Social Psych Exam 2

Hypothesis

a testable prediction about the conditions under which an event will occur

Operationalize

make a conceptual variable that is measurable

Measure

Measure the concepts that you are interested

Evaluate

Examination of data to determine whether or not predictions have been confirmed

Revise or Replicate

If your predictions have been confirmed you will want to replicate your study to confirm the findings

If your predictions have been disconfirmed you will want to revise your hypothesis or operations

Observational Method

Used to describe the nature of a phenomenon

Correlational method

Examines the association between two variables (not causation)

Experimental Method

Manipulate one variable (IV) to see the effect on another variable (DV)

Representative Sampling

a process for selecting research participants whose characteristics fairly reflect the characteristics of the population from which they were drawn

Random Sampling

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

Internal Validity

Have all alternate explanations been controlled for your effect? (can you be sure that X caused Y)

External Validity

Will the findings hold up with variations in the situation, participants, and manipulations? (generalizability)

Construct Validity

Do the operationalization s really represent your conceptualizations? (are you measuring what you think you're measuring)

Ecological Validity

the extent to which research findings can be generalized to real-world settings and situations

Mundane Realism

the extent to which an experiment is similar to real life situations

Experimental Realism

degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves its participants

Informed Consent

Participants know what they're signing up for

Debriefing

Participants are informed of the study's purpose afterwards

Attitude

A positive, negative, or mixed evaluation of some specific object

Valence

Is the overall evaluation positive or negative? (describes whether the scale tips left, right, or not at all)

Extremity

HOW positive or negative is it? (how much the scale tips)

Strength

How strong or weak your attitude is (strongly negative, strongly positive etc.)

Object appraisal

fundamental function of attitudes. Helps us classify things in our environment, thus organizing and simplifying our lives. By knowing waht is good or bad in our environment, we are able to maximize rewards (approaching the good) and minimize punishments (avoiding the bad)

Affect

Emotional response

Behavior

Actions

Cognition

Thought and beliefs

La Piere's Study

Chines couple received service despite anti-chinese sentiment in surveys. This displays attitude-behavior inconsistency

Specificity principle

To predict behavior form attitudes, match the level of specificity between the attitude and the behavior. To predict specific behaviors, measure specific attitudes (vise versa for general)

Theory of Planned Behavior is the theory that behavior is predicted by intention, which is predicted by these 3 factors:

1)attitude toward the behavior (specificity principle)

2)Subjective norms (our perceptions of what others think we should do)

3) perceived behavioral control: nothing prevents you from doing the behavior

Direct measures/self report of attitudes

ask people what their attitudes are. use the attitude scale. assume people know their attitudes and will answer honestly

what are the strengths and weaknesses of self report

Strengths: easy, direct

Weakness: social desirability bias, context sensitive (question wording, preceding questions, priming, scale)

Indirect (covert) measures of attitudes

Physiological measures (facial EMG, EEG, fMRI), Implicit measures (sequential priming, IAT) Nonverbal behavior (eye contact, seating distance)

two routes to persuasion

central route (careful thinking-used when motivated and able) Peripheral route (superficial cues, used when lacking motivation or ability)

Cognitive dissonance

an unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his or her actions, attitudes, or beliefs

What experiments show us evidence of cognitive dissonance?

$1/20 mundane experiment to tell the next participant the experiment was fun. Sex talk group with mild or intense scanning.

Effort justification paradigm

People tend to value things more highly when they put a lot of effort into obtaining them, even if the outcome isn't worth the effort

Insufficient justification paradigm

people are more likely to change their attitude or belief when they are given a minimal external justification for a behavior that conflicts with their personal beliefs

Conformity

behavior change designed to match the actions or desires of others

Compliance

behavior change that occurs as a result of a direct request

Obedience

Compliance that occurs in response to a directive from an authority figure (involves social hierarchy)

Informational Influence

Seeking correctness in uncertain situations. Influence due to the belief that others are behaving correctly. Leads to private acceptance, does not involve arousal or discomfort, you may not even know you're doing it.

Autokinetic Effect (Sherif's Study)

Participants are placed in a dark room and are asked to estimate how far a light moves in inches.

What are the findings of the Autokinetic Effect study?

when the light moves, individuals estimates converge with the group. When alone, participants still gave estimates reflecting the group norm.

Dark side of informational conformity

seeing others engage in an "inappropriate" response to ambiguous stimuli can cause us to react with the same response (Mass panic/hysteria)

Public Acceptance

conforming can lead to public acceptance, conforming with others without accepting what they are doing as correct, associated with normative influence

Private acceptance

internal agreement. Conforming with others and having the genuine belief that what others are doing or saying is right. Associated with informational influence

Normative influence

wanting to be liked or accepted, norms make us conform, deviance can hinder group acceptance, leads to public acceptance does not lead to private acceptance. (involves arousal, emotion, and discomfort)

Asch's line judgement study

People conformed to the majority, 76% of participants conformed at least once

factors that influence conformity in Asch's study

Conformity does not increase after confederates group size reaches 3-4, just one confederate that goes against the majority can reduce conformity by 80%, when participants wrote their answers privately, conformity dropped sharply

Implicit norms

Unspoken rules (wearing a shirt in public)

Explicit norms

Rules and laws (no theft/murder etc.)

Descriptive norms

What people do. Perception of the prevalence of a behavior, where the group/society/culture is, violations are seen as odd

Perspective norms

What people should do, perception of what is commonly approved or disapproved in a group/society/culture, violations are seen as bad

Resisting normative influence

past conformity works as a pass for future non-conformity, people who usually conform are given a pass to not conform every once in a while.

Using social influence for good (anti-bullying study)

Peer leaders reduce bullying through norm changes. Using popular students to shift social norms about bullying

Pluralistic ignorance

The (incorrect) belief that one's personal attitudes are different from the majority's norm, and thus one goes along with what they think others think.

petrified forest study

Highlights how injunctive, negative signs ('please don't') reduce theft more than descriptive ones ('others have stolen')