SOP 3004 Social Psychology - Unit 1 Study Guide Flashcards

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering Person & Situation, Science & Theory, and Social Cognition based on Unit 1 lecture notes.

Person

the characteristics and experiences you bring with you into a situation.

Includes:

1. Personality

2. Attitudes and preferences

3. Past experiences

4. Knowledge

5. Your motives and goals

6. Genetic and physical characteristics

Situation

Events or circumstances outside the person, which can be brief or long-lasting.

Person-Situation Interaction

How who you are and the situation you are in work together to influence how you behave, represented as $B = P \times S$.

Goals

Specific outcomes or achievements that a person wishes to attain, smaller goals can help achieve larger goals.

Motives

Broad goals or needs that drive your behavior

Belonging Motive

The desire to connect with other people and feel like you are part of a group

Understanding Motive

The motivation to understand yourself and others, where social knowledge helps individuals function effectively in groups.

Controlling Motive

The motivation to feel capable and in control of what happens to you.

Enhancing Self Motive

The motivation to view oneself as valuable and fundamentally good, maintaining a positive self-image.

Trusting Motive

The motivation to believe that other people and the world are safe, good, and trustworthy.

Exemplar

A specific example of a person, event, or situation that you remember

Schema

A general idea about an episode, event, or person based on what you know or experienced.

Priming

The process of activating knowledge or goals so they are ready for immediate use. Ex. Hear the word basketball, make you think about a hoop, dunking, teamwork.

Chronic Accessibility

Knowledge that is continuously ready for use all the time.

Attitudes

Positive or negative feelings or opinions about something

Emotions

A strong negative or positive feeling that causes physical reactions and thoughts

Moods

A long-lasting feeling that affects how you see the world, but isn’t focused on one specific thing

Mere Presence

When other people around you affects your behavior, Ex. focus more when studying when studying with friends.

Affordances

An opportunity or threat that a person or situation provides. Ex. A friend can provide an opportunity for help when studying.

Descriptive Norms

what is commonly done in a specific situation.

Injunctive Norms

Rules about what people believe you should or shouldn’t do. Ex. People believe you should hold the door open for women, it’s polite

Pluralistic Ignorance

A potential negative consequence arising: when everyone assumes that everyone else agrees, even though they actually don’t. Ex. Everyone thinks everyone else agrees.

Strong Situations

Situations where there clear rules or expectations that tell you how to behave.

Weak Situations

there few or unclear rules, have more freedom to choose how to behave. Ex. Hang out with friends, can talk about anything, go anywhere, choose what to do

Culture

the shared beliefs, values, customs, habits, and ways of doing things that a group of people has.

Individualistic Cultures

Cultures that emphasize individual identity and personal goals

Collectivistic Cultures

Cultures that focus on relationships, group membership, harmony, interdependence, and concern for others

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by other people.

Correlation

two things have a relationship, but it does not prove that one caused the other.

Positive Correlation

when two things increase or decrease together.

Negative Correlation

when two things move in opposite direction

Directionality Problem

when you know two things are related, but you don’t know which one causes the other.

Third-Variable Problem

problem in correlational research: when another variable may be causing the relationship between two variables.

Ex. Relationship between School attendance and GPA

Third variable: study time causes high GPA

Experiment

A research method where researchers change one thing to see if it causes a change in another thing. (shows what causes relationship between two varaibles)

Independent Variable (IV)

The variable the researcher changes/manipulates

Dependent Variable (DV)

The variable measured to see the affect of the manipulation (independent varaible))

Experimental Control

Making sure that everything except the independent variable stays the same between groups, so researches can see if the IV caused the change.

Random Assignment

A procedure ensuring that each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any condition in an experiment.

Experimental Realism

How much an experiment feels real and meaningful to the people particpating in it, so they can behave naturally. Not changing behavior because they know theyre being studeid.

Sociocultural Perspective

A theoretical perspective emphasizing that larger social groups, culture, and social norms influence individual social behavior.

Evolutionary Perspective

A theoretical perspective says humans have physical and psychological traits that were passed down by their ancestors( via natural selection) to help them survival and reproduction. Ex. Baby cry, so mother can help them.

Social Learning Perspective

A theoretical perspective asserting that social behavior is shaped by prior direct learning experiences: reinforcement/ punishment or indirect learning expereinces: observation and imitation.

Social Cognitive Perspective

A theoretical perspective stating that how your thoughts and perceptions affect your social behavior.

Focus on how these affect behavior:

-Attention: What you notice

-Processing: How you think about info

-Perception: How you interpret what is happening

-Memory: What you remember and use later

Social Cognition

How you think and make sense of yourself and others

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to look for and notice information that support what you already believe, ignore the rest.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

When an expectation causes behavior that makes the expectation true.

Ex. A teacher expects student to do poorly, doesn’t help them as much, and the student ends up performin poorly.

Dispositional Inference

Assuming someone’s behavior shows what their personality is like

Ex. Some is angry, assume they are bad

Fundamental Attribution Error

Assuming someone’s behavior is caused by their personality instead of their situation

Ex. Someone is late to class —] think “they’re lazy”——] situation: they got stuck in traffic.

Actor-Observer Bias

We explain other people’s behavior by their personality, but explain our own behavior by the situation

Them=personality

Me=situation

Representativeness Heuristic

Resembles a certain example=more likely

Availability Heuristic

“Easy to remember=seems more likely”

Anchoring and Adjustment

A cognitive heuristic where an individual starts with a rough estimate (anchor) and adjusts from that point.

False Consensus Effect

A bias tendency to overestimate how much other people share our beliefs, opinions, or behaviors.

Automatic Thinking

Thinking that happens quickly and without consciously trying.

Controlled Thinking

Conscious and effortful thinking aimed at achieving accuracy.

Dual-Process Model

The idea that automatic thinking happens first, and then controlled thinking thinking happens if you have motivation and ability to think more carefully.

Correspondent Inference Theory

We look at someone's behavior to figure out what their personality or intentions are factors: intent, consequence, choice, and outside pressures.

Discounting Principle

More possible cause= less confidence in one cause

Augmenting Principle

When someone acts a certain way despite obstacles, we more likely believe that their behavior reflects their personality or intentions.

Covariation Model

A way of figuring out why someone behaves a certain way by looking at three things: Consensus (other people think), Distinctiveness (only here), and Consistency(always here)