Social Psychology Chap 1

Front 1

Social psychology (p 4)

Back 1

the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by other people.

Front 2

Theory (p4)

Back 2

THEORY: scientific explanation that connects and organizes existing observations and suggests fruitful paths for future research.

Front 3

SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE (p 6)

Back 3

(6) SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE: the theoretical viewpoint that searches for the cause of social behavior in influences from larger social groups

Front 4

Social norm (p 6)

Back 4

SOCIAL NORM: a rule or expectation for appropriate social behavior.

Front 5

Culture (p 7)

Back 5

(7) CULTURE: the beliefs, habits, and languages shared by the people living in a particular time and space.

Front 6

Evolutionary perspective (p 7)

Back 6

EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE: 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

Natural selection (p 7)

Back 7

NATURAL SELECTION: the process by which characteristics that help animals survive and reproduce are passed on to their offspring.

Front 8

Adaptation (p 8)

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ADAPTATION: a characteristic that is well designed to help an animal survive and reproduce in a particular environment.

Front 9

Social learning perspective (p9)

Back 9

SOCIAL LEARNING PERSPECTIVE: a theoretical viewpoint that focuses in past learning experiences as determinants of a person’s social behaviors.

Front 10

social cognitive perspective (p9)

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

Front 11

Person (p 16)

Back 11

PERSON: features or characteristics that individuals carry into social situations.

Front 12

Situation (p 16)

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SITUATION: environmental events or circumstances outside the person.

Front 13

Hypothesis (p 17)

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HYPOTHESIS: a researcher’s prediction about what he or she will find.

Front 14

Descriptive method (p 18)

Back 14

DESCRIPTIVE METHOD: procedure for measuring or recording behaviors, thoughts, and feelings in their natural state (including naturalistic observations, case studies, archival studies, surveys, and psychological tests).

Front 15

Experimental method (p 18)

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EXPERIMENTAL METHOD: procedure for uncovering causal processes by systematically manipulating some aspect of a situation (the independent variable).

Front 16

Naturalistic observation (p 18)

Back 16

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION: recording everyday behaviors as they unfold in their natural settings.

Front 17

Observer bias (p 19)

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OBSERVER BIAS: error included into measurement when an observer overemphasizes behaviors he or she expects to find and fails to notice behaviors he or she does not expect.

Front 18

Case study (p 19)

Back 18

CASE STUDY: an intensive examination of an individual or group.

Front 19

Generalizability (p 19)

Back 19

GENERALIZABILITY: the extent to which the findings of a particular research study extend to other similar circumstances or cases.

Front 20

Archival method (p 20)

Back 20

ARCHIVAL METHOD: examination of systematic data originally collected for other purposes (public records such as marriage licenses or arrest orders)

Front 21

Survey method (p 20)

Back 21

SURVEY METHOD: a technique in which the researcher asks people to report on their beliefs, feelings, or behaviors.

Front 22

Social desirability bias (p 20)

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SOCIAL DESIRABILITY BIAS: the tendency for people to say what they believe is appropriate or acceptable.

Front 23

Representative sample (p 20)

Back 23

REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE: a group of respondents having characteristics that match those of the larger population the researcher wants to describe.

Front 24

Psychological test (p 21)

Back 24

PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST: instrument for assessing a person’s abilities, cognitions, and motivations.

Front 25

Reliability (p 21)

Back 25

RELIABILITY: the consistency of the score yielded by a psychological test.

Front 26

Reliability (p 21)

Back 26

RELIABILITY: the consistency of the score yielded by a psychological test.

Front 27

Correlation (p 22)

Back 27

CORRELATION: the extent to which two or more variables are associated with one another.

Front 28

Correlation coefficient (p 22)

Back 28

CORRELATION COEFFICIENT: a mathematical expression of the relationship between two variables.

Front 29

Experiment (p 23)

Back 29

EXPERIMENT: a research method in which the researcher sets out to systematically manipulate one source of influence while holding others constant.

Front 30

Independent variable (p 23)

Back 30

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: the variable manipulated by the experimenter.

Front 31

Dependent variable (p 23)

Back 31

DEPENDENT VARIABLE: the variable measured by the experimenter.

Front 32

Random assignment (p 23)

Back 32

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT: the practice of assigning participants to treatments so each person has an equal chance of being in any condition.

Front 33

Internal validity (p 24)

Back 33

INTERNAL VALIDITY: the extent to which an experiment allows confident statements about cause and effect.

Front 34

Confound (p 24)

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CONFOUND: a variable that systematically changes along with the independent variable, potentially leading to a mistaken conclusion about the effect of the independent variable.

Front 35

External validity (p 24)

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EXTERNAL VALIDITY: the extent to which the results of an experiment can be generalized to other circumstances.

Front 36

Demand characteristic (p 24)

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DEMAND CHARACTERISTIC: cue that makes participants aware of how the experimenter expects them to behave.

Front 37

Field experimentation (p 24)

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FIELD EXPERIMENTATION: the manipulation of independent variables using unknown participants in natural setting (trick or treat experiment)

Front 38

Debriefing (p 28)

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DEBRIEFING: a discussion of procedures, hypotheses, and participant reactions at the completion of a study.

Front 39

Positive psychology (p 30)

Back 39

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: balancing psychologists’ traditional interest in clinical disorders and negative behaviors, positive psychologists study the virtuous side of human behavior.