PSYC 201

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Defining Social Psychology

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

**Hindsight Bias**

The tendency to see events that have already occurred as more predictable than they really were.

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***“I knew it all along”***

The Power of the Situation: \n The Milgram Experiment

\-Results?

\-80% continued past 150 volts

\-62.5% continued to 450 volts (the maximum!)

\-Average amount: 360 volts

The Power of the Situation: \n Good Samaritans- religious students going to give lecture

\-What predicted whether or not the student helped the man?

\-Whether or not they were told to hurry.

__Fundamental attribution error__

The failure to recognize the importance of situational influences on behavior, and the corresponding tendency to overemphasize the importance of dispositions or traits on behavior

__Nudge__:

\: Small, innocuous-seeming prompts that can have big effects on behavior

ex. how to increase number of students for getting tetanus shots

__Construal__:

People’s interpretation and inference about the stimuli or situations they confront

u

Gestalt psychology

Objects are perceived not by means of some passive and unbiased perception of objective reality, but by active, usually nonconscious interpretation of what the object represents.

Prisoners dilemma : Wall street game or community game

8 \n Whether the participants \n had been identified as \n likely to cooperate or defect \n did not help predict their \n actual levels of cooperation. \n

* Schema

* Knowledge structure consisting of any organized body of stored knowledge

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* Stereotypes

* Type of schema
* Schemes applied to ppl or individuals
* Ex. The picture of what you expect a cheerleader to look like

Automatic vs Controlled processing

* Controlled is more effortful + use more cognitive power , exams or on important things
* Ex. Buying a house, taking an exam
* Automatic not used for quiz/exams, don’t care as much and use little cognitive capacity/focus/effort because its not as important
* Watching commercials

* Nonconscious Processing

* Priming effect
* Give some clue to make you think of an idea more
* Ex. Put the idea of pizza in your head, then you might have pizza for dinner

* Natural Selection

* Evolutionary process that molds animals + plants so that traits that enhance probability of survival + reproduction are passed off to next gen
* Same way we have adaptive features, also developed basic behavioral things that help us adapt to physical + social environments

* Human Universals

* Many human behaviors / institutions that are displayed across all human races/ individuals and even some animals ( primates )
* EX OF HUMAN UNIVERALS
* Live in fam
* Lang
* Emotions
* Share with other animals
* Facial expressions
* Dominance + submission
* Food sharing

* Theory of mind

* Ability to understand others seemingly invisible mental states, beliefs, desires,, intentions + can predict others responses
* Ex. Think someone looks nice but they are murderer = fail to correctly understand their state
* Thought to be distinction between human + animals / not universal
* Fully developed in children 3/4

Evolution + gender roles

* Evolutionary approaches can help explain sex diff
* Parental investment
* More for women than men
* Costs + benefits associated w/ reproduction are different for males + females
* Females will have limited # of offspring so invest more time in each child
* Males = unlimited offspring and don’t need to invest in one child as much

* Evolutionary theory

* Avoid naturalistic fallacy
* Idea that the way things are is way we should be
* Ex. Since we are lazy we should stay that way
* Can overcome what we are predisposed to do

* Culture + Human Behavior

* Human univerals can be expressed in diff ways
* Ex. Western and non western societies differ a lot
* Independent cultures
* Ppl focus on what they want/themselves more 
* Self autonomy
* Freedom
* Interdependent
* Social connections
* Hierarchy
* Older generations deserve respect
* Very strong social bondings

WEIRDest people - most samples of

western, educated, industrialized, rich, demoractic

uObservational research

\-Observing social situations in a semi-formal way

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\-Example: Shirley Brice observed middle-class and working-class families

\-Social psychologists usually prefer to augment their observational studies with additional research

* Archival research

* Analyzing social behaviors documented in past
* Ex. Newpaper, police report, hospital records
* Can be used to test theories about social behavior
* Ex. Check students progress, check past exam scores

* Survey

* Interview + questionnaires
* Consider number + type of people being surveyed
* Results may be limited if sample is biased
* Small sample only rep of pop if unbiased
* Good wording = better results

* Types of sampling

* Random : everyone in population has equal chance to be selected to particiapte
* Convenience
* Participants are selected from easily available group
* Creates bias

* Correlational research

* Research where there is relationship between variables

* Reverse causation

* X may cause Y or Y may cause X

* Confound variable

* X doesn’t cause Y, Y doesn’t cause X, another variable causes both

* Spurious correlation

* Relationship in which two plus variables not casually related to each other, may be wrongly inferred they are

* Longitudinal study

* Collecting measures at diff points in time

* Limits of correlational research

* Difficult / impossible to make inferences about causality
* Self selection
* Problem when participant not researcher selects their level on variable = confound the experiment
* Choosing which group to be in/ control or experimental

* Experimental research ; Double blind best

○ Only this method, systematically controls + manipulates events can determine causality -

Research that involves randomly assigning participants to different situations or conditions

Conditions are controlled or manipulated by the researchers

Behaviors are systematically measured

§ Comparisons of how different manipulations affect behavior allow researchers to determine causal influences of behavior ○ Experiments are the “gold standard” of psychological research

* Natural exp

* Certain event occurs that the investigator believes causes something 

 

Theory:

* A set of related propositions intended to describe some phenomenon or aspect of the world
* Theories are supported by empirical evidence

Hypothesis:

* A prediction about what will happen under particular circumstances.
* Hypotheses often test broader theories about behavior.

* Operationalization

* Turn an abstract concept into something observable

* Why do we use correlational research?

* Cannot use control or other situations
* Cannot use random assignment then not experiment 

* Internal validity

* In experimental research, confidence that only the manipulated variable could have produced the results

* External validity

* Experimental setup that closely resembles real life situations so that the results can safely be generalized to such situations
* Lower the external validity does not guarantee high internal validity


* Often the more closely a situation resembles real life ( good external validity) , the more difficult it may be to tightly control the situation ( bad internal validity)

* Field experiment

* \
* An experiment that takes place in the real world (e.g) reactions of people asked to give up their seats on a bus
* Great high external validity

threats to internal validity ( threaten causal relationship)

selection bias, differential attrition, regression to the mea, experimenter/rater bias, hawthrone effects

* Selection bias

Error in choosing population without bias

* Differential attrition

*  occurs when attrition or dropout rates differ systematically between the intervention and the control group.

Regression to the mean

* \
* Tendency of results that are extreme by chance on first measurement but become closer to the mean the second time

* Experimenter/rater bias

* \
* Bias that the experimenter/ rates wants you to succeed

* Expectancy/hawthorne effects

* \
* When participants realized they are being watched or that they got the drug/placebo, their attitude/performance will change/be biased

* Reliability

* Degree to which the particular way that researchers measures a given variable is likely to yield consistent measurements
* Take the test many times and it still gives a similar results

* Measurement Validity

* Correlation between some measure and some outcome that the measure is supposed to predict


* Validity is always more important

* Statistical significance

* Measure of the probability that a givern result could have occurred by chance
* Results that have very low prob of occuring by chance = stat signif .05 or below

* Triangulation

* Use of multiple methods to study a single topic
* Goal is to use different methods that counterbalance weakness, and show converging evidence for a hypothesis

* Basic research

* Concerned with trying to understand phenomenon in its own right

* Applied research

* Is concerned with solving real world problem

* Intervention

* Connection between the 2, basic research facilitates theories that lead to interventions

* Research ethics

* Before research, must go through IRB: university committee that judges ethical appropriateness of research

* Deception research

* Research in which participants are misled about purpose of research or meaning of something that is done to them
* Milgram experiment

* The self

* Like to think that we have consistent self ; one defined by stable personality and traits but social psych tells us that

The social self

* Self not independent of environment
* Its constructed, maintained, and negotiated in the social environment
* Social self = malleable self

Self -

 persons particular nature or qualities that make a person unique and distinguishable from others

* Traits

* Characteristic ways that u think, feel, and act that make you different from others

Individual self

* Beliefs about our unique personal traits, abilities, preferences, tastes, talents, etc

* Relational self

* Beliefs about our identities in specific relationships

Collective self

* Beliefs about out indentities as members of social groups to which we belong
* being indian vs american

* Accuracy of self knowledge

* Self knowledge through introspection
* Self knowledge not always complete or accurate
* Might be judging our internal traits but others might have better information about our external traits

* Self schemas

* Cognitive structures, derived from past, experience, that represent a persons beliefs and feelings about the self in particular domains


* Each have self schema about how extraverted we are
* Based in situations where extraversion is relevant ( e.g., parties
* Very high in extraversion- self schema include more instances of extraverted behavior, more elaborate beliefs about being extraverted whom extraversion is not important part of who they are
* Perform organizing function

* Self reference effect

○ We have better memory for information related to ourselves

* Self complexity

* Tendency to define self in terms of multiple domains that are relatively distinct from one another
* Define selves from multiple counts of worth
* Most of us have more than one domain and we should have more than one domain to help us balance life
* Don’t put all your eggs into one basket

Situationism

* Social self changes from one situation to another
* What makes us unique in current situation

* Working self concept

* Only a subset of self knowledge is brought to mind in a particular context ( different situations, different self concepts)

* Culture

* In west( Northwestern europe and north america) , independence is emphasized
* In the east( asian, mediterranean, african, south american) , interdependence is emphasized

 

 

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* Did study on americans and japanese, american will consider that the one person is very happy but japanese will say they are less happy because the people around them are unhappy ( japanese more likely to be influenced by social others)

* within cultures Power:

*  powerful people have more independent self concepts than low-power people
* Power allows for autonomy which is central feature of independent self
* Business people in interdependent cultures tend to have more independent views of the self

* Gender

* Women are more sensitive to social cues and across cultures, men are more independent and women are more interdependent views of self


* Differences may come from socialization
* Portrayals in media
* Treatment by parents
* Friendships and groups
* Evolution: Men hunters, aggressors; women nurturers (but different cultures deal with gender in different ways)

reflected self appraisals

Our beliefs about what others think of our social selves

* Looking glass self
* Use others reactions to us serve as a mirror
* We internalize how we think others appraise us, not necessarily how others actually see us
* If the person has negative feelings about themselves, then they internalize negative and don’t remember appraisal

* Social comparison theory

* People compare themselves to others to evaluate their own opinions, abilities, and internal states
* Context: likely to occur when
* There is no clear objective standard
* You experience uncertainty about yourself in a certain domain

* Upward comparisons

* When you want to improve something about yourself, you compare with people who are better ( how far can I go )

* Downward comparison

* When you want to feel good about yourself, you compare with people who are worse ( its not that bad)

* Self esteem

The positive or negative evaluation or attitude an individual has toward the self

* Not just how we think of ourself, we constantly evaluate these beliefs of our self
* Such evalutaions determine our self esteem
* Ex. I like myself, I think I am a person of worth

* Sociometer hypothesis

* Self esteem is a readout of our likely standing with others
* Depends on how likely other people will accept or reject us
* Want to avoid social exclusion/rejection

Contingencies of self-worth

* Self esteem is contingent on success and failure in domains that are important to their self
* Students who had applied to grad school
* Filled out questionnaire when they received a response from a grad school
* In general:
* Higher self esteem on days when they were accepcted
* Lower self esteem on days when they were rejected
* Bigger effects for participants whose self esteem was based more on school

* Cultural diff in self esteem

* Individualists care about self-esteem, collectivists care about self-improvement
* False feedback about performance on creativity task
* Japanese participants who were told they performed badly worked longer on a second task
* Canadian participants only worked longer on a second task when they were told they performed well

is having high self esteem good or bad? - in moderation

* Many psychopaths, murderers, and violent gang members = very high self esteem
* Can be assertive, defiant, narcissistic

* Self enhancement

* People's desire to maintain, Increase, or protect, their self esteem or self views

* Better than average effect

* Most westerners tend to report they are better than average on most traits ( kindless) and mundane skills ( driving )

 

* We judge others by what they’re like on average; we judge ourselves by what we’re like at our best

* Self affirmation theory

* When you have negative reviews, you will want to affirm
* Affirming in a domain unrelated to the threatened domain

* Self enhancement motives

* Beter than average effect is more likely to occur for ambiguous traits than unambiguous traits
* You can construe what it means to be kind person
* Simply know if you are better than average athlete or not

 

Well being

* Good:
* Well adjusted people do more self-enhancement (Taylor & Brown), which promotes health (e.g., by suppressing cortisol responses (Taylor et al., 2003)
* Bad
* Self-enhancers tend to be seen as more narcissistic (John & Robins, 1994)
* Positive illusions about the self don’t necessarily lead to greater well-being


* Cross-cultural evidence: East Asians do less self-enhancement than Westerners (Heine et al., 1999)

* Self verification theory

* People strive for stable, accurate beliefs about the self
* memory more selective for self consistent info
* such beliefs give sense of coherence and allow to more accurately predict outcomes for ourselves

* Self regulation

* Processes used to initiate, alter, and control their behavior in pursuit of goals
* Including delaying gratification

Construal level theory

* High level construal facilitates self control
* High level construal : abstract, global, and essential features
* Low level construal : salient, incidental, and concrete details

* Implementation intention

* How one will behave to achieve a goal under particular circumstances
* Just completing a paper vs specifying the time and location for completing the paper

Self discrepancy theory

* People want to reduce discrepancies between their actual self and possible selves

* Actual self

* \
* Person you believe you currently are

* Ought self

* Person you feel you should be, the person others want you to be

* Ideal self

The person you aspire/want to be

when actual self not aligned with ideal self, we feel

dissapointed, sad, despondent, varying degrees of depression

when actual self doesn’t match ought self, we feel

agitated, guilty, distressed, and anxious

How do we resolve discrepancies? Promotion focus

Focus on positive outcomes when working toward ideal self

How do we resolve discrepancies? Prevention focus

* Avoid negative outcomes when working toward ought self ( don’t want to suffer the loss)

* Self presentation

* Presenting the person that we would like others to believe we are

* Impression management

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* Attempting to control how other people view us
* How we dress, public behavior, friends and associates, what we reveal about ourselves to others

Face

public image of ourselves, what we want others to believe

Self monitoring

* monitor our behavior to ensure it fits the current situation