Social Psychology (Midterm 1)

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another

Theory

An integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events

Sample

Part of a population

Random sample

Every person in the population has an equal chance of being chosen

Low response rate

When few people respend to a poll (makes the sample unrepresentative)

Sample size

• it is important to obtain a sufficient number of people for the study

• Size of the sample determines how closely the results are likely to resemble the whole population

Margin of error

Range that expresses the amount of random sampling error (ex: 95% CI)

Correlational research

The study of naturally occurring relationships among variables

Experimental research

Studies that look at cause-effect relationships by manipulating one or more factors while controlling others

Time lagged correlations

Reveal the sequence of events

Control variable

Variable that extracts the influence of third variables

Independent variable

Experimental factor that a researcher manipulates

Dependent variable

The variable being measured (may depend on the manipulations of the independent variable)

Replication

Repeating a research study with different participants in different settings to determine whether a finding can be reproduced

Meta-analysis

Statistically summarizes any studies on the same topic; “study of studies”

Mundane realism

Degree to which an experimenter is superficially similar to everyday situations

Experimental realism

Degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves its participants

Deception

• Used to disguise the true purpose of a study

  • protects experimental realism

Demand characteristics

Cues in an experiment that tell the participants what behavior is expected

Informed consent

Ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate

Debrief

Explaining the experiment in full including any deception after completion

Most participants are W.E.I.R.D

Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic

A,B,C’s of Human Psychology

• A - affect (what people feel)

• B - Behavior (what people do)

• C - Cognition (what people think)

3 components of social psychology

1. Social thinking

2. Social influence

3. Social relations

Kurt Lewin’s equation

B = f (P,S)

• B = Behavior

• P = Person

• S = Situation

Behaviors is determined by who you are and the context you’re in

Hypothesis

A testable proposition that describes a relationship that may exist between events

• allows us to test a theory

• Directs research

• Can make a good theory practical

Representative Sample

The sample accurately reflects the characteristics of the population

Framing

The way a question of issue is posed/worded

Internal Validity

Ability of an experiment to establish the hypothesized cause-effect link

• Confounds reduce internal validity by creating alternative explanations

External validity

Extent to which an experiment’s results can be generalized to the larger population

• Depends on representativeness of the sample

Lab Research

Controlled situation with many variables

Field Research

Everyday situations in natural/real-life settings with no control over variables

Hindsight bias

Tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one’s ability to have foreseen how something turned out

Confirmation bias

Tendency to seek information that confirm one’s preconceptions

Bias Blindspot

Tendency to be overconfident because one is aware of the information they lack

Spotlight effect

The belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are

Illusion of transparency

The illusion that our concealed emotions leak outer and can be easily read by others

Self concept

What we know and believe about ourselves

Self schemas

Beliefs about the self that organize and guide the processing of relevant self info

Schema

Mental templates by which we organize our worlds

Social comparisons

Evaluating one’s opinions by comparing oneself with others

Looking glass self

Our use of how we think others perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves

Individualism

The concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and deveining one’s own identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications

Independent self

Construing one’s identity as an autonomous self

Collectivism

Giving priority to group goals and defining one’s identity

Interdependent self

Self that is deeply embedded with others

• ex: self-with-mom, self-at-work, self-with-friends

Planning fallacy

The tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task

Impact bias

Overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events

• occurs especially after negative events

Dual attitude system

Differing implicit (automatic) and explicitly (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same object

Self esteem

A person’s overall self evaluation of sense of self worth

Academic self concept

Whether you think you are good in school

Terror management

Proposes that people exhibit self protective emotional and cognitive responses when confronted with reminders of their mortality

Self efficacy

A sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished fro self-esteem, which is one’s self worth

Self serving bias

The tendency to perceive oneself favorably

Self-serving attributions

A form of self serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors

Unrealistic Optimism

Predisposes a positive approach to life, even if evidence suggests otherwise

Defensive pessimism

Adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action

False consensus effect

The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors

False uniqueness effect

The tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors

Self handicapping

Protecting one’s self image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure

• ex: going out the night before an exam

Self presentation

The act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression (to others and ourselves)

Self monitoring

Being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one’s performance to create the desired impression

Self verification

People tend to seek ways to verify their thoughts about the self

Self verification theory

People have beliefs about the self and want others to see them they way they see themselves to confirm their beliefs

Unethical amnesia

Forgetting our moral wrong doings

Guilt

Associated with reparative action and self directed negative affect

Shame

Associated with avoidance and other directed negative affect

Motivation

Need or desire that arouses someone and directs behavior toward a goal

3 motives of motivation

1. Mastery

2. Connectedness/Belonging

3. Self regard (or self esteem)

System 1

• Intuitive, automatic, unconscious fast way of thinking

• Aka automatic processing

System 2

• deliberate, controlled, conscious, slower way of thinking

• Aka controlled processing

Belief perseverance

Persistence of one’s initial conceptions

Self-fulfilling prophecy

A belief that leads to its own fulfillment

Priming

Activating particular associations in memory

Intuition

Immediately knowing something without reasoning or analysis

Heuristics

A thinking strategy that enables quick efficient judgements

Representativeness Heuristic

The tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling (representing) a typical member

Availability Heuristic

Cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory

Counterfactual thinking

Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might’ve happened but didn’t

Illusory Correlation

Perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists

Misinformation effect

Incorporating “misinformation” into one’s memory of the event after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it

Attribution Theory

The theory of how people explain other’s behavior — for example, by attributing it either to internal dispositions or external situations

Dispositional attribution

Attributing behavior to the person’s disposition and traits

Situational attribution

Attributing behavior to the environment

Misattribution

Mistakenly attributing behavior to the wrong source

Spontaneous trait inference

An effortless, automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone’s behavior

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon behaviors

Attitudes

A favorable or unfavorable evaluation reaction toward something or someone exhibited in one’s beliefs, feelings, or intended behavior

Self presentation theory

Assumes that for strategic reasons we express attitudes that make us appear consistent

Cognitive dissonance theory

Assumes that to reduce discomfort, we justify our actions to ourselves

Cognitive Dissonance

Tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions

Role

Set of norms that defines how people in a given social position ought to behave

Selective exposure

The tendency to seek information and media that agree with one’s views and to avoid dissonant information

Facial feedback effect

The tendency of facial expressions to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness

Over-justification effect

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

Conformity

A change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure

Acceptance

Conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure

Obedience

Type of compliance involving acting in accord with a direct order or command

Normative influence

Conformity based on a person’s desire to fulfill other’s expectations, often to gain acceptance

Informational Influence

Conformity occurring when people accept evidence about reality provide by other people

• Springs from our desire to be right