Social Psychology Midterm Study Guide

Social Psychology

The scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people

Social influence

Effect that words, actions, or mere presence of other people have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behavior

How is social influence applied?

Directly or indirectly

Direct Social Influence

when someone takes specific steps to get what they want, such as following instructions or being directly persuaded.

Indirect Social Influence

when someone's actions are influenced by the presence of others, such as watching how others act and speak

Empirical questions

Questions that answers should be derived from experimentation or measurement rather than by personal opinion

Folk wisdom and Common sense

Sayings or beliefs that are passed down from generation to generation such as 'birds of of a feather flock together" or "opposites attract"

How is folk wisdom different from social psychology

Social psychologists use science to test hypotheses about the social world, while individuals who rely on common sense or folk wisdom often rely on personal beliefs or anecdotal evidence

Why don’t we rely on folk wisdom?

It is often contradictory

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which people's behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors.

Hindsight bias

The tendency for people to exaggerate, after knowing that something occurred, how much they could have predicted it before it occurred

What happens when we fail to take into account the power of the situation?

We overgeneralize, develop a false sense of security, victim blaming

What is a hypothesis similar to?

A hunch

Behaviorism

focuses on the idea that all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment

What does a scientist do if they think someone else’s research is flawed?

Repeat the research and do their own study to find out

Why did Latane and Darley think no one helps out in an emergency?

Bystander effect; diffusion of responsibility

Observational research

where you observe participants and phenomena in their most natural setting

What are limitations of observational research?

can't control; don’t know what's going on in head; being watched can change behavior; some settings are private; can’t correlate things

Schema

A mental representation that enables us to organize our knowledge into categories

How can a schema become accessible?

Related to a current goal you have, past experiences, recent experiences

Downsides of using schemas

Limited capacity and stereotyping

Social cognition

How people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions.

What happens when people encounter a new situation?

Create a schema for it and accurately size up a new situation

Automatic thinking

Thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless

Controlled thinking

Effortful and deliberate, Thinking about self and environment, Carefully selecting the right course of action

The self-fulfilling prophecy

An expectation that causes you to act in ways that make that expectation come true

Priming

when an individual's exposure to a certain stimulus influences their response to a subsequent prompt, without any awareness of the connection

Why is reality tv so attractive to people?

We are enumerated in the lives of different people. We can use it for self comparison purposes

Social perception

a psychological phenomenon whereby something happens because we expect it to happen

What did Darwin assume about facial expressions? Are they culture specific?

Species specific

Thin-slicing

When you draw a conclusion from another person with just a small time of getting to know them and making an opinion.

What are cultural display rules?

Culturally specific standards that (men aren't allowed to cry in america

Sam Goslin

Showing people what you are like by talking more or less; for example having funko pops in your office leads people to believe you are an extrovert and if your office is bare it makes people think you are an introvert.

Do great apes have a sense of self? How do we know?

Great apes have a sense of self. We know this because of the mirror experiment where there was a red dot on the forehead and they realized, touching the dot in the mirror. Other animals did not notice the dot.

Self-Concept

the image we have of ourselves

How does our self-concept change with age?

Self-concept is the image we have of ourselves. The younger you are the more physical/concrete it is and the older we are the more abstract

What are the limitations of using introspection?

Self bias, beyond the realm of our conscious thought

Causal theories

We learn from our culture; for example, people are in a bad mood on mondays, the saying “if you love someone let them go”

Self awareness theory

It highlights who we are and can make you more ethical.

What happens when we bring our self concept into our consciousness?

Enhanced what you believe about yourself (sat in front of a mirror during test

Mead’s Belief

particular points in your life (significant others)

Cooley’s Belief

anyone you come into contact with

Mead’s three stages in the role-taking process

Preparatory, play, and game

What represents the generalized other?

A graphic. Americans in general.

Traits of a narcissist?

They do worse in school because of the inability to know when they are wrong; have no empathy; don't do well in work environment because they can't admit when they are wrong

Self esteem

A person's overall sense of self-worth and personal value

Cognitive dissonance

The mental disturbance people feel when they realize their cognitions and actions are inconsistent or contradictory

What Cognitive dissonance leads to

unpleasant feelings of unease or discomfort

How do we reduce cognitive dissonance?

change your behaviors

Post decision dissonance

You'll always have some regrets because no decision is always 100% positive or negative

What happens when decisions are irrevocable?

You have greater cognitive dissonance reduction; you can't take that decision back so it has to be a good decision

Rationalizing

Justifying your own behavior

Why do so many people rationalize?

We have a lot of cognitive dissonance and we try to reduce it