Technology and the social world

Question 1

What are practical technologies?

Answer 1

Used to act on the material world directly eg. shovels for digging

Question 2

What are cognitive technologies?

Answer 2

Used to act on the mind, self, or other - they change what is recalled, thought, or experienced eg. notebooks aid remembering, films guide experiences of the audience

Question 3

In what ways did Tomasello (1999) argue that language is a form of cognition?

Answer 3

Language enables us to manipulate the attentions of others and their actions.
But it can also influence our own thoughts and actions through inner dialogue.
- Self-talk enables us to plan complex sequences of behaviour, remain focussed on the task and overcome problems

Question 4

What are reasons that writing likely developed?

Answer 4

• As a means to extend our capacity for memory and facilitate communication
• Early written records mark time, record quantities, mark events and prompt narratives
• Also enabled one person to talk to many - writing is essential to coordinating large groups of people
• Mass printing enabled people to have a direct relationship with religion

Question 5

What are possible selves according to Markus and Nurius (1986)?

Answer 5

• People have an idea of what they would like to be, but also what they are afraid of becoming
  eg. ideal selves provides goals and hope, equally, negative future selves can create fears and threats

Question 6

How can cultural technologies be conceptualised and how does this relate to story telling?

Answer 6

Intervening in our parallel and possible selves, enabling us to both vicariously live out an unactualised aspect of the self and to cultivate a new aspect of the self which might become actualised in the future
- Story telling is a key technology that underscores novels, films, video games etc - these allow us to explore alternative worlds and versions of the self.

Question 7

What are fairytales?

Answer 7

• evolve through many generations passing through cultural and psychological constraints
• Usually involve an inversion of power structures of society eg. paupers triumphing over kings and giants
• Provide a welcome affirmation of the way the world should be in contrast to the way the world is
• In fairytales, the harsh injustices of the world of reality are rectified.

Question 8

What are avatars?

Answer 8

• The virtual self
• A graphical representation of a user within the environment which is under their direct control - can be 2D icons (chat room) or 3D (eg. video games)
• A site of experimentation and imagination, as individuals interact with technology and each other to create new expressions and experiences for what it means to be a person

Question 9

What are Massively Multiplayer Ongoing Role Playing Games?

Answer 9

Emphasise fantasy role play in virtual worlds where users collaborate to achieve goals and overcome obstacles (eg. World of Warcraft)

Question 10

What are self-determined virtual worlds?

Answer 10

• Virtual environments built by users
• No preorganised purpose or structure for engagement but enable imagination around architecture, landscaping and role play (eg. minecraft)

Question 11

What do avatars allow for users?

Answer 11

Enables users access to experiences with others and realisations of their identity that are not necessarily possible otherwise
- can be used to construct a template for real life, to explore and try out aspects of personality and physical characteristics
- safe space for exploration due to anonymity

Question 12

What is Bem’s (1972) self-perception theory?

Answer 12

People infer their own attitudes and beliefs from observing own behaviour

Question 13

What is the Proteus effect (Yee & Bailenson, 2007)?

Answer 13

Users infer from their avatar’s appearance expectations around attitudes and behaviour, and then conform to these expectations

Question 14

Describe Yee & Bailenson’s 2007 study into the proteus effect?

Answer 14

2 studies examining how individual behaviour conforms to digital self-representation
- attractiveness
- height
50 undergrad students in height study.
Ppts paired with confederate (opposite sex) and informed the study investigated interactions in virtual environments.
Interactions in a room with same dimensions as virtual room
Ppts randomly given avatar 10cm taller or shorter or same height as confederate
Virtual mirror behind ppt showed virtual height
Ppts played ultimatum game in 4 rounds - agree to split $100 between them

Question 15

What was the procedure of Yee & Bailenson, 2007?

Answer 15

• Confederate instructed to always accept split as long as it didn’t exceed $90 in favour of ppt.
  R1: P offers a split
  R2: C offers 50/50
  R3: P offers a split
  R4: C offers 75/25 split in their favour
  Measures: how much did P offer in 1 and 3, did they negotiate unfair split in 4?

Question 16

What were the results of Yee & Bailenson 2007?

Answer 16

• 1st split unaffected by condition
• 2nd split, ppts in tall condition split money significantly more in own favour than ppts in short condition
• Ppts in short condition 2x as likely to accept unfair offer (72%) as ppts in tall condition (38%)
  Height of avatars impacted how confident ppts behaved.

Question 17

What did Yee and Bailenson study in 2009?

Answer 17

Follow up to 2007 study - same phenomenon using characters from World of Warcraft
- Both height and attractiveness of avatar were significant predictors of behaviour
- Behavioural changes from virtual environment transferred to subsequent f2f interactions
- This shows that exploring alternative virtual selves can also change our own real and lived self-concept

Question 18

What did Birchmeier et al., 2011 argue?

Answer 18

That existing social psychological theories already account for many of the psychological phenomena that take place via digital technology
Online interactions have some unique properties compared with physical interactions
- Anonymity/choice/no geographical constraints/no time constraints
But the social processes observed are the same
- Impression formation, relationship development, group dynamics, ostracism

Question 19

What does social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner) explain intergroup relations as?

Answer 19

A function of group-based self-definitions

Question 20

According to social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner), how do individuals define their own identities?

Answer 20

Regarding social groups, and such identifications work to protect and bolster self-identity
- Social identity is the aspects of a person’s self-concept or image that derive from the social categories that they belong to

Question 21

What are the 3 main assumptions/principles of social identity theory?

Answer 21

1. Interpersonal-intergroup continuum
2. Positive self-esteem and intergroup differentiation
3. Group strategies to avoid negatively evaluated social identities

Question 22

What is the interpersonal-intergroup continuum?

Answer 22

Personal identity
- Characteristics that define us as individuals as distinct from other individuals (eg. personality)
Social identity
- The part of our self-concept corresponding to group memberships, and the value and emotional significance attached to those memberships.
Personal and social identity are 2 extremes by which behaviour can be defined
- In group situations, we shift from a personal to social identity

Question 23

What is positive self-esteem and intergroup differentiation according to Social identity theory?

Answer 23

A central principle of SIT - people seek to maintain positive social identities.
To maintain or enhance their self-esteem, members of social groups will base their comparisons with relevant outgroups with which they can make a favourable comparison on behalf of the ingroup
- social categorisation, social identification, social comparison

Question 24

What are strategies to avoid negative social identities according to social identity theory?

Answer 24

There is a possibility that groups to which one belongs may not satisfy the motivational principle of maintaining a positive self-esteem and intergroup differentiation.
Members of the group avoid negatively evaluated social identity by:
- Individual mobility (eg. leaving group)
- Social creativity (eg. changing comparison)
- Social conflict (eg. engaging in collective action)

Question 25

What is the background of the Contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954)?

Answer 25

US supreme court ending segregation of black and white students - would contact between the 2 groups end ethnic prejudice and discrimination?
- Allport thought that the situation was more complicated than being resolved buy contact alone - casual contact would create anxiety leading to reinforcement of stereotypes

Question 26

What are the 4 conditions of the contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954)?

Answer 26

1. Equal status - contact must first take place between members of equal status
2. Cooperation - Rival groups must work towards a superordinate goal to reduce stereotypes
3. Intimate contact - contact must not be superficial, must allow members to really learn the other side.
4. Institutional support and willingness to participate - support from authorities builds positive social norms and ppts must want to interact rather than being compelled

Question 27

What did Amichai-Hamburger (2008) suggest in relation to the contact hypothesis?

Answer 27

Internet can support Allport’s conditions
1. equal status - no cues to gauge status readily available online
2. Cooperation - virtual workgroups shown to be very productive
3. Institutional support and willingness to participate - online interactions easier to set up for institutions and easier for people to volunteer to participate
4. Intimacy - argues that many interactions can involve greater sharing of interests quickly

Question 28

What are ad hominem attacks?

Answer 28

When people attack character of a person instead of arguments they make
- online forums quickly descend into ad hominem attacks where people try to understand identity boundaries to boost their own legitimacy and undermine authenticity of outgroups
- highlights that social psychological dynamics still dominate the way we use tech online

Question 29

What is social capital?

Answer 29

Resources embedded in ties to others which can be leveraged for individual benefit or collective good
Gaming social capital -> real world social capital
- Online friends more likely to make f2f connections

Question 30

What is the Turing test?

Answer 30

A measure of AI based on human social intelligence

Question 31

What is the cyranic illusion?

Answer 31

Separating the body from the voice that speaks

Question 32

What are echoborgs?

Answer 32

Humans shadowing speech of chatbots

Question 33

What happened in Corti & Gillespie’s 2015 research into echoborgs?

Answer 33

Study 1 - ppts engage with chatbot via either an echoborg or human to conduct Turing test - Human shadowing increased life-like perceptions of chatbot but not chances of passing Turing test
Study 2 - As above but had to determine if there really was a chatbot or just pretending to be one - ppts engaging with echoborg more likely to perceive interlocutor as a chatbot
Study 3 - Ppts blind to presence of chatbot - majority did not sense robotic interaction

Question 34

What is uncanny valley?

Answer 34

A term used to describe the sense of unease or revulsion towards robots that have a human-like appearance and behaviour.

Question 35

What are some reasons why we reject robotic entities that are trying to be human?

Answer 35

• concerns around authenticity, transparency, privacy, motivations
• concerns about future control of decision-making
• Concerns about extent to which AI makes us question our own identity of being human and intelligent

Question 36

What event caused US politicians to blame video games for violence in children?

Answer 36

Columbine school shooting 1999

Question 37

What did Anderson and Dill (2000) find in relation to the link between video games and violence?

Answer 37

Study 1 – (78 male; 148 female UGs) found that real-life violent video game play was associated with aggressive behaviour and delinquency. Stronger for men than women.
Study 2 – (106 male; 104 female UGs) laboratory exposure to a graphically violent video game increased aggressive thoughts and behaviour. Again, effects stronger for men.
Thus, video games result in short term (laboratory aggression) and long term (delinquency) behaviours.

Question 38

What happened in Beck et al (2012) study into violence against women in video games and attitudes towards women?

Answer 38

• 110 participants, completed a rape myth acceptance survey, video game survey, and observation of Grand Theft Auto game.
• Degree of exposure to violent games did not increase negative attitudes towards women.
• However, there was an association between how violent games were and a significant increase in rape myth acceptance for male participants, but not female participants.
• Theorised that objectification of women leads to lower empathy/sympathy specifically for men.

Question 39

What did Dontre (2021) study in relation to technology in education?

Answer 39

The detrimental effects of academic distraction via laptops, smartphones and social media use.
- Laptops can be beneficial for note-taking (resulting in greater depth through verbatim transcription) but can also prevent deeper thought that paraphrases work. Laptops can also disturb neighbouring students.
- Smartphones are associated with lower grades and increased anxiety and disruptive behaviours (e.g., texting in class) but offer benefits in terms of self-directed learning