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152 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Social psychology
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The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social situations
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Kurt Lewin
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founder of modern social psychology. Translated physics' field of forces theory to psychology (social situation affects beahvior)
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The Milgrim Experiment
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Shock experiment
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Darley and Batson (1973) Seminarian Study
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If in a hurry, the seminarians tended not to help a sickly man, but if they weren't, they did.
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dispositions
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internal factors such as beliefs, values, personality traits, or abilities that guide a person's behavior
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Fundamental attribution error
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the failure to recognize the importance of situational influences on behavior and the corresponding tendency to overemphasize the importance of dispositions/traits on behavior.
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channel factors
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certain situational circumstances that appear unimportant on the surface but that can have great consequences for behavior, either facilitating or blocking it or guiding behavior in a particular direction.
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Leventhal, Singer, & Uones (1965) Preventative care study
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Students were more likely to get tetanus shot if they planned their trip to the health center beforehand (rather than hearing horror stories about tetanus)
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Construal
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people's interpretation and inference about the stimuli or situations they confront
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Gestalt psychology
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Gestalt: form, figure. Stresses the fact that people perceive objects not by means of some automatic registering device but by active, usually unconscious interpretation of what the object represents as a whole.
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prisoner's dilemma
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A situation involving payoffs for two people, who must decide whether to cooperate or defect. In the end, trust and cooperation lead to higher joint payoffs than mistrust and defection.
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Liberman, Samuels, and Ross (2002) Wall Street/Community game
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Illustrates how construal can define a situation and dictate behavior.
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schema
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a knowledge structure consisting of any organized body of stored info
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Acsh (1940) anchoring study
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ranking the prestige of jobs ...different schemas activated by high and low anchors
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Stereotypes
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Schemas about people of a certain kind in which light we use to construe people.
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Automatic vs. controlled processing
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Automatic: unconscious, emotional. Reveals implicit attitudes
controlled: careful, systematic, conscious. Reveals explicit attitudes. Can result in incompatible attitudes in same person toward members of an out group |
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natural selection
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An evolutionary process that molds animals and plants so that traits that enhance the probability of survival and reproduction are passed on to subsequent generations
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theory of mind
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the understanding that other people have beliefs and desires
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parental investment
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the evolutionary principle that costs and benefits are associated with reproduction and the nurturing of offspring. Because these costs and benefits are different for males and females, one sex will normally value and invest more in each child than will the other sex.
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naturalistic fallacy
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the claim that the way things are is the way they should be.
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Independent/individualistic cultures
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Cultures in which people tend to think of themselves as distinct social entities, tied to each other by voluntary bonds of affection and organizational memberships but essentially separate from other people and having attributes that exist in the absence of any connection to others.
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interdependent/collectivist cultures
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Cultures in which people tend to define themselves as part of a collective, inextricably tied to others in their group and placing less importance on individual freedom or personal control over their lives.
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hindsight bias
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People's tendency to be overconfident about whether they could have predicted a given outcome.
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Hypothesis
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A prediction about what will happen under particular circumstances
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Theory
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A body of related propositions intended to describe some aspect of the world. More general than hypotheses
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participant observation
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Method of research used by psychologists and cultural anthropologists involving observing some phenomenon at close range
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Archival research
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Looking at evidence found in archives of various kinds-record books, police reports, sports stats, newspaper articles, and databases.
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Surveys
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Asking people questions-interviewsor written questionnaire.
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Random sample
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Taken at random from the population. Give everyone in the population as a whole an equal chance of being chosen.
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Convenience sample
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taken from some available subgroup in the population. Not random and may be biased in some way. EX. contacting people as they enter a library or emailing frat/sorority members. This sample may be systematically different than the population
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Correlational research
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Research that does not involve random assignment to different conditions and that psychologists conduct just to see whether there is a relationship b/w the variables. -1, 0, 1
.2 slight relationship .4 moderate .6 very strong (SIDENOTE: what happened to effect sizes???) |
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Experimental research
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In social psychology, research that randomly assigns people to different conditions and that enables researchers to make strong inferences about how these different conditions affect people's behavior.
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Reverse causation
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When variable 1 is assumed to cause variable 2, yet the opposite direction of causation may be the case
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Third variable
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When variable 1 does not cause variable and variable 2 doesn't cause variable 1, but rather some other variable exerts a causal influence on both
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Self-selection
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A problem that arises when the participant, rather than the investigator, selects her level on each variable, bringing w/ this value unknown other properties that make causal interpretation of a relationship difficult.
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Longitudinal study
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A study conducted over a long period of time with the same population, which is periodically assessed regarding a particular behavior.
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Independent variable
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In experimental research, the variable that is manipulated; it is hypothesized to be the cause of a particular outcome.
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Dependent variable
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In experimental research, the variable that is measured; it is hypothesized to be affected by manipulation of the independent variable. Can be verbal report, behavior, physiological measures, or neural measures.
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Random assignment
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Assigning participants in experimental research to different groups randomly, such that they are as likely to be assigned to one condition as the other. Rules out self-selection biases.
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Control condition
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A condition comparable to the experimental condition in every way except that it lacks the one ingredient hypothesized to produce the expected effect on the dependent variable.
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Natural experiments
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Naturally occurring events or phenomena having somewhat different conditions that can be compared with almost as much rigor as in experiments where the investigator manipulates the conditions.
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external validity
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An experimental setup that closely resembles real-life situations so that results can safely be generalized to such situations. Not essential if purpose is to clarify a general idea or theory.
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Field experiment
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An experiment set up in the real world, usually with participants who are not aware that they are in a study of any kind. One of the best ways to ensure external validity.
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Internal validity
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In experimental research, confidence that only the manipulated variable could have produced the results. Always essential, requires that the experimental setup seem realistic and plausible to participants.
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Debriefing
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Can help ensure internal validity (in pilot studies). In preliminary versions of an experiment, asking participants straightforwardly if they understood the instructions, found the setup to be reasonable, and so forth. In later versions, debriefings are used to educate participants about the questions being studied. Especially important when participants have been deceived or made uncomfortable.
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Reliability
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The degree to which the particular way that researchers measure a given variable is likely to yield consistent results. 0-1.
Ability tests should have .8 Personality .8 or a bit lower |
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Measurement validity
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the correlation between some measure and some outcome that the measure is supposed to predict.
Typically don't exceed .5 personality tests and behavior only about .3 |
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Statistical significance
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a measure of the probability that a given result could have occurred by chance (!! or could have occurred given the null hypothesis????...this book seems wrong a lot). The larger the difference between groups or relationship between variables and the larger the number of cases, the greater the statistical significance
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Basic science
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Science concerned with trying to understand some phenomenon in its own right, with a view toward using that understanding to build valid theories about the nature of some aspect of the world. Theoretical science, basically. Can give rise to interventions
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Applied science
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Science concerned with solving some real-world problem of importance. Can also produce results that feed back into basic science.
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Intervention
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An effort to change people's behavior
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IRB
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A university committee that examines research proposals and makes judgments about the ethical appropriateness of the research
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Informed consent
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Participants' willingness to participate in a procedure or research study after learning all relevant aspects about the procedure or study
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Deception research
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Research in which the participants are misled about the purpose of the research or the meaning of something that is done to them. Informed consent not possible.
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William James
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coined the term the "social me," parts of self0knowledge that come from social relationships. Our sense of who we are is forged in our interactions with others.
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3 parts of self
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individual, relational, and collective
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The individual self
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Beliefs about our unique personal traits, abilities, preferences, tastes, talents, etc. What sets the person apart from others.
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Relational self
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Beliefs about our identities in specific relationships. Ex. A doting husband, the black sheep of the family.
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collective self
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beliefs about our identities as members of social groups to which we belong. Ex. Irish-Canadian, Episcopalian, gay urban male, Libertarian, etc.
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Relational and Collective Self
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Capture the social sides of the self, how the person is connected to others. Also includes beliefs about the roles, duties, and obligations each of us assume in specific relationships and groups.
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Socialization agents
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Teach kids what they view as socially appropriate and valued attitudes/behaviors. Can also shape our sense of self by influencing traits, abilities, and preferences. EX. parents, grandparents, siblings, teachers.
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symbolic interactionist
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notion that we come to know ourselves through imagining what others think of us.
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reflected self-appraisals
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Beliefs about what others think about our social selves.Can lead to self knowledge. Internalize how we THINK others view us, not how they actually do.
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Working self-concept
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Coined by Marks and Wurf (1987), refers to a subset of self-knowledge that is brought to mind in a particular context.
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Malleability of the social self
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Social self defined by 2 truths. 1) it is malleable, shifting from one context to another, but 2) at the same time a person's social self has core components that persist across contexts.
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Culture-based self-conceptions
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can influence many parts of the social self like specific construal processes and self-esteem.
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Independent self-construal
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Western cultures, esp. NW Europe and North America. *Self is an autonomous entity that is distinct and separate from others.
*The imperative is to assert uniqueness and independence. *Focus on internal cause of behavior. *traits are stable across time and social context |
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Interdependent self-construals
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Asian cultures, many Mediterranean, African, South American
*Self fundamentally connected to others *Imperative to find a place and fulfill appropriate roles within the community *Focus on the influence of the social context *Self embedded within social relationships, roles, and duties. |
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Gender differences in U.S. and Japan
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Women: more interdependent
Men: more independent, prioritize difference and uniqueness |
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Social comparison theory
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The hypothesis that people compare themselves to other people in order to obtain an accurate assessment of their own opinions, abilities, and internal states. Must compare yourself with people who have approx. your level of skill. But downward social comparisons help us define ourselves rather favorably
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Downward social comparison
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Comparison biased toward people who are slightly worse off
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Upward social comparison
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Comparison with people who are slightly better off. Improvement-oriented
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Routine standards
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routinely used comparisons EX. best friend or close sibling, becomes automatic process
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Narrated Self/Self0Narratives
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Stories we tell about ourselves in order to integrate our many goals, make sense of conflict, explain how we change over time
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Self-schemas
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cognitive structures, derived from past experience, that represent a person's beliefs and feelings about the self in particular domains. EX. self schema representing our beliefs about how conscientious (the domain) we are. Some more elaborate than others.
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Self-reference effect
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The tendency for info that is related to the self to be more thoroughly processed and integrated w/ existing self-knowledge, thereby making it more memorable.
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self-complexity
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The tendency to define the self in terms of multiple domains that are relatively distinct from one another in context
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The number of self-defining domains a person has as well as the degree of overlap b/w diff domains matters
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ta dah. Low complexity people, take negative events harder.
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Self-esteem
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the positive or negative overall evaluation that each person has of her/himself. Trait vs. state self esteem
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contingencies of self-worth
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an account of self-esteem that maintains that self-esteem is contingent on successes and failures in domains on which a person has based his or her self-worth
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sociometer hypothesis
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a hypothesis that maintains that self-esteem is an internal, subjective index or marker of the extent to which a person is included or looked on favorably by others
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better-than-average effect
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the finding that most people think they are above average on various trait and ability dimensions
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self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) model
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A model that maintains that people are motivated to view themselves in a favorable light and that they do so through two processes: reflection and social comparison
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self-verification theory
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a theory that holds that people strive for stable, subjectively accurate beliefs about the self because such beliefs give them a sense of coherence
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self-regulation
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Processes that people use to initiate, alter, and control their behavior in the pursuit of goals, including the ability to resist short term awards that thward the attainment of a long-term goals
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possible selves
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hypothetical selves that a person aspires to be in the future
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self-discrepancy theory
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a theory that behavior is motivated by standards reflecting ideal and ought selves. Falling short of these standard produces specific emotions-dejection-related emotions for actual-ideal discrepancies, and agitation-related emotions for actual-ought discrepancies
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actual self
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the self that people believe they are
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ideal self
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the self that embodies people's wishes and aspirations as held by themselves and by other people for them
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ought self
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the self that is concerned with the duties, obligations, and external demands people feel they are compelled to honor
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promotion focus
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regulating behavior with respect to ideal self standard, entailing a focus on attaining positive outcomes and approach-related beahviors
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prevention focus
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regulating behavior with respect to ought standards, entailing a focus on avoiding negative outcomes and avoidance-related behaviors
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ego depletion
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a state, produced by acts of self-control, in which people lack the energy or resources to engage in further acts of self-control
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self-presentation
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presenting the person that we would like others to believe we are
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face
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the public image of ourselves that we ant others to believe
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self-monitoring
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the tendency for people to monitor their behavior in such a way that it fits situational demands
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self-handicapping
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people's tendency to engage in self-defeating behavior in order to have a ready excuse should they perform poorly or fail
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Pluralistic ignorance
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misperception of a group norm that results from observing people who are acting at variance with their private beliefs out of a concern for the social consequences-actions that reinforce the erroneous group norm. Esp. common in situations where "toughness" is valued, like gangs.
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Primacy effect
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the disproportionate influence on judgment by info presented first in a body of evidence. Order effect > Framing effect
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recency effect
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The disproportionate influence on judgment by info presented last in a body of evidence. Order effect > Framing effect
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framing effect
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the influence on judgment resulting from the way info is presented, such as the order of presentation or how it is worded.
Spin framing: pro choice vs pro abortion |
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Construal level thoery
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A theory that outlines the relationship b/w psychological distance and the concreteness versus abstraction of thought. Psychologically distant actions and events are thought about in abstract terms; actions and events that are close at hand are thought about in concrete terms
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confirmation bias
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the tendency to test a proposition by searching for evidence that would support it
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bottom-up processes
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"data-driven" mental processing, in which an individual forms conclusions based on the stimuli encountered thru experience
specific->generalization |
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Top-down processes
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"Theory-driven" mental processing , in which an individual filters and interprets new info in light of preexisting knowledge and expectations
generalization->specifics |
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construal principle
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If we want to know how a person will react in a given situation, we must understand how the person experiences that situation.
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Challenges in social cognition: understanding other people
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little or no info on which to base assessments, available info misleading (pluralistic ignorance), the way in which info is acquired can unduly affect thinking
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encoding
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Filing info away in memory based on what info is attended to an the initial interpretation of the info, i.e. schemas affect encoding (librarian-waitress study)
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retrieval
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the extraction of info from memory. Schemas can also affect how info is extracted from a storehouse of knowledge, but their effect on encoding is stronger. Test by presenting schema after they have been shown relevant info
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prime
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to momentarily activate a concept and hence make it accessible (as used as a noun-a stimulus presented to activate a concept)
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subliminal
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Below the threshold of conscious awareness
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self-fulfilling prophecy
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the tendency for people to act in ways that bring about the very thing they expect to happen. Expectations do more than guide how ppl interpret info, but also affect our behavior, which then influences the very interaction we are observing
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heuristics
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intuitive mental operations that allow us to make a variety of judgments quickly and efficiently. Mental shortcuts that provide serviceable, but inexact , answers to common problems of judgment.
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availability heuristic
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the process whereby judgments of frequency or probability are based on how readily pertinent instances come to mind
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representativenss heuristic
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the process whereby judgments of likelihood are based on assessments of similarity b/w individuals and group prototypes or b/w cause and effect. EX. when we try to categorize something by judging how similar it is to our conception of the typical member of the category
Can cause us to avoid base-rate info. |
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fluency
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the feeling of ease associated with processing info. A clear image is easy to process/fluent, an irregular word is hard to process/disfluent. Influences judgments like availability. Disfluency makes us slow down and be carefu..
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base-rate info
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info about the relative frequency of events or of members of different categories in the population. Strong sense of representativenss can lead us to ignore base-rate likelihood. EX. A person is more likely to be Republican if the area includes many, but if the person seems representative of a Democrat, we may misidentify
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planning fallacy
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the tendency for people to be unrealistically optimistic about how quickly they can complete a project
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illusory correlation
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the belief that two variables are correlated when in fact they are not. Joint effect of availability and representativeness heuristics. A judgment of repres. leads us to expect an association b/w the two entities, and this expectation in turn makes instances in which they ARE paired unusually memorable.
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The meaning of stimuli...
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is actively construed, not passively recorded (see bottom-up, top-down)
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The influence of schemas
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Schemas affect our judgments by: directing our attention, structuring our memories, influencing our construals , and behavior. They can sometimes lead us to mischaracterize the world.
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Attention
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not noticing some weird intrusion in a basketball game based on schema of bb game
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Memory
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most likely to remember salient and schema-consistent info->librarian-waitress study
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Construals
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info already stored in brain can influence how ppl construe new info, esp. when the stimulus is ambiguous->top-down processes
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Behavior
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Can activate a schema (for "elderly," for example), which can then influence people's behavior to fall in accordance with the schema (to walk slowly, for example). But sometimes if prime extreme example of schema, bheavior is inconsistent to schema (prime Einstein, do worse on test)
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Frequent Activation/chronic accessibility
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The role of the evaluator or the context in which a target person is encountered often influence which schema is used, but also if a person uses a schema frequently, it may become chronically accessible. It functions like a recently activated schema.
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Consciousness of activation
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People need not be conscious of a stimulus for it to effectively prime a given schema. Thus, subliminal priming.
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What determines whether an activated schema is applied and used to make sense of new info?
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Most common determinant is the degree of similarity or "fit" bw critical features of the schema and the incoming stimulus. The features of the situation tell you what kind of situation it is, and then you apply the relevant schema to assist with further interpretation of what you encounter
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Expectations...
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...prime the schema, and the schema is readily applied at the slightest hint that it is applicable.
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Rational vs. intuitive systems
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Rational: slow, controlled, based on rules and deduction, performs operations serially
Intuitive: rapid, automatic, based on associations, performs operations "in parallel". |
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attribution theory
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A umbrella term used to describe the set of theoretical accounts of how people assign causes to the events around them and the effects that people's causal assessments have.
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causal attribution
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linking an event to a cause, such as inferring that a personality trait was responsible for a behavior
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explanatory style
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A person's habitual way of explaining events, typically assessed along three dimensions: internal/external, stable/unstable, and global/specific
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covariation principle
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the idea that behavior should be attributed to potential causes that co-occur with the behavior
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consensus
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What most people would do in a given situation-that is, whether most people would behave the same way or few or no other people would behave that way
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distinctiveness
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what an individual does in different situations-that is, whether the behavior is unique to a particular situation or occurs in all situations
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consistency
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what an individual does in a given situation on different occasions-that is, whether next time under the same circumstances, the person would behave the same or differently.
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discounting principle
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the idea that people should assign reduced weight to a particular cause of behavior if other plausible causes might have produced it.
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augmentation principle
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The idea that people should assign greater weight to a particular cause of behavior if other causes are present that normally would produce the opposite outcome.
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counterfactual thoughts
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thoughts of what might have, could have, or should have happened "if only" something had been done differently.
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emotional amplification
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A ratcheting up of an emotional reaction to an event that is proportional to how easy it is to imagine the event not happening.
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self-serving attributional bias
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The tendency to attribute failure and other bad events to external circumstances, but to attribute success and other good events to oneself
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just world hypothesis
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the belief that people get what they deserve in life and deserve what they get.
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actor-observer difference
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A difference in attribution based on who is making th causal assessment: the actor (who is relatively disposed to make situational attributions) or the observer (who is relatively disposed to make dispositional attributions)
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social class
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the amount of wealth, education, and occupational prestige a person and his or her family enjoy
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Causes of the fundamental attribution error
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motivational influence and belief in a just world, people are often more salient than situations, attribution and cognition ( assess behavioral info before situational info)
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Discounting principle
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a potential cause is discounted as a possible cause of a particular outcome if other causes might have produced the outcome
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Cultural differences in Attending to Context
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Western world attends less to context than rest of the world.
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Causal att. for ind. and inter. peoples
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Asians more inclined than Westerners to attribute behavior to the situation
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Cultural differences in fundamental attribution error
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More widespread and pronounced for Westerner s than for Easterners
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social class and attribution
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Working class individuals more likely to attribute events to situational factors
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Wants/beliefs
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Understanding a person's intentions often requires understanding the person's wants and beliefs, central to the theory of mind
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