PSY 221 Midterm 1

Thought Experiment

An experiment that can be described, but not actually performed

Self Selection

 when an investigator has no control over any particular participant's level (EX: IQ, test score, etc.)

Internal Validity

refers to the likelihood that only the manipulated variable produced the results found in the experiment

• experiment lacks internal validity when there is another variable that is unaccounted for could have caused the results found in the experiment

Statistical Significance

measure of the probability that an outcome occurred by chance alone

• a finding achieves statistical significance when the probability of finding by that chance is less than 1 in 20 or .05

Institutional Review Board

a committee that examines research proposals and makes judgements about their ethical appropriateness 

• An IRB includes at least one scientist, one non scientist, and one person who is not affiliated with the institution

Basic Science

the study of how the world works

• want to find out the phenomena in its own right rather than using another finding to solve the real world problem 

• 1 part

Applied Science

applying other scientific methods/findings in order to solve a problem or answer a question

• 2 parts

Self Schemas 

 represent people's feelings and beliefs about themselves both in general and i particular kinds of situations

Socialization Agent

institution or entity that influences the way people behave, think, or feel

• EX: Family, school, religion, media, peer groups

Looking Glass Self

refers to the idea that other people's reactions to ourselves- their approval or disapproval- serves as a mirror of sorts

Reflecting Self Appraisals

our beliefs about what others think of us 

• We internalize how we think others see us, not how they actually perceive us 

Situationism

the idea that our social self shifts depending on the situation

Working self-concept

the part of a person's self knowledge that is relevant to the situation

• EX: someone is working in a professional setting and their traits of leadership and competence are activated

How can we be sure that we have a stable sense of self when our personality tends to change depending on the situation?

1. A person is more likely to have core beliefs that come to mind when they think about themselves

↳ EX: Although Ella may see herself as shy around strangers but outgoing with friends, she still has the view that she is a good listener no matter who she is with

2. A person’s pool of self knowledge is relatively stable over time

↳ Your view that you are lazy might not be applicable during your job interview, but perfectly valid when you are rotting in your bed for five hours 

3. Although a person’s behavior might change situationally, it is likely that these shifts conform to a pattern

↳ When a person is confident around their friends, but insecure around their mom consistently the malleability of this individuals self is stable

Downward Social Comparisons

a self evaluation technique where individuals compare themselves with individuals they view as worse off

Upward Social Comparisons

a self evaluation technique where individuals compare themselves with individuals they view as better than themselves

Self-stereotyping

characterizing the self in terms of the traits, norms, and values associated with an especially salient or meaningful social group

Trait self-esteem

a person’s enduring level of self-regard over time 

• those who report high self-esteem at one point in their life tend to do so later in their lives as well and vice versa with low

State self-esteem

dynamic, changeable self-evaluations a person experiences as momentary feelings about the self

• changes depending on the emotional state the individual is at (negative during adolescence and after a major setback has occurred)

Sociometer Hypothesis

self-esteem is an internal, subjective index of how well we are regarded by others and what the likelihood of us being excluded/included by them is

Self affirmation theory

 focuses on people's efforts to maintain an overall sense of self-worth when confronted with feedback or events that threatened a valued self-image

• EX: getting back a poor test grade and reminding yourself that you studied for hours and almost everyone in that class did poorly

Self-verification strategies:

1. Individuals selectively recall and attend information that is consistent with their views of themselves

↳ people with negative feedback of themselves spend more time studying negative rather than positive feedback about themselves (opposite for those with positive feedback of themselves) 

2. People tend to enter relationships that promote consistent views of themselves

↳ these views will make it more likely that their personal views will confirm their self-views

- those in relationships that verify how they view themselves are more likely to say committed to said relationship 

Self-discrepancy theory

people hold beliefs about who they are, what they would ideally like to be, and what they think they should be

• Ideal and ought beliefs serve as self guides that motivate people to regulate their behavior in order to close the gap between their actual self and their ideal and ought standards

Construal

a person’s way of understanding the world around them

↳ high level construals focus on abstract, global, and core features vs. low level construals focus on incidental and concrete 

• High level- forest

• Low level- trees

Implementation intentions

specifies how one will behave in order to achieve a goal under certain circumstances

↳ follows and if, then format

- If my little brother acts annoying, then I’ll just ignore him,  the “if” refers to some kind of cue, and the “then” refers to a behavior that will follow the cue to achieve the larger goal (in this case, being kinder to one’s little brother by ignoring him rather than yelling at him—or worse

Janine Willis and Alex Todorov (2006) → Snap Judgement experiment 

• Showed participants a large number of faces and had them rate how friendly they thought they were. Each participant had a varying amount of time to look at the faces

• Results showed that the hurried judgements were remarkably similar to the more reflexive assessments 

Covariation Principle

the theory that explains how people infer causes of behaviors

• if someone has multiple car accidents then others might assume they are a poor driver

Consensus

refers to what most people would do in a given situation

• the more the individual’s reaction is shared by others, the less it tells about the person and more so about the situation (more similar reactions = high consensus)

Distinctiveness

efers to what a particular individual does during certain situations

• the more someone's reaction is confined to a certain situation, the less it says about the individual and more so the situation (confined reaction = high distinctiveness) 

Situational attribution

when consensus and distinctiveness are both high

• EX: when everyone in your stats class likes it including your friend who loves math and they seldom like math classes

Dispositional attribution

when consensus and distinctiveness are both low

• EX: when everyone in your stats class hates it including your friend who claims to love all math classes

Discounting Principle

when a good explanation for an event is possible, people will disregard other possible clauses

• EX: blaming weather for a flight delay

Counterfactual thinking

thoughts of what could’ve/ should’ve/ might have happened if only a few minor things were done differently

• EX: “If I had started studying three days ago I wouldn’t have failed that test”

Self-serving attributional bias

the tendency to attribute shortcomings to external sources and attributing success to internal sources

• Blaming failures on others while claiming successes 

Construal level theory

explains how psychological distance affects how people think and behave

• EX: when planning a vacation next year you think about the relaxation and fun, but when planning for a trip next week you think about the details like timing and what restaurants you will be going to 

Confirmation bias

the tendency to test a proposition by searching for evidence to support it

Intentional Object

the thing or state of affairs the mental state is about 

Why do we have emotions?

1. They help us interpret our surrounding circumstances

2. They guide our actions

• EX: when you see your friend suffering, it is your feelings of sympathy that spur altruistic action

Constructivist emotional approach

proposes that culture affects how we feel about events, what we might do about our feelings, and how we express/describe our feelings to others and to ourselves

Darwin's 3 Hypotheses about the universality of emotional expression: 

1. Because all humans use the same 30-40 facial muscles to communicate and perceive emotions, people in all cultures will perceive/communicate emotion in the same manner

2. Because humans share an evolutionary history with other mammals our emotionally expressive behaviors should resemble those of other species 

↳ drew parallels between human emotion and the behaviors of animals at the London Zoo

3. Argued that blind individuals will still show expressions similar to those of sighted people because the tendency to express emotions in specific ways has been encoded by evolutionary processes 

Affect Valuation Theory

emotions that promote important cultural ideals are valued and will tend to play a more prominent role in the social lives of individuals 

3 Regulation Strategies:

1. People often rethink/reappraise the reasons they are thinking the way they do

• EX: when someone is frustrated with a friends behavior they might rethink why the friend acted that way and arrive at a more or less charitable attribution

2. People will accept current emotional circumstances, to understand that our emotions are fleeting and their causes typically change

• Recognizing the sources of negative emotions change over time

3. Occurs when people minimize the outward signs of their emotion

Social functional theory

emotions and their accompanying patterns of experience, expression, and physiology enable people to form, maintain, and negotiate the relationships that matter most to them 

Broaden and build hypothesis 

 the idea that positive emotions broaden thoughts and actions, helping people build social resources 

2 Distinct components of happiness: 

1. Life satisfaction 

2. Emotional well being

Immune Neglect

refers to the tendency to ignore our ability to respond productively to stress and other potential sources of unhappiness

Focalism

a tendency to focus too much on the central aspect of an event while neglecting the possible impact on peripheral considerations or extraneous events

• Focusing so much on one aspect, that we fail to consider how other aspects of our lives influence how happy we are