Mid Term Flashcards
Social psychology is the scientific study of what three concepts?
Thinking, Influences, Relations
Social psych and the person-situation controversy
behaviors are due to their individual traits or the situation
How social psychology differs from other similar areas of study
Sociology: groups and societies; Evolutionary: diff**similarities genetic survival; Personality psychology: individual differences
How values and bias can work their way into research
Individual or group values may influence what we study, how we study it, how we interpret findings
Three basic research designs
Random sampling, Representative, Random assignment
Issues with surveys and reports
Question order, Response type, Question wording
The use and importance of correlations*
Measurement of 2+ factors to examine their association
The use and different types of experiments*
Manipulation of one or more factors to draw causal conclusions * ?True? experiment * Quasi-??experiment
Essential aspects of ?true? experiments
Complete control over variables
Historical differences with today?s research
Adoption of etchics
5 required pieces to participation
Informed consent, Deception when necessary, Protect from physical**psychological harm, Protect confidentiality, Debriefing
The most likely participants in social psychology research
White, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic
How a lack of generalizability hurts the field*
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Main effects
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Interactive effect
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How to tell from a graph
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Spotlight effect
organization of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
Illusion of transparency
we think people notice signs of our emotions
Self-concept
What we know and believe about ourselves; who we are
Self-schemas
mental templates about oneself
Possible selves*
mental representation of what we could or might be or become
Looking-glass self*
how we imagine others see us (not necessarily how others actually see us)
Social identity
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Planning fallacy
we underestimate how long a task will take us
Affective forecasting
our attempts to predict how we would feel if something happened
Impact bias
we overestimate the enduring impact of emotional events
Theories of construction
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Correlates of low and high self-esteem
* High self-esteem usually correlates with positive outcomes * Low self-esteem and early negative experiences
Narcissism
very high self-esteem, low social concern
Secure self-esteem
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Self-control
The ability to control one?s behavior, emotions, cognition, and desires to attain a reward or avoid punishment
Self-efficacy
One?s sense of competence and effectiveness
Locus of control
Our ability to do good given the circumstances
Learned helplessness
extreme external LOC after negative experiences
Tyranny of freedom
when faced with multiple choices, we are less happy than if we were just given one option
Self-serving bias
We tend to perceive ourselves in a favorable light
Self-serving attribution*
we associate ourselves with our successes and distance ourselves from our failures
Self-presentation
We desire to present a certain image to other people AND to ourselves
Automatic versus controlled*
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Self-handicapping
we protect our image with behaviors that may explain later behaviors
Self-monitoring
the level to which one is attuned to their self-presentation
Perception of stimuli
Our assumptions and prejudgments can color our perception of the social world
How internal factors can influence what we ?see?
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Priming
activation of associations, often below the level of consciousness
Examples from priming stereotype threat research
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How we interpret ambiguous information*
Kulechov effect: mental tendency of viewers to attempt to figure out how filmed shots fit together, even if the shots are totally unrelated
Interpretation of perceived stimuli
How we interpret what we perceive depends on our beliefs
Belief perseverance
we attend more to information that confirms our beliefs
Confirmation bias
we search for information that fits with what we believe
How to enduringly change a belief *
Must be explained in detail
Memory construction
We like complete memories
Why we construct and alter our memories
Even a simple question or statement can change what we remember
Misinformation effect
the incorporation of untrue information into one?s memory of an event after receiving misleading information
Judgments
We utilize intuitive judgment regularly in social interactions
The controlled versus automatic pathway
Automatic pathway * Priming * Schemas * Emotion * Expertise
When do we use each?
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Overconfidence phenomenon
we are generally more confident in guessing than we should be
Relation to the planning fallacy
* Hard to dislodge * Only when breaking tasks down do we recognize our fallacy
Confirmation bias
we search for information that fits with what we believe
Self-verification
We seek out friends, jobs, situations that confirm what we think of ourselves
Heuristics
thinking strategies that enable quick judgments
Representative heuristic
we believe something belongs to a group if it is similar to a typical member
Availability heuristic
we judge the likelihood of something on its availability in our memory
Counterfactuals
easily imaginable alternatives to reality
Illusory thinking
We try to see order in our world, even when there is none
Illusory correlation
we misperceive random events as confirming our beliefs
Illusion of control
we think that some completely uncontrollable events are under our control
Regression toward the mean
statistical tendency for extreme scorers to become less extreme with repeated testing
Attribution theory
we engage in a series of judgments in determining the cause of people?s behaviors
Dispositional attribution
the behavior is due to who the person is
Situational attribution
the behavior is due to the situation they in
Kelley?s theory of attribution decisions (3 parts)
Consistency, Distinctiveness, Consensus
Misattribution
our attributions can cause social difficulties when incorrect
Fundamental attribution bias
we underestimate the power of situational influences on people?s behavior
Self-fulfilling prophecies
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Pygmalion in the classroom example
Teacher’s expectation, Teacher’s behavior, Student’s behavior
Definitions and distinctions between attitudes and behaviors
* Behavior: an external, exhibited reaction * Attitude: an internal, evaluative reaction
Historical understandings
Through 1960s, attitudes drove behaviors * Want to change behaviors? Change attitudes
Attitudes
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Measuring attitudes
The data we collect is merely expressed attitudes
Expressed versus true attitudes
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Explicit versus implicit attitudes
Implicit attitudes and biases are: * Pervasive * Individually differing * Largely subconscious
The IAT
a computer-driven assessment of implicit attitudes using reaction times to sort pairings of words
Use
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Criticism
Familiarity versus bias * Preference over negative attitudes * Lack of reliability
Situational influences in predicting behavior from attitudes
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Principle of aggregation
attitudes best predict behavior over long periods of time
General versus specific attitudes
General attitudes predict little to nothing of behavior
Behaviors changing attitudes
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Definitions of role and role-playing
Roles: people given social position should behave * Role-playing: feeling of ?being an imposter? taking new roles
The Stanford Prison experiment
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Historical background
Prisoner abuse
Variables and study design
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Foot-in-the-door and momentum of compliance
the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
Our attitudes towards those we hurt and help
We dislike those who we hurt
Public conformity
Korean POWs & thought control; the Pledge of Allegiance
Theories of attitude change (3 theories)
* presentation: not look inconsistent * justification: prove not inconsistent * perception: do something often, positive attitude
Be able to compare and contrast
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Cognitive dissonance
we experience anxiety when attitudes and behaviors are mismatched
Insufficient justification
we feel more dissonance when receiving few external rewards
