Social psych concepts

concepts with definitions

social psychology

The study of how thoughts, feelings, behaviors of other individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others

theory

set of principles that explain / predicts observed events

hypothesis

a testable idea that proposes a relationship between events

field research

research done in a real life setting outside of a lab

correlational research

study of naturally occurring relationships among variables

experimental research

studies that try to find a cause and effect relationship by manipulating variables and controlling others

random assignment

assigning people to experiments in a way in which everyone has the same chance of being in the experiment + helps find cause and effect (random sampling helps generalize)

replication

repeating a research study in different setting to see if it can be reproduced with the same findings

mundane realism

when an experiment is really similar to everyday situations

experimental realism

degree to which an experiment absorbs its participants

informed consent

ethical principle of research participants knowing enough to choose wether they want to participate or not

hindsight bias

the idea that after learning something you say you knew it all along

manipulation check

a check to make sure the experiment actually worked as intended

belief perseverance

when one maintains a belief after being told the truth

weird samples

white, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic studies

self concept

what we know and believe about ourselves

self schema

beliefs about self that organize the processing of self relevant information

spotlight effect

the belief that people are paying more attention to you than they really are

individualism

defining yourself by personal attributes and prioritizing oneself

collectivism

defining oneself by their communities and focusing on collective goals

planning fallacy

failing to actually guess how long youll take doing something

dual attitude system

differing implicit (automatic) and explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes towards the same thing

active forecasting

how we predict well feel and how it changes with positive and negative events also time well feel for

illusion of transparency

we overestimate how well people can read / percieve our emotions / thoughts

self serving bias

tendency to percieve oneself favorably

false consensus

tendency to overestimate the commonality of ones negative opinions and behaviors

false uniqueness

the tendency to overestimate how unique our good abilities / behaviors are

defensive pessimism

a coping mechanism where people despite doing well before expect a negative outcome

unrealistic optimism

when people expect good things to happen despite there being evidence on the contrary

bias blind spot

the tendency to notice other peoples bias but not our own

better than average affect

tendency to think that we are less likely to be affected by negative things than others / more likely to be successful than others

narcissism

an inflated sense of self, including overconfidence

self esteem

ones sense of self worth

self efficacy

how competent you think you are

longitudinal study

study that studies people over an extended period of time

fundamental attribution error

the tendency of observers to underestimate situational influences in others behaviors which leads them to attribute peoples behaviors to the persons whole being

system 1

intuitive, unconscious, automatic thinking also intuition

system 2

deliberate, conscious, controlled thinking

overconfidence phenomenon

tendency to be more confident than correct / overestimate the accuracy of your beliefs

confirmation bias

seeking information that confirms your preconceptions

self fulfilling prophecy

what is expected is what will come true

illusory correlation

finding correlation when there is none

illusion of control

the idea that uncontrollable events were more controlled and thinking you have control when you dont