University Test 1 Flashcards
Define construal
Construal is the author’s subjective understanding/definition of his or her own situation
- Interpreting the world according to one’s own experiences/needs
Construal = perspective/perception
What was Burner and Goodman’s 1947 study on construal?
Burner and Goodman had a group of 10 year olds look at coins/disks and told them to turn knobs to light up the coins/disks (turn the knob to make the size of the light in the box the same size as what you are holding in your hand). The children with coins perceived the coins as being bigger than the disks because coins have a socially constructed value (they are worth money) whereas the disks were worth nothing. Additionally, the more poor the child, the greater they perceived the coins to be.
What was the “They Saw a Game” Princeton vs Dartmouth Experiment in 1951?
In 1951, there was a very hyped up football game between Princeton and Dartmouth (two bitter rivals). The game was very aggressive and had many penalties. The Princeton students saw more Dartmouth penalties than the Dartmouth students saw (though the Dartmouth students saw no difference in # of penalties). Dartmouth alumni suspected that Princeton had tampered with the game tape.
What was Balcetis and Dunning’s Wishful Seeing experiment in 2006?
Balcetis and Dunning sought to understand how motivation influences visual perception. They randomly assigned people with numbers/letters. Depending on the number/letter that they were assigned, they would receive either a pleasant or a horrible drink. They would briefly show the number/letter, then would have the computer “crash.” They would ask participants if they saw anything before the crash happened. They found that many people saw what they wanted to see (they saw that they got the good drink, not the bad one).
What was Balcetis and Dunning’s 2nd Wishful Seeing experiment in 2010?
Balcetis and Dunning sought to investigate how current needs affect one’s perception. They found that people see objects that will satisfy a current need as being closer than they actually are.
- Thirsty people see a water bottle as being closer
- Poorer people with a chance to win $100 see the $100 closer
What was Xiao & Van Bave’s 2012 experiment on construal of distance from a threat?
Xiao and Van Bave interviewed NY Yankee fans about both their enemy (the Boston Red Sox) and Baltimore (not an enemy). They found that NY Yankees fans perceive the enemy Boston as being closer than Baltimore is. However, this only applies to NY Yankee fans (since they are the ones who perceive Boston as a threat).
This same test was performed on NYU and Columbia students (rival schools). 2 reports were releases; report 1 says that NYU and Columbia are equal in quality, report 2 says that Columbia is better in quality than NYU. NYU students exposed to report 2 perceived Columbia students as being a bigger threat and therefore thought that Columbia was closer than it actually was.
Also, Americans who are concerned by immigration view NY as being closer to Mexico City than it actually is (for participants who are from NY)
What was Caruso et al.’s study on skin colour perception in 2009?
Caruso evaluated how liberals and conservatives perceived Barack Obama’s skin tone. They found that liberals perceived Barack Obama as having a lighter complexion than he actually does, and conservatives perceived him as being darker than he actually is. This same effect occurred when presented with different African American political candidates.
They also found that this was not specific to liberals and conservatives; basically, the effect is more related to if the unknown African American candidate shares or does not share your ideology.
WEAPONS EFFECT LECTURE 1
What is wishful seeing?
Wishful seeing is viewing desirable objects as closer than they actually are?
What does it mean to “see threats closer”?
When enemies REPRESENT a threat, they are perceived as being closer than they actually are.
How are some social situations agreed upon/unambiguous is reality is subjective?
Some social situations are unambiguous because humans are socially attuned creatures; other provide cues which help us to understand what we should do in a given situation ➡ we develop/pick up on social norms
What is Stepanova, Strube, and Hetts’ “They Saw a Triple Lutz” study in 2009?
In the “They Saw a Triple Lutz” study, Stepanova et al. evaluated the Olympic Skating Debacle between Russia and Canada. The Russians had a history of winning and were expected to win. The Russians made some technical mistakes but had a very complicated routine, while the Canadians were flawless but had a more simple routine. Russians were given gold, everybody complained, so then they gave Canadians a gold medal too.
Researchers code articles from North America/Russia. They find that Russian outlets claimed that the competition was close, whereas the North American outlets claimed that the competition wasn’t close at all (UNTIL Canadians were awarded a medal too, then they find that the competition was closer)
Russian media saw the Canadians as having made more mistakes than they actually did.
American and Canadian media outlets saw the Russians as having made more mistakes than they actually did.
What is naive realism?
Naive realism is the idea that we see the world in an unbiased way
When we see that others view the world in a way that is different from how we do, we may make attributions like:
- They are lazy, dumb, following a particular ideology, etc.
While falsely believing that our way of thinking is the “right” or “real” way the world is
What was the Keltner et al. abortion study in 1995?
Keltner et al. asked pro-choice and pro-life people for what they thought about the opinions of people from THE OTHER SIDE. Keltner et al. found that participants underestimated the ambivalence of people who thought differently from them; they would see their own opinion as rational, and the other side’s opinion as ideological. Both sides assumed that anyone who thought differently than they did was an EXTREMIST with no reservations about their position.
What is the Hostile Media Effect?
The Hostile Media Effect is that most people with strong opinions believe that the media is biased against their side (leftists think the news is right-leaning, and right-wingers think the news is left-leaning)
What is Ross’ Israeli-Palestinian Conflict study in 2004?
In Ross’ study, he had participants (either on Israel’s side or on Palestine’s side) watch TV coverage of the Beirut massacre. He presented them with proposals from THEIR OWN SIDE but told them that they were proposals from the OTHER SIDE. Participants would reject the proposals (even if they were from their own side) because of the Hostile Media Effect ➡ they perceived the proposals as being biased against their side even when the proposals were actually written by their own side.
What is Pronin et al.’s Valid vs Biased Attitudes study in 2004?
In Pronin et al’s study, they found that people tend to view their own opinions as valid/unbiased, while viewing opinions that disagree with their own as increasingly invalid/biased. On issues like abortion, capital punishment, anti-terrorism measures, and Hillary Clinton, participants tended to believe that those who SHARED their beliefs were UNBIASED, but those who DISAGREED with their beliefs were VERY BIASED.
What was Goya-Tocchetto et al.’s study on Partisan Trade-Off Bias in 2022?
In Goya-Tocchetto et al.’s study, they looked at public policy and people’s reactions to is. All policies have some unintended consequences, regardless of their intentions. The researchers found that participants generally believed that the policies proposed by their side had unintended and unavoidable consequences, whereas the policies proposed by the other side had intended and avoidable effects ➡ liberals were more sensitive to negative side-effects of republican public policy and vice versa (they did it on purpose!)
What is the content free scenario?
In the content free scenario, researchers present a vague description of how either Republicans/Democrats want to propose policy A, which will help some people but will hurt others, and ask for participants’ opinions about the intentions of the policy. Like with the Partisan Trade-Off Bias study, Democrats thought that Republican policies were designed to hurt people and vice versa.
How do we reduce bias?
We reduce bias through introspection ➡ thinking about what our thoughts/attitudes are and questioning why we have them.
It should be noted that introspection does not reduce our bias, though it does make us more confident that we are not biased
Additionally, cognitive abilities neither increase nor reduce amount of bias (stupid/smart people = comparably biased)
What is the self-schema (or schemata)?
The self-schema is a cognitive generalization about the self based on past experiences ➡ who we are is guided by our past
- Some things are more integral to our identities than others
What was Markus’ Self-Schemata study in 1977?
In Markus’ Self-Schemata study, participants rated themselves on a Likert scale for how independent or dependent they were and whether it was important to them (independent = 1-4, dependent = 6-11, neither = 5). Three weeks later, participants were classified as 1) schematic for independent, 2) aschematic, or 3) schematic for dependent. The study examined how participants recalled information, predicted behavior, and resisted feedback about their schemata.
Results showed that schematic participants recalled more examples and predicted behaviors consistent with their schema (independent or dependent). When given false feedback that contradicted their schema, participants reasserted their beliefs. Participants also responded faster to traits aligned with their self-schema when presented with a list of independent or dependent traits.
What does it mean if you are aschematic?
Aschematic means that your core self is not captured by a given schema
Ex: If you do not care about sports, you are aschematic about athleticism.
If you DO care about sports, you are schematic about athleticism.
What is the phenomenal self?
Developed by Jones and Gerard, the phenomenal self is the part of a person’s identity that is most active and relevant in their awareness at a given moment, depending on the context. Different aspects of the self become prominent based on the situation, like identifying as a student in class or a performer in a theatre setting.
What is the spontaneous self-concept?
Developed by McGuire, the spontaneous self-concept refers to the aspects of yourself that come to mind most easily and quickly when asked to describe who you are. These traits or identities are influenced by the context or situation and are often things that set you apart or make you unique in that moment.
Ex: If you’re the only woman in a group of men and someone asks you to describe yourself, you might immediately mention being a woman because it stands out in that context.
What is distinctiveness theory (McGuire et al., 1979)?
Distinctiveness theory posits that individuals more readily notice their unique traits and personal characteristics because they offer valuable information for distinguishing themselves from others.
What studies were conducted on distinctiveness theory?
1) 6th grade students with atypical traits like age, hair color, eye color, weight, and birthplace tend to focus on these attributes more than those with unique characteristics (McGuire).
2) In terms of gender, 26% of minority students in the classroom mention their gender, while only 11% of majority students do (McGuire).
3) Students were put in groups of 3 in the following conditions: all male, all female, 2 males 1 female, 2 females 2 male. In the mixed gender condition, the lone person in the group was more likely to mention their gender as a measure of distinctiveness than people in the “all male/female” condition
What is stereotype distinctiveness?
Stereotype distinctiveness is when you are really good at something that is supposedult contrary to a stereotype about you
Ex: women excelling at sports
People are more likely to mention if they are proficient in areas that are often stereotyped (or if the are very different from their families)
What is contextual activation?
Contextual activation is the idea that our self-schema is influenced by context
What was Fazio et al.’s contextual activation study?
Fazio et al. prompted people to think in an extroverted way using biased questions to influence them to act in a more extroverted way (even if they were not initially extroverted at their core)
The extrovert condition later reported themselves as more extroverted AND acted more extroverted in a subsequent situation, showing how there is a multitude of self knowledge and self representations available in memory. There is just the issue of activating them in a given context.
What is the Barnum effect?
The Barnum effect occurs when a statement is so vague that it applies to almost anybody (like horoscopes)
What is the dynamic self-concept?
The dynamic self-context refers to the idea that an individual’s self-concept is not fixed but changes based on the context, experiences, and interactions they encounter over time. This concept emphasizes that our understanding of ourselves is fluid and influenced by various factors.
What is the working self?
The working self is the active part of your identity that influences your thoughts and behaviors in a specific moment.
What is meant by availability does not equal accessibility?
Your core is available across situations (knowledge about yourself is available) but, this knowledge may not be accessible.
Accessibility of info comes from:
1. How often you access it
2. How recently you accessed it
What does it mean if something is chronically acccessible?
No help is needed to retrieve part of the self (it is always available and accessible)
What does it mean if something is availale but has low accessibility?
The information is available but may require help/priming to access it.
What are prime associations?
Prime associations are prompts that influence inconsistent/neutral participants to be more/less neutral (encourages people to pick a side)
Basically, it is subtly moving people who are in the middle towards extremes/distinct sides
What tests were run with prime associations?
Participants were primed with words that were either competition related or cooperation related. Then, they were asked to play a game. Participants who were primed with competition related words were more likely to play aggressively, and vice versa for the cooperative group.*
*This was only for people who were neutral on prosocial/pro-self behaviours. For people who are more prosocial naturally, they remained prosocial even when primed (and vice versa)
What is structure?
Structure is the idea that we have various selves. There are two general camps regarding structure of the self: distinct and intergrated
Distinct self = self concept complexity
- The idea that the self is highly differentiated and is very different depending on the contex
Integrated self = self concept clarity
- The idea the we have a clear/consistent/coherent idea of ourself that is the same across contexts
What is the Stress Buffering Hypothesis?
The Stress Buffering Hypothesis is the belief that social support can be the key to buffering stress and adverse effects from a stressful situation
What are the benefits/disadvantages of the differentiated self?
Benefit:
- Less spillover = negative occurences only affect one domain of the self (ex: a bad grade on a test doesn’t mean I’m a bad daughter)
Disadvantage:
- Less spillover = fewer positive benefits when good things happen in a specific domain (ex: a good grade on a test doesn’t make me a better daughter)
How does the working self-concept vary for different ethnicities?
European = generally personal/ individualistic identity
Asian = generally collectivistic
Can people change their working self-concept?
Yes! People can change their working self-concept, like to fit in better in a workplace, but the larger core identity remains the same
Ex: Asian workers in a Canadian workplace
What is the true self for Westerners?
For Westerners, the true self is thought to be the stable self; it is assumed that your true self isn’t changing from day-to-day
North Americans generally behave consistently across relationships (treat everybody the same) = knowing how someone is with their mom can help you to predict how they are with their friends
*Both W/Easterners tend to be consistent from location to location (ex: how you behave at the gym, cafeteria, etc.)
What is the true self for Easterners?
Easterners are consistent in how they treat specific relationships (they treat their moms that same way always, but likely treat their friends differently) = knowing how someone is with their mom CANNOT help you to predict how they are with their friends
*Both W/Easterners tend to be consistent from location to location (ex: how you behave at the gym, cafeteria, etc.)
What is residential mobility?
Residential mobility refers to the movement of individuals or households from one dwelling to another.
What is true of how frequent movers define themselves?
- People who don’t move often are less reliant on personal traits to define who they are
- People who move frequently are very reliant on personal traits to define who they are (and they prefer to interact wiith people who can accurately see their personality traits)
How committed are frequent movers to their new residence?
- FMs are less committed to the place they are at (ex: only supporting the local sport team when they are winning)
- NFMs are very committed to the place they are at (ex: supporting the local team, win or lose)
How do frequent movers forge friendships?
- FMs are more likely to compartmentalize their friends, and desire larger social networks to avoid loneliness
- They also have highly transient social networks
FMs = duty free friendship (friendships with no obligations/strings attached)
For FMs, well-being is more personal/related to themselves than related to interpersonal aspects
What is self-knowledge asymmetry?
Self-knowledge asymmetry is the idea that people tend to know more about their own internal experiences, like emotions and thoughts, while others might have better knowledge of external traits, (behavior or personality tendencies in social situations) and self-evaluative traits (how intelligent/rude someone is, which they likely won’t be able to impartially weigh in on)
What does William James mean wht he says that you must “pick the self on whch to stick your salvation?”
William James means that you should decide which selves to care about = basically self-esteem; which selves are most important for you to feel good about yourself?
