Social Psych Exam 1

social psychology

the scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social situations

social influence

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

fundamental attribution error

the tendency to explain our own and other people's behavior entirely in terms of personality traits

good samaritan study purpose

measure religions influence on morality

good samaritan study results

religion had no effect on results, time pressure did

economic game study outcome

the name of the game effected what they chose, personality barely did

social situation (behaviorism definition)

objective properties of the situation

what is construal rooted in

gestalt psychology

in construal, what matters more than an objects objective, physical attributes

the way an object appears in your mind

what does construal believe about people's behavior

its based on subjective perception, not objective properties

naive realism

people think they perceive things objectively and underestimate their subjectiveness

what two motivations does construal come from

self esteem motive and social cognition motive

self esteem motive

the need to feel good about ourselves, may lead to self justification

social cognition motive

the need to be accurate

hindsight bias

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

observational method

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

observational method limits

certain kinds of behaviors are difficult to observe, does not answer why

correlational method

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

correlation coefficient

ranges from +1 to -1

positive correlation

if variable a increases, so does variable b

negative correlation

if variable a increases, variable b decreases

no correlation

coefficient=0, correlation doesn't exist

survey method

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

advantages of survey research method

convenient, allows measuring of attitudes that are difficult to observe; uses random selection to sample representative segments of the population

disadvantages of survey research method

failure to randomly sample, inaccurate responses

Experimental design

researcher randomly assigns participants to different conditions and ensures that these conditions are identical, except for the independent variable

independent variable

the critical aspect of the situation that the researchers think would have cause and effect, what the researchers change (the number of witnesses in the study

dependent variable

the variable measured to see how it is effected by the independent variable

internal validity

making sure that nothing besides the independent variable can affect the dependent variable

external validity

the extent to which an internal study can be generalized to other situations and other people; how accurate to the real world it is

how external validity is determined

psychological realism, field experiments, replication and meta analysis

meta analysis

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

probability level

how likely it is that correlation, or the results of experiment, occurred by chance

convention in science:

considering results trustworthy if the probability level is less than 5%

3 ethical guidelines

informed consent, deception, debriefing

automatic thinking

thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless; is often correct

schema

a mental structure that organizes our knowledge of the social world

accessibility (in the context of schemas)

the extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of people's minds and are likely to be used when making judgements

how schemas become accessible (3 ways)

related to current goal, past experience, recent experience/priming

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 someone is like, it influences how they act towards them, which causes that person to behave consistently with the expectation

what experiment was the self fulfilling prophecy proven by

elementary experiment

availability heuristic

we make a judgement based on the ease with which we can bring something to mind

representativeness heuristic

a mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case; often over relied on

conjunction fallacy

people overestimate the probability of a conjunction of cases of A and B and underestimate the probability of case A, if the first case seems similar to a typical case

analytic thinking style is more common in what cultures?

western

holistic thinking style is more common in what cultures?

eastern

analytic thinking style

reasoning based on rules, not tolerant to contradiction, predicts linear trends

holistic thinking style

reasoning based on relationships between parts and family resemblance, tolerant to contradiction, predicts changeable trends

americans are more likely to focus on what parts of an image?

salient objects

japanese people are more likely to focus on what parts of an image?

the background

western emphasis in cognition

greek philosophical tradition, focus on laws governing objects independent of the context

eastern emphasis in cognition

confucianism, taoism, buddhism, emphasize the connectedness and relativity of all things

controlled thinking

thinking that is conscious and effortful, usually intentional and voluntary

what can predict behavior?

belief in free will

planning fallacy

the tendency for people to be overly optimistic about how soon they will complete a project

charles darwin's belief about facial expressions of emotion

believed that primary emotions conveyed by the face are universal, and basic emotions are evolutionarily based

ideal affect

people positively perceive others whose emotional expression matches their ideal affect

how fast do we form a first impression based on facial appearance

less than 100 milliseconds

thin slicing

drawing meaningful conclusions about another person's personality or skill based on an extremely brief sample of behavior

t/f: thin slicing is usually not accurate

false

primacy effect

the first traits we perceive in others influence how we view information that we learn about them later

good samaritan conditions

hurry and not in a hurry

economic game study conditions

"community game" and "wall street game"

palestine-israel peace plan study

israeli students read peace plan, asked if they agreed with or liked it

palestine-israel peace plan study results

students told that it was written by a palestinian author liked it less

palestine israel peace plan study conditions

"written by an israeli author" and "written by a palestinian author"

diffusion of responsibility study hypothesis

the more people who witness an emergency, the less likely someone will intervene

what is the independent variable for the diffusion of responsibility study

the number of witnesses

what is the dependent variable for the diffusion of responsibility study

whether people help in an emergency

lecturer study conditions

"cold person" and "warm person"

lecturer study results

rated same on arrogance, but rated with better humor for warm person condition

priming study conditions

memorized words like adventurous, confident, assured, and memorized words like reckless, conceited, aloof

priming study results

participants primed positively were much more likely to form a positive impression

elementary school study situation

teachers told some students will do well this semester, students actually chosen randomly

elementary school study results

those students had an increase in IQ compared to other students

goal pursuit study

make sentences out of words, then play dictator game

goal pursuit study conditions

religious words and neutral words

goal pursuit study results

participants who read religious words gave the other person more money

cleanliness and morality study conditions

clean scented room and no scented room

cleanliness and morality results

clean scented room participants were more trustworthy and charitable

availability heuristic study conditions

list 6 of your unassertive behaviors and list 12 of your unassertive behaviors

availability heuristic study results

participants who listed 6 behaviors reported that they were more unassertive than those that listed 12

free will study conditions

read passage implying the existence of free will and read passage implying the absence of free will

free will study results

participants who read the absence of free will passage were more likely to cheat on the self scored exam for money

thin slicing ceo study scenario

students were asked to rate pictures of ceos on power, warmth and leadership

thin slicing ceo study results

ratings correlated with company profits

thin slicing professor study scenario

participants rated random short clips from instructors lectures which were compared to teacher evaluations from real students

thin slicing professor study results

thin slicing evaluations and actual evaluations were very similar

the 2 theories for casual attribution

attribution theory and covariation model

what is fritz heider known for

father of attribution theory, naive or common sense psychology

attribution theory definition

the way in which people explain the causes of their own and other people's behavior

internal attribution

infer a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person themselves

external attribution

infer a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation, and that most people would behave that way in that situation

covariation model

says to form an attribution, we observe the pattern of causal factors and whether or not the behavior occurs

choices about internal vs external attributions are made using what 3 pieces of info

consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency

consensus information (attribution)

if other people behave the same way toward the same stimulus

distinctiveness information (attribution)

if the person behaves the same way to a different stimuli

consistency information (attribution)

if the behavior between the person and the stimulus is the same across time and circumstances

evaluation of the covariation model (2 points)

consistency and distinctiveness are used more than consensus; all three informations may not be available but people still make attributions