Exam 1 Flashcards
What is Social Psych
Scientific study of how people affect and are affected by others (real or imagined presence)
Social Loafing
The tendency for individuals to put forth less effort when working in a group…assuming someone else will complete the task
Diffusion of Responsibility
Bystander effect…if someone is hurt, someone else will obviously call the cops
Social Psych vs. Sociology
Sociology - Group focus Social Psych - Individual Focus ……………….however both are very similar, and help us understand human behavior
Social Psych vs. Personality Psych
Personality
- Differences among individuals
Social
- How social factors affect most people
Social Psych vs. Cognitive Psych
Cognitive
- Study mental processes
Social
- How mental processes influence social behavior
What happened in 1936?
- Society for the Psychological stud of Social Issues
- Sherif’s research on Social Influence
Kurt Lewin’s Fundamental Principals
- Behavior = interaction between Person + Environment
- How we perceive the world around us
Interactionist Perspective
= Individual’s personality + characteristics of environment
Pluralism
1970’s - 1990’s
- Period of acceptance for social psych through lab tests and many other forms of studies
- Multicultural interest
New Century
- Integrating emotion, motivation, and cognitive aspects
- Looking at different cultures
- Using new technology
Research Ethics
- Must have IRB Board approve research
- Informed consent
Social Psych Studies are legit because…
- Grounded in experiments
- Uses different testing variables
- Lab experiments + Field Experiments
Basic Research
Research that answers popular questions
ex. How do we fall in love?
Applied Research
Research to help figure out how to help a specific problem that exists in society
Steps of Scientific Method
- Ask questions
- Do background research
- Form a hypothesis
- Test with an experiment
- Analyze results/draw conclusion
- Hypothesis is true or false
- Report hypothesis
Theory
- Principles that describe, predicts, and explains a hypothesis
- A broad thought, broader than a hypothesis
Hypothesis
- A testable prediction
- A detailed prediction that is far more tangible than a theory
Archival Studies
Examining records of past events
Case Studies
Detailed investigation of an individual
Correlational Studies
- A statistical measure of the extent that 2 variables are associated
ex. Cocaine and Hours of sleep (negative correlation)
Descriptive Studies
???????????????????????
Naturalistic Observations
Simply observation human behavior as it occurs
ex. observing a gorilla in the wild
Experiment
- Tests a hypothesis my measuring and manipulating variables
- Looking for cause and effect
Independent Variable
The variable that is manipulated
Ex. Caffeine
Dependent variable
The variable being measured
ex. Sleep after taking caffeine vs. placebo
Operational Definitions and Conceptual Variables
Operational definition states how a conceptual, or general variable will be manipulated and measured
- Conceptual variable
- — Being in a good mood with make you want to help others
- Operational Definition
- — Finding a dollar will increase likelihood that you will complete a survey someone needs
Experimental Group
Group that is exposed to independent variable
Control Group
Group not exposed to independent variable (placebo)
Main Effect
Overall effect of the independent variable, ignoring whatever other independent variables may be present
Interaction
How the effect of one independent variable is different from the effect of others
Statistical Significance
If results are less than 5%, than it likely occurred by chance, or statistical significance
Meta-Analysis
Gather tons of data from all over and create a paper that combines the info from all over (many individual studies) and analyzes the results
3 principles of Quality Scientific Research
Reliability
Generalizability
Replication
Social Cognition
How people think about themselves and the social world…how we use social information to make decisions and judgements
Information Processing
Too much info in our environment to process, so we use past experiences to filter new info
Schemas
- Mental info that we use to organize knowledge about the social world
- Help us fill in missing information, and interpret ambiguous behavior
ex. stereotypes, predictions about something or someone
Memory is…
Reconstructive…
We fill in missing information, we put pieces together, sometimes we make shit up
Pygmalion Effect (Rosenham)
The greater the expectation placed upon a person, the greater they perform
- Expectations influence behavior
Sane in Insane places (Rosenham)
Hard to differentiate the sane from insane in mental hospitals
- Illustrates dangers of dehumanization and ‘labeling’
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Your beliefs turning into reality
ex. If you walk into a party thinking you’re super cool and social, you will probably talk to people and make friends
Counterfactual Reasoning
Mentally changing some aspect of the past to think of what could have happened
ex. If only I dove for that ball, we could have won
(this can cause greater distress)
Availability Heuristic
Mental shortcuts that brings to mind immediate examples like related events or situations
ex. If you hear of shootings in NYC, you may jump to the conclusion that NYC is dangerous
Representativeness Heuristic
Making judgements based on info we have
ex. Tyler likes skinny jeans, so he’s a hipster that sits around smoking weed all day
Social Perception
How we form impressions and make inferences about other people
Nonverbal Communication
Intentional or unintentional silent communication….aka body language
Conversationalizing
Hand movement that goes along with your speech
Virtual Space
The space your hand occupies when you’re talking and ‘conversationalizing’
Mirror Neurons
Special brain cells that are fired when someone else performs a behavior that we recognize
ex. Seeing somebody crying and feeling like you’re about to cry as well
Display Rule Differences
When different cultures interpret body language differently
ex. Americans like to look at each other in the eye, asians don’t
Implicit Personality Theory
Type of schema that groups personality traits together
ex. He is nice so he must also be generous
Fundamental Attribution Error
Attributing behavior to a person’s internal issues rather than how they were raised, social situation, environment etc.
Kelley’s Covariation Theory (attributions)
Consensus: How do others react toward stimuli?
Distinctiveness: How does individual act toward stimuli?
Consistency: How does individual act toward stimulus during different situations?
Actor-Observer Effect
Attributing our problems to environmental problems while attributing other peoples problems to internal issues
Self-Serving Attribution
Attributing your successes to internal factors, and your failures to external factors
Defensive Attribution
Explanations for behavior that avoid vulnerability and mortality
Is it easy to lie?
Can lie well with their face, but not their body
6 Factor Self-Concept Scale
- Power
- Task accomplishment
- Giftedness
- Vulnerability
- Like-ability
- Morality
Self-Perception Theory
When internal cues are difficult to read, we can learn about ourselves by observing our own behavior (Darryl Bem said this)
Affective Forecasting
Predicting our future emotions - we suck at it
Durability Bias
Overestimating the strength and duration of future emotions
Over justification Effect
People thinking their behavior is caused by extrinsic motivation or rewards, when in reality they simply enjoy doing it
Schacter’s 2-Factor Theory of Emotion
We experience emotion through physiological arousal attached to a cognitive component
Misattribution
Attributing arousal to something that didn’t cause it
ex. On a roller coaster date, heart is thumping, thinking it’s because of your hot date instead of the roller coaster
Autobiographical Memories
Remember recent events rather than past ones, except for the case of ‘first times’
- Often distort that past and self-inflate us
Implicit Egotism
Holding ourselves in high regard, as a way to maintain self-esteem
Self-Handicapping
Sabotaging your performance to provide a good excuse for messing up
ex. getting wasted the night before a test
Self-Verification
Desire to verify our own self-concept in the eyes of others
High vs. low Self-Monitors
High: Changing behaviors to be perceived better in different situations
Low: Consistent, steady behavior
