Social psych midterm

Social psychology

the scientific study of the feelings, thoughts and behaviors of individuals in social situations, the specific study of how people think about, influence and relate to each other

kurt lewis behavioral function

B = F (P, E)

fundamental attribution error

the failure to recognize the importance of situational influence on behavior, together with the tendency to overemphasize the importance of dispositional = ignorance of situational factors 

Nudge/channel factor

small, innocuous seeming prompts that can have. a big effect on behavior by providing an easier way for people to actually conduct the behavior 

construal

our perception of things/ perception if something

schemas

a construal but applied to events rather than things - how you expect a situation to unfold, developed through life experiences, help us organize and navigate the world

steryotypes

schemas applied to people or individuals = a belief that certain attributes are characteristic of all members of a particular group

reliability

the degree to which the measurements are consistent over time

measurement validity

the degree to. which you are measuring the target

internal validity

how confident we are to make casual inferences

external validity

how confident we are to generate results to broader population and real world

random assignment

assigning participants to different groups randomly

random sampling

everyone in the population has an equal chance to be selected to participate

basic research

concerned with trying to understand some phenomenon in its own right

applied research

concerned with solving real real world problems - intervention

Institutional Review Board (IBR)

a university committee that judges the ethical appropriateness of a scientific research

informed consent

participants. willingness to participate in a procedure or reaserch study after earning all relevantt aspect about the procedure of study

deception research

reach in which the participant are misled about the purpose of the research or the meaning of something that is done to them 

self-schemas

a cognitive structure, derived from past experiences, that represents a persons’ beliefs and feelings about the self in general and specific situations

self-esteem

the overall positive or negative evaluation an individual has of themselves

trait self esteem

an enduring level of self recarding across time, and it is relatively stable

state self-esteem

momentary feelings about the self. dynamic/changeable self evaluation

contingencies of self-worth

self-esteem is contingent on (rises or falls wish ) success and failures in domains that are important to the self

self comparison theory

people compare themselves to others to evaluate their own opinions, attitudes and internal states

upward comparison

(how far can I go) when you want to improve something about yourself, you compare with people who are better

downwards comparison

(its not so bad) when you want to feel good about yourself, you compare with people who are worse

self enhancement

people’s desire to maintain, increase or protect their self-esteem or self-view

better than average effect

tendency for people to evaluate their characteristics and prospects more favorably than those of their peers

self-affirmation 

people can maintain an overall sense of self-worth following psychologically threatening information by affirming a valued aspect of themselves unrelevantto the situation

sociometer hypothesis

self-esteem also serves as an internal, subhjective index or marker of how well we are regarded by others, and hence how likely we are to be included or included by them

self discrepancy theory

people want to reduce discrepancies between their actual self and posible selves (ought self-ideal self)

ought self

the person you feel, you should be, the person others want you to be

ideal self

the person you aspire/want to be

pluralistic ignorance

misperception of a group norm that results from observing people who are acting at variance with their private beliefs, out of concern for the social consequences - actions that reinforce the erroneous group norm

order effects

the order in which items are presented can have a powerful influence on judgement 

recency effect

information presented last has an overly strong influence in later judgement

primacy effect

information presented first has an overly strong influence on later judgement

framing effects

the influence on judgement resulting from the way that information is presented 

spin framing

changing the way something is phrased/framed so that it looks more favorable or unfavorable

confirmation bias

the tendency to trust a. proposition by searching for evidence that would support it

self - fulfilling prophecy

our expectations lead us to behave in ways that elicit the very behavior we expect from others 

temporal framing

how actions and events are framed within a particular time perspective

construal level theory

the temporal perspective from which people view events had important and predictable implications for how they construe them

schema

mental concepts/shortcuts of things/events

heuristics

a variety of mental operations that are commonly used to more quick and efficient judgement and desicions

availability heuristics

the process where by judgements of frequency/probability numbers are based on how readily pertinent instances come to mind

fluency

the ease (difficulty) associated with information processing

representation heuristics

the tendency too compare things or individuals to the prototype of their category

base-rate information

information about the relative frequency of events or members of different groups

covariation principle

behavior should be attributed to potential causes that co-occur covariate with the behavior

consensus

wether most people would behave the sea e way or different in a given situation

distinctiveness

weather a behavior is unique to a particular situation or occurs many or all situations

consistency

weather an individual behaves the same way or differently in a given situation on different occasions

dispositional attribution

when consensus and distictiveness are low but consistency is high

situational attribution

when consensus, distinctiveness and consistency are high

attribution theory

a set of concepts explaining how people assign causes to the events around them and the effects of people casual assesments

casual attribution

linking an event or behavior to a cause to explain the behavior

augmentation principle

greater weight is given to a particular cause of behavior is ttherare other potential causes that would normally produce tithe opposite outcome

discounting principle

less weight is given to a particular cause of behavior if there are alternative causes present

counterfactual thought

thought what might have, could have o r should have happened “if only” something had been done differently 

self- serving attribution bias

the tendency to attribute failures to external causes and successes to internal causes

fundamental attribution error

the ttendency to attribute a persons’ behavior too personality while ignoring situational causes

representativeness heuristic

when we make social judgments based on intuition (fast-based on heuristics) , we tend to compare people’s behavior with the prototype of that trait 

Gilbert dual-process model

1. autiomatic acceptance

2. adjustment stage

the actor-observer difference

a difference in attribution based on who is making the casual assessment

• self attribution error present in both, just lower in actor

universality

all. humans have the same facial muscles and express emotions similarly across culturs

focus emotions

emotions that are specially common in a give, culture compared with others

ideal emotions

culture differs in the emotions they value or idealize - associated with cultural values

display rules

cultural rules that govern how, when and to whom people express emotion

moral fountdation theory

there are 5 evolved, universal moral domains in which specific emotions guide moral judgemnt

1. har/care

2. fairness/cheatting 

3. loyalty/betrayal

4. authority/subversion

5. purity/degradattion

affective forecasting

predict future emotions, such as wether an event will result in what emotion and for how long

immune neglect

tendency to underestimate our resilience during negative life events

vocalism

tendency to focus on only one aspect of an experience or even when trying to predict future emotions

duration neglect

length of emotional experience has very little influence on our overall evaluation of the expirience

liberty scales

a numerical scale that includes a sett of possible answers with labelling anchors on

cognitive dissonance theory

inconsistency between thoughts, feelings, and actions creates an adverse state known as dissonance

self-perception theory

neither do we experience nor we are troubled with dissonance and we don’t change our attitudes

• people come to know their own attitudes by looking at their behavior and context in which it occurred and inferring what their attitude must be 

ELM - Elaboration Likehood Model

the message recipients cognitive responses to persuasion can vary along a continuum of elaboration likelihood (the extend of cognitive thinking)

peripheral route

unconscious, fast, automatic. Use of peripheral information or heuristics for evaluation

centrtal route

conscious, slow, more deliberate. Use of central ir systematic processing of information for evaluation

sleeper effect

messages from unreliable sources tend to be rejected initially but over time become acceptted

• source needs tot be known after reading the message; not before 

self-validation hypothesis

feelings of confidence about our thoughts serve as a form of validation for them 

attitude inoculation

resisting a “small” attack on out attitude make us better able to resist”larger” attacks later on