weeks 1-5 PSYC121 Flashcards
weird population
Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democracies- neglected 95%
Zimbardo
vandalised car- 1969
Theory
a systemic way of organizing and explaining observations, which includes a set of propositions, or statements, about the relationships among various phenomena and/or a set of statements designed to explain a set of phenomena: more encompassing than a hypothesis
Hypothesis
a statement that can be tested (narrowing down from theory, more specific)
phrenology
personality from shape of skull- gall
craniometry
measurement of skull reflects intelligence- broca
tabula rasa
locke- blank slate
bentham
the panopticon- giant prison
sheldon
personality by body types, endo (slow), meso (competitive), ecto (restrained)
Francis Galton
Heritability of intellect
Rosenthal
pigmalion = + = +
golem = - = -
Landsberger
Hawthorne effect- subjects of a study change their behavior
Bandura
social cognitive theory- observing violence impacts behavior
norman triplett
first social psyc experiment- 1897- biking- social facilitation- performing better with others around
sherif (1935)
the autokinetic effect- small light in dark room, frame of reference developed alone persists in groups but not as stable, developed in groups persists alone
asch (1951-1956)
conformity in unambigious situations- what’s the bigger line- ontrol group: 37 people + 18 trials, gave answers individually (alone). Experimental group: All but one of participants were confederates. Experimental group: The average error rate across participants 37%. 25% - zero errors. 28% - 8+ errors (out of 12 experimental trials). 47% - 1 to 7 errors (out of 12 experimental trials). Control group: Average error rate for any given participant
0.7%.
informal influence
conversion- oh you’re right
normative influence
compliance- you’re wrong but ok
independance v anticonformity
don’t conform- i = on principle, a = fuck u authority
milgram (1961)
obedience- shock- Control group subjects:
In a control condition in which the participants were allowed to select the level of punishment shocks:
Only 2 out of 40 (5%) exceeded 150 volts
28 out of 40 (70%)never went beyond 75 volts.- Experimental group subjects:
62.5% continued to administer shocks
at the highest level, 368 Volts was the average shock level administered
when does conformity increase
Conformity increases as groups size increases (to a maximum)
Asch (1951) ran variations with majorities of between 1 and 16.
1 person = no effect
2 people = 13% errors
3 people = 31.8% errors
4+ people = no significant increase in errors
Authoritarian Personality
the authoritarian personality was theorised as originating in childhood in
response to excessively harsh and disciplinarian parenting intended to
produce emotional dependence and obedience in the child.- obedient to authority- Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, and Sanford (1950)
enculturation
caregivers teach kids through example
etic
universal
emic
cultural
Hofstede’s cultural values
Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism/Collectivism, Masculinity/Femininity, Long/Short Term Orientation, and Indulgence/Restraint
Correspondence Bias/fundamental attribution error
Tendency to attribute other’s behaviour to internal dispositions rather than situational constraints
Self-Serving Bias
Tendency to attribute our own positive outcomes to internal, stable ‘causes’, and negative outcomes to external, unstable factors)
Zimbardo
stanford prison experiment- 1971- 24 participants- 6 days/14-
Depersonalisation
stop thinking about themselves as individual, part of the group
Deindividuation
loss of self-awareness in groups
cognitive dissodance
feeling uncomfortable from 2 conflicting thoughts at once- increases with:
* The importance of the subject.
* Strength of the conflict between dissonant thoughts.
* Our inability to rationalize and explain away the conflict- i.e. we believe something but behavior is inconsistent
Festinger & Carlsmith (1956)
“Measures of performance” (12 spools, 48 pegs), 20 Control group, 20 $1 group, 20 $20 group- had to say boring experiment was fun- group $1 started to believe the experiment was more interesting than it actually was
ethics
morality, the difference between right and wrong- informed consent, assent + parental consent for under 16s
bioethical principles
respect for autonomy, beneficience and non maleficience (when you do something you should be doing it for good/not for bad), justice (maintain a just world and not cause division, inequality, unhapiness pain)
correlation
r (corelation coefficient) (df- n-2) = (2 digits, no 0.), p (3 digits, no 0.)
ringelmann (1913)
Efficiency of different size groups of animals/people performing agricultural tasks. Eg. Young men (alone or in groups of 2,3, or 8) pulling rope attached to dynamometer. Result- force exerted per person decreased as function of group size, the Ringelmann effect
Ingham, Levinger, Graves and Peckham (1974)
One control condition: Individual pulling alone. Two experimental conditions:
* Real groups: Groups of subjects actually
pulling together * Pseudo-groups: Individual subject at front pulling with group of confederates (instructed to pretend to be pulling)- Motivation loss (pseudo groups)
Coordination loss (real groups), the greater portion of decrease in performance is psychological (motivation loss)
Latane, Williams and Harkins (1979)
replicated Ingham et al (1974) using shouting, cheering, and clapping tasks (as much noise as possible)
coined ‘social loafing’, individual makes more noise than pseudo and real groups
social loafing
a person exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when working alone
‘bystander effect’
the finding that a lone bystander is more likely to give aid than any one of several bystanders.
latane and rodin (1969)
male subject completed questionnaires in a waiting room alone, or with a friend, or confederate.
subjects hear a woman in an adjacent room having difficulty with a filing cabinet- crash! cry of pain, moans and groans
results:
subjects alone - 70% helped
pairs of subject- 40% helped
subject plus passive confederate- 7% helped
Latane and Darley (1970)
male students invited to an interview to discuss university experiences- smoke starts filling the room
hypothesis- in an emergency people will look to others before deciding what to do
results:
alone- 75% took positive action
with two strangers- 38%
with confederates- 10%
conclusion- the presence of others inhibit people’s response in an emergency- the more people the slower the response
3 stages of burnout
Emotional exhaustion - Depersonalization - Reduced personal accomplishment
depersonalisation
treating others like objects, or without regard for feelings, Is an attempt to distance oneself from clients/others
first signs of ptsd
Nostalgia, soldier’s heart, and
railway spine (tended to be exposed/witness many more serious injuries than other profession), shell shock, combat stress reaction (“battle fatigue”),
“Gross Stress Reaction”
dsm ptsd
PTSD added to DSM-III in 1980, removed
from anxiety disorders in DSM-5, shifted PTSD to a new category - Trauma- and stressor-related disorders
ptsd stats
~60% of men, and ~50% of women will experience at least one traumatic event.
In the US, ~4% men, ~10% women will receive PTSD diagnosis
What is “trauma”?
According to the APA (DSM-5) it’s when an individual person is exposed to
“actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence.”
Independent variables (IVs)
are those manipulated by the researcher, they are varied deliberately and systematically to see what impact they have on dependent variables
Dependent variables (DVs)
which are those observed by the researcher, who records the changes occurring in them.
Predictor variables
Rather than having IVs and DVs in some types of research (correlational designs) the variables we would usually call IVs and
DVs are called predictor variables.
Control variables
are those held constant during an experiment by the researcher in an attempt to avoid extraneous variables
Extraneous variables
which confound (or contaminate) the findings in an experiment. Such variables are any variables (apart from the independent variable) that seem likely to influence the dependent variable. For example, the amount of food consumed (and when) may confound results when testing for the effects of alcohol on memory
Within Subject Designs
involve all participants being assigned to all levels of the independent variable (all experimental conditions) and the control
condition.
Between Subject Designs
involve different participants being assigned to different conditions
Experimenter effects
Where the experimenter accidentally (or otherwise) affects the results by providing participants with cues as to his/her expectations.
Confounding
Of variables occurs whenever two or more variables vary together in a way
that makes it difficult to sort out their independent effects.
Demand characteristics
any cues available to the participant that may enable them to determine the purpose of the experiment are termed demand characteristics, and can lead to placebo effects and distortion of self-report data
Ceiling and floor effects
performance on a dependent variable is very nearly perfect or very nearly lacking on each occasion of testing. These occur when the measurement of the dependent variable has a too limited range that does not accurately reflect the possible changes that could occur (i.e. not “long” enough)
clinical or case study
observational research when they focus on one person or just a few individuals
inter-rater reliability
a measure of reliability that assesses the consistency of observations by different observers
cross-sectional research
a researcher compares multiple segments of the population at the same time
wilhelm wundt
structuralism- focus was on the contents of mental processes rather than their function- used introspection, a process by which someone examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible
william james
focused on how mental activities helped an organism fit into its environment- the function
Psychoanalytic theory- freud
focuses on the role of a person’s unconscious, as well as early childhood experiences
John B. Watson
behaviorism
B. F. Skinner
Skinner box- behavior is influenced by consequences
Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers
humanism- perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans- maslow’s hierarchy of needs
placebo effect
when people’s expectations or beliefs influence or determine their experience in a given situation
single-blind study/double blind study
participants are unaware as to which group they are in while the researcher knows which participants are in each group/both the researchers and the participants are blind to group assignments.
Social psychology
examines how people affect one another
Situationism
the view that our behavior and actions are determined by our immediate environment and surroundings
dispositionism
holds that our behavior is determined by internal factors
individualistic culture
a culture that focuses on individual achievement and autonomy
collectivistic culture
a culture that focuses on communal relationships with others, such as family, friends, and community
actor-observer bias
phenomenon of attributing other people’s behavior to internal factors (fundamental attribution error) while attributing our own behavior to situational forces
just-world hypothesis
the belief that people get the outcomes they deserve
Cultural psychology
interdisciplinary study of how culture reflects and shapes the mind and behavior of its members
Cross-cultural psychology
uses culture to test the universality of psychological processes
culture
patterns of learned and shared behavior that are cumulative and transmitted across generations
Deception in studies
purposely misleading experiment participants in order to maintain the integrity of the experiment, but not to the point where the deception could be considered harmful. In cases where deception is involved, participants must receive a full debriefing upon conclusion of the study—complete, honest information about the purpose of the experiment, how the data collected will be used, the reasons why deception was necessary, and information about how to obtain additional information about the study.
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)
charged with ensuring that all experimental proposals require the humane treatment of animal research subjects
institutional review board (IRB)
review proposals for research that involves human participants
Dov Cohen and his colleagues (1996)
cohen research team invited dozens of university students into the lab to see how they responded to aggression. Half were from the Southern United States (a culture of honor- emphasizes personal or family reputation) and half were from the Northern United States (not a culture of honor). Northern United States- 35% having anger ratings as high as or higher than amusement ratings, South- 85% of whom had anger ratings as high as or higher than amusement ratings
Alice Isen and Paula Levin, 1972
Half of the unsuspecting participants (determined by random assignment) found a dime planted by researchers (I know! A dime!) in the coin slot, while the other half did not. Presumably, finding a dime felt surprising and lucky and gave people a small jolt of happiness. Immediately after the unsuspecting participant left the phone booth, a confederate walked by and dropped a stack of papers. Almost 100% of those who found a dime helped to pick up the papers. And what about those who didn’t find a dime? Only 1 out 25 of them bothered to help.
Latané and Darley’s Stages of Helping
Noticing, Interpreting, Taking responsibility, Implementing Action- The social situation has an important influence on whether or not we help.
Pluralistic ignorance
occurs when people think that others in their environment have information that they do not have and when they base their judgments on what they think the others are thinking
