Ocean picture
4 Green and 1 Orange pencils
Date someone your friends and family dont like?

56
Q

Nisbett (2003) Study

A

Culture and Cognition - ocean picture shown and ppl from different cultures had to recall what they see. Americans saw the central, big fish while Eastern cultures commented on the background + relationships
- holisitic thinking in collectivist cultures –> affects the attributions perceived

57
Q

Self Knowledge

A

analyzing why we deal the way we do can make our judgements less accurate

58
Q

predicting our behavior

A

planning fallacy, affective forecasting, impact bias

59
Q

planning fallacy

A

underestimation of time to complete a task

60
Q

affective forecasting

A

our ability to predict how we will feel about something in the future –> over estimate the nature of feelings/reactions (impact bias)

61
Q

impact bias

A

focus on just one event (not on other good/bad/neutral events)…underestimate psychological immune systems

WHY? - to bounce back from social issues undermined (no faith in resilience)

62
Q

synthesized happiness

A

the happiness we make/put effort into creating

63
Q

natural happiness

A

the happiness we get from facing/accepting reality (natural happiness)

64
Q

is high self esteem a good thing?

A

pros: fosters resilience, good feelings, mental health, motivation, GPA performance

Baumeister said that success is weakly correlated to high self esteem

65
Q

Baumeister on self esteem

A

weak causal evidence for academic success and work performance and self esteem
- effects are small and limited
- the real focus is on self-control, discipline, and efficacy to do a task in kids

66
Q

correlates of low self esteem

A
  • anxiety, depression, loneliness
  • negative viewpoints
  • remember other worst behaviors
  • dont want to be seen positively –> want people to view them the way they see themselves
  • less satisfying relationships
67
Q

high self esteem correlates

A
  • good mental health
  • good feelings that are sustained
  • resilience
  • motivation
68
Q

narcissism

A

overly positive or inflated view of the self
- selfish, egotism, entitlement, vanity, self-confidence

69
Q

grandiose narcissism

A

a type of narcissism that is heightened…these people dont value social relationships at all or condier others

70
Q

NPI

A

Narcissistic personality inventory
- no clinical cut off (cant diagnose)
- narcissism measure
- high score = greater narcisistic behavior/values

71
Q

Can we judge who likely to be a narcissist?

A

NPI scale but cannot use to diagnose
- both adaptive (ex leadership) and maladaptive (ex grandiosity) are components of Narcissists

72
Q

narcissism myths

A
  1. narcissism is just “really high” self esteem
  2. narcissists are insecure and have low self esteem
  3. narcissists really are better looking/smarter, etc
  4. some narcissism is healthy
73
Q

can narcissists change?

A

(Hepper et al 2014)
- perspective taking
- putting yourself in someone else’s shoes increases needed empathy

74
Q

Twenge and Campbell 2009

A

Compares past and present college student responses on NPI from 1979-2006
results –> students in the 2000s scored greater than those from the 20th century
–> increase in narcissism but wetzel research shows slight decline

75
Q

above average effect

A

a tendency to think we are better than most others
- stronger in traits that are subjective AND desirable skills/behaviors

76
Q

unrealistic optimism / optimism bias

A

(sharot 2012)

people generally predisposed to feel more optimistic about their own lives…you perceive yourself as more likley to gain positive life events than negative ones

77
Q

optimism bias benefits and dangers

A
  • anxiety of danger/failure forced motivation to take effective actions
  • need enough optimism for hope
  • reflection of actions and caution
78
Q

false concusses

A

overestimating the commonality of opinions, and undesirable/unsuccessful behaviors
- that no one watched Jem and the holograms growing up

79
Q

false uniqueness

A

underestimating commonality of abilities and desirable/successful behaviors
- That I had a 4.6 GPA (everyone here had that)

80
Q

humble bragging

A

people may use SNS’s to boost their self-image and manage impressions (Campbell)
Managing impressions

81
Q

Daniel Kahneman’s 2 systems

A

system 1 = automatic
- functions automatically, outside awareness, gut feeling (implicit)
- influences more of our decisions because it takes less time and is more accessible

system 2 = controlled
- deliberate, reflective, conscious, (explicity)

82
Q

priming

A

activating particular associations in memory

83
Q

marickle et al 2001 + sharrif et al 2016

A

subliminally flashed the word “bread” –> faster to detect the word butter vs unrelated words
- ex: religious ppl are more exposed to religious words and are more likely to help people

84
Q

embodied cognition

A

the mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgements
- people who ate alone judged room temperature as colder than with others

85
Q

confirmation bias

A

tendency to search for information that confirms your own viewpoint
- eager to verify own beliefs
- ideological echo changes (confining sources)

86
Q

belief perseverance

A

persistence of initial conceptions despite evidence to the contrary
- once accepted it is difficult to acknowledge as falsehood
- based on own experiences, not fact –> harder to change because you’ve “witnessed”

87
Q

Ross et al (1975)

A

distinguishing real vs fake suicide notes
- fake feedback in 3 conditions
- debriefed on fake feedback
- Results –> participants are susceptible to deceit –> ethical considerations of deception, suggestion that certain beliefs about the self can persist long term

88
Q

misinformation effect

A

incorporating false information into memory after receiving misleading information
- THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS

89
Q

Overconfidence phenomenon

A

more confident than correct
overestimating accuracy of beliefs
driven by –> confirmation bias + the idea is still culpable in reality

90
Q

fischoff et al 1977

A

knowledge test
participants were 100% sure but only 70-80% correct
Finding –> confidence doesn’t correlate with correctness

91
Q

areas of concern with overconfidence phenomenon

A

jury decision making (ricky jones), medical outcomes, child welfare, government decisions

92
Q

Jury Decision making and overconfidence

A

confident eyewitnesses are convincing to juries + are influential in conviction
- ricky jones dspite alibi due to line up
- 70% of cases
- 350 cases with long sentences are then exonerated by DNA

93
Q

Witnesses and confidence what to do?

A

get a statement and look at a lineup right away
avoid distortion or should be noted if memory is not tested immediately
law enforcement should look at
- # of times the witness’ memory is tested
- double blind
- suspect stand out (more likely to be picked)
- confidence statement
- you DONT have to pick someone in a lineup

94
Q

overconfidence remedies

A
  • prompt feedback
  • make people aware through good reasons and judgements
95
Q

heuristics

A

mental short cuts or general rules of thumb…used when
- faced with too much info
- unimportant decisions
- limited time for decisions

used because they are efficient and lead to good decisions in reasonable time

96
Q

representativeness heuristic

A

People classify something based on how similar it is to a typical case

the “probably” of an event (or sample) is determined by the degree to which it is
- similar in characteristics to population
- salient features of the process (typical situation)

EX: Gambling –> you want a low number so you throw the dice lightly

97
Q

base rate

A

information about the frequency of members of different categories in the population

***the real probability that something exists or will occur

EX: Classics vs farmer based on description but participants pay less attention to the situation (way more farmers that classic scholars)

98
Q

Coin Flip

A

which sequence of 4 coins is more probable? different pattern but same number of heads and tails
–> majority chose the more sporadic pattern because it SEEMS more likely that your wouldn’t get 2 tails and 2 heads in a row

99
Q

Kahneman and Tversky (Lawyer Engineer)

A

Experimentally manipulated the base rate
- asked the probability that the description represented engineer or a lawyer
- given descriptions of 100 professionals written by psychologists based on interviews (both E and L)
- participants read randomly selected descriptions but some were told…
- there are 30 E and 70 L while others were told the reverse
- people chose to ignore the base rate and prioritze the description content –> easy/accessible descriptors to base decision-making

100
Q

when do we use the base rate info?

A
  • when that is the only given info
  • when people feel like the judgement they are making is relevant to base rate (it matters)
101
Q

availability heuristic

A

a mental rule of thumb whereby people base a judgement on the ease with which they can recall relevant examples

102
Q

Kahneman and Tvresky R study

A

availability heuristic

asked participants if there were more words that started with “r” or where “r” was the second letter
–> most said “started with r” because it was easier to support with examples…easier to recall

103
Q

biased samples

A

created by personal experience and the media (general exposure AND self-selected)

104
Q

media influence

A

general media

+

self selected media –> we choose and that can give biased perceptions of things

Ex: shark attacks,

105
Q

Anchoring and adjustment

A

impacts perspectives towards others. Another persons situation anchors or thinking and then adjusts our behavior and response

106
Q

counterfactual thinking

A

imagine alternative scenarios and outcomes (after the case)
upward –> how they could turn out better
downward –> how they could turn out worse

107
Q

illusory correlations

A

the perception of a relationship where none exists, or the perception of a stronger relationship than what actually is

108
Q

illusory correlation contributors

A

it is easier to notice the time when two things happen together than when one does or neither do…more retrievable in our minds (availability heuristic)
- 2 distinct pairs

109
Q

attribution

A

process by which people explain events, their behavior, and behavior of others
- there are a variety of frameworks
- fritz Heider (father of attribution)

110
Q

locus of causality (heider + attributions)

A

understanding attribution frameworks
internal/dispositional –> to the person
- ex: effort, motivations, attitudes, skills, etc
external/situational –> outside the person’s ability
- ex: the test was hard

111
Q

misattribution

A

we may attribute behavior or events to the wrong source
- common in men in powerful positions

112
Q

inferring traits

A

we often assume or infer that people’s actions indicate their intentions and dispositions

113
Q

spontaneous trait inference

A

effortless, automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone’s behavior (QUICK/implicit)
Ex: the man is running after a lady in an alley –> immediate though is shes getting robbed

114
Q

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)

A

also known as correspondence bias
- the tendency for observers to believe that people’s behavior matches their dispositions
- situation = underestimated
- disposition = overestimated

115
Q

Jones and Harris 1967

A

FAE
Students read pro and anti castro debater speeches
- key condition read either prose and was then told that a student was forced to write from that perspective
- DV = decide is the student was pro or anti castro in real life
- Result ==> students inferred the debater had the assigned leanings (they corresponded)…situation not taken into account only the dispositional content

116
Q

why do we commit FAE?

A
  • Perspective and situational awareness
  • cognitive capacity
  • culture
117
Q

Actor observer difference (/bias)

A

tendency to attribute own behavior to external factors while attributing other’ behavior to internal factors

118
Q

Camera perspective

A

refers to the viewpoint from which a scene is observed or presented

Lassoter + turnem –> when the confession tape focuses on the suspect, the confession seems more genuine opposed to focused on the interregator the confession seems more coerced

119
Q

cognitive capacity

A

we often have limited time/capacity when judging others –> spontaneous dispositional inferences

120
Q

Culture and FAE

A
  • more common in individualistic cultures
  • we assume people not situations cause events
  • collectivist = more holistic (more situational correctivness)
121
Q

Dispositional attributions

A

attention is focused on us (self-awareness)

Ex: mirror and taking a test prevents cheating

122
Q

situational attributions

A

time has passed
opporunity to observe others in different context (OTHER)

123
Q

Gender differnces in attributions

A

in the face of failure –> women are more so dispositionally attributed (internal) while men are situationally attributed (external factors)

opposite for success

124
Q

Self Fulfilling Prophecy

A

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment…a perceiver goes into an interaction with an expectation about the target –> the perceiver’s expectations affect the situation causing said expectation to come true

125
Q

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)

A

bloomers vs non bloomers and told the teachers
- bloomers were said to have more potential so teachers treated them with more inspiration and positive reinforcement
- pre and post IQ test showed that the bloomers’ scores > nonbloomers because of self fulfilling prophecy on the teachers account

126
Q

Experimental bias

A

(rosenthal and jacobson)

sometimes participants live up to what they believe experimenters expect of them (social desirability effect)

127
Q

critical evaluation of SFP

A

no accumulation with time (at least no in the classroom)
this behavior/effect dissipates

128
Q

SFP and breaking the cycle

A
  • effects appear to be small
  • SFP is higher among at-risk stigmatized groups
  • teachers positive expectations boost low self-esteem

Social Psychology - PS261 (3 decks)

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