Unit 0 Flashcards

The science of the social side of life

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1
Q

What is the object of studies?

A

human beings

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2
Q

Do we agree with Gordons Statement that “The scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others.”

A

No

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3
Q

According to Allport, Behaviour is influenced by..

A
  1. motives
  2. goals
  3. perspective
  4. cultural background
    -> actor and observer
    +feelings, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, intentions, goals
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4
Q

What is Social Psychology?

A

The science that tries to understand the causes of social behaviour by focusing on the behaviour of individuals.

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5
Q

What is the definition of social psychology of the book?

A

the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behavior, feelings, and thoughts in social situations

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6
Q

what does social psychology investigate?

A

the ways in which our thoughts, feelings, and actions are influenced by the social environments in which we find ourselves—by other people or our thoughts about them.

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7
Q

The “Father” of Social Psychology

A

Gordon W. Allport

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8
Q

What other disciplines is social psychology related to?

A

Cognitive Psychology, Economics, Individual Psychology, Soziolinguistics/ Language/ Communication, Sociology, Social Anthropology

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9
Q

What are the 5 core characteristics of science?

A
  1. Accuracy
  2. Replicability
  3. Objectivity
  4. Skepticism
  5. Open-mindedness
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10
Q

What is accuracy? (5 core characteristics of science)

A

A commitment to gathering and evaluating information about the world in an as careful, precise, and error-free manner as possible
(NOT the same as watching people)
-> should be replicable

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11
Q

What is Replicability? (5 core characteristics of science)

A

The same “findings” will be obtained when someone else performs the experiment/observation

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12
Q

What is Objectivity (5 core characteristics of science)?

A

A commitment to obtain and evaluate information in a manner that is as free form bias as possible

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13
Q

What is Skepticism (5 core characteristics of science)?

A

A commitment to accepting findings as accurate only to the extent they have been verified over and over again. (again: important that it is replicable)

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14
Q

What is Open-mindedness (5 core characteristics of science)?

A

A commitment to change one’s views when evidence suggests that these views are inaccurate
-> revisions in assumptions about human nature

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15
Q

What are examples of changes in assumptions about human nature?

A
  • role of groups in our well-being (how the groups and being separated by them influences us)
  • non-conscious processes (not everything we do is a conscious choice)
  • the framing of issues can affect attitudes and preferences
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16
Q

What does Bias mean?

A

Beliefs not founded in known facts (ex. confirmation bias and hindsight bias (- I knew it all along -)

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17
Q

What are examples for unconscious bias?

A

Tribalism, Stereotypes, Sexism, Prejudice, Discrimination, Racism

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18
Q

Can our own experience be considered a part of social psychology?

A

No, because it is unreliable and based on unique experiences

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19
Q

What does communication do according to Allport?

A

serves a purpose

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20
Q

How do social contexts, self-identities and experiences influence each other?

A

social contexts/experiences forms self-identities forms social behaviour - influences social contexts/experiences and so on. (Hamsterrad)

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21
Q

What does Social Psychology take into account?

A

Groups, culture, emotion, non-social factors (environment, information framing, biology, appearances)

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22
Q

What do Social psychologists examine?

A

How..
- groups influence social behaviour
- culture becomes internalized and affects individual preferences
- emotions and moods affect the decision made by the individual

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23
Q

What are nonsocial factors?

A

features of the environment, how the information we receive is framed

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24
Q

what affects our thought and behaviour?

A

“who we are”

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25
Q

what shapes social thought and behavior of individuals?

A

their actions, feelings, beliefs, memories and judgements

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26
Q

can other variables play a role in shaping social thought and behavior?

A

Yes

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27
Q

can we “ignore” others appearances when we try consciously to do so?

A

no, we behave differently depending on peoples appearances

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28
Q

which role plays cognitive process in social behavior?

A

a crucial role. example: you respond based upon your memories of the past

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29
Q

can aspects of the physical environment influence our feelings, thoughts and behavior?

A

Yes!

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30
Q

what are epigenetic processes?

A

operation of certain genes is turned on or off
-> environmental factors and social experiences can influence behavior through epigenetic processes

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31
Q

What do evolved psychological mechanisms do?

A

help (or once helped) us to deal with important problems relating to survival
-> humans possess large number of these mechanisms

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32
Q

which three basic components does the process of evolution involve?

A

variation, inheritance and selection

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33
Q

What does Variation refer to?

A

different organisms of the same species can evolve in different ways.
example: many human variations

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34
Q

What is Inheritance?

A

variations can be passed on to the next generation.

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35
Q

What does Selection refer to?

A

advantages that make the organism more electable to reproduce with

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36
Q

What does the Evolutionary Psychology Perspective state?

A

Variation (organisms vary in many ways) -> Inheritance (some of these variations are heritable) -> selection (variations that are adaptive become increasingly common in the population) = crucial outcome of evolution

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37
Q

what is the crucial outcome of evolution?

A

Over time, an isolated characteristic of an individual can become a characteristic of the species

38
Q

2 groups of social psychologists

A
  • those interested in social behavior
  • those interested in social thought
39
Q

What is social behavior? Name examples.

A

how people act in social situations (the way that people interact with one another, e.g.: communication, leadership, altruism, tradition, humor, etc..)

40
Q

What is social thought?

A

how people attempt to make sense of the social world and to understand themselves and others (what we think in any social situation and the models we use, e.g.: bribing/gifting, leaving a tip, to ‘dress up’)

41
Q

what are models we use in social situations?

A

automatic vs. controlled; neuroscience

42
Q

what plays a key role in many aspects of social life?

A

emotions and moods

43
Q

What do modern theories of Social Psychology (SP) integrate both?

A

social thought and social behavior
-> there is a complex interplay between them

44
Q

what do we have to consider in order to understand how and why other people behave the way they do?

A

their thoughts, memory, intentions, emotions, attitudes, and beliefs.

45
Q

what increases (affects) our tendency to help others?

A

positive emotions

46
Q

Are relationships a fundamental part of life?

A

yes

47
Q

what do relationships do in our social life? (good and bad)

A
  • when they are successful they add to our happiness
  • when they go wrong they can disrupt any other aspect of our lives and undermine our psychological health and wellbeing
48
Q

what does SP seek to understand in relationships?

A
  • how critical they are
  • how they begin, change and end
  • why some strengthen and deepen vs. why others weaken and end
49
Q

Is it better to view one’s partner realistically or through ‘rose-colored glasses’?

A

it is good but ONLY if it is restrained by a healthy degree of reality
-> positivity and perceived similarity between partners contribute to happiness but accuracy does too

50
Q

How can single people be as happy as those who marry?

A
  • they tend do belong to multiple social groups
    -> leads to better psychological well-being and living longer
51
Q

What are new tools at our disposal to measure brain’s activity (i.e)?

A
  • brain activity when doing certain activities
  • heart rate or neural activity
  • response latency when presented a stimuli or a choice
52
Q

what are examples of what can be studied with the brain measurement tools?

A

aggression, altruism, prejudice, schemes, values, etc.

53
Q

What are mirror neurons?

A

neurons in our brains that are activated during the observation and execution of actions
-> play key role in empathy!

54
Q

What is empathy?

A

the capacity to experience, vicariously, the emotions and feelings of other people
-> does not include judgement and requires active listening (takes on nonverbal cues)

55
Q

Where are mirror neurons located?

A

in the frontal operculum

56
Q

Which aspects of social thought cannot be easily related to activity in specific areas of the brain?

A

attributions, group identities, reciprocity

57
Q

how do social psychologists seek to accomplish to answer questions about social behavior and thought?

A

usually through systematic research

58
Q

What is systematic observation?

A

carefully observing behavior as it occurs (NOT people watching)
-> accompanied by careful, accurate measurement of a particular behavior across people

59
Q

naturalistic observation

A

observation of people’s behavior in natural settings

60
Q

survey method

A

asking large numbers of persons to respond to questions about their attitudes or behavior

61
Q

what is important for accurate results in survey methods?

A

sampling and wording are carefully addressed

62
Q

What is correlation?

A

refers to a tendency for one event to be associated with changes in the other

63
Q

what are changeable aspects referred to as?

A

variables, since they can take different values

64
Q

The … the correlation between two variables, the more accurate the prediction can be made

A

stronger

65
Q

What can correlations range from? What does it mean?

A

0 to -1.00 or +1.00
-> the greater the departure from 0, the stronger the correlation
-> positive numbers mean that as one variable increases, the other increases too
-> negative numbers mean that as one variable decreases, the other decreases too

66
Q

What does the correlations method determine?

A

determination wether, and to what extend, different variables are related to each other
-> careful measurement, statistical test

67
Q

does the correlation of two variables guarantee for a causally relation?

A

No.
-> cause-and-effect relationship

68
Q

what is the experimental method for?

A

in order to attain the goal of explanation, experimentation is used

69
Q

2 factors/variables in experimentation

A
  1. independent variable
  2. dependent variable
70
Q

independent variable

A

the factor systematically varied by the researcher

71
Q

What is the dependent variable?

A

aspect of behavior studied

72
Q

What is meta-analysis?

A

a highly useful statistical technique that permits an assessment of how well findings replicate

73
Q

What are Cognitive theories?

A

explanations of behaviors in terms of the way people actively interpret and represent their experiences and then plan action

74
Q

What was one of the earliest social psychology’s cognitive theories?

A

Lewin’s theory coming from Koffka’s Gestalt psychology of the 1930s

75
Q

Who was Lewin considered as?

A

the father of experimental social psychology

76
Q

What did Lewin advocate for?

A

a ‘full cycle’ research
-> basic and applied research inform one another

77
Q

What dominated SP during the ’50s and ’60s?

A

cognitive theories

78
Q

what did cognitive theories assume?

A

cognitions about ourselves, our behavior and the world, produce an uncomfortable state of cognitive arousal that motivates us to resolve the cognitive conflict

79
Q

What dominated Social Psychology in the ’70s?

A

attribution theories

80
Q

What is attribution theories?

A

focus on how people explain the causes of their own and other people’s behavior, and the consequences of casual explanations

81
Q

What has been the dominant perspective in SP since the 70’s?

A

Social cognition

82
Q

What did Kurt Lewin say about understanding something?

A

“If you truly want to understand something, try to change it”

83
Q

B = f (P/E)

A

Behavior is a function of both the person and the environment (system)
-Lewin 1936

84
Q

What is the main statement of the Force Field Analysis by Kurt Lewin?

A

Driving forces have to be higher than restraining forces in order for change to happen
-> always both available

85
Q

What does the Change management model of Lewin state?

A

Takes place in 3 stages
!. Unfreeze (preparing the desired change
2. Change (implementing the desired change)
3. Refreeze (Solidifying the desired change)

86
Q

What is the Unfreezing part (Action Research - Lewin)?

A

Planning
- Preliminary analysis
- Gathering of data
- Feedback on the results
- Drawing up of action plan
-> overcome resistance and encourage willingness

87
Q

What is the Changing part (Action Research - Lewin)?

A

Action
- Executing action plan
- Learning process
- Follow-up actions
-> create new condition if enough willingness
-> create new solutions and attitudes until new balance established

88
Q

What is the Refreezing part (Action Research - Lewin)?

A

Results
- Changes in behavior
- Data gathering
- Measurement of results
-> solidify new attitudes, integrate new problem solving strategies, move on to next stage project

89
Q

why is social behavior complex?

A

it has multiple causes

90
Q

Which 2 categories did Lewin establish?

A
  • situational
  • individual
91
Q

By what is a person’s perception of the world influenced?

A

by what he/she has to do in the situation
- individuals with different needs and tasks come to see same event in dissimilar ways
- social context can produce forces that control individuals actions

92
Q

What is deception?

A

to withhold or conceal information about the purposes of a study from participants (because it can influence how they act)
-> not morally accepted