Psych-Soc 30 Exam 1

Front 1

Definition of social psychology

Back 1

the scientific attempt to understand how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.

Front 2

Goals of scientific research

Back 2

1. Description (how we influence others)
2. Prediction
3. Control
4. Explanation (why we influence others)- leads to theories

Front 3

The nature of theories (what must they be to be scientific)

Back 3

To be scientific, theories and hypotheses must be falsifiable.

Front 4

Psychological perspectives in social psychology

Back 4

1. Sociocultural
2. Evolutionary
3. Social learning
4. Social cognitive

Front 5

Sociocultural Perspective

Back 5

the causes of social behavior in influences from larger social groups.

Front 6

Evolutionary Perspective

Back 6

a theoretical viewpoint that searches for the causes of social behavior in the physical and psychological predispositions that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce

Front 7

Social Learning Perspective

Back 7

a theoretical viewpoint that focuses on past learning experiences as determinants of a person’s social behaviors

Front 8

Social Cognitive Perspective

Back 8

a theoretical viewpoint that focuses on the mental processes involved in paying attention to, interpreting, and remembering social experiences

Front 9

Scientific Method

Back 9

1. Observation
2. Hypothesis
3. Prediction
4. Experiment
5. Analysis
6. Repeat / Replication

Front 10

Random sampling (selection)

Back 10

Randomly select participants from a population that you wish to generalize to.

Front 11

Random assignment

Back 11

People in the study being assigned to any group.

Front 12

Independent variables

Back 12

what is being manipulated or under the control of the experimenter (or how participants are grouped).

Front 13

Dependent variables

Back 13

the outcome, what is being measured.

Front 14

Operational definitions

Back 14

is a definition of a behavior or a quality in terms of the procedures used to measure or produce them.

Front 15

Case study

Back 15

offers great depth and rich data, but sample is small so generalization is limited.

Front 16

Survey

Back 16

offers less depth, but very easy to collect so samples can be large.

Front 17

Naturalistic observation

Back 17

watching and recording real behavior, but this describes only.

Front 18

Experiment

Back 18

factors of interest are manipulated and other factors are held constant.

Front 19

Laboratory research vs. field research

Back 19

Lab: involve the direct manipulation of (independent) variables and the observation of their effects on the behavior of other (dependent) variables.

Field: involve the manipulation of independent variables using unknowing participants in natural settings.

Front 20

Correlational studies

Back 20

show a relationship between variables, but they do not show a cause-and-effect relationship.

Front 21

Informed consent

Back 21

a research subject’s agreement to participate after being informed of any potential risks and his or her right to withdraw at any time without penalty

Front 22

Debriefing

Back 22

a discussion of procedures, hypotheses, and subject reactions at the completion of the study

Front 23

Costs vs. benefits

Back 23

Evaluating the costs and benefits of the research procedures.

Front 24

Walter Mischel’s message

Back 24

Personality does not exist.

Front 25

David Funder’s message

Back 25

Mishel's debate was dead.

Front 26

Costa & Mccrae & the Big 5 trait theory

Back 26

O.C.E.A.N.
1. Openness to experience
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extraversion
4. Agreeableness
5. Neuroticism

Front 27

Evolutionary psychology (Motivation)

Back 27

goal is to survive and reproduction.

Front 28

Drive-reduction theory (Motivation)

Back 28

Drive that motivates an organism to satisfy needs.

Front 29

Arousal theory (Motivation)

Back 29

When needs are met, we feel driven to experience stimulation.

Front 30

Maslow’s Humanistic theory (Motivation)(hierarchy)

Back 30

1. Physiological needs
2. Safety needs
3. Belonging and love needs
4. Esteem needs (higher and lower)
5. Self-actualization needs

Front 31

Strong vs. weak situations

Back 31

Strong situations follow the scripted norm.

Week situations have more room for different behaviors.

Front 32

Social cognition

Back 32

the process of thinking about and making sense of oneself and others

Front 33

Four Core Processes ofSocial Cognition

Back 33

1. Attention (Gorilla clip)
2. Interpretation
3. Judgment
4. Memory

Front 34

Goals of social cognition

Back 34

1. Conserving Mental Effort
2. Managing Self-Image
3. Seeking Accuracy

Front 35

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Back 35

when an initially inaccurate expectation leads to actions that cause the expectation to come true

Front 36

Expectancy effects

Back 36

Rosenthal’s Pygmalion in the classroom.

Front 37

Dispositional inferences

Back 37

judgments that a person’s behavior was caused by his or her personality

Front 38

Correspondence bias (The fundamental attribution error)

Back 38

the tendency for observers to overestimate the causal influence of personality factors on behavior and to underestimate the causal role of situational influences

Front 39

Actor-observer difference

Back 39

the tendency for individuals to judge their own behaviors as caused by situational forces but the behavior of another as caused by his or her personality

Front 40

Representative heuristic

Back 40

a mental shortcut – classifying something as belonging to a certain category to the extent that it is similar to a typical case from that category

Front 41

Cognitive shortcuts (heuristics)

Back 41

mental shortcuts used to make judgments

Front 42

Availability heuristic

Back 42

a mental shortcut – estimating the likelihood of an event by the ease with which instances of that event come to mind

Front 43

Anchoring and adjustment heuristic

Back 43

a mental shortcut – using a rough estimation as a starting point, and then adjusting this estimate to take into account unique characteristics of the current situation

Front 44

False consensus

Back 44

the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others agree with us

Front 45

Arousal (Cognitive short-cut)

Back 45

When we are physiologically aroused (e.g., from watching a horror movie) we are more likely to use cognitive short-cuts.

Front 46

Need for structure (Cognitive short-cut)

Back 46

People high in the need for structure agree with items like:
“I don’t like situations that are uncertain.”
These people are more likely to use cognitive short-cuts.

Front 47

Complex situations & time structure (Cognitive short-cut)

Back 47

Complex situations use up more attention, thus leading us to rely on cognitive short-cuts.

Front 48

Expectations not met (Cognitive short-cut)

Back 48

When something happens that we don’t expect, we are less likely to use cognitive short-cuts, and more likely to think carefully about our situation.

Front 49

Social comparison

Back 49

Leon Festinger – the drive to assess the self accurately by comparing ourselves to others.

Front 50

Self-serving bias

Back 50

the tendency to take credit for our successes and to blame external factors for our failures

Front 51

William James’ “I” versus “me”

Back 51

“I” – the executive self

“Me” – the self-concept

Front 52

Goffman’s “Dramaturgic Metaphor”

Back 52

"All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages...“

Front 53

Self-Presentation

Back 53

the process through which we try to control the impressions people form of us

Front 54

Why do we self-present

Back 54

To acquire desirable resources

To help “construct” our self-images

To enable our social encounters to run more smoothly

Front 55

Dramaturgical perspective

Back 55

the perspective that much of social interaction can be thought of as a play, with actors, performances, settings, scripts, props, roles, and so forth

Front 56

When do we self-present

Back 56

When we think others are paying attention to us
When others can influence whether or not we reach our goals
When those goals are important to us
When we think observers have impressions of us that are different from the ones we desire

Front 57

The “Spotlight Effect”

Back 57

when we think everyone is looking at us.

Front 58

Public Self-Consciousness

Back 58

the tendency to have a chronic awareness of oneself as being in the public eye

Front 59

Self-Monitoring (high versus low)

Back 59

the tendency to be chronically concerned with one’s public image and to adjust one’s actions to fit the needs of the current situation

Front 60

Goals of self presentation.

Back 60

To be seen as likeable (ingratiation)

To be seen as competent (self-promotion)

To be seen as powerful (intimidation)

Front 61

Ingratiation

Back 61

an attempt to get others to like us