Psych 260 Midterm

Power of the Social Situation (Central idea 1)

How people feel, think, and behave is driven to a large degree by social situation

Importance of Subjective Construal (Central idea #2)

How someone interprets a situation can matter more than the actual situation; subjective construal > objective circumstance

Power of the situation

the presence vs. absence of other people influenced how people behaved

importance of subjective construal

behaviour and decision-making is driven by experience (not objective reality)

Group

a collection of 3 or more people who interact with each other and are interdependent (needs and goals lead members to rely on each other

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family, sports team, lab group

social roles

shared expectations by group members about how particular members are to behave

social facilitation theory

the presence of others (given individual evaluability) creates arousal (jolt of energy: heart pounding, sweaty hands)

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presence of others → arousal → dominant response

social loafing theory

presence of others → relaxation

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worse on simple tasks; better on complex tasks

process loss

aspects of group interaction inhibit good problem solving

* failure to share unique info
* group polarization
* group think

failure to share unique information

individuals focus on content that overlaps rather than sharing breadth of own unique experiences

group polarization

the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than initial inclinations of group members

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friends make more extreme decisions = group polarization

groupthink

type of thinking where maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner

hindsight bias

everything seems obvious in retrospect

predict behaviour

before it occurs, not just explain it afterward

theory

an organized set of principles that can be used tp explain observed phenomena

hypothesis

a tentative explanation for a set of facts that can be tested with further investigation

observational research method

researcher observes people and systematically records their behaviour

goal of observational research

describe and measure behaviour in a natural setting

Operational definition

a description of how variables are measured or manipulated

strengths of the observational method

* a good first step in understanding how people behave
* real life behaviour

weaknesses of the observational method

* some behaviours are very hard to observe (motivations)
* behaviour can be hard to code or measure reliably

the correlation method

systematically measures two or more variables and assess the degree of relation between them

correlation coefficients

a measure of association between 2 variables of interest

positive correlation

two variables move in the same reaction at the same time

negative correlation

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hours of practice and expertise

one variable goes up and another goes down

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age and amount of hair

the correlation method strengths

provides a measure of how well two variables relate

the correlation method weaknesses

correlation does NOT imply causation

the experimental method

* identical conditions except for the one variable of interest
* random assignment

causality

relationship between cause and effect

independent variable

variable that is manipulated by researcher

dependent variable

the outcome variable measured by the researcher

internal validity

the extent to which we can be sure that only the variable we controlled influenced the outcome

random assignment

all participants have equal likelihood to be in any condition of experiment

external validity

the extent to which the results of the study can be generalized to other people and places

external validity strengths

allows researcher to investigate questions of causality

external validity weaknesses

* complicated to conduct
* trade off internal and external validity

Social cognition

how people select, interpret, and use information to make decisions and judgements about the social world

automatic thinking

fast, non conscious, unintentional, and effortless thinking

schemas

mental structures that people use to organize information from the social world around them

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* memory is reconstructive, remember bits of information and fill in the rest

stereotypes

schemas applied to groups

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generalizations of how members think or act (race, gender, other groups)

self-fulfilling prophecy

when our expectations about someone influence the way we treat them, and the way we treat them leads that person to act in the way we expected all along

schema selection

* long-term, familiar reminders
* relevant to current goals
* recent exposure to information outside of awareness (priming)

perseverance effect

people’s beliefs persist even after supporting evidence is discredited

heuristics

mental shortcuts people use to make judgements quickly and efficiently

availability heuristic

make judgements based on how easily something comes to mind

representative heuristic

mental shortcut whereby we classify something by how similar it sounds to a typical case

accessibility heuristic

information on your mind at any given moment

base rate information

information about the frequency of different categories in the population

* used to make quick decisions but could be right or wrong

________ represent knowledge to which we often apply ____

schemas; heuristics

embodied cognition

process by which bodily sensations activate mental structures

anchoring and adjustment

a mental shortcut whereby we start with an estimate in mind and adjust (up or down) from this point, but often fail to adjust as much as needed

controlled thinking

conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful

counterfactual thinking

mentally changing aspects of the past to imagine what might have been

* after negative events

fundamental attribution error

underestimate the situational constraints on people’s behaviour

thought suppression

the attempt to avoid thinking about something a person would prefer to forget

* When someone tries not to think about an idea or object, but the idea or object comes to mind more frequently when trying to forget

process of thought suppression

1. monitoring system - searches for unwanted thoughts
2. operating system - distracts from unwanted thoughts

social perception

how we form impressions and make inferences about other people

non-verbal communication

how people communicate without words

display rules

culturally determined rules about which nonverbal behaviours are appropriate

emblems

gestures that have a clear meaning within a culture, but which may not be universally understood

implicit personality theories

schemas used to group various personality traits

attribution theory

a description of the way people explain their own and other’s behaviour

internal attribution

within the person-personality, disposition

external attribution

outside the person-situation, context

defensive attributions

explanations for our behaviour that help us avoid feelings of vulnerability or mortality

correspondence bias

tendency to infer that someone’s behaviour matches their personality

simple topics

anxious behaviour reflects

difficult topics

anxious behaviour excused

effortless dispositional attribution

default, occurs when busy

perceptual salience

information that is in the focus of peoples’ attention, which leads them to overestimate the causal role of this information

actor/observer difference

tendency to see:

* other’s behaviour caused by their disposition, but
* our own behaviour caused by the situation

self-serving attributions

explanations for success credit oneself, but failures blame external circumstances

attitude

an evaluation of people, objects, or ideas

3 components of attitude

affect

behaviour

cognition

explicit attitude

attitudes we consciously endorse and report

* influence our behaviour when we are monitoring our behaviour

implicit attitude

involuntary, uncontrollable and sometimes unconscious attitudes

* influence our behaviour when we are not monitoring our behaviour

elaboration likelihood model

two routes to persuade and create attitude change

central route (elaboration likelihood model)

motivated and able listeners and evaluate arguments

peripheral route (elaboration likelihood model)

people don’t pay attention and are swayed by surface features

persuasive appeal → central (systematic route)

* care about topic
* able to concentrate
* think about content of message
* examine logic and evidence

persuasive appeal → peripheral (heuristic route)

* don’t care about topic
* are not able to concentrate
* pay attention to superficial aspects
* use simple cues + rules of thumb

high self-relevance

when the argument matters to you, your agreement is based mostly on how strong the arguments are

low self-relevance

when the argument doesn't matter to you, your agreement is based mostly on superficial qualities

reactance theory

when people feel their freedoms are challenged, they experience a negative reactance state and distance themselves from threatening behaviour

cognitive dissonance

feeling of discomfort caused by holding two conflicting cognitions or conflicting cognitions and beahaviour

the ____ component of attitudes is to *emotional reactions* as the ____ component is to *knowledge and beliefs*

affective; cognitive

subjective norms

people’s beliefs about how those they care about will view a behaviour in question

counter-attitudinal advocacy

when people state publicly an opinion that is at odds with their own private attitudes, they sometimes shift their private opinion to be more in line with the opinion that stated publicly

postdecision dissonance

dissonance/discomfort after making decisions reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen option and devaluing the rejected options

justification of effort

tendency to increase liking for someone you’ve worked hard to attain

realization trap

potential dissonance reduction outcome, justifying one harmful or stupid act allows the next → chain of events

Subjective Construal

Latane & Darley (1970)

Participants either complete a survey in a room full of people or alone and are recorded to how they react when the room fills with smoke (a fire illusion)

Social Facilitation Theory

Zajonic (1969)

Cockroaches run down hallway in front of an audience

Social Facilitation Theory

James Michaels & Co. (1982)

Campus pool hall, performances of novices versus experts

Social Loafing Theory

Bibb Latane & Co. (1979)

Subjects wore blindfolds and headphones - told to clap alone or as a group → individuals produced 1/3 noise when they thought they were clapping with a group

Failure to share unique information

Larson (1998)

Medical professionals do not collaborate while trying to diagnose patient

Social Facilitation Theory

Steveston Icebreaker Run example

The Correlation Method

Strack & Co (1988)

Asked students how happy they were in general and how many dates they had been on that month

Schemas (shape what we remember)

Jack and Barbra example

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Teachers and bloomers example - teachers told beforehand which students were expected to be bloomers and paid more attention to those students