SOC 341 - Chapter 1-4 Notes

Social Psychology

It is a relatively young field, a scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the real or imaged presence of other people.

Social Influence

effect that others have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors.

Social Psychology Emphasizes…

social influence, the power of the situation, the power of the person, importance of cognition and applicability.

Sociology

focuses on groups and societies.

Personality Psychology

focuses on individuals with their differences and patterns.

Theory

is a set of principles that explains and predict observed events. Ideas that summarize and explain facts.

Good Theory

effectively summarize wide range of observations.

Good Theory makes clear predictions that…

confirm or modify theory, generates new research, suggest practical applications.

Psychoanalytic Theory

developed by Sigmund Freud, it emphasized inner psychic forces, involving with Id, Ego, and Superego.

Behaviorism

developed by John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner, it emphasized observable behavior, involving with Classical, Operant, Reinforcement and Punishment.

Gestalt

develop by group of german psychologist, it focuses on the whole rather than parts. This Term means “shape” or “form”.

Motivational

behavior is motivated by our own needs and motives.

Classical Conditioning

a type of learning, associationism, a learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired, this is associated with Ivan Pavlov.

Operant Conditioning

a type of learning, reward & punishment, a learning process that uses rewards and punishments to modify behavior, this is associated with B.F. Skinner.

Observational Learning

a type of learning, a learning process that occurs through observing the behavior of others, this is associated with Albert Bandura.

Cognitive

perceptions, it’s how you think, reasoned, or remembering.

Decision-Making

weigh cost & benefits, it’s the process of selecting a course of action from multiple alternatives to achieve a specific goal or resolve a problem.

Expectancy Value Theory

added the probability of costs & rewards to decision-making theory.

Interdependence

expands to more than one person.

Sociocultural

society and culture, society impact behavior.

Culture

enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions, can be shared by a large group of people, transmitted from one generation to the next.

Collectivism

emphasize the group.

Individualism

emphasize the individual.

Socialization

learning norms & roles.

Norms

is normal behavioral, rules about expected behavior.

Role

is set of norms that apply to different situations. EX: teacher or student.

Evolutionary

to grow, produce then death.

Middle-Range

commonly use theory as of today, emphasize a specific situation.

Hindsight Bias

It’s the tendency to overestimate one’s ability to have predicted an outcome after the even has already occurred, also known as “I know it all along phenomena”, apart of Lazarsfeld (1949) Military Study.

Methodology

a system of methods used in a particular area of study or activity.

Hypothesis

is a specific prediction about the outcome of an experiment. We always test it and should be generated from a existing theory, but also be generated from personal observations, hunches, etc.

Null

a type of hypothesis, it predicts no differences. (Ho)

Alternative

a type of hypothesis, it predicts a difference. (Ha)

Empirical Method

is a research approach that emphasizes acquiring knowledge through direct observation, experience, and experimentation rather than solely relying on theory or belief.

Observational Method

researcher directly records behavior of participants, one example is ethnography.

Ethnography

is effort to understand a group or culture by observing it from within, this can be done by participant observation, observer interacts with individuals without trying to influence their behavior.

Archival Research

a type of analysis that researcher examines existing records to look for outcomes. EX: is porn linked to violence against woman?

Correlational Method

a type of analysis that measures two or more variables to determine if a statistical relationship exists between them, but it cannot establish a cause and effect relationship. often uses pearson’s r.

There are 2 parts of Correlational…

Direction and Magnitude

The Limitations of correlational methods are…

directionally and common response.

Surveys

usually correlation in nature but can be used to experiment. collects data on populations attitudes, beliefs, and their behaviors.

Experimental Method

researcher manipulates antecedents conditions in an attempt to draw conclusions.

Independent Variable

one you manipulate. (Cause)

Dependent Variable

one you measure. (Effect)

Correlate

variable in correlation study.

Control

eliminates alternative explanations, matching and randomization.

Reliability

a type of measurement that refers to consistency and stability of a measurement tool or procedure.

Temporal

a type of measurement that’s anything relating to time.

Internal

a type of measurement which consistent within itself.

External

a type of measurement which varies from one use to another.

Interrater

a type of measurement which two or more individual researcher achieve the same results.

Validity

a type of measurement which refers to the extent to which a test or instrument accurately measures the specific psychological concept it is intended to measure.

Mundane Realism

extent to which experiment is similar to real life conditions.

Psychological Realism

extent to which the psychological processes in an experiment mirror those of real life.

Replication

to repeat, doing it again.

Cross-Cultural

finding varies from culture to culture.

Meta-Analysis

it is proposed by Rosenthal, a statistical technique that combines similar studies to attempt to come to a consensus on an issue.

Field Experiments

experiments that are done outside, be careful of trading interest and external validity.

Basic Research

do it just to see what happened, conducted for intellectual curiosity.

Applied Research

conducted to solve a social problem.

Informed Consent

letting them know during an experiment.

Deception

lies to participants in experiment.

Debriefing

telling them what happened after the experiment.

Fundamental Attribution Error

developed by Ross (1977), it’s the tendency for people to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional factors for others but not to self. for example: assuming a reckless driver is an inherently bad person, when in reality, they might be rushing to an emergency.

Social Cognition

study of how people select, interpret, remember and use social information to make judgments and decisions about themselves and others.

Social Inference

developed by Nisbett & Ross (1980), role of prior expectations being problematic. Faulty Expectations leads to Faulty Conclusions.

Impact of Negativity Information

we tend to value negative judgments more. Downside - we miss the good.

Framing Effects

the way a statement is phrased can influence our perception. EX: “I think you should go out with that hot chick that sits beside you.” as opposed to “the girl beside you has a really nice personality, you should ask her out.”

Mood-Congruent Memory

if happy, you can remember positive stuff easier.

Automatic Thinking

we make judgements that we are not aware of.

Motivation and Inference

typically self-serving. EX: even though ½ of marriages fail, mine won’t.

Affective Forecasting

use emotions to make predictions about future. EX: because I failed this test I will never amount to anything. can result in perseverance effect. Believed about self and social world persist even after finding evidence to discredit them.

Schemas

mental structures use to organized knowledge about social world, they influence what we notice, think about and remember. EX: what’s the typical schemas of Michael Jackson? It’s Moonwalk.

Accessibility

extent of the ease of recalling a schema. we are more likely to use one that’s accessible and its influenced by two things, past experience and priming.

Priming

occurs when exposure to a stimulus subconsciously influences a person’s response to a subsequent stimulus. EX: when you think of a color yellow, you’ll first probably think of a banana due to its strong association between the two in me memory.

Kelley’s Instructor Study

divided a psych class in half, each half is given a list of adjectives to describe a guest lecturer, half told the lecturer warm, while the other was hand cold.

Confirmatory hypothesis testing

developed by Snyder et al. (1977), once we have an idea about someone we try to find information to confirm it.

self-fulfilling prophecy

developed by Snyder et al. (1977), false expectations lead to expected behaviors. There are 4 Steps:

1. You have expectations of other persons, 2. You act toward that person consistent with your expectations, 3. Other person responds similarity, 4. Other behavior is proof that you were right.

Judgmental

a type of heuristic, shortcut to make assumptions, mental shortcut used for quick judgements.

Representativeness

a type of heuristic, judge something by comparing it to our mental representation of the trait category.

Availability

a type of heuristic, judge likelihood based on availability in memory.

Heuristic

a mental shortcut or rule of thumb that people use to make quick judgements and decisions, especially in complex situations or when information is limited.

Anchoring and Adjusting Heuristic

making the judgment after having a reference point.

Controlled thinking

intentional, voluntary, effortful.

Thought suppression, does it work?

usually not.

Counter factual Thinking

imagining alternatives and alternatives that might have happened but didn’t. thinking about what could have been. this can lead to overconfidence barrier, tendency to have too much confidence in accuracy of judgements.

Social Perception

study of how we form impressions of others. one way is non verbal communication which is encode and decode.

Display Rules

is a socially learned norm that dictates when, where and how people should express emotions. EX: if someone gives you a gift you don’t like, you might put on a wider smile and express gratitude to protect their feelings, rather than showing your true disappointment.

Encode

express non-verbals.

Decode

interpret non-verbals.

Non-Verbal

the submission of messages or signals, such as eye contact or body languages. they are governed by display rules, usually culture-specific.

The Four Functions of Non-Verbal Communication are…

1. Expresses emotion, 2. Conveying attitudes, 3. Communicating personality traits, 4 Facilitating Verbal Communication.

Communicating Personality Traits

outgoing vs. reserved

Facilitating Verbal Communication

pause when finished so others can speak.

Emblems

non-verbal gestures that are culturally specific. EX: Okay Sign 👌, Japan=Money, Mexico=Sex, Ethiopia=Homosexuality, Brazil=Extending Middle Finger.

There are 7 Basic Emotions

Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Surprise, Disgust, and Contempt.

Affect Blend

when you can express more than 2 simultaneously.

Implicit Personality Theory

assume that people possess similar characteristics.

Attribution Theory

developed by Heider (1958), theory of how people explain behavior, attribute other behavior to internal or external causes. EX: Inner-city kid that does poorly in school.

Judgement of Covariation

developed by Harold Kelley, this refers to a persons ability to infer the relationship or correlation between two or more events, often by observing how they co-occur or fail to co-occur. Basically believing two things related. EX: red heads have fiery tempers. this can lead to illusory correlation, assuming a relationship where non exists.