Social Psych Exam #1 Study Guide

Social psychology

The study of how people affect and are affected by others
– Helps make sense of social worl

The ABCs

Affect, Behavior, and Cognition

Why Do People Study Social Psychology?

Curiosity about people
Experimental philosophy
Making the world better
Social psychology is fun

Scientific Method

– State the problem

– Formulate a testable hypothesis

– Design the study and collect data

– Test the hypothesis with the data

– Communicate the results of the study to the scientific community

Theories

Constructs linked together in a logical way

Independent variable

Any observable event that causes the person to do something

Dependent variable

Any observable behavior produced by the person

Accomplice

Person who is secretly working for the researcher

Max Ringelmann (late 1800s)

As group size increases, individual effort decreases

Norman Triplett (late 1800s)

Competition enhances performance

Experimental studies

– Researcher has control over the procedures

– Participants are randomly assigned

Quasi-experiment

– No random assignment

Internal validity

– Confidence that changes in the independent variable caused changes in the dependent variable

Laboratory experiments

High control level

Field experiments

Real-world settings

Experimental realism

Participants forget they are in an experiment

Mundane realism

Settings physically resemble the real world

External validity

Findings generalize to other people, other settings, and other time periods

Epigenetics study

PTSD from 9/11 can cause the victim’s baby to have a higher chance of getting ptsd and it can mess up their cortisol levels

Nature

The physical world around us, including its laws and processes

Nature and development

Social animals (including humans) accomplish satisfying their needs and ultimately survive and reproduce by means of social interaction

Being social offers evolutionary benefits (find more food, mate easier, alert others to danger, take care of the sick)

Sex Differences in Mate Preferences study

Status and power is more attractive to women while looks and ability is to men

Meta-Analysis of Relationships and Health study

Mortality rates increase without social interaction

The Duplex Mind

Deliberate and Automatic Systems

Culture

Advanced way of being social

Brain puts special priority on information directly experienced as shared

A network linking many different people

Depends on shared ideas and shared ways of doing things

Encoding and sharing meaningful information

Three Parts of the Self

Self-knowledge, Interpersonal self and Agent self

interface between inner biological processes and one’s sociocultural network

Self-Construals

The Behavioral Impact of Self-Construals study

Based on their relational identity, people in a couple carried out different tasks. People with a high relational identity were more likely to do tasks that benefitted both of them.

Self-awareness

Attention directed at the self

Private self-awareness

Looking inward at private aspects of the self, including emotions, thoughts, desires, and traits

Public self-awareness

Looking outward to understand the self and how you are perceived by others

Vital for self-regulation, social acceptance, perspective taking, and goal reaching

Self-Awareness Effects on Moral Behavior study

Self-awareness leads to a decrease in transgressive behavior. It directly influences impulse.

Introspection

Examining your thoughts and feelings

Theory of social comparison

Examining the difference between oneself and another person

Self-esteem

How favorably someone evaluates himself or herself

– High self-esteem: competent, likable, attractive, and morally good

– Low self-esteem: incompetent, ugly, unlikable, and morally wicked

– Self-protection: trying to avoid loss of self-esteem

Self-knowledge

Appraisal motive (truth)

– Weakest motive

Self-enhancement motive (flattery)

– Strongest motive

Consistency motive (feedback that confirms)

– Second preference

Two steps of choosing

– Whittle the full range of choices down to a few

– Carefully compare highlighted options

Influences on choice

– Risk aversion

– Temporal discounting

– The certainty effect

– Keeping options open

Decision avoidance

– The general theme is anticipated regret

– Postponing, status quo bias, and omission bias

Reactance theory

– People desire freedom of choice, and react negatively when freedom is

reduced

• Choices or options taken away

Goals

Ideas of some desired future state

Setting goals

• Choosing among different possible goals

• Evaluating their feasibility and desirability

Pursuing the goals

• Planning and carrying out behaviors to reach goals

• Optimism and positive illusions help build confidence and foster better performance

Deliberate and automatic systems help us pursue goals

Goal shielding

Shutting off thoughts about other goals while pursuing a single goal

Decision avoidance

– The general theme is anticipated regret

– Postponing, status quo bias, and omission bias

Self-determination theory

People need at least some degree of autonomy and internal motivation