intro & methods

Question 1

what 2 factors are the heart of social psychology?

Answer 1

social influence and construal

Question 2

fill in the blanks:

social psychology is the _________ study of how social ____________ guide people’s thoughts, feelings and ____________.

Answer 2

scientific; influences; behaviours

Question 3

define construal

Answer 3

the way people perceive and interpret the world or situation

Question 4

sociology examines the society at large while social psychology studies the minds of ____________ in _________ settings.

Answer 4

individuals; social

Question 5

what are the 2 principles for testing assumptions, guesses and ideas about social behaviours? (aka signatures of science)

Answer 5

empiricism and systematicity

*empiricism = logical evidence
*systematicity = approach taken to validate or refute hypotheses. involves designing experiments or studies that are structured in a way to minimize biases, control variables, and ensure that the results are reliable and generalizable.

Question 6

what are the 3 basic human motives shaping contruals?

Answer 6

1. need for social belonging
2. need to feel good about ourselves
3. need for effectance (cause & effect, whether expectations aligns with reality)

Question 7

what is reflected glory

Answer 7

fame from other people/things/places related to you but not directly from you.

“my sister is a vet”
“my passport is the strongest in the world”

Question 8

what are some big problems in social life that are caused by construals and motives of people?

Answer 8

1. victim-blaming
2. environmentalism
3. self-destructive behaviours
4. helping and harming
5. prejudice

Question 9

what are the 3 major approaches in scientific studies/research?

Answer 9

1. observational (describe)
2. correlational (predict)
3. experimental (causal r/s)

Question 10

what is archival analysis?

Answer 10

a branch of observational approach where the researcher examines accumulated documents (archives) like diaries, mags, newspapers, database, google, emails, etc

Question 11

in the observational approach, behaviours have to be concretely defined before or after the observation begins?

Answer 11

before

Question 12

in the observational approach, what is exercised to increase reliability?

Answer 12

inter-judge/rater reliability (more than 1 observer will be involved)

inter-judge reliability is the level of agreement between 2 or more poeple who independently observe and code a set of data. high inter-judge reliability suggests that an obsevation is objective

Question 13

define inter-judge reliability and what’s another term for it?

Answer 13

inter-judge reliability is the level of agreement between 2 or more poeple who independently observe and code a set of data.

high inter-judge reliability suggests that an obsevation is objective

another term: inter-rater reliability

Question 14

what are 2 limitations of the observational approach

Answer 14

1. certain behaviours are hard to observe (street fights, domestic abuse)
2. some behaviours more difficult to define/quantify (hostile tone/hesitation)
3. archival analysis (may have false or missing info)
4. doesn’t allow predictions and explanations (limited to descriptions of what you have seen/recorded)

Question 15

the correlational method tells us that A and B are correlated with an r value of 0.6. does this mean that A causes B or vice versa?

Answer 15

no. correlational method only tells us if 2 variables are related or unrelated, it DOES NOT DETERMINE CAUSATION.

to find out if A caused B or vice versa, we need experimentation.

Question 16

what are the 3 key considerations in the experimental approach?

Answer 16

1. internal validity
   making sure that nothing else besides the IV can affect the DV
2. random assignment
   everyone has an equal chance of being assigned to any condition
3. statistical difference
   p≤.05 concludes that effect of IV on DV was unlikely due to chance, thus we can conclude with reasonable confidence that the effect was real and reliable.

Question 17

what is a limitation of the experimental approach?

Answer 17

for internal validity, experiment must be very precise and controlled (not natural), thus we sacrifice external validity for it

Question 18

define generalizability.

suggest 2 solutions to increase generalizability.

Answer 18

extent to which results of a study can be applied or generalized to other populations, settings, or contexts

solution #1: replications (repeat study with different subjects in different settings or testing IV and DV in different ways)

solution #2: field experiments (study outside of lab, where participants are unaware and the same basic design in a lab experiment is present)