Social Psychology 11e Kassin Ch 1-3

behavioral economics

An interdisciplinary subfield that focuses on how psychology—particularly social and cognitive psychology—relates to economic decision making.

behavioral genetics

A subfield of psychology that examines the role of genetic factors in behavior.

cross-cultural research

Research designed to compare and contrast people of different cultures.

culture

A system of enduring meanings, beliefs, values, assumptions, institutions, and practices shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

evolutionary psychology

A subfield of psychology that uses the principles of evolution to understand human social behavior.

interactionist perspective

An emphasis on how both an individual's personality and environmental characteristics influence behavior.

multicultural research

Research designed to examine racial and ethnic groups within cultures.

open science

A movement to make research materials, methods, hypotheses, and data more transparent, accessible, and easily shared with researchers from other labs.

social cognition

The study of how people perceive, remember, and interpret information about themselves and others.

social neuroscience

The study of the relationship between neural and social processes.

social psychology

The scientific study of how individuals think, feel, and behave in a social context.

Effect of promoting a sense of social belongingness in underrepresented groups

More recently, some of these researchers tested whether this kind of intervention could help African American boys who are at especially high risk for disciplinary actions, such as suspensions, in public schools. By promoting a sense of social belonging in a sample of children at the beginning of sixth grade, this intervention led to a 65% drop in the number of disciplinary citations black children received over the course of their next 7 years of school

Norman Triplett

credited with having published the first research article in social psychology at the end of the nineteenth century

Max Ringelmann

performed one of the earliest social psychology experiments in which he showed that people perform worse on certain tasks alone compared to with other people

Floyd Allport

wrote one of the first textbooks on social psychology, defining it as an independent field

Gordon Allport

formed the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues

Muzafer Sherif

published groundbreaking social psych research that demonstrated that it is possible to study complex and important social issues in a rigorous, scientific manner

Kurt Lewin

helped establish the interactionist perspective, in which behavior is a function of the interaction between the person and the environment, and helped form the field of applied social psych

Criticisms of laboratory research

certain practices were unethical, that experimenters' expectations influenced their participants' behavior, and that the theories being tested in the laboratory were historically and culturally limited

cold perspective

emphasized the role of cognition and deemphasized the role of emotion and motivation in explaining social psychological issues

hot perspective

focuses on emotion and motivation as determinants of our thoughts and actions

applied research

Research whose goal is to make applications to the world and contribute to the solution of social problems.

basic research

Research whose goal is to increase the understanding of human behavior, often by testing hypotheses based on a theory.

bogus pipeline technique

A procedure in which research participants are (falsely) led to believe that their responses will be verified by an infallible lie detector.

confederates

Accomplice of an experimenter who, in dealing with the real participants in an experiment, acts as if he or she is also a participant.

confound

A factor other than the independent variable that varies between the conditions of an experiment, thereby calling into question what caused any effects on the dependent variable.

construct validity

The extent to which the measures used in a study measure the variables they were designed to measure and the manipulations in an experiment manipulate the variables they were designed to manipulate.

Correlation coefficients

A statistical measure of the strength and direction of the association between two variables.

correlational research

Research designed to measure the association between variables that are not manipulated by the researcher.

debriefing

A disclosure, made to participants after research procedures are completed, in which the researcher explains the purpose of the research, attempts to resolve any negative feelings, and emphasizes the scientific contribution made by the participants' involvement.

deception

In the context of research, a method that provides false information to participants.

dependent variables

In an experiment, a factor that experimenters measure to see if it is affected by the independent variable.

experiment

A form of research that can demonstrate causal relationships because (1) the experimenter has control over the events that occur and (2) participants are randomly assigned to conditions.

experimental realism

The degree to which experimental procedures are involving to participants and lead them to behave naturally and spontaneously.

experimenter expectancy effects

The effects produced when an experimenter's expectations about the results of an experiment affect his or her behavior toward a participant and thereby influence the participant's responses.

external validity

The degree to which there can be reasonable confidence that the results of a study would be obtained for other people and in other situations.

hypothesis

A testable prediction about the conditions under which an event will occur.

independent variables

In an experiment, a factor that experimenters manipulate to see if it affects the dependent variable.

informed consent

An individual's deliberate, voluntary decision to participate in research, based on the researcher's description of what will be required during such participation.

internal validity

The degree to which there can be reasonable certainty that the independent variables in an experiment caused the effects obtained on the dependent variables.

interrater reliability

The degree to which different observers agree on their observations.

meta-analysis

A set of statistical procedures used to review a body of evidence by combining the results of individual studies to measure the overall reliability and strength of particular effects.

mundane realism

The degree to which the experimental situation resembles places and events in the real world.

operational definition

The specific procedures for manipulating or measuring a conceptual variable.

preregistration

The practice of researchers reporting their research design, predictions, and plans for data analyses before conducting their study.

random assignment

A method of assigning participants to the various conditions of an experiment so that each participant in the experiment has an equal chance of being in any of the conditions.

random sampling

A method of selecting participants for a study so that everyone in a population has an equal chance of being in the study.

replication

Repeating a research study to see if the results are similar to those found in the original study.

subject variables

A variable that characterizes preexisting differences among the participants in a study.

theory

An organized set of principles used to explain observed phenomena.

archival studies

involves examining existing records of past events and behaviors, such as newspaper articles, medical records, tweets or retweets on Twitter, sports statistics, profiles on dating apps, crime statistics, or hits on a website.

advantage of archival studies

because the researchers are observing behavior secondhand, they can be sure that they did not influence the behavior by their presence. Also, valuable for examining cultural and historical trends

limitation of archival studies

available records are not always complete or sufficiently detailed, and they may have been collected in a nonsystematic manner.

universal characteristics of an experiment

1. The researcher has control over the experimental procedures, manipulating the variables of interest while ensuring uniformity elsewhere.

2. Participants in the study are randomly assigned to the different manipulations included in the experiment.

benefits of deception in an experiment

strengthens experimental realism; allows the experimenter to create situations in the laboratory that would be difficult to find in a natural setting

how do participants respond to deception in experiments?

rarely bothered by deception and often particularly enjoy studies that use it

challenge of multilingual studies

multilingual people may think or act differently as a function of what language is being used in a particular setting

Development of IRBs

In 1974, the agency then called the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare established regulations designed to protect human participants in research. These regulations created institutional review boards (IRBs) at all institutions seeking federal funding for research involving human participants.

Ethical obligations outside IRBs

The American Psychological Association (APA), for example, requires psychologists to follow its Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (2017), which considers a wide range of ethical issues, including those related to research procedures and practices.

efforts to prevent research fraud

requiring much larger sample sizes, using more advanced and precise statistical methods to better and more fairly test researchers' ideas, ensuring that researchers make their materials and data available to others, and placing greater emphasis on replicating each other's research.

affective forecasting

The process of predicting how one would feel in response to future emotional events.

bask in reflected glory (BIRG)

To increase self-esteem by associating with others who are successful.

dialecticism

An Eastern system of thought that accepts the coexistence of contradictory characteristics within a single person.

downward social comparisons

The defensive tendency to compare ourselves with others who are worse off than we are.

facial feedback hypothesis

The hypothesis that changes in facial expression can lead to corresponding changes in emotion

implicit egotism

A nonconscious form of self-enhancement.

overjustification effect

The tendency for intrinsic motivation to diminish for activities that have become associated with reward or other extrinsic factors.

private self-consciousness

A personality characteristic of individuals who are introspective, often attending to their own inner states.

public self-consciousness

A personality characteristic of individuals who focus on themselves as social objects, as seen by others.

self-awareness theory

The theory that self-focused attention leads people to notice self-discrepancies, thereby motivating either an escape from self-awareness or a change in behavior.

self-concept

The sum total of an individual's beliefs about his or her own personal attributes.

self-esteem

An affective component of the self, consisting of a person's positive and negative self-evaluations.

self-handicapping

Behaviors designed to sabotage one's own performance in order to provide a subsequent excuse for failure.

self-monitoring

The tendency to change behavior in response to the self-presentation concerns of the situation.

self-perception theory

The theory that when internal cues are difficult to interpret, people gain self-insight by observing their own behavior.

self-presentation

Strategies people use to shape what others think of them.

self-regulation

The process by which people control their thoughts, feelings, or behavior in order to achieve a personal or social goal.

self-schemas

A belief people hold about themselves that guides the processing of self-relevant information.

social comparison theory

The theory that people evaluate their own abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to others.

sociometer theory

The theory that self-esteem is a gauge that monitors our social interactions and sends us signals as to whether our behavior is acceptable to others.

terror management theory

The theory that humans cope with the fear of their own death by constructing worldviews that help to preserve their self-esteem.

two-factor theory of emotion

The theory that the experience of emotion is based on two factors: physiological arousal and a cognitive interpretation of that arousal.