Social Psych (Exam 1)

What is Social Psych? (ch. 1)

• “Scientific study of the ways in which people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.”

• Diff from personality psych cuz personality psych doesn’t depend on a situation like social psych does.

Construals (ch.1)

• ways in which we perceive, understand and interpret social events and social ques

Empirical Research (ch.2)

• research where observations are translated into testable hypotheses

Methods of Gathering Data (ch.2)

• self-report

• observation

• non-participant observation

Self-Report (ch.2)

• survey

• questionnaire

• interview

Observation (ch.2)

• participant observation

  • Ex: Robber’s Cave…

  • Researcher’s were counselors at the camp where participant’s were being observed

• Ethnography

  • the data collected from participant observation. Description about those participants and some aspect of them, typically culture.
    

Non-Participant Observation (ch.2)

• Naturalistic Observation

  • researchers don’t interfere or influence variables (just observe)

  • subjects are in real world settings

• Archival Analysis

  • collecting data from existing sources

• Unobtrusive (indirect) measures

  • a technique used by an observer to record or observe behavior in a way that doesn’t interfere with or change a participant's behavior

  • no direct contact

  • ex: hidden camera

Research Designs (ch.2)

• Observational: Description

• Correlational: Prediction

• Experimental: Causality

Observational Research Design (ch.2)

• what is the nature of the phenomenon

Correlational Research Design (ch.2)

• From knowing X, can we predict Y?

Experimental Research Design (ch.2)

• Is variable X the cause of variable Y?

  • only research design that can make statements of causality

Types of Experimental Designs (ch.2)

• True experiment (lab or field)

• Natural/Quasi experiment

True Experiment (ch.2)

• Has representative random sample

  • random assignment to conditions

  • independent variable is changed, other variables remain the same

Natural/Quasi Experiment (ch.2)

• no true random assignment

  • Natural Experiment: IV is not manipulated, groups are otherwise similar

  • Quasi-Experiment: Same treatment on naturally occurring (different) groups

Reliability (ch.2)

• Interrater Reliability

• Test-Retest Reliability

Interrater Reliability (ch.2)

• consistency amongst judgments and findings from multiple raters

Test-Retest Reliability (ch.2)

• same test more than once over time

Validity (ch.2)

• construct validity

• internal validity

• external validity

  • population validity

  • ecological validity

Construct Validity (ch.2)

• how well a test or tool measures the construct that it was designed to measure

Internal Validity (ch.2)

• Experimental control

  • not influenced by other variables

• Random assignment to condition

External Validity (ch.2)

• Population Validity

  • is population representative

• Ecological Validity

  • Psychological realism

    • activate same feelings that field environment would but not using same stimuli from field environment (in a lab)

  • mundane realism

    • Bring field into lab (in a lab)

Ethical Concerns (ch.2)

• Informed Consent

• Deception

• Debriefing

Informed Consent (ch.2)

• Informed of risks and benefits

• Informed of right to leave at any time

Deception (ch.2)

• Ethical only if it does not obscure or affect parameters of informed consent

Debriefing (ch.2)

• steps taken to ensure no lasting negative effects from participation

Institutional Review Board [IRB] (ch.2)

• ethics committee that ensures research studies and projects are ethical

APA Guidelines for Ethical Research (ch.2)

• IRB approves in advance

• benefits outweigh risks

• confidentiality of data

• informed consent

• timely debriefing of study’s purpose and procedures

Social Cognition (ch.3)

• how we think about, select, interpret and remember social information to make judgments and decisions

  • Two types of mental processing involved

    • Automatic

    • Controlled

Automatic Processing (ch.3)

• Schemas: mental structures people use to organize their knowledge about the social world around themes or subjects

  • Self-reference effect

  • Chronic accessibility vs Temporary accessibility

    • Priming

Self-reference Effect (ch.3)

• info related to the self is processed more efficiently than other info

  • The Best Way To Process Information(compared to phonetic, semantic
    according to that study)

Chronic Accessibility vs Temporary Accessibility (ch.3)

• Chronic Accessibility: no need to prime, info is readily accessible

• Temporary Accessibility: requires priming to be accessed

Priming (ch.3)

• process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait or concept

  • Kulechov Effect: shown same video of actor with same facial expression but different priming videos caused different descriptions of actor’s expression

  • Kelley “Guest lecturer” Study (1950)

    • students are given different descriptions of lecturer prior to lecture, each group of students rates her differently

  • “Donald” Studies (1977 & 2009)

Impacts of Schemas on Social Judgment (ch.3)

• Primacy Effect: first impressions are lasting

• Halo Effect: one good trait implies others

  • opposite referred to as horns effect

• Belief perseverance: once an individual has developed a belief system, have difficulty getting rid of it

  • Ross, Leper and Hubbar (1975)

• Confirmation Bias: notice things that confirm our schema and ignore all else

  • illusory correlations: association between two variables that aren’t real

  • illusion of control: sense of control in uncontrollable outcome

• Self-fulfilling Prophecy: behaving in manner that you believe others expect from you

  • “clever Hans” the horse

Heuristics (ch.3)

• mental shortcuts used in decision making

  • used when…

    • situation is ambiguous

    • not enough info

    • don’t care enough

    • don’t have the mental resources

Availability Heuristic (ch.3)

• How easily does it come to mind?

  • Schwartz et al (1991):“Self-rated assertiveness”, “Self-rated humor” study(s)

Simulation heuristic (ch.3)

• tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which you can imagine it’s occurrence

  • Counter factual Resoning

    • engages controlled processing

    • influenced by proximity to goal, ease wiht which we can mentally ‘undo’ outcome

      • upward counterfactuals (more common)

      • downward counterfactuals

Representativeness Heuristic (ch.3)

• how similar is it to a typical case?

  • base-rate info

    • ignoring general relevant stats in favor of case-specific info

  • Gambler’s Fallacy/Hot Hand

    • if someone is winning a lot, they expect to keep winning

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic (ch.3)

• mental shortcut whereby people use a number or value as a starting point and then adjust from that “anchor” to make their decision or judgment

  • Hamil, Wilson & Nisbet (1980): “Atypical” vs “Typical” Welfare
    study

    • participants read book about women’s situation with welfare

      • told is typical or atypical

    • answer questions about welfare. and base responses on women’s situation

Controlled Processing (ch.3)

• thinking that is conscious, voluntary, effortful

  • Gilbert’s Theory of Automatic believing: initial acceptance info, assess truthfulness, unaccept if necessary

    • Gilbert, Tafarodi, & Malone (1993): Criminal defendant study

      • being distracted affected the sentence that people suggested

Ironic Processing (ch.3)

• What can interfere with thought suppression?

  • high cognitive load (distracted, too much info)

  • time pressure

    • Wegner, Erber & Bowman (1993): Don’t be Sexist

Thought Suppression (ch.3)

• monitoring process (automatic)

  • checks for instances where suppression is needed

• operating process (controlled)

  • process of suppression

Social Cognition & Culture (ch.3)

• Holistic Thinking Style

  • Collectivist

• Analytic Thinking Style

  • Individualist

• Cultural Difference in Social Thinking

  • East vs West:

    • equally capable of using either style

    • environment primes to use one over the other

      • Ex: Chinese participants tended to focus on central image in incongruent setting

Social Perception (ch.4)

• how we come to understand other people

  • decoding nonverbal behavior

  • applying schemas (implicit personality theories)

  • coming up with explanation for behaviors (attributions)

Attribution Theory (ch.4)

• description of the way in which people explain the causes of their own and others’ behavior

  • Attribution Ex: The last time I did well on an exam, it was because…

    • Classify:

      • Locus of Causality: External vs Internal

      • Stability: Stable vs Unstable

      • Pervasiveness: Global vs Specific

Kelley’s Covariation Model (ch.4)

• model to explain the cognitive process used in deciding to make internal or external attribution’s for others behavior

  • 3 factors

    • Consistency

    • Distinctiveness

    • Consensus

Actor/Observer Difference (ch.4)

• see our own behaviors as caused by situational factors, see others’ behaviors as dispositionally motivated

Egocentric Bias (ch.4)

• in a group, exaggerate amount & importance of our own contributions

Self-serving Bias (ch.4)

• credit successes to internal/dispositional factors and credit failures to external/situational factors

  • Unrealistic Optimism

    • good things are more likely to happen to us and bad things aren’t

  • Defensive Attributions

    • explanations for other people’s situations/ outcomes that defend us from feelings of
      vulnerability or mortality and protect self-esteem

  • Belief in a Just World

    • bad people get bad things, good people get good

Bias Blindspot (ch.4)

• failure to recognize one’s own biases

  • Lau & Russell (1980):Players, coaches, and sportswriters study

Spontaneous Trait Interference (ch.4)

• automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone’s behavior

Fundamental Attribution Error (ch.4)

• overestimating that other’s behavior is due to internal factors rather than situational factors

Perceptual Salience (ch.4)

• the seeming importance of info that is the focus of people’s attention

Two-step Process of Attributions (ch.4)

• automatic: make an internal attribution

• controlled: adjust attribution by considering the situation

  • may still fail to make adjustment