PL1035: Social Psychology Flashcards
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A ‘self-schema’ is
an internalised cognitive framework or belief system relating to ourselves which inform our perception and attention. They can relate to personality traits, physical characteristics, and interests.
A study examining impression-management that evaluates the effectiveness of a certain type of bragging
Sezer, Gino & Norton (2018)
A study on temporal comparisons
Wilson and Ross (2001)
A study showing a real-world application of theory on possible selves.
Oyserman and Markus (1990)
Classical Study on Self-Discrepancy Theory
Higgins et al 1986
Actual, Ideal and Ought Self
- how a person sees the self at the present time
- how a person would like to see the self
- how a person thinks they ought to be, based on ideals of duty and responsibility.
Shim, Lee-Won & Park, 2016?
people with public self-consciousness make more effort to present themselves positively -> posting pictures having fun or being with friends
Discursive psychology
language is viewed as social action, through which people construct their social world.
Downward social comparison
I am ‘better’ than the other in a specific domain
Findings and Methods of Higgins et al. 1986
gathered data on participants’ self-discrepancies had them describe differences between actual/ideal and actual/ought high actual/ideal discrepancy participants = dejection (sad, disappointed)high actual/ought discrepancy participants = agitation low discrepancy no significant changes
What assumption can we make about Maxine, who feels like being a mother, someone who enjoys football and wine, is connected?
Maxine has an interdependent self-construal (and not social identity), which is typical in a collectivist culture
Froming, Allen and Jensen (1985) study
1st, 2nd and 3rd American graders donated M&M candies to other children: in private or in the presence of an evaluative adult (who watched the child), a nonevaluative adult (present but busy looking at papers), or in front of a mirrorevaluative presence => increased donations among older children (2nd and 3rd graders) less donations made in privatefindings by proposing that older children had learned that the social norm for helping behaviour was valued by adults, and so they complied with this norm in the presence of an adult. public self-awareness was activated in the presence of an attentive adult, and the older children showed more pro-social behaviour.
Gestalt psychology
partly emerged out of the limitations of behaviourism. focuses on a more holistic view as perception is important in determining attitudes and behaviours → Kurt Lewin’s force field analysis
How might Bem’s self-perception theory offer a better explanation
Attitudes may be changed through a self-attributional process when the behaviour falls within a range of personally acceptable conduct. So when someone acts outside of this range of acceptable behaviour cognitive dissonance resolution accont better for attitude change
Impression management
active process of self-presentationpeople take steps to monitor their presentation of self in their interactions with others, so that they appear to others in the best possible light.
Impression-management describes
managing your self-presentation
Lewandowski, Nardone and Raines (2010) Findings
self-concept clarity bolsters wellbeinglisting times when participants felt their behaviour was consistent with self-concept vs. participants that were assigned to self-concept confusion condition had to do the inversionparticipants in the clearity condition felt bettershows that it is not personality variable -> Nezlek & Plesko 2001 p.58
Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1978) Study and Conclusion
the development of self-awareness:
* placed a spot of rouge on the noses of infants aged 9- 12 months and sat them in front of a mirror
* looked at their mirror image with no recognition and no effort to touch the rouge on their own noses.
= lack of awareness, self-concept children around 18 months of age who performed the same task made a concerted effort to rub the rouge from their own noses. p.58
Miller (1984) Culture and the development of everyday social explanation what is the key finding?
As they grew older, American children were found by Miller (1984) to place increasing reliance upon disposition as an explanation of events observed. Hindu children of India, by contrast, based their explanations more on situations.
Multiple role theory
Theory asserting that it is beneficial for a person’s health and well being to have multiple self-identities.
Multiple Role Theory
self-identifying with different roles (parent, friend, employee)stabalising effect (growth and enjoyment vs. negative emotions)
One study illustrating self-perception theory?
Van Gyn, Wenger and Gaul (1990)
Possible selves (Oyserman, Markus 90)
future-oriented components of the self-conceptthe link between the self-concept and a motivation to actimagined selves we could, would like to become, or are scared of becoming. incentive future behaviours and function as criteria against which outcomes are evaluated.
Private Self-consciousness
Chronic private self-awareness and concern about pnvate aspects of the self.
Public Self-awareness (Buss 1980)
a person becomes aware of the public aspects of the self and how they could be judged by other people
Public Self-consciousness
Chronic public self-awareness and concern about how one looks and is evaluated by others.
Replication
direct/exact: study is repeated as exactly as possible → way to verify the validity of research results or methods
BUT: realistically impossible
conceptual: ability to replicate the results after changing the methods used so that the results can be applied generally
Schematic’ and ‘aschematic’ mean…
particularly important or unimportant to a person’s sense of self
Self-awareness
state of being aware of one’s unique characteristics, feelings and behaviours, which develops in early childhood.
Self-Concept Clarity (Campbell et. al. 1996)
The extent to which self-schemas are clearly and confidently defined, consistent with each other, and stable across time.
Self-discrepancy theory
people’s awareness of between how they are, how they would like to be and how they think they ought to be (ideal, actual, ought)Higgins, 1987
Self-perception (Bem, 1972)
people may learn about themselves by examining their own thoughts, feelings and behaviours. behaviours are considered most important because they are more objective and easier to observe
Self-presentation (Goffman, 1959)
people make concerted efforts to create an impression (usually a good one) of themselves to others.
Self-presentation is
the way the self is presented to others (usually to a favorable effect)
self-regulation
changing aspects of their behaviour in order for their actual self to become more in line with the ideal or ought self
Self-schemas (Markus 1977)
beliefs people hold about themselves, and usually relate to dimensions of the overall ‘self’ (such as considering oneself as sensitive or assertive). =schematic vs aschematic set of self-schemas make up the overall self-concept
Sezer, Gino & Norton (2018)
asked participants (453) about experience of another person humblebragging (recency, type, prevalence, gender/age)416 brags where typed as either complaint based or humility basedhumblebrags failed because of a lack of sincerity
Social comparison
emphasises an individual’s need to compare themselves to other people. through such comparison, people learn information about themselves, and how to perceive themselves
Social constructionism
Approach emphasizing the way social phenomena develop in social contexts.
Spurious correlation
two variables have no direct connection but it is wrongly inferred they do, due to coincidences or boundary condition. Ex.: narcisism and well-being (moderated by self-esteem)
Study on Temporal Comparison
Wilson & Ross, 2000
Symbolic interactionism
investigation of how people create meaning through social interaction and how they construct and represent the self and how they define situations when they are with others
Temporal comparison (Albert, 1977)
‘me’ compared with either actual past or anticipated future ‘me’
The self-concept is
the image we have of ourselves, or who we believe we are and consists of our self-schemas
True Self
Characteristics of the self-concept that are essential for making a person who they are.
Two studies showing the effects of activating public and private awareness
Allen and Jensen 1985 public Scheier and Carver 1977 private
Two things to consider for Miller (1984)
Has society (and culture) changed since the study was conducted? If yes, in what way(s)? Consider the reasons why culture can influence individuals’ attributions.
Upward social comparison
the other is ‘better’ in a specific domain
Van Gyn, Wenger and Gaul (1990) Methods and Findings
two groups of runners: 1. trained on exercise bikes and one didn’t half of each group had to imagine themselves training performance of the ones that imagined themselves training was better evidence of possible influence on the self-concept which led to regulation of behaviour
Völkerpsychologie
the collective mind and how people think about society how their thoughts are informed by their surroundings → no individual mind possible as people in large groups start to act more primitively or antisocially after losing their sense of individuality
What does HARKing stand for?
HARKing involves presenting a hypothesis (which had been formed based on what the study’s results show) in one’s research report as if it were, in fact, an a priori hypothesis (had been thought of before conducting the research). This practice can lead to misleading outcomes. To maximise transparency in light of HARKing, some researchers now publish a protocol paper of their intended research before they collect data, which outlines the research they plan to conduct, and the hypotheses they hold, before actually conducting it.
What historical event has had a great impact on social psychology?
The holocaust. It was a really poignant example for social influence and conformity, social loafing, bystander intervention → general impact on the study of antisocial behaviours which is counter-measured by positive psych
What is Billig’s (1996) principle to keep in mind when learning about social psychology?
Every argument (or conclusion) you read in social psychology should be considered against the possibility of its opposite (or alternative).
What is the difference between social psychology and sociology?
Sociology is focused on behaviour at a group or cultural level, whereas social psychology is interested in the individual’s behaviour within such a group. p.36
What is the relationship between basic and applied research in social psychology?
Findings from basic research can be subsequently applied to a real-world problem of interest or concern to society in applied research.
What is the replication crisis?
The discovery that findings that were long thought to be robust in social psychology (and other branches of psychology) have been shown to be difficult to reproduce in replication studies. (ego depletion, social priming)
What traditions existed and what was their distinguishing factor?
German tradition: focused on the ‘collective mind’ without any concrete empirical methods in place to test theories American tradition: proposed in Floyd Allport’s publication, inspired by the growth of experimental psychology in the USA
What’s the common definition for social psychology?
Social psychology is the scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others (Allport, 1956)
When is public self-awareness helpful to individuals and society?
- may prepare to perform better at a public event because they know others will be evaluating them.
- follow social norms that are in the collective interest to adhere to (i.e. not listening to loud music on public transport).
Which one of the following statements does NOT describe research on self-schemas by Markus (1977):
a) Identifying as self-schematic on words related to a trait increases the speed of association with words related to that trait in a reaction time task
b) Being self-schematic on one dimension (of independence or dependence) increases the ability to remember autobiographical memories showing this dimension
c) Participants identifying as aschematic on dimensions of independence and dependence were slower to accurately categorise words related to both dimensions in a reaction time task
d) A person who identifies as self-schematic on introversion can use this self-awareness to be more extraverted in social contexts
d
Who argued for the separation of Social Psychology from what, when and why?
It was Floyd Allport’s publication from 1924 which truly set a distinction as he argued the use of experimental science could act as an distinction of SP from the other disciplines.
Who are the fathers of social psychology?
- German: Immanuel Kant, Willhelm von Humbolt, Johann Friedrich Herbart
- British: David Hume and Adam Smith
- French: Auguste Comte
Important theorist behind the concept of self-esteem
Rosenberg (1968)
Private Self-awareness was proposed by?
Buss (1980)
What are three ways mood regulation and self-esteem relate to each other?
- Individuals with lower levels of self-esteem are less likely to make the effort to make themselves feel better (Heimpel et al. 2002)
- lower self-esteem is likely to downplay the positive feelings they experienced when recalling positive life events (Wood et al., 2003)
- tendency to make themselves feel less positive and distract themselves from the positive feelings. (Wood et al., 2003)
p.78
How do mortality salience and self-esteem relate to each other?
- against the anxiety of death, individuals collaborate to construct a cultural worldview -> impart meaning, permanence and stability to life
- agreed standards => may be evaluated & alignment with standards of value = hope of transcending death (literally or symbolically)
- terror management theory: self-esteem through sociometer theory
- self-esteem is a tremendous buffer
p.79
Who proposed impression management?
Goffman (1959)
On what do individualist cultures focus on to what effect on relationships?
individuality of each person → social relationships are voluntary
What did Markus (1977) find?
What is someone with an interdependent self-construal likely pursuing?
self-critical self-improvement
What is an independent self-construal, and when are they common?
What is an interdependent self-construal, and when are they common?
What was Miller (1984) about, and what was the conclusion?
- Compared 4 age groups of Indian and Americans who narrated prosocial and antisocial behaviour and gave theoir spontaneous explanations
- Miller coded the responses
- In western cultures: more internal attributions with increasing age
What was Schwartz’s (1991) study about ?
- participants asked to recall 6 vs. 12 assertive or friendly
- some only had to do 6 vs 6
- participants saw themselves as less assertive/friendly after listing 12 because too many to remember (availability bias and attributional processes)
What can be said at large about the “fathers of psychology” when it comes to social psychology?
Though Humes and Smiths’ publications are also very crucial to the field, it is mostly Herbart and, even more frequently, Comte who have been dubbed as the fathers of Social Psychology.
Self-esteem can be defined as?
people’s subjective appraisal of themselves as intrinsically positive or negative
Private self-awareness describes the
psychological state where an individual is aware of the private, personal aspects of the self
What does impression management describe?
active process of self-presentation, which consists of taking steps to monitor their presentation of self in their interactions with others so that they appear to others in the best possible
Which are valued aspects of individualist cultures?
- uniqueness
- expressing one’s own views
- promotion of one’s own goals
- directness
Moderation describes?
a relationship between two variables depending on the level of a third variable.
What is a self-construal?
self-concept
What is someone with an independent self-construal likely pursuing?
positive and unique self-identification and strive for self-enhancement
attribution theory
the study of how people explain events
Availability Heuristic
making decisions based upon how easy it is to bring something to mind likely judging these outcomes as being more common or frequently occurring.
Experiments testing correspondent inference theory/FAE?
Jones & Harris 1967
familiarity heuristic
people tend to have more favorable opinions of things, people, or places they’ve experienced before as opposed to new ones
Hindsight bias
The tendency for people to see an outcome as inevitable once the actual outcome is known.
How might Bem’s self-perception theory offer a better explanation
Attitudes may be changed through a self-attributional process when the behaviour falls within a range of personally acceptable conduct. So when someone acts outside of this range of acceptable behaviour cognitive dissonance resolution accont better for attitude change
How’s the above-average effect a self-serving bias?
act of attributing behaviour in a distorted way to either enhance or protect our self-esteem (e.g. taking credit for success but explaining away failures). one inflates their own ability or performance in the above-average effect related to one’s self-esteem and self-image that the self-serving bias is protecting/enhancing.
Manu watches all the “Jaws” movies, in which sharks attack people at sea. Manu decides she will never swim in the sea again, because she worries about the possibility of getting attacked by a shark-> heuristic?
availability heuristic
Optimism Bias
People believing that good things are more likely to happen to them than bad things
Representativeness heuristic (Tversky & Kahneman, 1971)
- compare aspects of the individual incident to other mental examples
- likelihood of an event depends on the similarity/ representativeness of said event -> stereotype
Schwartz et al. (1991) conducted a compelling research study to show how a certain heuristic influences an individual’s thinking. Participants were asked to recall 6 or 12 times when they had been assertive or unassertive in their lives. What was the study’s conclusion?
Attributional processes underpin the availability heuristics
Study relating FAE and Culture
Miller 1984
Study to Illustrate the Implications of the Availability Bias
Schwartz 1991
Trial and error heuristic
people use a number of different strategies to solve something until they find what works -> video gaming, driving
What are three problems of nudges (Sugden, 2009)?
- finding out what would make people better off, as judged by themselves.
- Policies do not correct reasoning failure (quality of decision-making) but use reasoning failure as an attempt to correct the outcomes of that failure.
- Infringement on autonomy (Refute: simple adjustment of the context in which one can continue to exercise one’s autonomy)
What does FAE not help us with?
- doesn’t help us understand the relative strength of dispositional vs. external factors that lead to observable behaviours
- we cannot know the true influence of someone’s disposition vs. their situation and to what degree they each played a role in the displayed behaviour. However, we can predict the FAE of others
What does the Behavioural theory of rational choice claim?
bounded rationality => limited computational ability + short-term memory and selective perception Homo Sapiens= settle for satisficing methods instead of maximum utility or optimisation
What is a bias
They result from heuristics that cause incorrect judgments which we consequently become drawn to under certain circumstances
What is a heuristic?
“…a simple procedure (cognitive shortcut) that helps find adequate, though often imperfect, answers to difficult questions. The word comes from the same root as eureka.” (Kahneman, 2011)
Ultimate Attribution Bias was proposed by?
Pettigrew (1979)
What do attribution theories describe?
Describe how we attribute causes to our own or other’s behaviour
By whom was Fundamental Attribution Error proposed?
Ross (1977)
What did Jones and Harris (1967) find?
In Weiner’s Task Performance Attribution/ Attributional Theory (1979), what happens if someone deems something permanently within their control?
They show typical effort towards it
In Weiner’s Task Performance Attribution/ Attributional Theory (1979), what happens if someone deems something changing and outside their control?
They rely on luck
What does the Covariation model describe?
What are the two options when neither favourable nor unfavourable thoughts dominate the cognitive elaboration and information is processed through the peripheral route?
.
How would an interpersonal relationship go if there were mutually exclusive goals?
How would an interpersonal relationship go if there were shared goals?
How would an intergroup relationship go if there were shared goals?
How would an intergroup relationship go if there were mutually exclusive goals?
