PSY 102 Midterm 1 Flashcards
What is Social Psychology?
the scientific attempt to explain how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings
Hindsight bias
people exaggerate how much they could have predicted an outcome after it already happened
theories
system of statements that explain and predict observed events
hypothesis
educated guess
prediction
statement about the outcome of a particular event or experiment
correlational research design
assess strength and direction of association between 2 or more variables
problem with correlation
3rd variable problems: something else was causing the correlation
What can correlations tell us?
- rule out other explanations if measured
- generalize findings outside of a laboratory
- complex longitudinal designs can provide evidence for cause and effect directions
True experiment has…
- control group
- manipulation of independent variables
- random assignment
operationalization
conceptual, measurable variable
limits to experimentation
- construct validity
- external validity
Behavioral variables
response to stimuli or events (choices, reaction time, etc. )
Archival variable
data that is collected prior to the study (i.e. performance, criminal offenses in a given area, etc.)
self report variables
self reported emotions, questionnaires
Physiological variables
nervous system, brain activity
Descriptive statistics
the pattern observed from the data you collected (demographics of a sample,
inferential statistics
generalizability of pattern to more of the population (inferences about general population)
social priming
example of autonomic cognition - how you can influence situational activation without our awareness
False-positive psychology
making decisions to alter the outcome of your collected data
* remove outliers
* recruit more participants
* test for interaction effects
AKA HARKing !
Publication bias
only significant effects are published
Injunctive social norms vs Descriptive social norms
- Injunctive: norms of what you should do
- descriptive: what people are actually doing
Preregistration
protects against confirmation bias by forcing people to publish their expected findings
schema
mental structures that organize and interpret information
self concept
overarching idea we have about who we are
* personality traits
* physical characteristics
* abilities
self schema
more abstract and complex version of self concept
activated self schema
context and situation activate different aspects of self
situationism
human behavior is determined by surrounding circumstances
* people have a tendency to share things that are unique to a certain group
individualism
emphasis on own internal thoughts and feelings
Western cultures
collectivism
emphasis on one’s relationships with other people; recognition that thoughts, feelings, and actions are often dependent on other people
Asia, Africa, Central and South America
Misattribution of Arousal Study
- male participants reach out 50% of the time after crossing scary bridge
- only 13% of the time after crossing safe bridge
Was the arousal from crossing scary bridge or attractive experimenter?
focus problem
tendency to focus on most salient (prominent) aspect of an event
Immune neglect
tendency to neglect/ overlook coping strategies for negative events (people are more resilient than they think they are)
adaptation
hedonic saturation (feeling extremely happy) but people return to their normal happiness levels after some time. this causes people to always want more
Basking in Reflected Glory
people have a tendency to associate with others who are successful
Cutting off Rejected Failure
people distance themselves from others who fail
Self discrepancy theory
people have a strong tendency towards cognitive consistency
- people hate cognitive dissonance
Reflected self appraisal
develop self concept by observing what others think of us
Spotlight effect
tendency to overestimate how much others notice aspects of appearance or behavior about ourselves
Illusion of transparency
tendency to overestimate the degree to which people can perceive our personal thoughts, emotions, and mental states
upward social comparison
compare ourselves to who are better (to make us feel worse and motivate us to be better)
downward social comparison
compare to people who are worse than you to make yourself feel better
