PSYCH Exam 1

Evolutionary psych perspective

basis of huma thoughts, feelings and behavior is the innate desire to survive and to promote the survival of your gene pool; bases on instinct

Social psych perspective

basis of human thoughts, feelings and behavior is the socialized desire to have strong social bonds; based on learning

ABC’s of human psychology

Affect, Behavior, Cognition

Bias

an inclination towards one thing over another

Inclusivity

not leaving anyone out

independent variable

the predictor, variable being experimented

Dependent variable

the outcome, variable being measured

qualitative research

concerned about perspective, uses interviews, opened-ended responses

quantitative research

concerned about broader theoretical concepts, measurement based in numbers

Field methods

going to the location of the setting you want to study

lab methods

bringing the people you want to study into the lab

Frequency/Observational Claims

describes a particular rate or degree of a single variable

Associative claims

describes the extent to which the value of one variable tends to change systematically w/ the value of another

Causal claims

argue that a specific change in one variable is responsible for the change in another variable; requires an experiment

Perceiving Others

the face has the most predictably patterned configuration and can give the most immediate information; it changes to convey relevant situational information

Encountering others

when we encounter other people, we quickly and naturally categorize them, analyze their emotions and attribute social qualities to them

Big Three Categories

Race, gender, and age

Categories

people use categories to simplify associations; ppl store memories about different groups in the 3 categories and apply knowledge/memory about categories

Primacy of threat sensitivity

survival of the fittest and natural selection; encounters w/ others often require judgement (fight or flight); assessing threat is core to storing memories; threat prioritization in impression formation

Core Trait Impression

warmth vs. competence; communion (warmth/morality) & Agency (competence/assertiveness)

Dehumanization

denying someone of positive human qualities; can be implicit or explicit; leads to making violence feel less immoral

Animalistic

dehumanization that still has emotions but no key processing or cognition

Mechanistic

dehumanization that still has processing but no emotions

Person & Memory

stimuli/ppl lead us to call on our memory, experiences and associations to make judgements; we use mental shortcuts that lead us to make judgements quickly w/o deliberations

A group

2 or more ppl who interact and influence each other

Entitativity

the strength of a group is assessed by this; how much does the group seem to be or operate at a single entity

Entitativity based on

similarity of group members, interaction frequency, common goals

Cognitive Misers

humans want to use minimal cognitive resources to achieve their goals; problem solve in the simplest and most straightforward ways to conserve energy

Social categorization

classifying people including yourself into groups based on shared characteristics

Reasons for social categorization

reduces mental energy, creates expectations for social encounters and simplifies distribution of time

Group membership

helps our genes survive, facilitates productivity, helps us meet psychological needs

Self-categorization theory

(turner 1999) categorization prompts the perception of collections of people as a group; categorization facilitates social identity and ingroup/outgroup distinction; ppl make assessments of group fitness based on comparison to group prototypes

Social identity theory

(Tajfel & Turner 1978) who am i → what groups do I belong to → what do I know (or think I know) about the groups I belong to; our group memberships are central to our self-concept

Ingroup favoritism

ppl want to identify with groups that have high status and are positively viewed; ppl grant more benefits to the groups w/ whom they identify

Groupthink

pressure to conform and the illusion of unanimity

risk of losing “the self”

giving too much value to group membership can hurt by diminishing uniqueness, self-awareness, and self-concept

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

physiological needs, safety needs, love & belonging, esteem, self-actualization

Motivation

need or desire that arouses a person and directs their behavior towards the goal

3 master motives

mastery, belonging/ connectedness, self-regard/self-esteem

Mastery

“I want to be the best at” lower-order motivators: need for control/agency, need for accuracy, need for consistancy

Belonging/connectedness

ppl seek support, approval and acceptance from other people and groups that they like and value

Self-Regard

ppl desire to see themselves and the groups they are connected to in a positive way

Learned helplessness

when people stop trying to change their circumstance even when they have the ability to

Self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief that leads to it’s own fulfillment

Social identities

the roles we play and the identity-based labels attached to us become a component of our self-concept; each identity only represents one aspect of who we are

Identity

agency-based, typically linked to social roles and involves social affiliation or belonging

Multiple self-aspects framework

the self as a collection of self-aspects, they are context-based, respond to feedback and emotions and that feedback about one can bleed into others

Self-Complexity

the number and fluency of different self-aspects, can allow us to step into different versions of our self and experience psychological richness and mastery

the moral self

our self-concept can be strongly influenced by the extent to which we perceive ourselves as moral

morality recovery

moral emotions emerge when we perform an immoral act that makes us feel less moral than we view ourselves; recalling past moral behavior can help repair mmmorality

Guilt

associated with reparative action and self-directed negative affect

Shame

associated with avoidance

groups as cognitive organizing principals

categories make the social world easier to organize and process; if we can we prefer to mentally throw ppl into buckets that allow us to make easy judgements about them

competition and social comparison

social comparison is essential for evaluation of self and others; psychological tendencies lead us to believe or seek the best for out ingroup

Uphold and uplift group status

realistic: physical protection, resource preservation; Symbolic: relative status, social regard

Intergroup threat theory

people perceive outgroups as a threat due to the value they place on certain ingroups; even when there is no meaningful threat

ahistoric conclusions off-base

focusing on the mind, how it works, and how it affects behavior can be off-based or limited if there is no consideration of historical contact

historical context predicts modern consequences

major historical events can be used as a mechanism for influencing how ppl feel, act, and think about others

cultural response to history

most historical events involve specific groups and a unique cultural response might arise; culture allows groups to survive and thrive given environmental consideration

culture

enduring behavior, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group of people

levels of cultures

regional culture, organizational culture, traditional culture

regional culture

based on global or residential location, often born into this type of culture

organizational culture

based on practicality, functionality, and group cooperation, related to shared goals

traditional culture

based on the association or ownership between a group and a specific practice, value, or tradition

Culture in out nature

out innate biology and physiology, especially our highly adaptive brains, enable and facilitate cultural diversity

Individualistic culture

person sees self primarily as a separate unique individual; personal needs are heald over group needs

collectivist cultures

person sees self primarily as a group member; group needs are held over individual needs

tightness vs. looseness

tight= strict norms and require a high level of conformity; loose= have fewer rules and lower consequences

Power distance and hierarchy

high power distance= hierarchy in community or orgs are desirable; low power distance=power should be distributed equally in orgs and communities

Influence of cultural context

kids learn culture mostly from peers compared to the prevailing assumption that it is from the parents

power disparity

for various systemic and historical reasons, some groups have more social, political, and economical power than others;

out-group homogeneity bias

groups we aren’t in, we assume that members of the group are more similar to each other than members of our own group are

Focusing on disparities

when groups are consistently told that they are, treated like, or assumed to be unable to accomplish or succeed at something due to disparity, they may internalize

fundamental attribution error

the tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate depositions influences on others behavior

Racism and historical context

neglecting historical and systemic racism offers incomplete and sometimes harmful solutions to redressing racism

Tatum question

social, cultural and historical context is the ground in which individual identity is embedded

Self-esteem hypothesis

intergroup discrimination is believed to be at least partly motivated by individual’s desire to achieve and maintain evaluatively positive self-esteem

Turner, Brown & Tajfel Question

Does ingroup favoritism arise independently from realistic group interests instead by social comparison and the desire for positive social identity ; higher stakes should increase ingroup favoritism, ingroup favoritism should be stronger when the outgroup is a relavant comaparison group

Turner, Brown & Tajfel Findings

supports social identity theory: ingroup favoritism occurs even when it directly harms the ingroup’s own economic interest

Markus & Kitayama’s Cultures and Selves Question

How do cultures shape selves, and how do selves in turn shape culture

Markus & Kitayama’s Cultures and Selves Conclusion

Culture and self are mutually constituting, independent and interdependent self-schemas shape core psychological processes, culture is dynamic not static

Fiske’s Intergroup biases Question

Impression of others on two planes: warmth and competence; a person’s warmth reflects their intent, so it is perceived first

Hehman Comprehensive model of face impressions

a person’s impression of another is determined by characteristics of the target and of the perceivers and the interplay between them

Morling chapter 2 topic question

why is empirical research a more reliable way of knowing than personal experience, intuition, or authority

Morling chapter 2 findings

empirical research is the most trustworthy source of knowledge because it used systematic comparison, controls for confounds and produces probabilistic conclusions

Riek, Mania and Gaertner question

how strong do different types of intergroup threat predict negative outgroup attitudes, and do these relationships vary depending on contextual factors

Riek, Mania and Gaertner Findings

all five threat types reliably predict negative outgroup attitudes; intergroup threat is a powerful, multi-component predictor of prejudice, and threat effects depend on who the outgroup is

Kraus, Onyeador, Daumeyer, Rucker, & Richeson (2019), “The Misperception of Racial Economic Inequality Question

why do especially white Americans vastly underestimate the extent of racial economic inequality and what psychological factors sustain this misperception

Kraus, Onyeador, Daumeyer, Rucker, & Richeson (2019), “The Misperception of Racial Economic Inequality Findings

americans dramatically underestimate racial inequality; misperceptions stem from motivational and cognitive biases; structural factors amplify ignorance; consequences are political and psychological

Craig and richeson more diverse yet less tolerant question

does making american more diverse cause white americans to express more bias and think that there is a threat to their societal status?

Craig and Richeson “More diverse yet less tolerant” Findings

Showing white americans that american is getting more diverse increased their racial bias; it triggers perceived status threat

Trawalter, higginbotham & henderson question

Why only focusing on the individual without historical and systemic context produces incomplete or harmful understanding of racism and how incorporating history leads to better policy solutions