Quiz 1 Content

Chapters 1-3

Social psychology

the scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social situations

The power of the situation studies

Kurt Lewin, Milgram experiment, and Good Samaritans

Kurt Lewin (1)

The behavior of people is always a function of the field of forces in which they find themselves

Kurt Lewin (2)

anyone can do something bad if they’re put into the “right” situation

Kurt Lewin equation

B = f(P + E)

Milgram Experiment (1)

shock experiment, people were doing things that were unconventional and wouldn’t normally do

Milgram Experiment (2) participants were more

willing to shock the other person when permitted by an authority figure

Good Samaritans experiment (1) Seminary students were

asked to give a short sermon on the Good Samartian, given a specific route

Good Samaritans experiment (2) student was either told

they either had plenty of time or very little time

Findings of the Good Samaritan experiment

people who weren’t in a hurry were more likely to help than those who weren’t

Fundamental attribution error (1) the tendency

to attribute behaviors to disposition rather than circumstance

Fundamental attribution error (2) we especially

tend to explain other people’s behavior through internal factors and disregard external factors

Hindsight bias

everything seems obvious in retrospect

Channel factors (“nudges”)

small, seemingly innocuous prompts that have large effects on behavior

Channel factors yale vaccine study

When given info and urges to get a shot, 3% of students obliged,

Construal

Our interpretations of the world around us

Gestalt psychology (1) our perceptions are not direct

translations of reality but rather what we think objects represent as a whole

Example of construal

“is a burger a tasty food or a moral crime against cows?”

Schemas

Organized categories of knowledge

Schemas help us deal with

the deluge of information we get every day

Stereotypes

schemas about groups of people

Most of our thinking is automatic

quicker, effortless, nonconscious, reading emotions, first impressions, priming

Controlled processing

slower, deliberate, conscious, complex problems, novel issues

Automatic processing is faster and more convenient but

also more difficult to control or change

Stereotypes and prejudice are hard to combat because of

automatic processing

Universals

Behaviors that are present in MOST societies (facial expressions, food sharing)

Certain universal behaviors were more likely to

allow our ancestors to survive and pass down their traits

Theory of mind

ability to understand other people by ascribing mental states

Naturalistic fallacy (1) the idea that

something is good or right simply bc it’s “natural” or exists

Individualistic vs. Collectivist cultures

emphasis on the self vs. the group respectively

Shortcomings on psychology research

Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic

Hypothesis

a prediction about what will happen under specific circumstances

Theory

a set of related propositions intended to describe some aspects of the world

Theories are general but

hypothesis are specific and test theories

Observational research (1) observe social situations,

typically semi-formal and in person, used in anthropology and sociology, and are generally used as a starting point

Observational research pros

informative and natural, generates new ideas for further research, behavior outside the lab

Observational research cons

subjectivity, niche, lack of funding

Archival research

studying archived resources on social behavior like documents, social media, newspaper

Archival research pros

large amounts of data and low cost

Archival cons

narrow information and varying quality

Survey

interviews or questionnaires

Survey pros

gather large amounts of specific data, low to medium cost, easy to set up

Survey cons

can’t directly control the situation, questions can be leading, results can be biased

Sample

the group you are collecting data from

Population

the group you want to draw conclusions about based on your data

Random sampling

everyone in the population has an equal chance of being a part of the study

Convivence sampling

subjects are selected from an easily available subgroup for the study

Random sampling is more representative of the population but

convenience sampling is used more often

Correlational research

measuring two or more variables to see if there’s a relationship between them

Surveys and archival research fall under

correlational research

Correlation ranges from -1 to +1

the closer the correlation is to 0, the weaker the relationship

Third variable

when the presence of variable C is responsible for the relationship between variables A and B

Self selection

researchers cannot assign levels to the participants’ variables

Experimental research includes

an independent variable, dependent vairbale, experimental condition, control condition, and random assignment

Independent variable

the variable that is being manipulated and is hypothesized to be the cause of the studied outcome

Dependent variable

the variable that is being measured and is hypothesized to be affected by the independent variable

Experiment condition

condition with the manipulation of the independent variable hypothesized to affect the dependent variable

Control condition

condition that is the same as the experimental condition except it lacks the manipulation hypothesized to affect the dependent variable

Random assignment

assigning participants to different conditions randomly

Random assignment equalizes characteristics

across experimental and control groups

Without random assignment,

you get self selection bias

Examples of NOT random assignment

first half of participants in experiments, second half in control, assigning on age, order, height, etc.

Internal validity

Likelihood that only the manipulated variable (IV) caused the results

Random assignment and control condition have

internal validity in mind

Without internal validity

we cannot trust findings

External validity

how well your results apply to your population outside the confines of the study

Random sampling, experimental realism, and field experiments helps

with external validity

Internal validity threats

selection, regression to the mean, experimenter bias, attrition, history, maturation, testing, instrumentation

Regression to the mean

Everyone has an average people hit, but sometimes you do especially good or bad or something

Experimenter bias

an experimenter might be expecting a certain outcome which can interfere with the “real results”

Attrition

An unavoidable reality is that not everyone will complete your study all the way through

Natural experiment

naturally occurring event that the researcher believes causes something

Researchers don’t assign conditions or

manipulate variables in natural experiments

Reliability

whether the way a variable is measured gives consistent results

Measurement validity

how well the measure correlates with the outcome the measure is meant to predict

A measure can sometimes be reliable but not valid

a measure can be valid but not reliable (ex. weight scale)

Statistical significance (1) how likely a result

could have happened by chance

Statistical significance (2) how certain are you that the

Independent variable caused the DV and not coincidence

Factors of statistical difference

size of the difference between groups and number of cases

Statistical significant is

NOT practical significance

Replication study

repeating the study with a new sample, test whether findings are valid, vitally important

Problems with replication studies

practicality with study methods and interest with old studies

Open science

freely sharing data and research materials

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

a university’s committee that judges the ethical appropriateness of a scientist’s research

What the Institutional Review Board does (1) protect

research participants (human and animal)

If a study isn’t approved by the Institutional Review Board

it can’t be published before data collection

Informed consent (1) participants’ willingness to participate

in a procedure or research study after learning all relevant aspects about the procedure or study

Deception research

when participants are misled about the purpose of the research

Scientists need to debrief participants

after the study is done when they use deception

Basic science

research to try and understand a phenomenon

Basic science is generally more

focused on internal validity (ex. milgram experiment)

Applied science

research to try and solve a real world problem

Applied science is generally more

focused on external validity (ex. reducing drug use)

Our knowledge of ourself is

often inaccurate or incomplete (automatic processing and understanding the power of the situation)

Self schemas

people’s belief and feelings about themselves (resistent to change)

Origins of the sense of self

family (sharing, taking turns, giving thanks, cultural celebrations, religious beliefs)

Reflected self appraisals

our beliefs about other’s reactions to us

We internalize how others seem to see us

not always accurate to how they actually see us

Situationism

the notion that social self changes across different contexts

Working self concept

a subset of self knowledge that is brought to mind in a particular context