Studied by 3 people
social psychology
the scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others
everything we do is affected by…
our social interactions with others
cultural norms
the context of our interactions
social psychology aims to…
to identify universal properties that influence everyone, regardless of culture, social class, or personality variables vulnerable to social influence
scientific method
the process of research that aims to describe and explain a phenomena, predict an outcome based on theory, and apply it to the real world
empirical
based on observation or experience
rational
logical, has good reasoning
falsifiable
the ability for experiments to be tested and proven wrong
parsimonious (psychology)
how easily a theory can be described
generalisability
how widely can the results be applied to a population
tentative (psychology)
the ability for an experiment to be revised
rigorous evaluation
measuring the impact of an experiment by comparing the experimental group from the control (zero) group
quantitative design
using numbers, data is analysed in a statistical manner; data is collected from a group of people on a specific topic through a survey
observational/experimental design
manipulating a variable and observing the effects; frequencies are graphed
qualitative design
data is descriptive, undergoes thematic analysis; often done via interviews or focus groups
physical welfare (ethical issue)
participants should not be harmed for the sake of research
right to privacy (ethical issue)
participants are allowed to withhold information if they are not comfortable sharing
use of deception (ethical isue)
malicious use of deception is not allowed
informed consent (ethical issue)
participants should know what the study entails and be allowed to withdraw without penalty
debriefing
participants should be informed of the results after the study, especially if deception was used
theory
a set of interrelated concepts and principles that explain a phenomenon
social influence
the process whereby attitudes and behaviour are influences by the real or implied presence of others
social cognition
the study of how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgements and decision; involves largely automatic processes
social cognition aims to…
understand how we process social information
understand how we form impressions
understand how we think about ourselves and others and ourselves in relation to others
thinking
conscious process involving language or symbols we use to communicate with ourselves; how we reason, make judgements, and decide what to do and how we talk about ourselves
cognitive consistency (types of social psychologists)
people are motivated to reduce inconsistency in cognition because it is unpleasant
naive scientist (types of social psychologists)
people try to make meaning by attributing cause to events and behaviour; assumes people are rational and able to make judgements without error
cognitive miser (types of social psychologists)
people take mental shortcuts because of limited capacity to process information; bias and errors are part of making judgements
motivated tactician (types of social psychologists)
our goals, motives, and needs impact on how we select information and make judgements
schema
cognitive structures that bundle together knowledge in an organised way, including its attributes and the relations among those attributes; stored in memory; allow efficient and quick decisions to help us interpret the world
categories
follows prototype, fuzzy sets organised around prototypes
prototype
follows schema, defining feature of the category
stereotypes
widely shared and simplified evaluation based on group membership
salience (social encoding)
characteristics of a stimulus that makes it stand out in relation to other stimuli and attract our attention
vividness (social encoding)
characteristics of a stimulus that, on its own, makes it stand out and attract attention; this depends on how-
emotionally attention grabbing
concrete and image provoking
close to you in time and place
accessibility (social encoding)
how easily schemas and categories can be recalled when facing a stimulus
Asch’s configural model
the idea that we latch onto certain pieces of information to create a first impression
central traits (Asch’s configural model)
the main trait that influences the meaning of other traits and the perceived relationship between them; has a disproportionate influence on other traits
peripheral traits (Asch’s configural model)
smaller traits that are insignificant and dependent on the properties of the main traits
primacy and recency (impression biases)
what we see or hear first (primacy) or last (recency) has a disproportionate impact on evaluations of others
positivity and negativity (impression biases)
negative first impressions make more of an impact regardless of later positive actions taken
implicit personality theories (impression biases)
personality theories we have created based on certain descriptives e.g. sporty, humourous, funny, etc.
physical appearance (impression biases)
how a person looks
stereotypes (impression biases)
how group membership affects people’s perceptions of us e.g. ethnicity
social judgement (impression biases)
whether or not it is appropriate to judge someone in the current context e.g. Karens
sub-typing
schema change as a consequence of schema-inconsistent information, causing the formation of subcategories
social inference
the process of making judgements and forming impressions about others based on available information
decision-making can involve…
relying on schemas or stereotypes as mental shortcuts, but it can also involve more deliberative and thoughtful processes
information gathering (bias errors)
over-reliance on schemas and information is overlooked
law of small numbers (bias errors)
reliance on the law of small numbers that are not representative
regression to the mean (bias errors)
initial experiences are more extreme than subsequent observations
base rate information (bias errors)
ignoring factual or statistical information
covariation (bias errors)
searching for schema-consistent information on how strongly two things are related e.g. stereotypes
illusory correlation (bias errors)
belief that two things are related when they are not e.g. superstitions
heuristics
Tversky and Kahneman (1974) made this list of mental shortcuts that people take to simplify decision-making
representative heuristic
a cognitive shortcut in which instances are assigned to categories or types on the basis of overall similarity or resemblance to a category e.g. trees
availability heuristic
a cognitive shortcut in which inferences are tied to initial standards or schemas e.g. plane crashes = fear of flying
achoring/adjustment heuristic
a cognitive shortcut that causes people to favor information they received early in the decision-making process e.g. discounts
attribution
inferences (judgements or conclusions) that we make about the causes of behaviour. We make attributions about-
our own behaviour
other people’s behaviour
the behaviour of groups
attribution theory (Heider, 1958)
individuals make causal attributions to understand the behaviour of others, emphasised the distinction between internal and external attributions
theory of correspondent inference
Jones and David (1965); individuals draw inferences about others’ personality traits based on observed behaviour because our physical actions have been freely chosen, unexpected or socially undesirable behaviour is more likely to be attributed to internal dispositions or the person’s true characteristics
covariation model
Kelley (1967); consistency (behaviour that remains the same), distinctiveness (how behaviour varies in different situations), and consensus (how others react to similar situations) guide attribution
theory of emotional lability
Schachter (1964); the context in which we perceive a threat influences how we attribute our physiological response to that stimulus, affects how we label the subsequet emotion that we experience
theory of self-perception
Bam (1967); we can observe our own behaviour and make inferences about the causes, whether internal or external
attribution theory (Weiner, 1979)
whether the outcome was caused by internal/external and stable/unstable factors
internal attribution
when an individual uses a personal reason to explain their success or failure e.g. I didn’t study enough and that’s why I failed
external attribution
when an individual uses environmental factors or other people’s actions to explain their success or failure e.g. the test was too hard and that’s why I failed
stable attribution
when an individual perceives a situation as constant, never changing e.g. an increasingly worsening traffic jam
unstable attribution
when an individual perceives a situation as changeable e.g. knowing the traffic jam will clear up soon
global attribution
when an individual generalises the situation
theory of learned helplessness
Seligman (1967); individuals who experience learned helplessness and attribute negative events to internal, stable, and global causes are more susceptible to developing depression
positive behaviours are usually given the following attribution traits:
internal, stable, global, and controllable
negative behaviours are usually given the following attribution traits:
external, unstable, specific, and uncontrollable
false consensus effect (attribution bias)
we overestimate the number of people that share our opinions, attitudes, values, or beliefs and tend to see one’s own behaviour as being more common than it really is
actor-observer effect (attribution bias)
tendency for the person to favour external or situational attributions for their own behaviour, especially if negative
fundamental attribution error (attribution bias)
tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people’s behaviour is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors
Jones and Harries (1967)
a study made to demonstrate the fundamental attribution error; highlights how we tend to attribute others’ behaviour to internal factors, even when aware of external influences
self-serving bias
attributions that protect or enhance self-esteem; success is attributed to the abilit or effort of a person / failure is attributed on bad luck or task difficulty
self-enhancing bias
the tendency to attribute success to internal factors
self-protecting bias
the tendency to attribute failure to external factors
self-handicapping
putting obstacles in the way of our own performance so that anticipated or possible failure can be blamed on the obstacle instead of on a lack of ability
illusion of control
the belief that we have more control over our world than we do
belief in a just world
belief that the world is a just and predictable place where good things happen to ‘good people‘ and bad things happen to ‘bad people‘
base-rate information
pallid, factual, and statistical information about an entire class of events
collective self
attributes shared with ingroup members and distinct from outgroup members and where we derive our sense of self from group membership
individual self
attributes that make one unique relative to other people that we derive from experiences and self-perceptions
relational self
the relationships that one has with specific other people that we derive through real or imagined interactions
Mead’s looking-glass self
our self-concept develops through our interactions with others and taking on their perspectives
Cooley’s looking-glass self
our self-concept is influenced by how we think others perceive us; “I am not what I think I am, I am not what you think I am, I am what I think you think I am.“
private self
your thoughts, feelings, and attitudes
public self
how others see you and your public image
self-discrepancy theory
Higgins (1987); explores how discrepancies or gaps between the actual, ideal, and ought selves impact emotional well-being and motivation
actual self (self-discrepancy)
also known as the real self, how a person sees themselves as they currently are
ideal self (self-discrepancy)
what the person ideally wants to be, embodies their dreams, hopes, and goals; conflicts between this and the actual self can create depressive feelings
ought self (self-discrepancy)
what the person believes they should be based on external expectations, societal norms, and moral standards; conflicts between this and the actual self can create anxious thoughts
self-regulation
strategies to help match our behaviour to an ideal or ought self
social comparison theory
Festinger (1954); when we lack an objective measure to learn about ourselves, we determine our worth by comparing ourselves to others who are usually from our own group; people engage in social comparison as a way to evaluate their abilities, opinions, and beliefs
upwards comparison
comparing oneself to others perceived as better in certain aspects
downwards comparison
comparing oneself to others perceived as worse off in certain aspects
self-enhancement
the motivation to develop and promote a favourable image of the self
self-assessment
the motivation to seek out new information about ourselves in order to find out what sort of person we really are
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Flashcard (41)