Exam 1 Flashcards
What is a theory?
An organized set of principles that describes, predicts, and explains a phenomenon
What are the characteristics of a good theory?
Falsifiable, Generative, Precise, Coherent, Parsimonious, and Unique
What are the types of descriptive research?
Ethnography, Case Study, Archival Analysis
What are the major advantages of descriptive research?
Real and rare
What are the major disadvantages of descriptive research?
Limited sample, observer bias, observer effects, no causality, no understanding of process
What is internal validity?
The extent to which you know changing the IV changed the DV
What is observer bias?
Seeing the results that you want to see
How can a researcher maximize internal validity of a study?
Random selection, random assignment, double blind, tightly controlled
What is external validity?
The extent to which your findings are generalizable
What is a population?
Those you’re learning bout (e.g. all white men, all black women)
What is a sample?
The participants you are using that are part of your population
What is the difference between longitudinal studies and cross-sectional studies?
Longitudinal studies analyze the same sample over a period of time
Cross-Sectional studies analyze a sample once
What information should be included in informed consent?
Purpose of study, risks, confidentially, able to withdraw
When can researchers employ deception in their research?
When it is necessary a participant believes a situation is real
What is a debriefing and what should be included?
Explaining to the participant at the end of the experiment the true purpose of the study and what exactly happened
What is the field of psychometrics?
Measurements of invisible constructs or variables
What are objective measures?
Direct answers that are not interpreted by the researcher (true/false)
What are subjective measures?
The researcher interprets the participant’s response (inkblot)
What is validity with respect to psychometrics?
Measures what it is supposed to measure
What is reliability with respect to psychometrics?
Gives consistent results
What is item discrimination?
How well an item indicates who is high and who is low on a measure
What are the two modes, or types, of thinking people can engage in?
Controlled and automatic
Kelley (1950)
Students had a substitute professor for a day and were given previous info about him. The students favored the professor when they were previously told he was warm.
IV: Good info, bad info
DV: students’ rating of professor
What is a schema?
Learned cognitive representations of the real world
Correll et al (2002)
Participants were told to shoot when their target had a gun. Black targets were mistakenly shot more when unarmed. White targets were mistakenly shot less when armed.
IV1: Black or white target
IV2: Gun or not gun
DV: Reaction time and errors
Bargh, Chen, and Burrows (1996)
Ex1: Participants were given a scrambled sentence test (IV1) then were told to go talk to the researcher. Rude priming interrupted their conversation faster, and polite interrupted slower.
IV1: Rude priming, polite priming, neutral priming
DV1: Time taken to interrupt confederate and researcher
Ex2: Participants were given a scrambled sentence test (IV2). They then left, and their walking speed was timed. Elderly priming had a slower pace.
IV2: elderly priming, neutral priming
DV2: Walking time
Ex3: Participants were subliminally shown IV3 and had to complete a long test. At the end, the data was “deleted” and participants were told they had to retake it. Those primed with black faces reacted more hostile.
IV3: Exposed to black or white faces
DV3: Reaction
What are hot cognitions?
Cognitions motivated by emotions that we want
What are cold cognitions?
Cognitions independent of emotions
Snyder, Tanke, and Berscheid (1977)
Men were shown either an attractive or unattractive picture of a woman (IV). They then were told to get to know the woman via telephone. The men rated the attractive woman’s call to be more sexually warm.
IV: attractive or unattractive picture
DV: Rating of woman after phone call
What is the availability heuristic?
The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person’s mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method or decision.
What is the representativeness heuristic?
Where people classify something based on how similar it is to a typical case
What is the Barnum effect?
Giving high accuracy ratings to ratings of their personality that are vague
What is the simulation heuristic?
People decide how likely something is based on how easy it is to picture
What is the confirmation bias?
Interpreting new evidence as supporting one’s belief
What is naïve realism?
We see the world objectively and others are biased
What is counterfactual thinking?
The tendency to create possible alternatives to life events that have already occurred
What are affect blends?
One part of the face registers one emotion while another part registers a different emotion
What are display rules of emotion?
Cultural rules about which nonverbal behaviors are okay
What is thin-slicing?
Making conclusions about someone based on a small sample of their behavior
According to covariation theory, what three factors does a perceiver consider when evaluating a target?
Consensus, Distinctiveness, and Consistency
Covariation Method Rules
Consistency Low: an abnormal situation
All High: External Attribution
Consensus/Distinctive Low, Consistency High: Internal Attribution
Ross, Amabile, and Steinmetz (1977)
Quiz show. The questioner was given higher ratings of knowledge than the contestant by contestant and spectator. Questioner rated both equally. Fundamental attribution error
IV: Questioner, Contestant, or Spectator
DV: Rating of general knowledge
What is the fundamental attribution error?
The tendency to make internal attributions as opposed to external attributions.
What is perceptual salience?
The seemingly important information that is the focus of people’s perception
What role does perceptual salience of information play in the fundamental attribution error?
We tend to notice the person, not the situation
What is the actor-observer effect?
The tendency to make external attributions for your own behavior. An extension of the fundamental attribution error
What is the self-serving bias?
The tendency to make attributions that put you in the best light
According to William James, what are the two forms of selves and how do they differ?
Me: known self—the information
I: the knower—what introspects
What is the self-concept?
The “me” the content of yourself
What is self-awareness theory?
You introspect to learn about yourself
What is self-perception theory?
People learn about themselves by analyzing their actions
According to self-perception theory, why should you be wary of trying to motivate someone by providing them with external rewards?
They will learn to love the reward and not the task
What is the two-factory theory of emotion?
People experience arousal (heart rate increases) and look for cues to justify (scary thing)
According to Cooley, how do we come to know ourselves (i.e., looking glass self)?
Adopt other people’s perspectives when viewing your own behavior
What is impression management?
Trying to get others to see you as you want them to
What is ingratiation?
People flatter to be liked
What is intimidation?
Make others fear you
What is exemplification?
Show yourself as morally superior
What is supplication?
Make others pity you
What is terror management theory?
Self-esteem is a buffer to prevent people from thinking about mortality
Sociometer Theory
The theory that states that self-esteem acts as an internal sign of self-acceptance
Working Self-Concept
The parts of the self that we are aware of, that influences us, at a given point in time
Growth Mindset
Knowledge is something that can grow
Hastorf & Cantril (1954)
Participants watched a football game. Fans from each team saw the same things differently in ways that supported their own team. This shows the confirmation bias
Diffusion of Responsibility
The assumption that someone else will react in the event of an emergency
Southern Culture of Honor
Because of a history/culture based on ranching, Southerners will react more aggressively than Northerners when their “face” or honor is violated.
Frustration-Aggression Theory
The perception that you are being prevented from a goal (frustration) increases the probability of aggression.
Jamie Pennebaker
Studied the relationship between power/status and the usage of the words “I” vs “we” through archival analysis of Nixon vs Nixon’s aides, women vs men, Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primaries when she was high in the polls vs low in the polls, and Sylvia Plath vs a non-depressed poet.
Overconfidence Barrier
The fact that people usually have too much confidence in the accuracy of their judgments
Six Major Emotional Expressions
Anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness
Belief Perseverance
The tendency to stick with an initial judgment even in the face of new information that should prompt us to reconsider
Functions of the Self
- self-knowledge
- self-control
- impression management
- self-esteem
Depletion Effect
The idea that self control takes energy, and therefore when exerting a lot of self control in one area, you have less energy to exert it in other areas (ex. time of day; morning has more energy hence more self control). People who believe this doesn’t exist, however, are not as affected by it.
