Social Psychology Final Exam, Key Concepts

Stages of Group Development

sequential phases that a therapy group usually experiences, from its formation to completion. These typically include forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning stages, each marked by unique group dynamics and challenges.

Group Dynamics

patterns of interactions, relationships, and attitudes that influence the behavior and functioning of a group.

Eyewitness Testimony

the use of people's memory reports of an event, usually in legal settings. Cognitive psychology studies how factors like attention, perception, and memory can influence the accuracy and reliability of these

Misinformation Effect

when a person’s memory of an event is influenced by misleading information presented after the event. This can cause eyewitnesses to incorporate incorrect details into their recollections.

Attention

the process of focusing mental resources on certain information, while ignoring others.

Automatic Processing

mental activities that occur quickly and without conscious effort, often as a result of practice.

Dual Processing

the idea that the mind uses two different systems for thinking: one that is fast and automatic, and another that is slower and requires conscious effort.

Social and Cultural Factors

the influences from family, friends, society, and cultural norms that affect how individuals behave, make decisions, and develop throughout early adulthood. These shape values, career choices, relationships, and overall psychological development.

Cultural Norms and Expectations

the shared rules and beliefs within a society that guide how individuals should behave, think, and interact. In early adulthood, these norms influence decisions about career, relationships, family life, and other important life choices, shaping how individuals see themselves and their roles in society.

Moral Development

the process by which individuals learn to distinguish right from wrong and develop values. It involves the growth of conscience, empathy, and ethical reasoning.

Moral Behavior

actions that follow or reflect accepted ideas of right and wrong within a particular group or society. It includes helping, sharing, being fair, and not harming others.

Helping Behavior

a type of action where a person gives assistance or support to others, often without expecting a reward. It is considered a sign of moral development because it reflects concern for others' well-being.

Development of Self-Awareness

the growing understanding individuals have of themselves as unique and separate from others. It includes recognizing one’s own emotions, abilities, values, and making sense of self within a social context.

Self-Worth

the sense of value or importance an individual places on themselves. In development, it is closely linked to feelings of self-esteem and confidence based on abilities, relationships, and achievements.

Aggression

behavior intended to harm or threaten another person physically or emotionally. In children and adolescents, this can appear as hitting, yelling, or mean-spirited acts.

Ethical and Legal Standards

the rules and guidelines psychologists must follow to protect clients' rights and well-being. These include professional codes of conduct and laws that guide behavior, ensuring psychologists act with integrity, respect, and in compliance with the law.

Combating Bias and Microaggressions

involves recognizing, addressing, and reducing prejudiced attitudes and subtle discriminatory behaviors in psychological practice. Ethical standards require psychologists to be aware of their own biases and to actively prevent these from affecting their work with clients from diverse backgrounds.

Implicit Bias

unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions without our awareness. In psychology, recognizing this is important for promoting fairness and reducing discrimination in professional practice.

Ethical Principles and Professional Standards

the core guidelines psychologists follow to ensure responsible, fair, and respectful conduct in their work. These include values such as integrity, respect, and responsibility, as well as specific guidelines for professional behavior.

Core Ethical Principles

the fundamental moral guidelines that direct psychologists in their professional work. These include values such as respect for people's rights and dignity, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, fidelity, and responsibility. They provide the foundation for ethical decision-making and behavior.

Do No Harm

an ethical principle that requires psychologists to avoid causing physical or psychological injury to clients. It emphasizes careful decision-making to prevent harm in all professional activities.

Ethics in Research and Clinical Practice

applying moral principles to protect the welfare and rights of participants or clients, ensuring honesty, accuracy, and respect in all professional activities.

Ethical Research Standards

guidelines that ensure psychological research is conducted in a way that protects participants' rights, safety, and well-being. These include obtaining informed consent, ensuring confidentiality, minimizing harm, and being honest about research findings.

Participant Welfare and Risk Management

This involves protecting the well-being, rights, and dignity of people taking part in research. Psychologists must identify potential risks, reduce harm, and ensure participants understand those risks. They must monitor participants' safety throughout the study, provide support if needed, and act promptly if harm occurs.

Informed Consent in Research

the process by which participants are fully informed about the purpose, procedures, risks, benefits, and their rights in a study, and voluntarily agree to participate.

Researcher Responsibilities and Scientific Integrity

the ethical duties of psychologists to conduct research honestly, accurately, and transparently. This includes reporting findings truthfully, avoiding fabrication or falsification of data, and giving proper credit to others' work. Researchers must also follow established scientific and ethical guidelines throughout the research process.

Honesty

reporting methods, data, results, and findings truthfully, without fabrication or deception.

Ethics of Informed Consent

the principle that individuals must be fully informed about the nature, risks, and benefits of a psychological study or treatment before agreeing to participate. This includes providing clear information and ensuring that consent is given voluntarily without any pressure or deception.

Key Elements of Informed Consent

providing clear information about the purpose, procedures, risks, and benefits of an activity, ensuring the individual's understanding, and obtaining their voluntary agreement without pressure or coercion.

Voluntary Participation

individuals choose to take part in research or therapy freely, without being pressured or coerced.

Self-Concept

the organized collection of beliefs and feelings that people have about themselves, guiding their behavior and understanding of who they are.

Social-Cognitive Theories

personality as a result of the interaction between personal factors, behaviors, and the environment. These theories highlight the role of learning, observation, and cognitive processes in shaping personality.

Reciprocal Determinism

the idea that behavior, personal factors, and the environment all influence each other in an ongoing cycle. This means a person's thoughts, actions, and situations shape one another.

Triadic Model

Bandura's framework in reciprocal determinism, showing that behavior, personal factors, and environment all interact and influence each other in a three-way relationship.

Cognitive Biases

systematic patterns of deviation from logical or rational thinking, leading people to make judgments or decisions based on mental shortcuts or personal preferences.

Confirmation Bias

the tendency to seek out, interpret, and remember information that supports our existing beliefs, while ignoring or discounting information that contradicts them.

Ethical and Cultural Considerations in Report Writing

the importance of respecting personal privacy, confidentiality, cultures, and social backgrounds in all stages of report writing. It requires awareness of biases, use of non-discriminatory language, obtaining informed consent, and ensuring that interpretations and recommendations are valid for the individual's cultural background.

Informed Consent

the process of giving participants the purpose, procedures, risks, and benefits of a psychological assessment so they can voluntarily agree to participate. In forensic and legal settings, this includes informing the person about how the information will be used and any limits to confidentiality.

Operational Definition

Defining what a psychological concept or variable means in a study.

Definition and Scope

clearly stating what a concept means and outlining the boundaries of what is included or excluded. In research, this helps ensure everyone understands exactly what is being studied.

Constructs

abstract ideas used in psychological research to describe variables that cannot be directly observed, such as intelligence, anxiety, or motivation.

Control Of Confounding Variables

involves strategies to prevent other factors from influencing the results, ensuring that any observed effects are due to what is being studied and not external variables.

Design Strategies

studies are planned and structured to minimize biases and control confounding variables. Examples include using random assignment, matched groups, or counterbalancing to strengthen a study’s validity.

Internal Validity

the degree to which a study accurately shows that changes in the dependent variable are caused by the manipulation of the independent variable, rather than by confounding factors or other variables.

Regression Analysis

predicts a value of one variable based on another and assesses the strength and direction of relationships.

Assumptions and Limitations

the required conditions for statistical techniques to give valid results and the boundaries of interpreting findings correctly. In correlation and regression analysis, common assumptions are normality, linearity, and homoscedasticity. Limitations include the potential for omitted variables, restricted cause-and-effect inference, and the influence of outliers.

Causality Limits

the restriction that correlation and regression analyses, by themselves, cannot establish definitive cause-and-effect relationships. These methods only show associations, so claiming that one variable causes another based solely on correlation or regression is not justified.

Goals and Logic of Psychological Research

describing, explaining, predicting, and controlling behaviors and mental processes. The logic involves systematically gathering evidence to test ideas or theories about these phenomena.

Core Scientific Principles

fundamental rules that underlie all scientific investigation, such as relying on empirical evidence, being objective, generating falsifiable claims, replicating findings, and approaching inquiry with skepticism every step of the way.

Falsifiability

the quality of a theory or hypothesis that makes it possible to design a test that could show the theory is false. If a claim is falsifiable, there has to be evidence that can be found to contradict it if it is not true.

Replicability

the ability of other researchers to repeat an experiment or research study and obtain similar results. It is essential for confirming the reliability of scientific findings.

Reproducibility

an independent researcher can repeat a study using the same methods and data and achieve results that closely match the original findings.

Research Assumptions

basic underlying ideas accepted as true without direct proof in designing and conducting scientific studies. Examples include the belief that behavior follows general laws that can be studied scientifically in psychology.

Cause-effect

the relationship between events where one event (the cause) directly leads to another event (the effect). In research, studying cause-and-effect helps determine how one variable influences or produces changes in another variable.

Scientific Goals

the main objectives that guide research, such as describing, predicting, explaining, and controlling behavior or mental processes. In psychology, scientific goals motivate the creation and testing of hypotheses about how the mind works.

Causality

the relationship between two variables where one variable directly influences or produces a change in another. In psychological research, establishing causality means demonstrating that one factor is responsible for an observed effect.

Prediction

the scientific goal of forecasting future behaviors or events based on observed patterns or relationships. In psychology, this means using existing knowledge to anticipate what will happen under certain conditions.

Correlation

a statistical relationship between two variables, showing how changes in one variable are associated with changes in another, without implying causation.

Scientific Reasoning

a systematic way of thinking that involves forming hypotheses, collecting evidence, analyzing results, and drawing conclusions. This method helps generate knowledge in an unbiased and logical manner in psychological research.

Deductive Reasoning

a logical process where conclusions are drawn from a set of general statements or premises. In psychological research, it involves starting with a theory or principle and making specific predictions that can be tested through observation or experiments.

Hypothesis Testing

a process in research where a prediction or statement is evaluated by collecting and analyzing data to determine if evidence supports or rejects it.

Statistical Inference

Hypothesis testing evaluates whether there is enough evidence from sample data to support a specific general prediction about a population. This term uses this process to draw conclusions about the larger group based on sample results.

Hypothesis Structure

the formal way of stating a prediction that can be tested in research. It usually includes a null hypothesis (which predicts no effect or relationship) and an alternative hypothesis (which predicts a specific effect or relationship). This helps guide statistical tests and interpretations.

Alpha Level

the chosen probability threshold for rejecting the null hypothesis, representing the risk of making a Type I error by concluding that an effect exists when it does not.

Null Hypothesis

a statement that there is no effect, difference, or relationship between variables. It serves as the default assumption that any observed result is due to chance.

P-value and Statistical Significance

The p-value is a number that shows how likely it is to get the observed data, or something more extreme, if the null hypothesis is true. Statistical significance is determined by comparing the p-value to a preset significance level (often 0.05). If the p-value is less than this level, the result is considered statistically significant, meaning the observed effect is unlikely due to chance.

Significance Threshold

often called alpha (α), is the cutoff value chosen by researchers to decide whether a p-value indicates a statistically significant result. Commonly, it is set at 0.05.

P-value

the probability of obtaining results at least as extreme as those observed, assuming the null hypothesis is true. It helps determine the strength of evidence against the null hypothesis.

Type I and Type II Errors

Type I error occurs when a true null hypothesis is incorrectly rejected, known as a 'false positive.' Type II error is when a false null hypothesis is mistakenly not rejected, referred to as a 'false negative.' Both types of errors are important in evaluating the reliability of results from hypothesis testing.

False Negative

when a statistical test fails to detect an effect or difference that actually exists. In hypothesis testing, this means not rejecting the null hypothesis when it is actually false (Type II error).

False Positive

when a statistical test incorrectly indicates the presence of an effect or difference when there is none. In hypothesis testing, this means rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true (Type I error).

Probability and Sampling Distributions

Probability is assessing how likely an event or outcome is to happen. Sampling distributions show how a statistic (like an average) would behave if you repeated a study multiple times with different samples.

Distributions

describe how data or values are spread out or grouped across the possible range of a variable. They help us see patterns, such as how frequently particular values occur within a dataset.

Inference

the process of concluding a population based on sample data.

Significance

the likelihood that a result or relationship found in a study is not due to random chance. If a result is statistically significant, it suggests that the finding is likely to reflect a true effect in the population.

P-values

a probability that measures how likely it is to get the observed results of a study, or more extreme results, if the null hypothesis is true. A smaller p-value indicates stronger evidence against the null hypothesis.

Research Designs: Experimental and Non-Experimental

Experimental research involves manipulating one variable to observe changes in another with control over other factors. Non-experimental designs observe variables as they occur with minimal or no manipulation to describe or find associations.

Between-Subjects and Within-Subjects

These are two types of research designs. A between-subjects design compares different groups of participants, each experiencing one condition of the experiment. A within-subjects design uses the same participants across all conditions, measuring their responses under each situation.

Control of Variables

the steps taken by researchers to maintain variables at a constant level, except for the independent variable being tested. This helps ensure that any observed effects are due to the independent variable and not to other factors.

Independent Groups

different sets of participants assigned to each condition or group in an experiment. Each participant is exposed to only one level of the independent variable.

Random Assignment

the process of placing participants into different experimental groups in a way that each person has an equal chance of being assigned to any group. This helps reduce bias and increases the likelihood that groups are comparable at the start of the study.

Research Ethics and Professional Conduct

the principles guiding respectful, fair, and honest conduct in research, including informed consent, confidentiality, and integrity in data handling, to protect participants' rights and ensure credibility.

Ethical Guidelines

formal rules and principles that researchers follow to protect participants' rights, welfare, and dignity in psychological research.

Ethical Review

the process where a research proposal is examined by an IRB or ethics committee to identify potential risks and ensure the study adheres to ethical principles.

Sampling Techniques and Participant Selection

ways to choose individuals from a population to take part in a study, such as random or convenience sampling. the process of recruiting and screening people who will provide the data.

Sampling Bias

occurs when the selected sample does not accurately represent the population, often because some members had a lower chance of being included than others.

Selection Effects

bias that occurs when individuals or groups in a study differ systematically from the population of interest due to the way participants are chosen. This can lead to unrepresentative samples and affect the validity of research findings.

Types of Variables and Constructs

A variable is anything that can vary, such as age or stress level, while a construct is an abstract concept, like intelligence or motivation. Both need to be clearly defined and measured in research.

Direct vs. Indirect Measurement

Direct measurement involves assessing a variable in a straightforward way, like measuring height with a ruler. Indirect measurement uses indicators or signs to estimate a variable that cannot be observed directly, such as using a questionnaire to assess anxiety.

Construct Validity

the extent to which a test or measurement accurately represents the concept or theoretical variable it is supposed to measure, especially when measuring something that cannot be observed directly.

Independent, Dependent, and Control Variables

Independent variables are factors that are manipulated or categorized to observe their effect. Dependent variables are outcomes that are measured to see if they change due to the independent variable. Control variables are elements kept the same throughout an experiment to reduce the chance they will affect the dependent variable.

DV

the variable that is measured or observed to see how it responds to changes in the Independent Variable.

Outcome

the result or effect that is measured in an experiment, usually represented by changes in the dependent variable.

Control Variable

a factor in an experiment that is held constant so it does not influence the outcome, allowing for a clear interpretation of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables.

t-Tests and ANOVA

statistical tests used to compare the means of two groups. ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) is used when comparing the means of three or more groups to see if there are significant differences.

ANOVA

a statistical method used to compare means among three or more groups to see if there are significant differences between them.

Multiple Independent Variables

more than one factor or condition being manipulated in an experiment to observe their separate or combined effects on the dependent variable.

One-Way ANOVA

a statistical test used to compare the means of three or more groups based on a single independent variable to determine if there are statistically significant differences among them.