Midterm Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
1
Q

What is social psychology?

A
  • Scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings & behavior are influenced by other people
  • Describes and explains human social cognitive and behavior
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What are the four parts of Niko Tinbergen’s framework for why questions?

A
  • mechanism: how does it work?
  • ontogeny: how does it develop?
  • function: what function does this serve?
  • phylogeny: when did it orignate?
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What are the 4 perspectives in social psychology?

A

all locate causes of social cognition & behavior…

  • sociocultural: in group-level factors
  • evolutionary: in predispositions that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce
  • social learning: in the individual’s past experiences of reward and punishment
  • social cognitive: in people’s subjective interpretations of the social world
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Describe the sociocultural perspective

A
  • Locates causes of social cognition and behavior in group-level factors
  • learned by norms (rules about appropriate behavior)
  • ex: helminth/cannabis study
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Describe the evolutionary perspective

A
  • Located causes of social cognition and behavior in predispositions that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce
  • through natural selection
  • ex: babies scared of snakes/spiders or cats scared of cucumbers
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Describe the social learning perspective

A
  • Locates causes of social cognition and behavior in the individual’s past experiences of reward and punishment
  • through direct learning (individual gets rewarded/punished) or indirect learning (sees other people get rewarded/punished)
  • ex: bobo doll study
  • ex: over imitation
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Describe the social cognitive perspective

A
  • Locates causes of social cognition and behavior in people’s subjective interpretations of the social world
  • Emphasizes attention, interpretation, judgment, and memory
  • ex: video w/ basketball/gorilla (inattentional blindness)
  • ex: cooperation study
  • ex: skateboarding study
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What is inattentional blindness?

A

when one fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus in plain sight, purely due to a lack of attention rather than any vision defects or deficits

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Describe the study with cooperative or non-cooperative faces. Which perspective is it?

A
  • had a prisoners dilemma game and took pictures of cooperators or noncooperators
  • then had other participants do dot probe tasks with those pictures coming up
  • people took longer on task for non-cooperators meaning they paid more attention to them
  • non-cooperators grab more of our (automatic, preconscious) visual attention
  • social cognitive perspective
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What are norms?

A
  • rules about appropriate behavior
  • ex: wedding dresses should be big, white, & poofy
  • ex: the way you stand in an elevator
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Describe the helminth and cannabis study. Which perspective is it?

A
  • cannabis protects against helminths (parasites)
  • recorded cannabis use in aka-hunter gatherers & assessed their helminth infection
  • more smoking was associated with less infection
  • ppl might have norm of smoking cannabis because it serves function of protecting against helminths
  • sociocultural perspective
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Describe an example of overimitation

A
  • Imitating irrelevant actions in addition to relevant ones
  • ex: if an adult dances in front of a door before they open it, a child might watch them and do the exact same thing rather than just open the door (wouldn’t happen in a dog)
  • overimitation seems unique to humans
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Do people pay more attention to cooperators or non-cooperators?

A

non-cooperators

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What are descriptive methods vs experimental method?

A

Descriptive:
- methods involved attempts to measure or record behaviors, thoughts, or feelings in their natural state
- typically describe phenomena, often empirically (in numbers)
- correlation ony
- ex: naturalistic observation, case, study, archival studies, survey studies, established psychological tests

Experimental:
- Involve the researchers setting out to systematically manipulate one source of influence while holding others constant
- causation
- ex: lab studies, field studies

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Describe the naturalistic observation method

A
  • Observing (and sometimes quantifying) behavior as it unfolds in its natural setting
  • descriptive method
  • ex: who gossips more study
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Describe case studies

A
  • Intensive examination of a single person, group, event/phenomenon
  • low generalizability
  • descriptive method
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Describe archival studies

A
  • examining archives, or public records of social behaviors
  • easy to access and high generalizability
  • don’t get to decide what you study b/c you didn’t collect the data (ex: drug-related arrests)
  • descriptive method
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Describe survey studies

A
  • Researchers ask people about their thoughts, feelings, opinions, behaviors
  • Problem: social desirability bias (ex: studying racism)
  • descriptive method
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What is social desirability bias?

A
  • the tendency for people to present themselves in a generally favorable fashion
  • ex: studying racism
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Describe established psychological tests

A
  • Instruments for assessing an individual’s abilities, cognitions, motivations
  • descriptive method
  • ex: The Big 5
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

Describe lab studies

A
  • Researchers ask people about their thoughts, feelings, opinions, behaviors
  • experimental method
  • ex: casual sex/self esteem study
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

Describe the casual sex/self esteem study

A
  • people read about a man, woman, or person with no gender info given
  • read about target having casual sex, committed sex, or no sexual info given
  • participants reported perceptions of the target’s self-esteem
  • found that women having casual sex we perceived as having lower self esteem than men having casual sex
  • Found that women having casual sex are perceived to have lower self-esteem than women having committed sex
  • Even when told that the women are happy having casual sex, people still perceived their self-esteem as lower
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

Describe field studies

A
  • Researchers ask people about their thoughts, feelings, opinions, behaviors
  • experimental method
  • ex: towels in hotel study
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

Describe the towels in hotels study (Goldenstein, Cialdini, & Griskevicius, 2007)

A
  • guests has social norms or industry standard method about reusing towels
  • found that people reuse towels 10% more with the social norms message than the industry standard
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

What are the 3 basic principles from the Belmont Report (ethics)?

A
  • Respect for persons (Informed consent, privacy & confidentiality, careful consideration of deception, & debriefing)
  • Beneficence (Maximize benefits & minimize risk)
  • Justice (benefits/burdens of should be equitable across the population, can’t exploit subjects because of their circumstances)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

Compare direct and conceptual replication

A
  • direct: trying to recreate phenomenon in identical environment
  • conceptual: still replicating but changing a small part to see if results generalize to diff samples/times/situations
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

What are some ways social psychology findings can fail to replicate?

A
  • shrinking results (evidence gets weaker over time)
  • impossible results (ex: claiming ESP is real)
  • fraudulent results (faking data)
  • engineered results (P-hacking)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

How much of social psych findings doesn’t replicate?

A

can expect 40-75% of findings in social psychology journals to fail in direct replication attempts

29
Q

Describe the study on who gossips more (Robbins & Karan, 2020)

A
  • recorded snippets of participants conversations for 2-5 days and coded them for gossip
  • found that extroverted ppl are more likely to gossip
  • found younger ppl more likely to engage in negative gossip than older ppl
  • found women more likely to engage in neutral gossip than men
30
Q

What is observer bias?

A
  • When a researcher’s expectations, opinions, or prejudices influence what they perceive or record in a study
  • problem in naturalistic observation studies
31
Q

What is a problem with case studies?

A
  • low generalizability
  • can’t make conclusions about human mind, only about the individual you studied
32
Q

What is self-concept?

A
  • a mental representation capturing our views & beliefs about ourselves
  • part of self-knowledge
  • tested through mirror self recognition test
33
Q

What is the mirror self-recognition test?

A
  • asks “Can the individual visually recognize themselves?” to see if the individual is self-aware
  • They mark a body part and put the subject in front of a mirror to see if they notice that mark → if they do it shows they know its them in the mirror
  • Only ~10% of 13 month old infants pass test but by 2 years almost all do
34
Q

What is self-esteem?

A
  • Out attitude toward ourselves
  • comes from how others respond to us and how we compare ourselves to others
  • measured using Rosenberg’s self esteem scale
35
Q

What is social comparison theory?

A

By comparing ourselves to others, we can learn about ourselves → out abilities, beliefs, attitudes

36
Q

Describe the study looking at the reflection of social comparison theory and emotional contagion theory in social media? (De Vries et al,. 2017)

A

– Participants took & uploaded a selfie for insta
- Also viewed positive, negative, or no social media posts from confederates before posting their selfie to insta
- Measured participant affect via the PANAS (positive and negative affect scale) & measured their tendency to engage in social comparison
- People high in social comparison had higher negative affect viewing positive posts (vs neutral & no posts) → Supports SCT
- People low in social comparison had higher positive affect after viewing positive posts (vs. neutral and no posts) → Supports ECT

37
Q

Compare social comparison theory and emotional contagion theory

A
  • Social comparison theory suggests that other people’s positive social media posts should negatively affect our emotions
  • Emotional contagion theory suggests that other people’s positive social media posts should positively affect our emotions
38
Q

What is self-presentation?

A
  • The process through which we try to control the impressions people form of us
  • doesn’t always work (ex: humblebragging or self-deception)
39
Q

Describe the humblebragging study

A
  • participants viewed 1 of 3 targets & rated on liking/sincerity
  • saw either a humblebrag, brag, or complaint
  • results showed that humblebragging doesn’t work
  • humblebraggers were rated least likable and least sincere
40
Q

What is self-deception?

A
  • When people favor welcome over unwelcome information in a manner that reflects their goals or motivations
  • sometimes we think things about ourselves that aren’t true (ex: better than avg at driving)
  • Trivers thought it can be part of a non-conscious self-presentation strategy… if we believe it about ourselves, others might also believe it
41
Q

What is self-control?

A
  • homeostatic control of your behavior by intervening on your own mental processes
  • ex: marshmallow test
  • ex: “$400 today is as good to me as $1000 in a year”
42
Q

Describe the social facilitation studies with poverty/cognitive tasks (Mani et al, 2013)

A
  • asked does poverty cause deficits in cognitive functioning?
  • study 1 had rich/poor people think about everyday financial demands & then do cognitive tasks
  • poor people did worse on difficult tasks after thinking about financial demands
  • study 2 had same sugarcane farmers do cognitive tasks pre and post harvest
  • they did better post harvest
43
Q

What is evolution?

A

Changes in gene frequencies over time (due to differences in their rates of replication)

44
Q

Describe mutation

A
  • provides the raw materials for evolution (creates new genes that other forces act on)
  • most neutral/harmful (beneficial are rare)
  • mutation creates variation
45
Q

Describe selection

A
  • increases in a gene’s frequency by virtues of its ability to increase its own reproduction
  • only force that produces non-random changes in gene frequencies
  • natural selection (ex: peppered moths) & sexual selection (ex: peacocks/sheep)
46
Q

Compare inter and intra sexual selection

A

intersexual selection:
- between sex
- Reproductive success as a function of ability to attract mates
- ex: peacock tails

intrasexual selection:
- within sex
- Reproductive success as a function of the ability to win competitions for mates
- ex: big-horned sheep

47
Q

What are the 3 products of evolution?

A

1) adaptations: genes that exist now because they increased reproduction of genes in the past (ex: umbilical cord)
2) byproducts: non-functional features that exist because they are tied to an adaptation (ex: belly button)
3) noise: completely random features that are not functional or linked to an adaptation (ex: soapy cilantro)

48
Q

What are adaptive problems?

A
  • A problem posed by the (physical or social) environment that, if solved, would increase reproduction
  • Natural selection builds machines that solve adaptive problems (adaptations)
49
Q

Why do people have sex?

A

as a defense against pathogens

50
Q

What do human mating relationships vary on?

A

investment

51
Q

Do humans prefer long-term or short-term mating? Does gender matter?

A
  • selection favors long-term mating strategies in both males & females
  • but men are also more interested in short-term mating than women on average
52
Q

What are the 3 key routes to partner preferences?

A
  • direct benefits: preferences can exist because of direct fitness advantage to you
  • indirect benefits: preferences for partners who don’t benefit you, but do benefit your offspring
  • non-functional preferences
53
Q

What is the parental investment theory?

A
  • The sex that invests more (food, care protection, time) in offspring will be more selective in picking partners… females
  • The sex that invests less will compete more vigorously for access to partners… males
54
Q

Describe the study with women’s faces during/not during ovulation

A
  • showed photos of same women when ovulating vs not
  • men considered them more attractive when they were ovulating
  • ovulation is cue of fertility
  • supports that men are more attracted to women at high fertility because doing so would mean gaining direct fitness benefits (more offspring)
55
Q

Describe the exotic dancers study

A
  • measured the earning of exotic dancers at high fertility, low fertility, menstruation
  • got higher tips from men at higher fertility
  • consistent with hypothesis that men are more attracted to women at high fertility because doing so would mean gaining direct fitness benefits (more offspring)
56
Q

What do women and men want in partners?

A
  • women more than men want resources (and cues to resource potential)
  • men more than women want physical attractiveness (and cues to fecundity)
  • both want kindness, intelligence, etc. most (sexes are much more alike than different)
57
Q

Describe the study on what women want in terms of attractiveness/SES status (Chu et al)

A
  • female students rate men who varies in physical attractiveness & socioeconomic status for desire as a long term-partner
  • highly attractive men with medium SES were rated highest
  • highly attractive men w/ high or low SES status rated similarly
  • exception: hot rich women want hot rich men
58
Q

Describe the attractiveness/resources study across 40 countries (Buss)

A
  • asked men and women if resources or physical attractiveness was more important
  • most women (97% of countries) said resources were more important than attractiveness
  • most men (92% of countries) over women said attractiveness was more important
  • conceptually replicated
59
Q

What is Sternberg’s triangular model of love?

A
  • love is based on 3 scales
    1) passion (physiological arousal, longing)
    2) intimacy (feelings promoting close bonds, emotional support)
    3) commitment (saying you love each other & maintaining that love)
60
Q

What is Berscheid & Walster’s Two-Factor Theory?

A
  • love = arousal + name for it
  • ex: arousal from bridge study
61
Q

Describe love as a commitment device

A
  • love acts as a commitment device in a relationship just like a lease does for tenants/landlords
  • feelings of love commit you to your partner even if they aren’t optimal
  • allows each person to trust their partner will stay committed
  • allows people to form relationships in first place (even if not optimal)
62
Q

Describe the study testing effects of love on attention to others (with a dot probe task)

A
  • people in romantic relationships wrote an essay about a time they felt strong love or felt strong happiness
  • Completed a dot-probe task w/ an attractive person popping up
  • Slower response = more attention paid to attractive person
  • People who wrote about love were faster on dot probe task showing they didn’t pay attention to the attractive person
  • only have eyes for their partner
63
Q

Describe the rose colored glasses study (Murray et al)

A
  • measured degree of unrealistic idealization of partner & relationship satisfaction
  • for couples with high unrealistic idealization of partner, marital satisfaction stayed steady/high
  • for couples low in idealization (and group overall), marital satisfaction declines over the 3 years
64
Q

What is Trivers’ definition of parenting?

A

Parenting = Any investment of resources in offspring

65
Q

What is neoteny?

A
  • looking babyish/cute
  • Infants heads and faces differ from adult heads and faces in a lot of ways
66
Q

Describe the baby neoteny study

A
  • Manipulated baby faces to be highly neotenous or non-neotenous
  • Asked participants to rate how cute the infant was & how much they would like to care for the infant
  • People find the more neotenous babies cuter & want to care for them more
67
Q

How do baby dogs exploit us?

A
  • Unlike wolf pups, dog pups are abandoned by mothers at 8 weeks
  • Pups can benefit from being cute to humans when they are most in need (and won’t get parental help)
  • Participants rated the cuteness of photos of 3 diff breeds of dogs from birth to 7 months
  • Dogs were rated as cutest around 8 weeks
68
Q

Describe the baby names in Frontier states study

A
  • Frontiers attract people high in openness to experience, wanting to be and display their individualism
  • People living in frontier (more recently-settled) US states are more individualistic
  • found that people in frontier states give their babies more unique names