Introduction and Intro to Research Methods Flashcards
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to overestimate the extent to which people’s behaviour is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors
Behaviourism
A school of psychology maintaining that to understand human behaviour, one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment
Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt Psychology holds that we should study the subjective way in which an object appears in people’s minds rather than the way in which the objective, physical attributes of the object.
Naive Realism
The conviction that we perceive things “as they really are”, underestimating how much we are interpreting or “spinning” what we see
Motives in steering construals - Self-Esteem Motive
Most people have a strong need to maintain reasonably high self-esteem
Motives in steering construals - Social Cognition Motive
We try to see ourselves in a favourable light but we are also quite good at scoping out the nature of the social world.
Social Psychology
Defined as the scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people. Social psychologists are interested in understanding how and why the social environment shapes the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of the individual
Observational Method
A technique whereby a researcher observes people and systematically records measurements or impressions of their behaviour.
Ethnography
The method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by observing it from the inside, without imposing any preconceived notions they might have.
Archival Analysis
Researcher can examine the accumulated documents, or archives, of a culture, a technique known as an archival analysis
Limits of Observational Method
Although archival data is informative, it tells us little about the effects on their attitudes and behaviour if doing so. Social psychologists want to do more than just describe behaviour, they want to predict and explain it. To do so, other methods are more appropriate.
Correlational Method: Predicting Social Behaviour
To understand the relationships between variables and to be abel to predict when different kinds of social behaviour will occur. With the correlational method, two variables are systematically measured, and the relationship between them is assessed
Limits of the Correlational Method
Correlation does not equal causation. The correlation method tells us only that two variables are related, whereas the goal of the social psychologist is to identify the causes of social behaviour.
Experimental Method: Answering Causal Questions
The method in which the researcher randomly assigns participants to different conditions and ensures that these conditions are identical except for the independent variable
Independent variable
The variable a researcher changes or varies to see if it has an effect on some other variable
