Soc Psych Exam 1 Flashcards
Social Psychology
A science that studies the influences of our own situations and how we view and affect one another.
The study of how people think about, influence and relate to others.
Social Psych vs. Sociology
Soc Psych: Focuses on how individuals view and affect one another. Uses more experimentation.
Sociology: The study of people in groups and societies.
Hindsight Bias
The “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon. The tendency to exaggerate our ability to have foreseen the outcome of an event, ONLY after the outcome is known.
Theory
An integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events/ideas that summarize and explain facts.
A general, abstract statement about the social world. Very broad and general- too abstract to be tested.
Hypothesis
A testable statement that describes a relationship that may exist between two events.
More specific indication of a theory.
Variable
Any property of a phenomenon that can differ in quality or quantity.
Independent Variable
The experimental factor that a researcher manipulates.
Dependent Variable
The variable being measured, that may depend on manipulation of the independent variable.
Correlation
Indicates a relationship that is not necessarily due to cause and effect (does not imply causality). Allows us to predict if one variable will change another.
Experiment
Manipulating a factor to see its affect on another. Seeks clues to cause-effect relationships.
Experimental Control
Holding all variables constant except for the one being studied. (“Control” not equal to “control group”).
Scientific Method
A systematic series of steps used to produce a truth.
Steps of the Scientific Method
1) Hypothesis
2) Design Study
3) Observation
4) Data Analysis
5) Draw Conclusion
6) Communicate Results/Peer Review
Random Sample
Survey Procedure in which every person in the population has an equal chance of inclusion.
Helps generalize the population and infer cause & effect.
Deception
In research, any effect by which participants are misled or misinformed about the study methods or purposes used to achieve experimental realism (i.e. “‘someone’ is in the next room”).
Misinformation effect- incorporating inaccurate info one’s memory
Confound
Occurs when a third variable accidentally gets mixed up in the manipulation. Affects the variables being studied, so the results might not accurately represent their relationship.
Examples: time slots affect availability, windows in one study room and not the other.
Social Representation
A society’s widely held ideas and values that help us to make sense of the world.
Human Values
Personal Convictions about what is desirable and how people ought to behave.
Importance of Theory (Lewin)
Said people needed “theory”- a reason for their research. Helped develop laws of human behavior.
“Law applies to 70% of the people 70% of the time.”
Attitude Questionnaire
Used by Thurstone for research.
Sumner (1906)
“Folkways”- norms. No codes, unwritten.
Norms that survive are the best fit forms of behavior.
(i.e. Ethnocentrism- The belief that 1 cultures norms are superior to those of other cultures.–basis for prejudice– are actually just different “folkways)”.
Cooley (1916)
Looking Glass Self- we get our identities from others. (What they say to/ how they look at us.)
Others are a mirror for perceiving ourselves.
McDougall (1918)
- Creator of Social Psych (wrote first book). Used experimental psychology to study learning, motivation, basic psychological processes, etc.
- Said “all behavior is instinctual/universal.” (cc: Ekman study of universal emotion portrayal.)
- Said the primary emotion is pride (self esteem).
- Found most people have very high S.E.
- Social desirability
- Self inflation
Bogardus (1924)
Sociologist.
- Social Distance Scale (SDS)- first questionnaire to measure a social attitude (prejudice).
- Level of prejudice depends on group being studied.
Thurstone (1930)
Used “attitude questionnaire” to asses attitudes. Led to big boom in social psych (big increase in PhD programs).
1) In the first social psychology lead ever written, McDougal argued that human social reactions were mostly a product of?
Instinctual behaviors.
2) In studying racial attitudes, a social psychologist would be most interested in understanding
How individuals racial attitudes effect their behavior.
3) How do personal values enter the picture in social psychology?
- Values influence researchers choice of topics
- Values attract the types of people attracted to various disciplines
- Values are frequently the object of social psychological analysis
- Answer: (All of the above)
4) A researcher wishes to study the Impact of speed of speech on persuasion. To do so, she varies the speed with which an accomplice delivers a prepared speech, so that it is slow, moderate or fast. Inadvertently, the accomplice also adds more expression to his voice when delivering the fast speech that when delivering the slow one. This is an example of:
The confounding of 2 variables.
5) The Dearborn school system wants to survey the 120,000 area residents. These prospects for sampling the residents are being considered. Based of sampling theory which would you recommend?
Interviewing people in every 50th residence (household) house of every postal address in the city.
6) Research on the wording of survey questions suggests that?
How questions are framed influence how they are answered.
7) Social psychologists finds that people who have taken many psychology courses have better mental health than those who have studied little psychology. What explanation would seems to best fit this finding?
Taking psychology courses improves ones mental health.
8) to ensure equivalence of groups in a study, researchers generally try to employ?
Random Assignment.
9) The use of deception in social psychological research ensures researchers have _______ in their study.
Behavioral Reality.
10) We are especially likely to analyze and discuss why things happen as they do when the event in question is?
Negative or Unexpected.
11) According to the Kelley cube, an internal attribution is most likely to be made when an actor’s behavior has?
High consistency, low consensus, low distinctiveness