social psych midterm

social thinking

-how we perceive ourselves and others

-what we believe

-judgements we make

-out attitudes

social influencing

-culture and biology

-pressures to conform

-persuasion

-groups of people

social relations

-helping

-aggression

-attraction and intimacy

-prejudice

major themes

1. we construct our social reality

2. our social intuitions are often powerful

3. social influences shape behavior

4. dispositions shape behavior

5. social behaviors is also biological behavior

6. relating to others is a basic need

intuitions are often wrong

-we often trust our memory more than we should

-we are poor at predicting our emotional reactions

hindsight bias

the tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, ones ability to have for seen it

theory

an integrated set if principles that explain and predict observed events

hypothesis

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

correlation vs causation

when two things go together, it is very tempting to conclude that one is causing the other

replication (ethics)

a study that runs the same experiment again, sometimes multiple times, to discover if the same result will still appear

meta-analysis (ethics)

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

spotlight effect

people see themselves as center stage

illusion of transparency

when we feel stuff-conscious we can worry about being evaluated negatively

self-schema

beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant info

social comparison

we compare ourselves to others and our conscious of those differences (can have either a positive or negative impact)

other peoples judgements

-LABELS given become interweaved into our view of self influencing our behavior in positive/ negative ways

-SOCIAL SCRIPTS may lead to deidentification with specific domains of development and lower effort

the looking-glass self

how we imagine others view us

individualism

-prevails especially in industrialized Western cultures identity is self-contained

-becoming an adult means separating from parents

-becoming self-reliant, and defining ones personal, independent self

independent self

-self-concept as stable

-self-esteem as personal/self-contained

collectivism

-independent self

-self-concept as malleable

-self-esteem as relational

collectivist cultures

-self-esteem is relational and malleable

-persist longer on tasks when failing

-upward social comparisons

-balanced self-evaluations

individualistic cultures

-self-esteem is less relational and more personal

-persist longer on tasks when succeeding

-downward social comparisons

-self-evaluations bias positively

self-esteem

a persons overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth

self comparison

is a route to self-esteem

low self-esteem is associated with…

-more anxiety, loneliness, and eating disorders

self-efficacy

-a belief in your own competence

self-serving bias

-explaining positive and negative events

(the tendency to attribute personal failure to external forces and personal success to internal forces

unrealistic optimism

most humans are predisposed to optimism

false consensus effect

over estimating the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors

fake uniqueness effect

underestimating the commonality of one’s abilities and ones desirable or successful behaviors

self handicapping

protecting ones self-imagine with behaviors that or are a handy excuse for later failure

attitude

a favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction toward something

the Implicit Association Test (IAT)

when other influences or behaviors are minimal

door-in-the-face technique

tendency for people who have declined a large request to agree to a smaller request

cognitive dissonance theory

we feel tension (dissonance) when we are aware that we have two thoughts that are inconsistent or incompatible

selective exposure

people prefer to expose themselves with information that agrees with their pov

dissonance theory

predicts that when our actions are not fully explained by external rewards or coercion

self-affirmation theory

people often experience self-image threat after engaging in an undesirable behavior and they compensate for this threat by affirming another aspect of the self

central route

occurs when people focus on the arguments

peripheral route

occurs when people focus on incidental cues

creditability

perceived expertise and trustworthiness

sleep effect

a delayed impact of a message; may occur when we remember the message but forget the source

perceived expertise

we tend to discount or ignore those that views do not align with our own

6 persuasion principles

1. authority: people differ to creditable experts

2. liking: people response more affirmatively to those they like

3. social proof: people allow the example of others to validate how to think, feel, and act

4. reciprocity: people feel obligated to repay in kind what they’ve recieved

5. consistency: people tend to honor their public commitments

6. scarcity: people praise whats scarce

the two-step flow

from media to opinion leaders, to the general public

group indoctrination tatics

attitudes follow behavior

persuasive elements

-the communicator

-the message

-the audience