Social Psych Exam #1

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what is social psych?

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an attempt to understand & explain how thoughts, feelings, & behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others
-gordon allport

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scientific approach stresses?

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1. development of theory
2. empirical systematic testing of ideas (experimentation, observation)

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hindsight bias

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tendency of individuals to believe they would have been able to accurately predict the outcome of an event after they know the actual outcome when in fact they wouldn't have been able to do so successfully
-aka i knew it all along phenomenon
-can be associated w/the reconstruction of our past behaviors
-makes people overconfident about the validity of their judgements & predictions

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relative deprivation

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the preception that one is less well off than others with whom one compares oneself

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egotistical vs. fraternal

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egotistical: you yourself
fraternal: a group to which you belong

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3 big ideas in social psych

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1. principle of situationism
2.principle of construal
3. tension systems

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principle of situationism

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social influences powerfully shape our behavior

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what other factors shape our behavior ( part of principle of situationism )

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personal attitudes & dispositions
our biological influence (natural selection predisposes us to some kinds of behaviors)
*social psych emphasizes social influences and suggests we often overrate personality causes of behavior

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principle of construal

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we construct our own social reality
the impact of any specific stimulus situation depends on its personal & subjective meaning to the individual involved

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construal

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social perception isnt the passive reception of objective reality
processes used in constructing social reality often led us to misinterpret it
varies across time, individuals, & cultures

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power of perception

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our perceptions can actually shape reality, even if they're mistaken

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tension systems

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individuals & groups are often best understood as systems in a state of tension
their behavior is derived from the totality of coexisting forces
factors inhibiting a behavior can be as important as those promoting it
small forces can have a big impact if the system is precariously balanced
massive change efforts may be ineffective if forces in the other direction are strong

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determinism

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nature is orderly & lawful

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scientific method

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-based on determinism
-develops & tests theory
-empirical approach
-emphasizes objectivity
-replication
-designing studies to test ideas fairly

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theory

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an integrated set of principles that explains & predicts events
-arent always completely objective
-reflect the way we think about the world
-may capture only part of reality, but be misinterpreted as telling the whole story
-the concepts & labels used in theories can unintentionally reflect the values of the scientist

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empirical approach

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active planned collection of ideas

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sampling

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selection of respondents in a way designed to insure that they are representative of the population of interest

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leading question

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question phrased in a way likely to encourage certain kinds of responses

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jaensch's personality types

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anti-type: indefinite, unstable; liberal; weak, effeminate
j-type: definite, firm; patriotic; masculine

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authoritarian personality

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-rigid, intolerant of ambiguity
-right wing political and economic views
-domineering
-anti-semitism correlated w/authoritarian personality

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forming & testing hypotheses

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prepositions describing an expected relationship between events

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2 research methods for social psych

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1. correlational: naturally occuring relationships among variables
2. experimental: seeks clues to cause & effect relationships by manipulating one or more variables

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correlational research

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detecting natural associations
allows us to predict but not tell whether changing one variable will cause changes in another variable

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experimental research

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searching for cause & effect
high level of control: variables manipulated
independent & dependent variable
random assignment

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independent vs. dependent variable

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independent: experimental factor that researcher manipulates
dependent: variable being measured; depends on manipulations of independent variables

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random assignment

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process of assigning participants to the conditions of an experiment such that all persons have the same chance of being in a given condition; eliminates extraneous factors

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confound

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occurs when something other than the independent variable differs systematically between the experimental conditions

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operational definition

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definition of a concept (usually an independent or dependent variable) framed in terms of the way it's measured

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self concept

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the organization of qualities which the individual attributes to himself or herself

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3 sources of the self-concept

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1. objective reality
2. his/her own inner reality
3. social reality

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self reference effect

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tendency to process efficiently & remember well information related to oneself

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possible selves

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images of what we dream of or dread of becoming in the future

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collectivist cultures

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-identity based in the social system & given by one's group
-people are socialized to be emotionally dependent on organizations & institutions
-expertise, order, duty, & security are provided by the larger social system
-people are encouraged to adjust & restrain the self in order to be a better fit with the social group
-trust placed in group decisions

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individualist cultures

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-identity based in the individual & achieved by one's own striving
-people are supposed to take care of themselves & their immediate families
-emphasis is on individual initiative and achievement & leadership is the ideal
-trust placed in individual decisions

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self serving bias

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tendency to perceive oneself favorably
-attribute positive outcomes to oneself & negative outcomes to other factors
-contribute to marital discord, worker dissatisfaction, & bargaining impasses
-a by product of how we process & remember information about ourselves
-adaptive vs. maldaptive

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adaptive vs. maladaptive

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adapt: protects people from depression
mala: group serving bias

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self efficacy

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belief in our competence & effectiveness
-greater self efficacy associated with: high persistance, low anxiety, greater academic success

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locus of control

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extent to which someone believes they can control outcomes by their own efforts as opposed to outcomes being controlled by chance or other outside forces

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schemas

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mental templates by which we organize, process & interpret our experiences
-impact our attention, retrival from memory, behavior
-used more when heavy cognitive load

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priming

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-increases the availability of schema in our memory
-strongly influence our behavior & interpretation of others behavior

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decision making

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we use lots of mental heuristics that lead to illogical or suboptimal decisions

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belief perserverence

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persistence of initial beliefs, even in the light of disconfirming evidence

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availability heuristic

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judging something's likelihood based on its availability from memory
leads to mistakes because we overweight vivid instances

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representative heurisitc

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leads to mistakes cause we discount other important info

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self fulfilling prophecy

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teachers expectations can impact students achievement, especially if they have high expectations for initially low achieving students

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anchoring effect

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tendency to use a number given to us as a starting point that impacts our judgment, even when that number is irrelevant, undependable, etc.

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dan gilbert said that best decision can be determined by?

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odds of a given outcome times value of that outcome

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fundamental attribution error

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tendency for observers to underestimate situaional influences & overestimate dispositional influences on others behavior

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attitude components

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1. affect: emotion, liking or disliking, etc
2. beliefs: thoughts, opinions
3. behavioral predispositions: tendency to act in a certain way

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classical conditioning

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occurs when a stimulus object that is incapable of evoking a specific response acquires this capability thru association w/another stimulus that can

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instrumental (operant) conditioning

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use of consequences (positive or negative) to modify the occurrence or form of a behavior emitted by an organism

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modeling

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adopting the attitudes or behavor or another

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direct experience

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attitudes formed thru direct experience are especially resistent to change

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attitude fuctions

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instrumental: further th attainment of one's goals; help us get what we want
value expressive: give expression to one's central values & thus support the self concept
ego defensive: serves to defend the self concept from threat; created by internal conflicts

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thinking, memory & attitudes operate on what 2 levels?

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conscious/diliberate & unconscious/automatic

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what 2 things are shaped by external social forces

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attitudes & behavior

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2 things that influence our behavior?

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attitude & personality

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social neuroscience

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to understand social behavior, we must consider biological & social influences

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obvious ways values enter psych

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when psycholoigists choose research topics, types of people who are attracted to various discliplines, & the object of social psych analysis

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social representations

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society's widely held ideas & values; help us make sense of our world

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less obvious ways values enter psych

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hidden assumptions when forming concepts, choosing labels & giving advice

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how to gain insight?

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propose theories, hypothesis, correlation studies or experiments

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3 purposes of a hypothesis

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1. allow us to test a theory by suggesting how we might try to falsify it
2. predictions give direction to research
3. predictive feature of good theories can make them practical

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4 biasing influences

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1. unrepresentative samples
2. order of questions
3. response options
4. wording of questions

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mundane realism

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degree to which an experiment is superficially similar to everyday situations

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experimental realism

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degree to which an experiment absorbs & involves its participants

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depception

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in research, participants are misinformed/mislead about the study's methods/purposes

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demand characteristics

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cues in an expt that tell the participant what behavior is expected

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spotlight effect

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seeing ourselves as center stage

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illusion of transparency

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illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others