Exam 1 Flashcards
social psychology
the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are affected by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of behaviors
affect, behavior, cognition
social influences shaping our behavior
we adapt to our context
our cultures help define our situations
social behavior is biologically rooted
our inherited human nature predisposes us to behave in ways that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce
goal: to perpetuate our DNA
not-so-obvious ways values enter psychology
science is subjective based on culture
sometimes scientists may put labels on people as if they’re facts, but they’re really making value judgments
hindsight bias
after finding out the results, you think, “oh I knew it all along” / “that’s common sense”
correlational research
detecting natural associations
how much two or more variables are related to each other
quantified with r from -1.0 (opposite correlation) to 1.0 (exact correlation)
experimental research
searching for cause and effect
independent variable
involves manipulation
dependent variable
variable that you’re observing how it changes when you manipulate the independent variable
mundane realism
measure of external validity
experimental realism
the extent to which situations created in social psychology experiments are real and impactful to participants
demand characteristics
subtle cues that make the participant aware of what the experimenter expects to find
random assignment
how you manipulate the variable
random sampling
how you gather your population
looking glass self
how other perceive you influences who you think you are (ex: I am kind because others tell me I’m kind)—seeing ourselves at center stage
spotlight effect
others are paying less attention to your behavior than you think they are
illusion of transparency
the illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others
self-schemas
beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information
possible selves
images of what we dream of or dread becoming in the future
self-esteem
sense of self-worth
humanistic theory
if real self and ideal self are completely aligned, then there is no mental illness—if they are discrepant, mental illness occurs
self-knowledge
How can I explain and predict myself?
individualism
being unique and different, self-reliance, emphasis on exchange and competition, emphasis on confidence, tend to be more liberal—only 15% of the world population
collectivism
being part of a group, group identity, social and norms are defined by the group, high regard to authority, tend to be more conservative, more modest
