Intro to Social Psych Exam 1

For Prof Molix's Spring 2024 class

What is the illusion of transparency?

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

What are social representations?

Socially shared beliefs and/or values including our assumptions & cultural ideologies

What is the naturalistic fallacy?

error that something is morally good or acceptable simply because it is natural or commonly observed in nature

What is physical control?

gives all participants equal exposure to the independent variable; controls non-experimental variables that affect the dependent variable

What is selective control?

Manipulate indirectly by selecting in or out variables that cannot be controlled

What is statistical control?

variables not conducive to physical or selective manipulation may be controlled by statistical techniques

What is the looking glass self?

using others as a mirror for perceiving ourselves

What is the self-reference effect?

The tendency to process efficiently and remember information related to oneself

What is self-serving bias?

Tendency to perceive oneself favorably

What is the false consensus effect?

overestimate commonality of one’s opinions or undesirable behaviors

What is the false uniqueness effect?

underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities or desirable behaviors

How does self-esteem in collectivist cultures compare to that of individualistic cultures?

In collectivist cultures, self-esteem is lower or more difficult to detect

How does culture help us manage terror & anxiety of death?

Imbues the world with meaning, order, and permanence

What are fictional hero systems?

Idolizing influencers and movie stars helps us manage anxiety about death

How do people respond when someone disagrees with their worldview?

• Derogation: put their worldview down; dehumanize

• Assimilation: take opposing belief into your own

• Accommodation: change my belief to take the other belief into account or accept it

• Annihilation: get rid of the opposing worldview

What is Actor-Observer Phenomenon?

View causes of others’ behavior differently than they view their own

What is fundamental attribution error?

Tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon others’ behaviors

For many people, it is hard to escape the idea that, with an actor that plays a villain or hero, that the scripted behavior reflects an inner disposition. What is this an example of?

Fundamental attribution error

Why is fundamental attribution error a thing?

Lets us generate hypotheses quickly and move onto the next move

What is belief perserverance?

persistence of ones initial conceptions, such as when the basis for one’s belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives

What is the overconfidence phenomenon?

tendency to be more confident that correct; to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs

What is confirmation bias?

We may seek evidence that confirms our theories & ignore disconfirming evidence

People are more likely to read political stories that match their own beliefs. What is this an example of?

Confirmation bias

What is the difference between availability and representativeness heuristics?

Availability

• Making quick decisions

• Basing one’s decision on how well one can recall how frequently something occurs

Representativeness

• Making accurate decisions

• Basing one’s decision on mental models or stereotypes that already exist

What is counterfactual thinking?

Imagining alternate scenarios & outcomes that might have happened but did not

What is the Tripartite Model of Attitudes and what is each component?

The idea that affect, behavior, and cognition all influence each other to create attitude

• Affect component: sharing our feelings or emotions about the person, idea, or object

• Cognitive component: our thoughts & beliefs about the attitude object

• Behavioral component: actions that result from these thoughts and/or feelings

What is the bogus pipeline?

Procedure that prompts people into disclosing their attitudes

When do attitudes predict behavior?

• attitude is specific to the behavior

• other influences are minimal

• are self-aware

What is the “attitudes follow actions” principle?

often we unknowingly revise our attitude based on something mindless we just did

What is the self-perception theory?

The theory that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them as much as would someone observing us — by looking at our behavior & the circumstances under which it occurs

What is the facial feeback effect?

the tendency of facial expressions to trigger corresponding feelings

What is the overjustification effect?

the result of bribing people to do what they already like doing; they may then see their actions as externally controlled rather than intrinsically appealing

What is the self-affirmation theory?

a theory that a.) people often experience a self-image threat after engaging in an undesirable behavior; & b.) they can compensate by affirming another aspect of the self. Threaten people’s self-concept in one domain, & they will compensate either by refocusing or by doing good deeds in some other domain