Unit 1 (Ch1-4) Textbook Flashcards
Social Psychology (definition)
the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another
Social Psych vs. Personality Psych
Personality more about individual differences, social psych more about people in general
How does social psych explain how people were influenced to do immoral acts?
Milgram’s experiment; people listen to orders and become cruel.
When $2mil was scattered around, what happened?
1.9mil gone. only some stopped to help (way less than we think)
we are ________ organisms
bio-psycho-social
Argument against ‘social psych is common sense’
Hindsight bias (we don’t expect correctly what will happen before it happens.) We more likely rate results as ‘not surprising’. see “i knew it all along” phenomenon
Consequences of “I knew it all along” phenomena in relation to policymakers
example: It’s hard for us to praise policymakers. good and bad decisions are both “obvious”.
Theory
an integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events.
Framing
The way we word questions or issues. Can influence how others respond. (opting in and out, nudging, etc.)
mundane realism vs. experimental realism
mundane: how much an experiment mimics everyday life
experimental: degree to which environment absorbs and involves participants
Spotlight effect
The belief that others are paying more attention to us than they really are. (eg. 40% thought others would notice AE logo, only 10% did)
Illusion of transparency
Illusion where our concealed emotions leak out and can be noticed by others (we’re more opaque than we think)
T/F: what we agonize over, others easily forget
T
How do social surroundings affect our self-awareness?
We are more aware of ourselves when we’re the only 1 of a group
How did breakups among college students change sense of self?
They became less sure of who they were (changed self-perceptions)
Self-concept
What we know and believe about ourselves
What brain activity underlies our sense of being oneself?
Right hemisphere (failure in this part might make you not aware of own limbs)
self-schemas
mental templates; beliefs about self that organize and guide processing of self-relevant info. self-schemas make self-concepts. we welcome info that fit our schemas
Social comparisons
evaluating our opinions by comparing ourselves to others
Money doesn’t give happiness, but what’s true about money and happiness related to social comparisons?
Having more money than people around you can bring more happiness (1998)
Schadenfreude
Taking pleasure in someone’s failures (someone who we envy. and whose failures don’t make us feel vulnerable)
Why might people on social media feel pretty depressed?
Biased social comparison
When do we “compare upward”? Meaning we attribute others being successful to their situations
When others are doing better than we are.
Looking-glass self
How we think others perceive us is a mirror to perceiving ourselves
Saying what to influence identity of children is more useful in reinforcing helping behavior than praising them for “helping”?
… “being a helper”
How do cultures differ in filling out “I am _____”?
Individualist countries tend to say more personal traits, collectivist identifies more social identity.
How are cultures changing with regards to collectivism/individualism?
Both seem to be becoming more individualistic
How do people of different cultures think differently? (cognition)
Animated underwater scene study:
Japanese recalled more background features. Spoke more of relationships.
Americans looked more at focal object and less at surroundings.
Overall: More holistic thinking in East Asia.
What do facebook profile pictures show about differences between cultures?
More background in Taiwanese vs. US students
What about brain activation when thinking of mothers?
Chinese thinking of mothers activated brain region associated with self. An area that only lights up for Westerners when thinking of self.
How does persistence differ between cultures?
Japanese: persist more when failing.
Individualistic: persist more when succeeding
How does source of positive emotion differ between cultures?
Happier when positive social engagement (collectivist) vs. happier when feeling superior and effective
How do Easterners change when introduced to Western idea of self-concept?
They become more individualistic. Higher self-esteem.
How good are we at predicting our future behavior?
Not good. 1) movie watching prediction 2) our relationship’s future 3) performance on exams 4) $$ we will spend
How can we make better self-predictions?
Look at how long tasks took in the past. Predict each step rather than whole.
Affective Forecasting
Prediction of intensity and duration of future emotions. eg. hunger, sadness, happiness
Are we more prone to reacting more extreme to positive/negative events?
negative. (prospect theory???)
What’s correlation between predicted feelings and actual feelings?
.28
In dual attitude system, is it implicit attitudes or explicit attitudes that change easier?
explicit attitudes change easier. implicit are like old habits.
Implications of limits in self-knowledge
Self-reports are untrustworthy.
Personal testimonies are persuasive, but can be wrong.
“bottom-up” view vs. “top-down” view of self-esteem
bottom-up: we are good at something and that causes us to have high self-esteem.
top-down: we have high self-esteem so perceive ourself as good at something
Sense of self-worth contingent on external sources has what consequences compared to internal sources?
More stress, anger, relationship problems, drug and alcohol use, eating disorders
Tradeoff between low and high self-esteem
Low: more depression prone, poverty, abuse, etc. (underlying disease: tough childhood).
High: self-fulfilling prophecy to achieve more. but gang leaders, terrorists, violent people tend to have more self-esteem. not very likable.
What makes low self-esteem people feel worse after negative experience?
Positive phrases like “at least you learned something”
Understanding phrases are preferred! “that sucks.”
How does self-esteem relate to academic achievement?
Not a good predictor. Asian-Americans are lowest in self-esteem but best academically.
Narcissism (book definition) and vs. Self-esteem
An inflated sense of self.
Better and smarter (n) vs. worthy and good (self-est)
care for self only (n) vs. care for others and self (self-est)
What about parents predicted children’s narcissism?
If parents believe their children deserved special treatment.
Do narcissists believe they’re narcissists?
Mostly yeah. They know.
What feedback is better than self-esteem feedback (eg. you’re smart)
Self-efficacy feedback (eg. you tried really hard). Maybe because people who praised for being smart scared to try again to be proven wrong.
Does self-handicapping work? (produce good results)
No.
Why do people self-handicap?
To have external excuses for future failures.
What are the 2 parts of self-presentation?
Our wanting to present a desired image both to outside (external audience) and ourselves (internal audience)
Problems with humblebragging
Fails to be humble and fails to impress others.
Implications of people who are high in self-monitoring
They hold less to their own attitudes and express attitudes that they don’t hold. They get more likes tho.
False modesty phenoomenon
We display lower self-esteem than we feel (to be modest and make good impression)
Embodied Cognition (textbook)
Mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgements (eg. cold person –> judge room colder)
Automatic vs. Controlled thinking
implicit vs. explicit. system 1 vs. system 2
______ feeds overconfidence
incompetence
Remedies for overconfidence bias (2)
1) prompt feedback
2) think of 1 reason why judgement might be wrong
What phenomenon is related to illusory correlations?
Regression towards the average. (exceptional performances –> normality)
Kahneman’s experiment that showed regression to average conclusion:
We feel punished for rewarding others and rewarded for punishing them. (people do worse (go back to avg) when we praise)
How does mood affect judgements?
When good mood, more perceived good behaviors or events.
T/F: We respond to reality just as it is.
F. We construe it.
Is memory like a bank vault?
No. We change it.
as relationships change, how do first impressions of partner change?
Overestimate first impressions if still in relationship; underestimate earlier liking if broken up
When comparing our present self to past, what do we often think?
We overestimate how much we’ve improved. (reconstruct our past based on present)
Misattribution
Attributing a behavior to the wrong source (external/internal) eg. men more likely to attribute friendliness as sexual interest
Does (social) intelligence have to do with attribution error?
Intelligent and socially competent people are more likely to make attribution error (some weak evidence)
Why do we make fundamental attribution error?
When others act, they’re the focus. When we do, it’s the environment. Different ways of looking at each other.
Camera perspective bias
Confessions focused on confessor yielded greater conviction
Cultural differences in attribution error
Individualistic –> people cause events
Collectivistic –> more social context focus
Why is fundamental attribution error fundamental?
It changes how we look at everything. (eg. political positions)
How do teacher expectations predict student performance? What phenomenon?
Teacher expectations are pretty accurate. But causal effects both ways not very effective. High expectations helpful for low-achieving students tho.
How do student’s expectations of teachers affect things? What phenomenon?
High expectations –> more interesting and competent, learned more
Low expectations –> performed worse
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Behavioral confirmation
Having expectations –> others to behave in a way that fir your expectations (eg. if you believe someone is sexist, they become more sexist)
How do our inner attitudes drive outward behavior?
Expressed attitudes hardly predicted behaviors (eg. attitude towards cheating vs. actual cheating; pro-life in streets, pro-choice in sheets)
Example of attitudes and behavior with moral hypocrisy
When greed and morality and put head to head, greed wins.
How does IAT help with predicting behavior with attitudes?
Implicit and explicit attitudes combined predict behavior better.
a Principle of aggregation
effects of an attitude become more apparent when looking at aggregate or average behavior
How to induce inner convictions
Bring them to mind (self-awareness)
How does experience play a role in forming attitudes?
We consolidate attitudes through experience.
Role
a set of norms that defines how one is expected to behave
Role playing extraversion and introversion
After role playing introversion, they became less happy. After extraversion more conencted and happy
Zimbardo’s question:
does place make people violent? or people make the place violent?
How do individual differences play a role in role playing?
Some become bad apples, others don’t.
When does saying become believing?
When there’s no good external explanation for their words.
How does ‘attitudes follow behavior’ relate to evil or immoral acts?
After doing an immoral act, it’s easier to keep going. Killing begets killing.
Self-presentation theory of why attitudes follow behavior
We don’t want others to perceive us as inconsistent. We may have to pretend to hold attitudes that fit our behavior.
Self-justification theory of why attitudes follow behavior
Cognitive dissonance.
Selective exposure
Tendency to seek information that confirms and avoid dissonant information (affirms > informs)
Insufficient justification
Internally justifying an attitude when there’s insufficient external justification to reduce dissonance.
Self-perception theory
Seeing my behavior informs me of my attitudes.
Which theory does facial feedback effect relate to?
The self-perception theory
Overjustification effect
Unnecessary reward for behavior that leads to less intrinsic motivation
Unanticipated reward and overjustification?
Unanticipated is ok. Only anticipated rewards have a negative effect
Self-affirmation theory
When self-image threat, people can restore self-image in another domain
What can’t dissonance theory explain?
Changes in attitude when there’s no dissonance. Self-perception theory explains that.
What theory explains attitude change? What explains attitude formation?
Dissonance theory is change. Self-perception theory is formation.
Concluding chapter 4, to change how we think and who we are, what should we do?
Just act.
