PSY 102 Midterm 1

Question 1

What is Social Psychology?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Hindsight bias

Answer 2

people exaggerate how much they could have predicted an outcome after it already happened

Question 3

theories

Answer 3

system of statements that explain and predict observed events

Question 4

hypothesis

Answer 4

educated guess

Question 5

prediction

Answer 5

statement about the outcome of a particular event or experiment

Question 6

correlational research design

Answer 6

assess strength and direction of association between 2 or more variables

Question 7

problem with correlation

Answer 7

3rd variable problems: something else was causing the correlation

Question 8

What can correlations tell us?

Answer 8

• rule out other explanations if measured
• generalize findings outside of a laboratory
• complex longitudinal designs can provide evidence for cause and effect directions

Question 9

True experiment has…

Answer 9

• control group
• manipulation of independent variables
• random assignment

Question 10

operationalization

Answer 10

conceptual, measurable variable

Question 11

limits to experimentation

Answer 11

• construct validity
• external validity

Question 12

Behavioral variables

Answer 12

response to stimuli or events (choices, reaction time, etc. )

Question 12

Archival variable

Answer 12

data that is collected prior to the study (i.e. performance, criminal offenses in a given area, etc.)

Question 13

self report variables

Answer 13

self reported emotions, questionnaires

Question 14

Physiological variables

Answer 14

nervous system, brain activity

Question 15

Descriptive statistics

Answer 15

the pattern observed from the data you collected (demographics of a sample,

Question 16

inferential statistics

Answer 16

generalizability of pattern to more of the population (inferences about general population)

Question 17

social priming

Answer 17

example of autonomic cognition - how you can influence situational activation without our awareness

Question 18

False-positive psychology

Answer 18

making decisions to alter the outcome of your collected data
* remove outliers
* recruit more participants
* test for interaction effects

AKA HARKing !

Question 19

Publication bias

Answer 19

only significant effects are published

Question 20

Injunctive social norms vs Descriptive social norms

Answer 20

• Injunctive: norms of what you should do
• descriptive: what people are actually doing

Question 21

Preregistration

Answer 21

protects against confirmation bias by forcing people to publish their expected findings

Question 22

schema

Answer 22

mental structures that organize and interpret information

Question 23

self concept

Answer 23

overarching idea we have about who we are
* personality traits
* physical characteristics
* abilities

Question 24

self schema

Answer 24

more abstract and complex version of self concept

Question 25

activated self schema

Answer 25

context and situation activate different aspects of self

Question 26

situationism

Answer 26

human behavior is determined by surrounding circumstances
* people have a tendency to share things that are unique to a certain group

Question 27

individualism

Answer 27

emphasis on own internal thoughts and feelings

Western cultures

Question 28

collectivism

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Misattribution of Arousal Study

Answer 29

• 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?

Question 30

focus problem

Answer 30

tendency to focus on most salient (prominent) aspect of an event

Question 31

Immune neglect

Answer 31

tendency to neglect/ overlook coping strategies for negative events (people are more resilient than they think they are)

Question 32

adaptation

Answer 32

hedonic saturation (feeling extremely happy) but people return to their normal happiness levels after some time. this causes people to always want more

Question 33

Basking in Reflected Glory

Answer 33

people have a tendency to associate with others who are successful

Question 34

Cutting off Rejected Failure

Answer 34

people distance themselves from others who fail

Question 35

Self discrepancy theory

Answer 35

people have a strong tendency towards cognitive consistency

• people hate cognitive dissonance

Question 36

Reflected self appraisal

Answer 36

develop self concept by observing what others think of us

Question 37

Spotlight effect

Answer 37

tendency to overestimate how much others notice aspects of appearance or behavior about ourselves

Question 38

Illusion of transparency

Answer 38

tendency to overestimate the degree to which people can perceive our personal thoughts, emotions, and mental states

Question 39

upward social comparison

Answer 39

compare ourselves to who are better (to make us feel worse and motivate us to be better)

Question 40

downward social comparison

Answer 40

compare to people who are worse than you to make yourself feel better