Intro to Social Psychology

Social Psychology

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

Triplett

1st Social Psychology Experiment

Power of the Situation

situational forces, often underestimated, can have a powerful effect on behavior.

Reality is Subjective

One’s construal of the world is shaped by numerous motivational, cognitive, and situational factors (some we are aware of some we are not).

time pressure

Good Samaritan Study IV

% offering help

Good Samaritan Study DV

Pluralistic ignorance

must not be an emergency, nobody else is responding or seems concerned.

Diffusion of responsibility

more people present means you will feel less responsibility in an emergency

Bystander Effect

when individuals become less likely to helo in an emergency as the number of bystanders increases.

Nudges

situational circumstances that appear unimportant can have strong effects on behavior

Ross and Samuels

Cooperative vs. Competitive people engaged in the prisoner’s dilemma thought game and the they varied the name of the game to either “wall st” game or “community game”

hindsight bias

tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one’s ability to have foreseen the outcome.

Correlation

measures strength and direction of an association between two variables.

Independent variable

thing your manipulating.

Dependent Variable

what you think will be impacted

Random Assignment

every participant has an equal chance of being in a condition.

Social me

our sense of who we are is forged in large part by our interactions with others.

looking-glass self

other people’s reactions to us can serve as a mirror.

Reflected Self Appraisals

Beliefs about what others think about us.

Social Comparison Theory

judging one’s abilities, attitudes, and dispositions by comparing oneself to others.

similar others, upward, downward

who do we compare to?

assimilation or contrast

what can social comparisons producea

assimilation

self-judgement becomes more similar to the target.

Contrast

self-judgement becomes more dissimilar from the target.

selective accessibility process

What determines wether assimilation or contrast occurs?

proximal

Do comparisons with proximal or aggregate others have a stronger influence on evaluations?

working self-concept

subset of self-knowledge that is brought to mind in a particular context.

Social Identity Theory

social identity is constructed when a person identifies with a group.

Depersonalization

when social identity is activated, perceived similarity in attributes, attitudes, and behaviors to in-group members is accentuated over individuality.

Self esteem

an individuals’ overall sense of self-positivity, value, and worth—>it is also socially situated.

Sociometer Theory

says the purpose of self esteem is to act as an alert to threats of social rejection. Explains the next effects of ostracism.

Culture

immediate and general values and traditions of those around you.

Interdependent view of self

the self seen as connected to others and defined by social duties and shared traits and preferences.

Independent view of self

the self seen as a distinct, autonomous entity, separate from others and defined by individual traits and preferences.

Markus

self-concept is comprised of various self-schemas. S

Stereotypes

schema applied to a group of people.

self-schemas

cognitive structures, derived from past experience, that represent a person’s beliefs and feelings about self.

priming

exposure to cues in environment causes a cognitive activation unconsciously.

False

Is self knowledge as accident as we believe it to be? T/F

self assessment, self verification, self enhancement

three primary motives to self understanding

Self assessment

appraisal/accuracy—>they want to know one’s self accurately

self-verification

consistency—>verify existing beliefs about self.

Self enhancement

favorability—>we tend to think favorably about ourself.

self enhancement

what is the strongest motive for self understanding?

Better than Average Effect

most people believe they are above average on valued personality trait and ability dimensions.

holier than thou beliefs

better than average effects extended to moral behaviors

self enhancement

are the better than average effects due to self enhancement or other derogation (accurate self-views, but overly negative views of others)?

Overclaiming

tendency to over claim knowledge of things we’re unfamiliar with.

Effectiveness of Self Affirmation

reducing impact of psychological threat by affirming a valued self-aspect unrelated to the threat.

Self-handicapping

engaging in self-defeating behavior in order to have an excuse ready should one perform poorly or fail.

True

Are some people more likely to self-enhance than others? T/F

Social Judgment

Any judgment we make about a social entity.

Self Regulation

Processes by which people initiate, alter, and control behavior in the pursuit of goals.

Self-Discrepancy Theory

Our imagined “possible selves”—both good and bad—are serving an important self-regulatory function.

ideal selves

hopes, desires, and aspirations

actual self

current state of being

ought selves

felt duties and minimum obligations.

Actual-Ideal Discrepancies

dejection-related emotions

Actual-Ought Discrepancies

agitations-related emotions.

promotion-focused

self-regulation toward ideals

prevention-focused

self-regulation with respect to oughts

Ego Depletion

capacity to self-regulate is a limited resource that can be depleted with use.

Social Cognition

the process by which people think about, perceive, interpret and make decisions about the social world.

Controlled processing

explicit thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and conscious.

Automatic processing

implicit or intuitive thinking that is effortless, habitual, and without awareness.

Schemas

cognitive structures used to organize knowledge about the world.