intro lecture

Question 1

what is social psychology?

Answer 1

is the study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the situation- mainly the social situation

Question 2

ABC’s of social psychology

Answer 2

feelings= Affect 
behavior= Behavior 
thoughts= Cognition

Question 3

Lewin’s Magic Formula

Answer 3

B=f(P,E)

behavior= function of person, environment

Question 4

why is the “P” person important?

Answer 4

individual differences (characteristics of the person may moderate their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors)

Question 5

example of individual differences

Answer 5

rejection sensitivity day after conflict

Question 6

construal:

Answer 6

what is more important than the objective properties of the situation, is how the subject construes the situation,
(individual differences play a role in construal too)

Question 7

why is there a difference between the objective situation and our construal of it?

Answer 7

unconscious and conscious processes

Question 8

types of conscious and unconscious processes

Answer 8

proximal (motivational factors, cognitive, emotional)

distal (culture, evolution)

Question 9

social psychology focuses on what aspect?

Answer 9

the “E” environment- focuses on the subjects construal of E

Question 10

fundamental mistake we all make is that we underestimate ______

Answer 10

the power of the social situation

Question 11

hindsight bias?

Answer 11

people exaggerate how much they could have predicted an outcome after it happened

Question 12

two major types of studies in social psychology

Answer 12

• correlation

- experimental

Question 13

correlational method

Answer 13

strength of relationship between variables

Question 14

correlations range from:

Answer 14

-1.0 to +1.0

Question 15

positive correlations

Answer 15

x goes up, y goes up

example: height and weight

Question 16

negative correlations

Answer 16

x goes up, y goes down

example: stress and health

Question 17

take home message of correlation:

Answer 17

Correlation does NOT equal causation

Question 18

correlation can tell you a lot though:

Answer 18

• rule out some other explanations- if measured
• tell you how things are outside the laboratory
• complex longitudinal designs can provide evidence for cause and effect directions

Question 19

true experiments:

Answer 19

-examine cause and effect relationships

Question 20

two essential characteristics of true experiments

Answer 20

• control over the experimental procedures (e.g. manipulate IV)
• participants randomly assigned to different treatment conditions

Question 21

independent variable (IV)

Answer 21

you manipulate IV

Question 22

dependent variables (DV)

Answer 22

you measure DV

Question 23

subject variables (SV)

Answer 23

• variables that characterize pre-existing differences among participants
  note: can not randomly assign SVs

Question 24

random assignment

Answer 24

assigning participants to conditions so that every participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any condition

Question 25

internal validity

Answer 25

how confident are you that the IV caused the change in the DV?

Question 26

what is crucial for internal validity?

Answer 26

random assignment

Question 27

external validity

Answer 27

can findings be generalized to other people and to other situations?

Question 28

what is crucial for external validity?

Answer 28

sampling

Question 29

types of measures

Answer 29

• archival/trace/life outcomes
• behavioral
• self-report
• physiological

Question 30

ethical research

Answer 30

• risk assessment
• informed consent
• deception
• debriefing