Psych 140 Midterm 1 (UCR)

What is "social psychology"?

A science that studies the influences of our situations, with special attention to how we view and affect one another.

Ways that values can influence research

-which research topics psychologists choose

-Social history can affect social psychology

-Types of people are attracted to various disciplines

Descriptive research

The nature of the phenomenon.

Correlational research

The study of the naturally occurring relationships among variables.

Experimental research

Studies that seek clues to cause-effect relationships by manipulating one or more factors (independent variables) while controlling others (holding them constant). Has a random variable

Archival research

use data collected by other researchers.

Survey research

The use of surveys to collect data.

Random sample

survey procedure in which every person in the population being studied has an equal chance of inclusion

4 potentially biasing influences from survey research

Unrepresentative samples,Order of Questions,Response Questions, Wording of Questions.

Wording of Questions

The precise wording of questions may also influence answers, even subtle changes in the tone of a question can have marked effects

Framing

the way a question or an issue is posed; can influence people's decisions and expressed opinions

Correlation vs. causation

Correlation does not equal causation. Correlation indicates a relationship, but the relationship is not necessarily one of cause and effect. Correlational research allows us to predict, but it cannot tell us whether one variable will cause changes in another.

Hindsight bias

The tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one's ability to have foreseen how something turned out. Also known as the I-Knew-it-all-along phenomenon.

"intuitive scientist"

We humans have an irresistible urge to explain behavior, to attribute it to some cause, and therefore to make it seem orderly, predictable, and controllable.

Fundamental attribution error (FAE)

The tendency for observers to underestimate the situational influences and to overestimate dispositional influences upon other's behavior.

Actor-observer differences

We observe others from a different perspective than we observe ourselves; in some experiments this has led to differing explanations for behavior.

"Castro" study (Jones & Harris, 1967)

subjects inferred that the students who wrote pro-Castro essays were more favorable to Castro than those who wrote anti-Castro essays.(Example of Fundamental error).

"Questioner-contestant" Study

Questionnaires were rated as more knowledgeable than contestants.(Example of Fundamental error).

Manager-clerk Study

Managers were rated as higher than clerks in leadership ability, intelligence, and assertiveness.(Example of Fundamental error).

Why do we make the FAE?

Perceptual salience,Motivation,Information availability,Culture.

Perceptual salience

difference in the actor and the observer perspective.

Motivation to?

keep people accountable for their behavior.

Information availability

we have less information about other people than about ourselves.

Culture influence in SAE?

Western cultures there is more of an emphasis on individualism (people are responsible for their own actions).

Cultural differences in attribution (other countries)

Fundamental Attribution Error is less likely to be found in Eastern culture

"social cognition"

the study of how people process social information, especially its encoding, storage, retrieval, and application to social situations

"Hostile media bias" study

Participants felt that the media was favoring the opposite group. Hostile media bias is the perception that media coverage (e.g., the creators) is biased against you.

Capital punishment study

Both proponents and opponents of capital punishment readily accepted evidence that confirmed their belief but were sharply critical of dis-confirming evidence.

Belief perseverance study

The participants still felt that their success/failure was inline with what they were initially told. This shows belief perseverance because after the initial belief was formed it was not changed even in the face of contrary evidence (the explanation of the initial belief survives).

Memory construction and reconstruction

Our current mood affects the memory we are recalling at that moment and enables us to revise own our history.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

The tendency for one's expectation about another person to evoke behavior in that person that confirms the expectation

"Bloomers" study (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968)

Academic blooming mainly occurred amongst the student that had been expected to bloom(example of self fulfilling prophecy).

Judgmental heuristics

mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that people use to make judgments quickly and efficiently.

Availability heuristic

When we make judgments based on information that is easy to recall.

Representativeness (similarity) heuristic

to judge something by intuitively comparing it to our mental representation of a category

Anchoring heuristic (anchoring bias)

involves using a number or value as a starting point (anchor), and then adjusting one's answer away from this starting point.

Overconfidence phenomenon

the tendency to be more confident than correct,to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs

Illusory correlation

When people misperceive random events as confirming their beliefs.

Illusion of control

believing that chance events are subject to our influence (like we can affect the dice roll or the slot machine when in reality it is at a set number)

Evidence regarding the "hot hand" in basketball

is the false belief that a player is more likely to make a successful shot if their previous shot was successful. they are actually supposedly to do worst after a successful shot

"Being sane in insane places" Study

Every action the researchers made were categorized as complimenting the diagnosis that the doctors initially made. This is a study that shows belief perseverance.

Clinical prediction

A clinical prediction is based on the psychologists "gut feeling"

Statistical prediction

is based on raw data and pure calculations. Proven to be more accurate. Don't fall victim to biases and stereotypes.

Depressive realism

Mildly depressed people are more realistic about their successes and failures.

Depressive (pessimistic) attributional style

human tendency to attribute our successes to our disposition and our failures to our situation/environment:

Explanations of causes for failure (Depressed people)

Internal/External (I didn't study/ test was hard)

Stable / Unstable ( Procrastinator/ didnt study hard)

Global ( I'm not smart)

Importance of personal control

Studies have shown that personal control is linked to happiness and well-being. (reference Nursing home plant study).

"Learned helplessness" Study

When dogs learned to be helpless, they could escape but did not -> (You have a hard life, with little control, and become hopeless/helpless)

Health psychology

The study of the psychological roots of health and illness.

Knowing (and not knowing) ourselves

we don't actually know ourselves as well as we think we do. Memories can be altered/fabricated, selective biases, FAE when viewing others and ourselves, and other social influences that can change our self-perception dramatically from day to day.

"Power saw" study

"power-saw condition" reported that they did not like the movie.

Self-serving attributions

the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcome to something else (other factors/situation).

Self-serving self-perceptions

Basically observing and then judging ourselves. (Just think of how other observers judges you, but put yourself as the observer judging yourself)

Unrealistic optimism

human tendency to have an abnormally high optimism level about our activities, decisions, chances etc.

False consensus

when we believe our viewpoints to be supported by the majority of others. It is a human tendency to believe our viewpoints are always supported by the majority of others.

False uniqueness

the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's abilities and one's desirable or successful behaviors. We see our failings as relatively normal and our virtues as exceptional.

Self-handicapping

this is a defense mechanism in that we will weaken ourselves to protect ourselves against failure. This can either be actually done to protect our own perception of ourselves (actually not studying for an exam so that we have an excuse for failure) or be done in a social setting so that our perception to others will not be damaged (telling others that we didn't study for the exam even though we may have).

Ways that self-serving biases are maintained

1.We are biased in our recall(Reconstructive memory; we remember the good thingswe've done, not the bad things) 2.We are selective in our recall. (We choose what we think of) 3.We discount or justify failures. (External attributes) 4.Can turn into self-fulfilling prophecies.

Ways that self-serving biases are adaptive:

1.When good things happen, people with high self-esteem are more likely to savor and

sustain the good feelings.

2.Self-serving bias and its accompanying excuses also help protect people from

depression.

3. Self-serving bias helps buffer stress.

4. Self-serving bias buffers anxiety.

Ways that self-serving biases are maladaptive:

Ways that self-serving biases are maladaptive:

1. People who blame others for their social difficulties are often unhappier than people

who can acknowledge their mistakes.

2. Self-serving perceptions can poison a group. (Rock band members typically

overestimated their contributions to a group's success and underestimate their contributions to failure)

3. Self-serving biases inflate people's judgments of their groups. (group-serving bias:

most people consider their group superior)

Self-efficacy:

the belief in our own success. A person with high self-efficacy will have a strong belief that they can accomplish a task and will succeed in what they set out to do.

The affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of attitudes:

Affective: the emotional aspect Ex. "Miata excites me!"

Behavioral: the actions you take Ex. "I bought the Miata!"

Cognitive: the thoughts you have Ex. "Miatas are cute and have a great resale value!"

Bogus pipeline

technique that social psychologists use to obtain accurate answers from participants.

Conditions under which attitudes determine behavior

- Neither the attitude nor the behavior is subject to social desirability (like being republican in a room full of democrats)

- Chance situational influences on the behavior are minimal

- The attitude is specifically relevant to the observed behavior

- The attitude is potent: a. on our minds b. gained through direct experience

Foot-in-the-door technique

The tendency of people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request

"Drive carefully" study

Results showed that more homeowners agreed to put up an ugly huge "drive carefully" sign when they were asked to sign safe driving petition beforehand.

Door-in-the-face technique

start off with a very high request that has a very low chance of success,then will follow-up with a much lower request.Compared to the first request the second one appears much more reasonable.

"Zoo trip" study

First asked if they would like to volunteer as a counselor for troubled adolescents for two years and that it would take many hours a week. After this request was rejected, the subjects were then asked if they would want to instead take the kids to the zoo. A much higher percentage of subjects agreed to this. "Door-in-the-face technique"

Lowball technique

Salesmen will give an initial price for something and then at the last moment will change the price to a higher amount.

"cognitive dissonance"

When our actions don't match our beliefs. This creates inner tension that our natural tendency is to resolve immediately.

Ways of reducing cognitive dissonance

We can change our actions, change our beliefs, rationalize our actions to make them acceptable, reduce the importance of the cognitions.

Insufficient justification

When there is insufficient external justification for our action we create an internal justification to reduce the cognitive dissonance we feel.

"$1 vs. $20 study"

(1$) Having insufficient justification for their actions caused dissonance and thus motivated them to believe in what they had done. (20$) experienced less dissonance.

Self-perception theory

The theory that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them as much as we would someone observing us, by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs.

Overjustification

The result of bribing people to do what they already like doing; they may then see their actions as externally controlled rather than intrinsically appealing.

Extrinsic motivation

occurs when we are motivated to perform a behavior or engage in an activity to earn a reward or avoid a punishment.

Intrinsic motivation

involves engaging in a behavior that is personally rewarding.

"Good player award"

The results supported the prediction that subjects in the expected- award condition would show less subsequent intrinsic interest in the target activity than subjects in either of the other two conditions.

Justification of effort

people's tendency to attribute a greater value (greater than the objective value) to an outcome they had to put effort into acquiring or achieving.

"Sex discussion group"

the group turned out to be uninteresting, they needed to justify the fact that they went through the tough initiation by convincing themselves that the group was interesting.

Dissonance after decisions

After we have made a decision, we will feel dissonance regarding the possibility of it being wrong.To reduce dissonance, we increase our evaluations of the item we chose and decrease our evaluation of the item we rejected.

"Appliance" study

After being asked to re- evaluate the appliances. They now rated their gift somewhat more highly. Example of dissonance after decisions/post decisional dissonance