PSYC 2600 Test 1 - Mazurek UVA

social psychology

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

social influence

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

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

behaviorism

a school of psychology maintaining that to understand human behavior, one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment

construal

the way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world

Gestalt psychology

a school of psychology stressing the importance of studying the subjective way in which an object appears in people's minds rather than the objective, physical attributes of the object

self-esteem

people's evaluations of their own self-worth. the extent to which they view themselves as good, competent, and decent

social cognition

how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgements and decisions

hindsight bias

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

observational method

the technique whereby a researcher observes people and systematically records measurements or impressions of their behavior

ethnography

the method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by observing it from the inside, without imposing any preconceived notions

interjudge reliability

the level of agreement between two or more people who independently observe and code a set of data to ensure the observations are not distorted by the impressions of one individual

archival analysis

a form of observational method in which the researcher examines the accumulated documents of a culture (diaries, novels, newspapers, etc)

correlational method

the technique whereby two or more variables are systematically measured and the relationship between them is assessed

correlational coefficient

a statistical technique that assesses how well you can predict one variable from another (ex. how well you can predict someone's weight from their height)

surveys

research in which a representative sample of people are asked questions about their attitudes or behavior

random selection

a way of ensuring a survey is representative of a population by giving everyone an equal chance of being selected for the sample

experimental method

the method in which the researcher randomly assigns participants to groups and ensures conditions are all the same except for the independent variable

independent variable

the variable that's changed in an experiment

dependent variable

the variable a researcher measures to see if it's influenced by the independent variable

random assignment to condition

a process ensuring all participants have an equal chance of being put in any group in an experiment

probability level (p-value)

a number that tells the likelihood that an experiment's results happened by chance. Less than .05 is considered trustworthy

internal validity

controlling all extraneous variables to ensure nothing besides the independent variable is affecting the results

external validity

the extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other situations and other people

psychological realism

how realistic an experiment is in recreating psychological processes that occur in everyday life

cover story

a description of a study given to participants, different from the actual intent of the study, meant to maintain psychological realism

field experiments

experiments conducted in natural settings rather than in a lab

basic dilemma of the social psychologist

the trade-off between internal and external validity in conducting research; it's very difficult to have an experiment high in both

replications

repeating a study, often with a different population or in a different setting

meta-analysis

a stat technique that averages the results of two or more studies to see if the effect of an independent variable is reliable

basic research

studies designed to find the best answer to the question of why people behave as they do and are conducted out of intellectual curiosity

applied research

studies designed to solve a particular social problem

cross-cultural research

research conducted with people of different cultures to see if certain psychological processes are culture-specific or not

evolutionary theory

Charles Darwin's theory that animals evolve from one another

natural selection

organisms with favorable traits tend to survive and reproduce to further those traits

evolutionary psychology

the attempt to explain social behavior in terms of genetic factors that have evolved over time according to natural selection

informed consent

agreement to participate in an experiment with the full knowledge of its nature

deception

misleading participants about the true purpose of a study

debriefing

explaining to participants the true purpose of a study after it is done

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

a group that reviews all psychological research before it is conducted to ensure it is ethical

automatic thinking

thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional, and effortless

schemas

mental structures people use to organize their knowledge about the social world around themes or subjects and that influence the info people notice and remember

accessibility

the extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of someone's mind

priming

the process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept

self-fulfilling prophecy

when people have an expectation about what another person is like, which influences how they act toward that person, in turn causing that person to behave consistently with the original expectation

judgemental heuristics

mental shortcuts people use to make judgements quickly

availability heuristic

a mental rule of thumb whereby people base a judgement on the ease with which they can bring something to mind

representativeness heuristic

a mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case

base rate info

info about the frequency of members of different categories in the population

analytic thinking style

a type of thinking in which people focus on the properties of objects without considering their surrounding context (common in western cultures)

holistic thinking style

a type of thinking in which people focus on the overall context, or ways objects relate to one another. (common in east asian cultures)

controlled thinking

thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful

counterfactual thinking

mentally changing some aspect of the past to imagine what might have been

overconfidence barrier

the fact that people often have too much confidence in the accuracy of their judgements