social psychology exam 1 Flashcards
Social Psychology
scientific study of the causes
and consequences of
people’s thoughts, feelings,
and actions regarding
themselves and other
people.
How intuitive are our insights
As “intuitive” social psychologists,
our insights are often good, but
sometimes in need of correction.
personality
individual differences
A goal of social psychology
is to identify universal properties of human nature that make
everyone susceptible to social
influences
personality factors
social factors in determining our thoughts, feelings, and actions
1951 Princeton-Dartmouth football game study
We Construct Our Social Reality
Dual processing
-Conscious and deliberate
-Unconscious and automatic
-Our Social Intuitions Are Often
Powerful but Sometimes Perilous
Social Influences that Shape Our
Behavior
-Culture
– Education
– Media
– Peers
hindsight bias
the tendency to exaggerate, after the fact, the extent to which we accurately foresaw a particular outcome
– “I knew it all along.”
Confirmation bias
human tendency to view events and people in ways that fit how we want and expect them to be
-We tend to find evidence that
confirms our expectations
Location
-lab
-field
theory
integrated set of principle/idea that explain and predict observed events
hypothesis
testable proposition/prediction that derives logically from a theory
scientific method
- observe some phenomenon
- formulate hypothesis and predictions
- test through empirical research
- draw conclusions
- evaluate the theory
observe some phenomenon
-curiosity
-variables of interest
-theory
formulate hypotheses
-testable prediction
-derived from theory
test through empirical research
-operational definition of variables (turn abstract concept into something concrete)
-analyze data using statistical procedures
draw conclusions
replication of results- is the effect consistent
evaluate the theory
-peer review and publication
-meta-analysis (technique where results of several studied from different publications are combined statistically to determine overall effect)
-change the theory?
descriptive research
-goal: describe a phenomenon
-observation
-case studies (in depth look at single individual)
-can also include surveys and interviews
-does not answer questions about how and why things are
correlational research
-goal: identify relationships
-correlation coefficient: r
A measure of the linear relationship between two variables
-1.00 ≤ r ≤ 1.00
-strength of relationship: magnitude
-direction of relationship: + / -
-correlation does not equal causation (third variable problem)
positive correlations
-factors vary in same direction
↑ and ↑ … or … ↓ and ↓
negative correlations
-factors vary in opposite direction
↑ and ↓ … or … ↑ and ↓
1.00 (or -1.00)
Perfect relationship; the variables always change together
.76 to .99 (or -.76 to -.99)
Very strong relationship; the variables usually change together
.51 to .75 (or -.51 to -.75)
Strong relationship; the variables frequently change together
26 to .50 (or -.26 to -.50)
Moderate relationship; the variables change together somewhat
.01 to .25 (or -.01 to -.25)
Weak relationship; the variables change together infrequently
.00
No relationship; the variables do not change together
Third Variable Problem
-A third variable may be causing changes in both
-It’s difficult to know if a third variable is exerting influence because it is impractical to measure ALL the possible variables
Cross-sectional
Data collected at the same point in time
Longitudinal
Data is collected at multiple points over time
-allows change to be observed
-can sometimes provide a stronger grounds for inferring causation
experimental research
Goal: Determine causation
-Control extraneous variables, usually through random assignment to conditions
-independent variable (IV): variable that is manipulated
-dependent variable (DV): variable that is measured (after the manipulation)
experimental condition/group
independent variable is manipulated
control condition/group
independent variable is not manipulated (or they receive a neutral version of it)
internal validity
-are dependent variable changes the result of independent variable manipulation
-Can we conclude that the IV has causal influence on the DV?
-Do study design flaws (e.g., a confound: something other than the manipulated IV that systematically varies with it and could be responsible for changes in the DV) raise doubts about conclusions?
external validity
-Can we generalize the results to the real world?
-Is the sample of participants representative of the larger population?
-Does the study setting capture how the phenomena is experienced in the real world?
bias and expectations
-placebo
-placebo effect
-single-blind experiment
-double-blind experiment
-demand characteristics
placebo
an inert treatment (ex. sugar pill)
placebo effect
participants’ expectations, rather than the experimental treatment, produce a particular outcome
single-blind experiment
experimental design in which the participants don’t know what condition they’re in (reduces participant bias)
double-blind experiment
experimental design in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know which condition participants are in (reduces experimenter and participant bias)
demand characteristics
any aspects of a study that communicate to the participants how the experimenter wants them to behave
research sample
-Population: entire group about whom conclusion drawn
-Sample: portion of population actually observed
-Representative Sample: characteristics similar to population. opposite of “biased sample”
-Random Sample: each person in population has equal chance of being selected
research ethics
-research participants have rights
-Institutional Review Board (IRB): committee tasked with ensuring that all research at an institution is ethical and respects participants’ rights
informed consent
participants should know (generally) what their participation will involve and the risks
confidentiality
if not kept anonymous (so that it is impossible to link a participant’s identity to his/her responses), psychologist must at least keep his/her data confidential, preventing outsiders from learning individual participant’s responses
deception
psychologists may sometimes withhold certain study details or even mislead participants by means of a cover story if participant knowledge of the details would invalidate the research design; only allowed if it will not harm participants and they are fully debriefed at the end of the study
debriefing
participants should be fully informed about the study’s purpose and methods upon its completion
social cognition
-the study of how people interpret, analyze, remember, and use (social) information
-experiential system
-cognitive system
automatic thinking
-quick, nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless
-People often size up a new situation very quickly: they determine who is there, what is happening, and what might happen next.
-Often these quick conclusions are correct.
-While more error-prone than controlled processing, automatic processing’s efficiency means we rely on it frequently
controlled thinking
-slow, effortful, and deliberate, pausing to carefully think about issues before selecting the right course of action
schemas
-mental structures people use to organize and interpret information
-The term schema encompasses our knowledge about many things (Ourselves, Other people, Social roles (e.g., what a librarian or engineer is like), Events (e.g., what usually happens when people eat a meal in a restaurant; a schema about an event is called a script))
-schemas contain our basic knowledge and impressions that we use to organize what we know about the social world and interpret new situations.
stereotypes
-When applied to members of a social group such as a fraternity or gender or race, schemas are commonly referred to as stereotypes.
-Stereotypes can be applied rapidly and automatically when we encounter other people.
schemas as memory guides
-help people fill in the blanks when they are trying to remember things.
-We don’t remember exactly as if our minds were cameras.
-Instead, we remember some information that was there (particularly information to which our schemas led us to pay attention), and we remember other information that was never there but that we have unknowingly added.
accessibility
The extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of people’s minds and are therefore likely to be used when we are making judgments about the social world.
determines accessibility
-Some schemas are chronically accessible due to past experience.
–This means that these schemas are constantly active and ready to use to interpret ambiguous situations.
-Schemas can become temporarily accessible because of our recent experiences.
priming
-The process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema
-is a good example of automatic thinking because it occurs quickly, unintentionally, and unconsciously.
belief and perseverance
common tendency for schemas and beliefs to persist, even after the evidence for them has been completely discredited.
behavioral confirmation
A type of self-fulfilling prophecy where people
-Have an expectation about what another person is like, which
-influences how they act toward that person, which
-causes that person to behave consistently with people’s original expectations, making the expectations come true.
heuristics
-Mental shortcuts that enable quick, efficient judgments.
-Usually effective, but can lead to misjudgments in specific instances
availability heuristic
we judge the typical frequency of an event by the availability of memories of that type of event.
-The trouble with the availability heuristic is that sometimes what is easiest to remember is not typical of the overall picture, leading to faulty conclusions.
representativeness heuristics
A mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how much they think it resembles (represents) a typical case.
anchoring and adjustment heuristics
A mental shortcut whereby people use a number or value as a starting point and then adjust insufficiently from this anchor.
loss aversion
psychologically, losses hurt us more than equivalent gains help us
status quo bias
individuals have a strong tendency to remain at the status quo (the way things are), because the disadvantages of leaving it loom larger than advantages
endowment effect
we consider something more valuable when we possess it, than if we don’t yet possess it (a subcategory of the status quo bias).
controlled thinking
-Thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful.
-has been less popular as a focus for research in social cognition than automatic thinking
counterfactual thinking
Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn’t.
internal (dispositional) attribution
it was something about the person
external (situational) attribution
it was something about the person’s situation
Self-serving attributions (part of the self-serving bias)
Explanations for one’s successes that credit internal, dispositional factors, and explanations for one’s failures that blame external, situational factors.
Fundamental Attribution Error
(aka Correspondence Inference)
the tendency to believe that other people’s behavior matches (corresponds to) their dispositions; i.e., attributing causality to the person, overlooking his/her situation
tow steps for attributions
-First, we make an internal attribution; assuming a person’s behavior was due to something about them
-Then (sometimes) we attempt to adjust attribution by considering the person’s situation. But we often don’t make enough of an adjustment in this 2nd step.
self
Different answers:
-The total person
- The personality
- The experiencing (conscious) subject
- The “executive agent”
- The beliefs about oneself (identity)
- Memory about oneself (Kihlstrom et al.,
2003)
self-concept
a person’s answers
(taken together) to the question
“Who am I?”
self-schema
specific beliefs about
self that make up our self-concept
Looking-glass self
erm coined by Charles
Cooley to describe how we learn to see
ourselves by internalizing how others see us
(or how we imagine they see us)
Self-reference effect
We are very
sensitive to self-relevant information.
- We attend to it more, remember it
more easily, etc. compared to self-
irrelevant info
Social comparison
Understanding our
selves by comparing ourselves to others
(upward and downward comparisons)
If the self is a knowledge structure, where
does the knowledge come from?
Self-serving bias
Most people are biased
to perceive themselves more favorably
than unfavorably.
False consensus effect
tendency to overestimate the commonality
of one’s own opinions and less desirable
or less successful behaviors
False uniqueness effect
tendency to underestimate commonality
of one’s own abilities or desirable
behaviors
Self-regulation (aka self-control)
effortful control of one’s behavior &
mind to pursue a goal or objective
Affective forecasting
-Predicting how we
will feel in the future will feel in the future
-Helps us make decisions, set goals, etc. Helps us make decisions, set goals, etc.
-We’re generally pretty good at predicting whether events will be pleasant/unpleasant
- But we tend to overestimate the intensity
and duration of our emotional reactions;
sometimes called the impact bias
After learning that research has found empirical support the notion that “birds of a feather flock together,” Kevin reacts by thinking, “Duh. I knew that all along.” This tendency is referred to as
Hindsight Bias
The tendency to overestimate how common it is for others to share one’s opinions or undesirable behaviors is called
false consensus effect
self-esteem (SE)
-the overall evaluation you have of yourself
-Trait SE: a person’s general SE across time
-State SE: rated at a given moment; changes according to experiences and events
draw self esteem from
-Appearance
-Others’ approval
-Doing better than others
-Academic competency
-Love and support from family
-Virtue
-God’s love
Self-handicapping
protecting one’s self-image by behaving in ways that create a handy excuse for later failure
collectivist cultures
-prioritize the collective (group)
-Collectivistic traits: Agreeable, Compromising, Cooperative, Good listener, Loyal, Patient, Respectful, Self-sacrificing
individualistic cultures
-prioritize the individual
-Individualistic traits: Free, Independent, Leader, Original, Self-reliant, Separate, Unconstrained, Unique
