Social Bases Flashcards
social psychology
the scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people (i.e. the study of social influence)
behaviorism (where did social psychology come from)
studied observable stimuli’s effect on behavior, chooses not to deal with cognition/thinking/feeling, inadequate for understanding social world
gestalt psychology
stressed the importance of studying the subjective way in which an object appears in people’s minds (the gestalt or whole) rather than the objective, physical attributes of the object, emphasis on construal or the way people interpret social situation
-Kurt Lewin - applied Gestalt principles to social perception, stressed the importance of taking perspective of the people in any social situation to see how they construe social environment
naive realism
the conviction that we see things accurately and as “true”
observational method
research observes people, used to describe behavior, provides realistic information
two types of observational method research
ethnography: description from an “insiders point of view”
archival analysis: researcher examines accumulated documents (archives)
benefits and limitations of observational research
Benefits: no expectation of privacy (public); realistic (real world).
Limitations: some behaviors difficult to observe (rarely or in private); reactance (i.e., people behave differently when being observed); archival analysis and missing information; doesn’t show causation.
correlational method of research
two or more variables are systemically measured and the relation between them is assessed; only one group—measure two things at the same time (how much can one variable be predicted by the other?).
correlation coefficient
(r): a statistical technique that assesses how well you can predict one variable from the other.
two things to consider with correlational coefficient
Strength: magnitude
Direction: increase/decrease
way to do correlational research
Surveys: representative sample of people asked about attitudes or behavior; correlations computed using responses to questions; best when random
selection is used.
benefits and limitations of correlational research
Benefits: realistic (access to real world data); can be cheap/easy; can investigate things could otherwise not.
Limitations: typically self-report; need to be careful about representativeness of sample; cannot demonstrate causation.
explain correlation is not causation
Directionality problem: which causes which?
Third variable problem: is there another factor causing?
the experimental method of research
a research design with 3 key features: 1) manipulation of IV;
2) measurement of DV; and 3) random assignment of participants to groups.
-The only way to demonstrate that one variable causes another variable!
-Balancing internal vs. external validity
benefits and limitations of the experimental method
Benefits: demonstrates causation, can control variables.
Limitations: expensive and time consuming; may not resemble real world (lacks external validity).
quasi experimental method
uses existing groups (e.g., culture, nationality); lacks at least one of the 3 key features of experiments (usually manipulation of IV or random assignment); still have measurement of DV.
benefits and limitations of quasi experimental
Benefits: realistic; can be cheap & easy; can investigate things you otherwise could not.
Limitations: cannot demonstrate causation.
internal validity
Extent to which we can say the conclusions we draw are accurate / trustworthy and not influence by other factors
typically high in experiments, can control variables, random assignment.
external validity
The extent to which experiments can be generalized to other contexts
often low in experiments; people & situations.
psychological realism
Deal with dilemma of internal vs. external validity by using psychological realism: the extent to which the psychological processes triggered in an experiment are similar to psychological processes that occur in everyday life.
cover story
description of the purpose of the study, given to participants, that is different from its true purpose & is used to maintain psychological realism.
field experiments
calculated in natural settings rather than a lab.
replications
repeating the study, often with different subject populations or in different settings/methods/contexts.
replication controversy
many experiments are not replicated, no incentives to do so. When they do replicate, many findings do not fit.
meta analysis
average results 2+ studies to see if the effect of the IV is reliable (data points are the study findings), calculating effect size.
ethical dilemma in research
Ethical dilemma of creating real world experiments vs. avoiding causing participants harm.
how to protect participants
informed consent, allow participants to discontinue.
how to create realistic situations in research
-Good design
-Deception: must be necessary, something that people wouldn’t care about, and must debrief.
social cognition
how people think about themselves and the social world (i.e., how they select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgment and decisions).
automatic thinking
quick, no conscious deliberation of thoughts, perceptions, or assumptions.
-Not precise (which can lead to poor decisions)
-Has unlimited capacity (good for holding lots of data)
-Decision quality does not deteriorate with increasing complexity.
controlled thinking
effortful and deliberate; based on rules and precise.
-Thinking about the self and environment, and carefully selecting the right course of action.
o Best for simple choices with few factors to consider.
-Not good for complex choices (too much to think about).
types of automatic thinking
schemas
automatic goal pursuit
automatic decision making
schemas
What are they used for
When do we use them
mental structures that organize our knowledge of the social world; influences what people notice, think about, and remember; based on information learned in the past; we have schemas (or scripts, stereotypes) about everything.
-Used to: organize information; interpret new situations quickly (especially ambiguous ones); fill in the blanks of memory (remember schema-relevant information and misremember information consistently with schema).
-We will use schemas when they are accessible: chronically accessible; related to current goal; and temporarily accessible (priming).
automatic goal pursuit
prime goals in a subtle way to see if it influences behavior (e.g., talking about religion and fairness before asking if want to donate money).
automatic decision making
sometimes decide without thinking; distraction improves decision-making when we want to make a good choice or when the decision requires integration of complex information.
self fulfilling prophecy
an expectation about what another person is like that influences how you act toward that person that causes the person to behave in that way and makes your expectation come true.
bias blindspot
people often think that other people have more biases than they do.
heuristics
mental shortcuts that help us make judgements quickly and efficiently; we use them because it is exhausting to search all the options and they usually lead to good decisions quickly (adaptive); occasionally lead us to the wrong decision.
availability heuristic
basing a judgment on the ease with which something can be brought to mind; things that come to mind are typically more common or important; but sometimes what is easiest to remember is not typical of the overall situation, leading to faulty conclusions.
representativeness heuristic
judgment based on how similar something is to a typical case; problem is that people ignore base rate information (i.e., how often something
occurs).
analytical thinking style
focus on objects without considering surrounding context; associated with Western cultures.
holistic thinking style
focus on the overall context and relationships between objects; associated with Eastern cultures.
counterfactual reasoning
mentally changing some aspect of the past by imagining what almost happened (e.g., to feel good—I almost failed that test; to feel bad—I almost passed that test).
The easier it is to mentally undo an outcome, the stronger the emotional reaction.
social perception
the study of how we form impressions and make inferences about other people.
nonverbal communication
how people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words. Nonverbal channels include: facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body position, movement, use of touch, and gaze.
encode
express or emit nonverbal behavior.
decode
interpret the meaning of nonverbal behavior.
Ekman research
identified 6 basic emotions (happiness, sadness, disgust, anger, envy, surprise); found that emotion encoding and decoding is not culture for the most part.
affect blends
facial expressions in which one part of the face registers one emotion while another part of the face registers a different emotion.
display rules (culture specific)
unwritten expectations about expressions (e.g., display of emotion, eye contact/gaze, personal space/touch).
emblems (cultural specific)
nonverbal definitions within a given culture (e.g., hand gestures or symbols).
timing of facial expressions
We form first impressions based on facial appearance in less than one tenth of second.
thin slicing
limited exposure can lead to meaningful first impressions of abilities and personalities.
deception and facial expressions
doesn’t work for deception: no single behavior can tell you if someone is lying.
mismatch hypothesis
mismatch between cues that actually signal deception, and cues that people use to detect deception. Relevant channels of
communication include: words, body language, face, and voice. Voice is the most revealing.
primacy effect
an individual’s tendency to remember the first piece of information they encounter better than the information they receive later on.
belief perseverance
stick with original belief even in the fact of new
information/contradictory evidence (can create many problems, e.g., juries, fabricated data, political misinformation).
internal dispositional attribution
infer a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about that person (e.g., attitude, character, personality).
external situational attribution
infer a person is behaving a certain way because of
something about the situation; assume that most people would respond the same way in this situation.
self serving attributions
explanations for successes that credit internal, dispositional factors, and explanations for failures that blame external, situation factors (we are motivated to feel good about ourselves).
why do we make self serving attributions
-We want to maintain self-esteem.
-We want other people to think well of us and admire us.
-We know more about the situational factors that affect our own behavior than we do about other people’s.
fundamental attribution error
tend to make internal attributions for other people’s behavior and underestimate the role of situational factors.
-We tend to focus attention on the person, not the surrounding situation, and use the focus of attention as a starting point.
-Perceptual salience: the seeming importance of information that is the focus of people’s attention.
belief in a just world
people get what they deserve and deserve what they get; a type of defensive attribution (due to the uncertainty of the world); makes people feel better, but they blame the victim.
bias blind spot
people realize that biases in attribution can occur, but believe other people are more susceptible to attributional biases compared to self.
the two step attribution process
applicable in cultures where internal attributions are the default (i.e., Western).
- Step 1: make an internal attribution (occurs quickly and spontaneously).
- Step 2: adjust for the situation (often, we fail to adjust enough).
cultural differences in attribution
-Holistic: Eastern cultures, focus on the object or person AND the surrounding context, and the relationships between them.
-Analytic: Western cultures, focus on properties of an object or people, and pay less attention to context or situation.
self concept
the overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributes.
development of the self
-Humans begin to identify self at 18-24 months.
-Child’s self-concept: concerted, references to characteristics (e.g., age, sex, neighborhood, hobbies).
-Maturing self-concept: less emphasis on physical characteristics and more emphasis on psychological states and how other people judge us (more complex).
cultural influences on self concept
Western: self is independent, defined through own internal thoughts/feelings/actions, independence and uniqueness valued.
Eastern: self is interdependent, defined through relationships with other people, recognition of impact on others, connectedness and interdependence valued, uniqueness frowned upon.
self awareness theory
when people focus their attention on themselves, they compare their behavior to their internal standards and values (we do not like being reminded of our
shortcomings).
introspection
the process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives.
deindividuation
not thinking about who you are (e.g., taking on the identity of a group).
private self consciousness
our concern regarding how we view ourselves; more aware of internal states; higher attitude-behavior consistency; less influenced by others’ opinions.
public self consciousness
relationship between public and private self consciousness
our concern regarding how other people view us; sensitive to others’ evaluations and rejection; more influenced by others social situations; sensitive to whether others share their opinions.
-These two are independently related (i.e., can be high in both, low in both, or be higher in one than the other).
-Tend to be positively related.
-Can be dispositional (personality) or situational.
self perception theory
when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we determine how we feel by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs, like making attributions about others’ behavior.
intrinsic motivation
engage in an activity because of enjoyment and interest, not external rewards or pressures; will do the activity without the reward.
extrinsic motivation
engage in an activity because of external reasons, not because of enjoyment and interest; won’t do activity if no reward.
-Offering rewards may decrease desired behavior once rewards are removed (making play into work).
the overjustification effect
when people view their behavior as caused by compelling extrinsic reasons, they underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic reasons; likely to happen when someone is naturally interested in a task.
-Rewards will undermine interest only if interest was initially high.
explain how the type of reward makes a difference in the overjustification effect
Task-contingent rewards: can undermine intrinsic motivation (i.e., you get just from doing the task).
Performance-contingent rewards: less damaging to intrinsic interest (i.e., based on a measure other than completion).
fixed mindset
we have a set amount of an ability that we cannot change.
growth mindset
our abilities are malleable qualities that we can cultivate and grow.
-Mindset affects motivation: fixed mindset more likely to give up and do poorly on subsequent tasks after failure.
social comparison theory
we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people.
when do we engage in social comparison theory
When: there is no existing objective standard to measure against; when we experience uncertainty.
with whom do we engage in social comparison theory
With whom: initial impulse is anyone around; eventually depends on our goal:
-Improve: upwards social comparison
-Self-esteem: downward social comparison
-Accuracy: comparison to similar other
social tuning
the process whereby people adopt another person’s attitudes.
two factor theory of emotion and the two steps
experience of an emotion is similar to other types of self-perception; we infer our emotions by observing our situation.
steps:
1) experience physiological arousal; and 2) find an appropriate explanation for it.
