Unit 1 (Ch1-4) Flashcards
In what way do we construct our own social reality?
Our interpretation of events matter. “To have a good day, have a good day.”
Social intuitions are ______, but sometimes _____.
Powerful; Perilous
Broadly speaking, what is intuition?
Our trained unconscious mind (not in the freudian sense)
Social influences shape our _____.
Behavior (we care what others think)
What other than social influences shape our behavior?
Attitudes and Dispositions (internal forces)
Social behavior is ______ rooted.
Biologically; social neuroscience subfield
Difference between Sociology and Social Psychology
The level of analysis. Individual vs. Group.
What are the 2 criticisms of social psychology mentioned in the book?
1) It is common sense (trivial)
2) It is dangerous to manipulate
Mundane realism
The degree to which an experiment matches real life
Self-Esteem
Our sense of self-worth
What’s Lawrence’s critique of self-esteem?
One’s self-esteem depends on the day. Might be better to measure how reactive one is to good or bad events
Collectivist vs. Individualist (Self-esteem)
Collectivist: more context-specific
Individualist: more steady, more personal; more individual conflict (more divorces), uses social comparison to boost self esteem
Planning Fallacy
The tendency to underestimate how long it’ll take to complete a task
Affective Forecasting
Predicting future emotions
Impact bias
The tendency to overestimate the length or intensity of future states of emotion
What’s illusion of self-analysis?
When we analyze reasons we feel the way we do, we tend to make worse judgements.
Dual Attitude System
Our implicit attitudes often differ from explicit ones. (gut reaction differs to thought-out attitude); leads to self-report issues
What’s the motivating power of self-esteem?
Seeing others succeed. Friends threaten self-esteem more than strangers.
Narcissism
A disorder of overly thinking of self. When threatened, a narcissist will be aggressive.
Terror Management Theory
People tend to be self-protective when reminded of their mortality. People become more stringent and less open-minded!
Self-Efficacy
An individual’s belief of ability to complete a task.
Self-esteem vs. Self-efficacy
Self-esteem is self-worth (what you think of your own value). Self-efficacy is how confident you are to complete something.
Self-serving bias
We evaluate ourselves as better than we are.
Self-serving attributions
We deflect negative attributions off ourselves (and to something external)
Unrealistic optimism
Predicting a future outcome to be more favourable than an objective standard. Most are disposed to optimism.
What does illusory optimism lead to?
Vulnerability
Defensive pessimism
An adaptive type of pessimism (sees what can possibly go wrong and makes an effective remedy)
False consensus effect
The tendency to believe that others think like we do (making us feel validated)
False uniqueness effect
The tendency to think our good behaviors are unique. (ex: 10 commandment data study)
Self-handicapping
We handicap ourselves to attribute failure to external factors
Self-presentation
How people attempt to present themselves to control how others view them
Self-monitoring
Ability to regulate self-presentations to match social situations (social chameleons)
What are the twin-truths of thinking about self?
Pride is perilous, but positive thinking is important.
Priming
Activation of associations (unconsciously or consciously) before another stimulus is introduced
Embodied Cognition
Abstract psychological concepts become physiological (eg. hard, cold, etc.)
Overconfidence
Being more confident than correct. Possibly to make us feel better about our decisions.
Confirmation Bias
We pay more attention to things that confirm our beliefs
Heuristics
Mental Shortcuts
Representativeness Heuristic
Stereotypes; someone is part of group because they look like them. Ignores base-rate info.
Availability Heuristic
Availability in memory = likely. Paradoxically, rare things are more memorable.
Counterfactual Thinking
“if only..” (silver medal smile less than bronze)
Illusory Correlation
Perception of a correlation when there is no correlation (regression to avg)
Belief Perseverance
Maintaining beliefs even when there’s contrary evidence (due to confirmation bias)
How confirmation bias relates to memory
We remember confirming information.
Misinformation Effect
Post-event information change our memory of an event
Attribution Theory
how we explain others’ behavior to ourselves
Dispositional Attribution
Attributing behavior to people’s inherent characteristics (unfavorable reaction)
Situational Attribution
Attributing behavior to the situation (situational reaction)
Fundamental Attribution Error
We over-attribute others’ behavior to traits rather than situations
Spontaneous Trait Attribution
A dispositional attribution made automatically based on something else.
Under what circumstances (positive/negative) are dispositional/situational more common?
Negative –> dispositional
Positive –> situational
Self-fulfilling Prophecy
Something comes true as a result of expectation. Problems in experimenter bias
Behavioral Confirmation
A form of self-fulfilling prophecy; you behave in a way that causes others to confirm expectations (in class, it’s what you hear –> confirm expectation; therapy example)
Attitudes
Feelings influenced by beliefs that predispose us favorably or unfavorably to things
Are attitudes a good predictor of behavior? Vice versa?
No. Behavior predicts attitudes well. (eg. donating blood)
When do attitudes predict behavior?
When other influences on behavior are minimal, when an attitude is specific to a behavior, and when the attitude is salient or potent.
Implicit Association Test
Measures attitudes or beliefs unable to report (system 1); implicit biases by using reaction time.
Theory of Planned Behavior
Attitudes, Norms, and Perceived Control shape intention and then behavior
How does behavior affect attitudes?
Attitudes follow behavior. There are mental aftereffects of behavior. Killing begets killing (insects). Speed dating example
Role Playing
Saying becomes believing (Zimbardo prison study).
Self-presentation theory
Impression management. We desire to make a positive impression by doing what we’re supposed to.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Reduce dissonance by changing how we think (it’s either think or behave. but we behaved already). Assumes people want to be consistent internally and externally
Insufficient justification
Engage in behavior that’s contrary to beliefs when there’s small external justification (needs more internal justification). Part of cognitive dissonance theory.
Self-perception theory
We change attitudes due to self-observation. Facial-feedback and overjustification effects related
