social psych test 1 thalia vrantsidis

what is social psychology as a field

branch of psychological science that is mainly concerned with understanding how the presence of others affects our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

what is social psychology

the need to belong, social stress

what key point was made about the stressful life events

the lack of good social connections can be very stressful

what is the fundamental need to belong

deep need for belonging and social connection that is fundamental to our wellbeing and so much of our lives

what are the 5 broad areas of social psychology

attraction, attitudes, peace & conflict, persuasion & social cognition

what point did we make based on the face images on the attraction slide

average faces are seen as more attractive because of biological, marker of good genes, social, or cognitive factors

what was the capilano bridge study

a study where men who crossed a high bridge were more likely to call the attractive female researcher. the main idea was that people confuse their emotions and think that anxiety means they're in love because we don't always know the true source of our emotions

what example of attitudes research was given in class

a graph showing that younger people tend to have more positive attitudes towards immigrants.

what key point was made about ingroups and outgroups

an in group is a group a person belongs to & an out group is a group a person does not belong to

these groups create a us vs. them mindset

people feel loyalty and care more about their in groups than out groups

how did in groups and out groups affect peace and conflict

they affected peace and conflict because strong in group loyalty increases cooperation in a group, but creates suspicion and prejudice and more towards out groups

what is a culture of honor

social environment in which people place a strong value on reputation, toughness, and defending themselves or their families against disrespect or threats

what did the culture of honor study involve

men from the Southern and Northern US were compared as they were bumped into and insulted by another person in a hallway. their reactions were measured

what did the study find

it found that southern men were more likely to see the insult as a threat to their reputation, they were more willing to confront the insulter

what was the broader takeaway

that culture can shape how people interpret hostile situations and how they respond to conflict

what does it mean to study something from different levels of analysis

to examine it at several layers to understand the full picture

what are the levels of analysis from high to low

culture/environment

relationships/groups

behavior

thoughts/feelings/perceptions

physiology

chemistry/dna

what is laboratory research

standardized experiments conducted in a controlled setting

an example: culture of honor study

what is field research

observation or experiments conducted in real world environments

an example: capilano bridge study

what is survey research

questionnaires used to gather data from large groups

an example: an online questionnaire asking hundreds of people about their political views

what is nonconscious research

unobtrusive measures designed to gather implicit processes that operate outside of awareness

an example: IAT test

what is archival research

analysis of existing real world data and pre-recorded records

an example: looking at old police records to analyze how temperatures correlate with violent crime rates

why is it important to consider the research measures and samples used in research

it is important because they determine whether or not a study's findings are valid, accurate, and are able to be applied to real people

what is the problem with WEIRD smaples

just relying on western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic samples limits the generalizability of psychological theories to the population

what is the replication crisis

an ongoing crisis where researchers found that lots of published scientific studies couldn't be successfully replicated when redone by other teams

what happened with amy cuddy and power posing research

high power poses were originally claimed to boost confidence and lower stress hormones but studies failed to replicate the hormonal and behavioral effects

what was bem's precognition study and how did it feed into realizing there was a replication crisis

bem published a study claiming that humans could sense future events but other scientists could not replicate his findings which highlighted that publication standards and statistical methods were flawed

what was the key point made in the "hack your way to scientific glory" activity

It showed p-hacking, variable manipulation, selective reporting of data, and premature data collection cessation. the key point was to show how easy it is to come up with false-positive results

what happened with diederik stapel and how did this lead people to realize there were problems with the existing systems for evaluating research

he was caught falsifying data for dozens of published studies over many years. him getting caught exposed academic peer-review systems relied too heavily on trust without the proper raw data verification

what was the key finding that came from brian nozek and other's attempts to replicate many psychology studies

In the reproducibility project, his team attempted to replicate 100 top psychology studies and only completed 36 to 39% which proved that non-replicability was widespread across the field

what is exact replication

a study where researchers attempt to duplicate the original study's procedures, as closely as possible, to see if the original results can be reproduced

what is conceptual replication

a study where researchers test the same theoretical hypothesis or core idea as the original study but use different methods

what are 3 examples of studies that did not replicate

power posing, precognition study, and hack your way study

what are the reasons a study's results might not replicate in a replication study

small sample size, p-hacking, publication bias, and false positives

what are the four solutions to the replication crisis

preregistration, open science practices, increasing statistical power and sample size, and publishing replications and null results

what is the implicit association test

a computer-based test designed to detect the strength of an individual's automatic unconscious associations between mental representations of concepts

why are IAT tests important to the social psychology field

they revolutionized the field by demonstrating that people hold implicit attitudes and biases that work outside of conscious awareness

what is a schema

a mental model or representation of any of the various things we come across in our daily lives

what is the representativeness heuristic?

a mental shortcut where people judge the likelihood that an object or event belongs to a particular category based on how closely it resembles an example of the category

what is availability heuristic

a mental shortcut where people evaluate the likelihood that frequency or probability of an event based on how easily specific instances or examples come to mind

what is planning fallacy

cognitive bias where people underestimmate the time, cost, an risks required to complete a future task

what is durability bias

component of affective forecasting where people overestimate the duration that future events (positive or negative) will impact their emotional state

what is impact bias

individuals overestimate the intensity of futrue emotional reactions to events

what are the 4 characteristics of automatic behaviors

unintentional- happens without a choice

uncontrollable- impossible to stop once triggered

efficient- requires minimal cognitive attention

unconscious- happens outside of explicit awareness

what is the chameleon effect

nonconscious automatic mimicry of postures, mannerisms, facial expressions, and behaviors of interaction

*typically increases liking and social connections*

what is priming

phenomenon where exposure to a specific stimulus implicitly activates related mental representations

what are implicit attitudes

unconscious feelings towards a person, object, or group that automatically influence behavior and judgment

what is mood congruent memory

tendency to recall memories, information, or events that match one's current emotional state or mood

what is motivated skepticism

cognitive bias where individuals subject evidence or arguments that go against their existing beliefs to intense scrutiny and doubt, while accepting supportive evidence with minimal critical evaluation

intrapersonal functions of emotions

internal, individual-level functions of emotions that refer to the psychological, physical, and behavioral impact an emotion has on individuals

interpersonal functions of emotions

social functions of emotions regarding how emotional expressions signal intentions, feelings, and social status to others

*bond formation and social coordination*

what are the 3 broad types of intrapersonal functions

preparing the body for immediate action, influencing thought and memory, and motivating behavior

what was the idea behind the broaden and build theory and what does it say about the functions of positive emotions

the idea was that positive emotions broaden and individual's momentary thought-action and can build personal resources. this said that positive emotions encourage exploration, social bonding, learning, and long term resilience

what is stress reappraisal

a cognitive coping strategy that involves reinterpreting the physiological arousal and psychological experience of stress as a focus booster

what is the difference between stressors and stress

a stressor is an external event, stimulus, or environmental demand (upcoming exam)

stress is your reaction to the stressor

what does it mean to complete the stress cycle

to engage in physical or emotional activities that signal the nervous system that the threat has passed even if the stressor remains

what are the 4 broad categories of intrapersonal functions of emotions

physiological activation- rapid body responses tailored for survival

cognitive processing- guiding judgment, focus, and memory prioritization

motivational drive- directing effort and behavior towards goals

behavioral readiness- preparing motor responses

the glass cliff study

research phenomenon that demonstrated that women and minorities are disproportionately elevated to leadership positions during organizational crises, placing them at a higher risk of failure

what is emotion contagion

automatic and nonconscious process where one person's expressed emotions trigger similar emotional states in others around them (laughter, apnic, crying)

what was the difference in how western and east asian people expressed their emotions

western culture emphasizes high positive emotions (excitement) and focuses on individual facial expressions

eastern cultures emphasize low positive emotions (calmness) and focus on emotional restraint to maintain social harmony, and rely on their eyes to decode emotions

what are the 4 culturally shared expression patterns

amplification- exaggerating emotional expressions beyond internal feelings

de-amplification- reducing the intensity of emotional expressions

neutralization- showing no emotion regardless of internal feelings (poker face)

masking- hiding true emotions by displaying a completely different emotion (smiling when disappointed)

what was the idea of cultural display rules for emotions

the idea was that culturally learned rules and norms dictated when, where, and to what extent specific emotions should be publicly expressed or suppressed in a given social context