Midterm 1 (Chapter 1-4)

social psychology

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

social neuroscience

An interdisciplinary field that explores the neural bases of social and emotional processes and behaviors, and how these processes and behaviors affect our brain and biology.

hindsight bias

The tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one’s ability to have foreseen how something turned out. Also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon

theory

An integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events.

hypothesis

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

random sampling

Survey procedure in which every person in the population being studied has an equal chance of inclusion.

sample size

The number of participants in a study.

framing

The way a question or an issue is posed; framing can influence people’s decisions and expressed opinions

correlational research

The study of the naturally occurring relationships among variables.

experimental research

Studies that seek clues to cause–effect relationships by manipulating one or more factors (independent variables) while controlling others (holding them constant).

random assignment

The process of assigning participants to the conditions of an experiment such that all persons have the same chance of being in a given condition. (Note the distinction between random assignment in experiments and random sampling in surveys. Random assignment helps us infer cause and effect. Random sampling helps us generalize to a population.)

independent variable

The experimental factor that a researcher manipulates.

dependent variable

The variable being measured, so called because it may depend on manipulations of the independent variable

replication

Repeating a research study, often with different participants in different settings, to determine whether a finding could be reproduced.

meta-analysis

A “study of studies” that statistically summarizes many studies on the same topic.

mundane realism

Degree to which an experiment is superficially similar to everyday situations

experimental realism

Degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves its participants.

deception

In research, a strategy by which participants are misinformed or misled about the study’s methods and purposes.

demand characteristics

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

informed consent

An ethical principle requiring that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate.

debriefing

In social psychology, the postexperimental explanation of a study to its participants. Debriefing usually discloses any deception and often queries participants regarding their understandings and feelings.

spotlight effect

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

illusion of transparency

cognitive bias that refers to the tendency of individuals to overestimate the extent to which their personal thoughts, emotions, and mental states are apparent to others.

self-concept

What we know and believe about ourselves. Alike to self-schema in this way but is more susceptible to change when in different social situation/external environment

self-schema

The answer to the question "who are you?". Your attributes, descriptors.

social comparison

Evaluating one’s opinions and abilities by comparing oneself with others.

individualism

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

independent self

One’s identity as a unique individual with particular abilities, traits, values, and dreams

collectivism

Giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly.

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

dual attitude system

implicit: hard to change VS. explicit: easier to change through education and persuasion

self-esteem

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

terror management theory

Proposes that people exhibit self-protective emotional and cognitive responses (including adhering more strongly to their cultural worldviews and prejudices) when confronted with reminders of their mortality

longitudinal study

Research in which the same people are studied over an extended period of time.

narcissism

an inflated sense of self.

self-efficacy

refers to an individual's belief in their ability to successfully perform a specific task or achieve a particular goal

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.

defensive pessimism

involves setting low expectations and imagining negative outcomes as a way to motivate oneself to perform well and reduce anxiety

false consensus effect

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

exp: we fail because it is hard and other fail as well

false uniqueness effect

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

band isn’t cool if too many people like it

self-handicapping

Intentionally fucking yourself over so that you have an excuse for when you don’t succeed later

procrastinating on studying so that you can blame failure of a test on procrastinating

self-presentation

The act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one’s ideals

self-monitoring

Changing the way we present oneself based on the current social environment (social chameleon, fake ass motherfucker)

embodied cognition

The mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgments.
Physical sensation primed judgement,

When sitting in wobbly chair, people think other’s people relationship are more unstable, etc

automatic thinking

“Implicit” thinking that is effortless, habitual, and without awareness; roughly corresponds to “intuition.”

controlled thinking

“Explicit” thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and conscious

overconfidence phenomenon

The tendency to be more confident than correct — to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs

confirmation bias

A tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions.

representativeness heuristic

The tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling (representing) a stereotype
tendency to assume something belong to a group cause it fit a stereotype even if it is statistically incorrect

availability heuristic

tendecy to judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory. If instances of something come readily to mind, we presume it to be commonplace.

counterfactual thinking

Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn’t.

mentally stimulating what might have been, the underlies reason fo r the feeling of luck

illusory correlation

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

regression toward the average

statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behavior to return toward their average.

belief perseverance

Persistent of initial belief after being proven to be incorrect

misinformation effect

Recalling of an episodic memory from an event becomeing less accurate due to post-event information

attribution theory

theory of how people explain others’ behavior — for example, by attributing it either to internal dispositions (enduring traits, motives, and attitudes) or to external situations

internal/dispositional attribution

Attributing behavior to the person’s disposition and traits.

external/situational attribution

Attributing behavior to the environment.

misattribution

Mistakenly attributing a behavior to the wrong source.

exp: A manager may misinterpret a subordinate woman’s submissive or friendly behavior and, full of himself, see her in a sexual way

spontaneous trait inference

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

fundamental attribution error

tendency for observers to underestimate situational(external/environmental) influences and overestimate dispositional(internal/personal) influences upon others’ behavior.

Dispositonal attribution

This attirbution lead to negative viewpoint of individual

situational attribution

This attirbution lead to a sympathetic/positive view point of individual

behavioral confirmation

type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people’s social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations.

exp: job interviewees who are believed to be warm behave more warmly; Men whom others believe are sexist behave less favorably toward women

attitude

feelings often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond favorably or unfavorably to objects, people, and events

implicit association test

computer-driven assessment of implicit attitudes. The test uses reaction times to measure people’s automatic associations between attitude objects and evaluative words. Easier pairings (and faster responses) are taken to indicate stronger unconscious associations.

role

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

cognitive dissonance

Tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions. For example, dissonance may occur when we realize that we have, with little justification, acted contrary to our attitudes or made a decision favoring one alternative despite reasons favoring another.

selective exposure

tendency to seek information and media that agree with one’s views and to avoid dissonant information
exp: stupid people

insufficient justification

when we engage in a behavior or action with little external justification or incentive, we may change our attitudes or beliefs to align with that behavior

self-perception theory (Daryl Bem)

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

When lacking on how to act in certain situation, we see what we actually do and based our personality on what we see.

Cognitive dissonance after decisions

The decisions you made are justified by yourself to not make you feel bad (ex; choosing one college over another and then bashing the one you did not choose)

facial feedback effect

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

Motions trigger emotions

self-affirmation theory

theory that (a) people often experience a self-image threat after engaging in an undesirable behavior; and (b) they can compensate by affirming another aspect of the self.

Threaten people’s self-concept in one domain, and they will compensate either by refocusing or by doing good deeds in some other domain.

Levels of analysis in social psychology

Within the person (social neuroscience)
At the person: How we think of ourselves and others
Between people (intergroup relations)

Three approaches to conducting research

Correlational, Experimental, and Neuroscience

Correlation Approach (Trying to understand the relationship between two variables)

PROS: Real world
Rich (lots of info)
Cheap (done easily)
Stable (Hardly changes)

CONS: Cannot explain causation
Too much information

THINGS TO CONSIDER: Unrepresentative sample
Order of questions
Wording of questions
Response options

Experimental Approach (Generate hypothesis, control important variables. Most common approach used by researchers)

PROS: Infer cause and effect
Precise
Control

CONS: "Unreal World"
Time consuming

THINGS TO CONSIDER: Keep the mundane and the realism high to make the experiment real

Neuroscience: (Neuroscientific techniques to explain social behavior)

PROS: Infer cause and effect
Control
Precise

CONS: Infer cause and effect
"Newness" (new info hard to pinpoint cause&effect)
Time consuming
Costly

Self guides /possible selves

Actual self: Who we are

Ideal Self: Who we want to be

Ought self: Who we should be

Affective forecasting

Prediction of your emotional state in the future,

we do well for other but worse for us

Robert Rosenthal tested…

the Pygmalion effect and determined that people got smarter when their teachers expected them to get smarter.

Suppression and Rebound is…

a concept that showcase that telling someone to suppress certain information actually make someone think about such information more

Interdependent view of self

Do what your friends or family want because we strive for group and group achievement.

Independent view of self

Do what you want because you strive for personal achievement

Actual-Ought discrepancy

Prevention focus (don't want to take risks, wants security), agitation/disturbed emotions

Actual-Ideal discrepancy

Promotion (goal) focus, dejection/sad emotions

State self esteem

How you feel at that very moment

social
appereance
academic

Trait (global) self esteem

How you feel in general

High self esteem lead to

Have clear, stable and accessible sense of self.

Have positive self view o Know who they are (Their abilities, talents)

Are highly self-schematic

Less influenced by context, less variability ( are the same in any situation)

Have a direct route to self enhancement (enter situations in which they can succeed, to make themselves look good and reinforce their self-esteem)

When threatened they will fall back on other qualities (self affirmation)

Use partner as a source of self-affirmation (thinking of people who care for them to boost their self esteem)

The dark side of high self-esteem

Unsafe sex
Violence
Gang membership
Agrresive behavior and language (have outburst) Base their self-esteem around external factors such as money, looks and talents.

Unrealistic optimism

The idea that nothing bad is ever going to happen. It may lead people to ignore warning signs.

attitudes: Reconstructing our past

Changing our history/memories according to our current attitude, remembering things better or worse than they were depending on our current attitude.

reconstructing past regards to behavior

cognitive process by which individuals recall and piece together information about their own actions, decisions, and experiences from the past

Following the misinformation effect, people are prone to underreport bad behavior and overreport good behavior

Luen Study

Experiment with boys and 3 different type of leadership style

• Under the autocratic leaders, boys were angry and hostile, worked harder when the leader was present .
• When the groups were democratically ruled, they were helping each other, complemented each other.
• In a laissez faire leadership, the boys almost did nothing and chaos was created.

overjustification effect

notion that occurs when individuals experience a decrease in their intrinsic motivation to engage in a behavior after they have been provided with external rewards or incentives

Jane Elliot…

Taught a kindergarden class about discrimination by separating the class into blue eyes and brown eyes group