Social Psychology Test #1

What is the definition of social psychology?

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

How does social psychology and sociology differ?

Sociology looks at a group of people and social psychology looks at an individual

How does social psychology and personality psychology differ?

Personality psychology believes behavior is caused by personality. Social psychology believes behavior is caused by personality and situation

What two things did social psychology adapt from?

Philosophy and science

W.M. James "Principles of Psychology" talked about what?

The concept of self, what makes us different from animals is that we have a sense of self.

-We all put value in our existence

What was the first testable research?

Triplett, 1898. Noticed that people do better around other people

Experiment: Rigelmann 1913

Built a tug of war machine and measures how much an individual and a group can pull. In this experiment, the group did worst than individually.

Experiment: Triplett 1898

Put kids individually and in a group to reel in a fishing line as fast as possible. In the group, the kids reeled it in faster than individually

What is social facilitation?

improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others

What is social loafing?

the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

What did McDougal say in his book from 1908?

Social behavior is caused by 25 instincts that are already pre-wired in us (Nature)

What did Ross say in his book from 1908?

Social behavior is caused by imitating other human beings (Nurture)

Behaviorism (Watson and Skinner)

Psychologists who look at behavior and causes of behavior

What are personal theories?

Theories of stuff we personally believe in

-Sex -Guys/Girls -Marriage -Raising children

What is sampling bias?

Taking couple of people stories and trusting them

What is egocentrism (perceptual bias)?

Tendency to perceive the world from the perspective of self

-kids -people who think they are the center of the world

What is egotism (motivated bias)?

The tendency to interpret the world in a way that is personally beneficial

-"most people think they drive better than the average driver"

Experiment: James Shepperd 1993

Asked college students what they thought about the Sat and their scores. Most people said the SAT was easy and told their scores. When Shepperd went to check the scores, people seemed to have "misremembered" a higher score than what they got

What is the self serving bias?

Claiming successes and blaming failures

What is cognitive conservation (thinking bias)?

Ways we think that protects our beliefs

What is assimilation?

Passively taking in new information consistent with what we already believe

Experiment: Haterf+Cantril 1954

Got the tape of a football game between Dartmouth and Princeton (rivals). They showed it to Princeton students, they said Dartmouth caused most of the problems. When they showed it to Dartmouth students, they said Princeton caused most of the problems

What is belief perseverance?

To cling to our beliefs even if it has been proven wrong

What is confirmation bias?

We actively search for evidence that supports our beliefs, therefore we create realities consistent with our beliefs

Experiment: Rosethalt+Jackson 1968

They gave elementary students a random test and told their teaches it was supposed to tell which students were going to blossom (not a real test). They then picked random students from the classes and told the teachers. After a few months, they went back to the school to find out, the students actually did blossom.

Experiment: Shider+Tanke+Borshed 1977

They gave college students a picture of a pretty or ugly girl and the boys thought they were speaking on the phone to the girl in the picture. They then played just the audio of the girl to a different group of people and they were told to deem which of the two girls sounded more interesting. Most said the pretty girl sounded more interesting

What is over confidence bias?

Over estimate how right we are about our beliefs

Experiment: Ross+Greene+House 1977

They asked college students if they could walk around with a sign to help them out. No matter what they answered, they asked afterwards if they thought most people would say the same answer they said. And almost everyone said yes

What is over sight bias?

Ignoring evidence that proves us wrong

What is discomformation bias?

Go out of our way to trash evidence that proves us wrong

What is temperal consisitency bias/hindsight bias?

If you know it now, you think you have always known it

What is an example of limited insight?

Women came to a table that had socks who were all the same but it says different brands. Most women chose brand D because most people, if it is the same, they choose the last one

What is automatic processing?

Do not have to think about it to do it

-breathing -walking

What is controlled processing?

Have to think about it to do it

-taking tests

Experiment: Wilson+Nisbett 1978

They had 2 groups of people watch the same documentary, one group had the normal version and the other group had a chainsaw in the background. There was no effect even thought they thought there was going to be

Experiment: McFarlad 1989

Gave women a beeper and whenever they were beeped, they had to write down their feelings. After a couple of months, it was noticed that there was not any mood fluctuations even during their periods

What are some ways we acquire knowledge?

-Authority (family, doctors, lawyer, police, etc..)

-Tenacity (clinging to habits or superstitions)

-Intuition (gut feeling)

-Rationalism (getting info through reason)

-Empiricism (testing)

What is the process of science?

Theory, Hypothesis, Prediction, Collect Data, Analysis, and Conclusion

What is naturalistic observation?

Observing people in their natural environment

What is a survey?

Getting a lot of peoples opinion in a short period of time

What is a case study?

In depth description of one person or event

Experiment: Harvland+Sears 1940

Made case studies at African Americans hangings and cotton season. They realized when cotton season was booming, hangings went down. When cotton season was scarce, hangings went up

What is a positive correlation?

As one goes up, the other goes up. As one goes down, the other goes down

What is a negative correlation?

As one goes up, the other goes down. As one goes down, the other goes up

What are 2 essential parts of experiments?

Control/manipulation of variables and random assignment

Experiment: McCard 1977

Had two groups of at risk kids, one group got a place they could go to eat/sleep/stay and the other group did not. After years, he checked on the kids to see if they had a criminal record.

Treatment: 66% did not have a record

No treatment: 70% did not havr a record

What is an independent variable?

What the researcher manipulates to see what will happen

What is a dependent variable?

What the researcher measures to see if something happened

What is the problem between generalization and control?

Generalization gives you realism but no control and control gives you control but almost none realism

What is mundane realism?

The degree in which it simulates a real world experiment

What is experimental realism?

The degree in which it gets their ego involved, they believe your manipulations

What is self concept?

Self knowledge/understanding, it is a personal theory and it is always changing

What is chronic self concept?

How you always think about yourself (most of the time)

Spontaneous/working self concept?

How you think about yourself in a certain situation

Experiment: McQuire

He chose families with 1 boy with a bunch of girls or 1 girl with a bunch of boys, he asked them and the solo kid mentioned their genders. They went to a school and found that the solo kids always mentioned their differences

What is social identity?

How you view yourself as a social being (gender, race, ethnicity, etc...)

What is independent (individualistic)?

Think about ourselves first when asked about ourselves

What is interdependent (collectivist)?

Think about groups they belong to when asked about ourselves

What are possible selves?

Who we could become in the future

What are positive possible selves?

Who we could and want to become (keeps us motivated)

-college graduate -family -married

What are negative possible selves?

Who we could and do not want to become (try to avoid)

-hobbo -college drop out -my parents

What is global self esteem?

how we typically feel about ourselves. Our sense of value we walk around with most of the time

What is state self esteem?

How you feel about yourself in a situation (changes constantly)

What is collective self esteem?

Pride of the groups they are part of

-college -country

What is self efficiency?

How much we can control/effect our environment

What is internal locus of control?

"I control most things"

What is external locus of control?

"Other people/things control most things"

What are examples of learned helplessness?

-addiction -abusive relationships -homelessness

Experiment: Seligman

Put a dog in a room with an electrifying grid on the floor and it shocks the dog with no way out. After a while, the dog is out in another room with an electrifying grid with a way out. But the dog just lays there and takes the shocks

Experiment: Langer

Went to nursing homes. One floor, the staff controlled everything. Second floor, the people controlled everything. After a few months, the second floor was happier and more people died in the first floor

What is the "I"?

Engage externally with your environment dealing with what is going on around us

What is the "me"?

What you know about yourself (self concept)

What is Colley's "looking glass self"?

We reflect back to ourselves about who we are by how other people treat us

Experiment: Miller+Brickmen 1975

Went to a school and told the teachers to do one of two things: only step in when they get it wrong and encourage them or only step in when they get it right and highlight it. The group who was highlighted when right did better in the math test

What is Festinger's social comparative theory?

The motive is to self verify who we are as people all the time and we want to compare ourselves to people who are like us

What is upward comparison?

Compare yourself to someone who is better off than you

What is downward comparison?

Compare yourself to someone worst off than you

Experiment: Shelly Taylor 1989

Interviewed women with one or both breasts removed because of breasts cancer. The women said "it has been challenging, but I am going to be like those women who power through and not going to be like those women who crumble" and when she asked if the women knew those kind of women, they didn't. She asked their husbands and they said the same thing. Result: when we do not have someone to compare to, we create it

What is Mead's role theory?

"You are nothing more than the role you have accepted to play"

What is an ascribed internalized role?

Roles you did not choose and have no choice

-race -family -gender

What is an achieved internalized role?

Roles you tried to have and learned to play

-student -professor

What is socialization?

Learning to play our roles so we know what to expect

What is a self schema?

Organizes info (new or stuff that is already there) and guides our behavior

What is selective information processing?

We selectively take in new information that backs up how we see ourselves (example of cognitive conservation)

What is selective affiliation?

You hang out with people who view you the way you view yourself

What is selective self presentation?

Present ourselves in a way that will bring out other people to treat us the way we want to be viewed.

Experiment: Goffman 1959

He said in his book that we are all actors on a stage playing a roles and faces. He also talked about superfaces

What is a superface?

When we present ourselves in ways that are better than we think we are and see how people respond

What is false impressions of uniqueness?

We think our good traits are not common but what we do not like about ourselves we think everyone has them

What is false consensus bias?

We like to believe that everyone thinks like us

What did Jones say about impression management?

We change our faces to get what we want

What did Schlanker say about impression management?

Sometimes we may change our faces to get what we want but most of the time we are doing it just to see if that is really us

What is Cialdine's BIRGing?

We bask in reflective glory of those we identify with

What is Tesser's self esteem maintenance?

When a relative/loved one out performs us in something we do not care about, we show it off. If they out perform us in something we care about, we experience social comparison jealousy and we undermine them

What is self handicapping?

Placing an obstacle in their own path to success

Experiment: Morse+Gergan 1972

Had a job interview and the interviewee was filling out their application either next to "Mr. Clean" or "Mr. Dirty". The interviewees who filled it out next to Mr. Dirty did better/wrote more positive attributes

Experiment: Gallop 1982

- 25 times more likely that chimpanzees touch the spot on their forehead that that they can only see in the mirror

-Chimpanzees raised in social isolation did not touch the spot on the forehead

-Once socially introduced, they do touch their forehead

Experiment: Jones+Berglas 1978

Brought in college students and told them they were going to be solving 20 word anagrams. First, they were going to do one normally and the other one they were going to take a pill that either made them smarter or dumber (they could choose). They gave half the people 20 unsolvable anagrams and the other half 20 easy anagrams. They gave the college students their "score" and tells both groups of people they did really well. Then students had to choose a pill and do 20 different anagrams.

Unsolvable anagrams group: chose pill that is supposed to not help

Easy anagrams group: chose pill that is supposed to help

Result: the unsolvable anagrams group self handicapped themselves because they did not think they could do it and needed an excuse.