Term Test 1 - Textbook FC

Social neuroscience

The study of how biological brain activity is related to social and emotional behaviors

Culture

Describes the attitudes, behaviors, etc. of a shared group of people

Social representation

Describes the social ideas, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that help us understand the world around us. Values affect how we and the field of social psychology forms

Naturalistic fallacy

Comes from conclusions based on observations that may/may not be accurate

Hindsight bias

Describes the phenomenon where people take something as commonsense after they’re told the result.

Talked about theories, hypotheses, operationalization of variables to test theories, and validity and reliability of variables/results.

Correlational research;

Correlation is not causation

Surveys

Are used to collect samples

Random sampling

Gives you a representative sample (1200 is good enough)

Problems with surveys are

• Getting an unrepresentative sample

• Order and timing of questions

• Response bias and social desirability

• Wording of the questions

Experimental research

Manipulating independent variable(s) and measuring the dependent variable; difference between random assignment (to get at cause and effect) and random sampling (to get a representative sample)

Observational research methods

Are used when experiments can’t be run and cause and effect relationships want to be determined (statistical methods are used in observational research to determine cause and effect) - Talked about reliability and meta analyses as a way of arriving at reliable conclusions

Mundane realism

When the experiment causes subjects to superficially or not actually psychologically experience their everyday situations

Experimental realism

When the experiment causes subjects to actually psychologically experience their everyday situation (this is favorable because it means that researchers are measuring psychological phenomenon that is representative of what happens in real life)

Demand characteristics

Subtle behavior from researchers gives subjects hints as to how they want them to act)

WEIRD people make up 12% of the global population

Westernized, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic

Spotlight effect

The phenomenon where one thinks more attention is given to them than reality

Illusion of transparency

The phenomenon where one thinks their emotions are easily seen by other people

Social surroundings affect

Self awareness (i.e. black person in room of whites)

Self-interest changes

Our social judgment

Self concern motivates

Social behavior

Social relationships help

Define the self

Culture impacts how we view the self

Collectivist cultures vs. Individualistic cultures

Self-schemas

Beliefs we have of ourselves which guide how we process and understand information relevant to ourselves

Ex. If we believe that we are a scholar then we will notice when others perform well academically

Planning fallacy

The phenomenon where people are poor at predicting how long a task will take

Affective forecasting

The phenomenon where people are poor at predicting how they will feel emotionally after an event

Impact bias

Describes the tendency for people to have a poor prediction of how impactful an event or experience will have on their emotions

Dual attitudes

The phenomenon where we have two types of attitude: implicit and explicit. Explicit is easier to change than implicit. Our attitude towards the same object may differ between the verbal explicit and the implicit - Talked about self-esteem, narcissism, and self-efficacy

Self-serving bias

The tendency to perceive yourself favorably

Attribute one’s success to internal attributions, and failures to external attributions

Comparing yourself favorably to others

Unrealistic optimism

(+defensive pessimism is described as anticipating problems and using one’s anxiety to motivate effective action)

False consensus and false uniqueness

Illusory sense of improvement (temporal comparisons are comparisons made to one’s past)

Self-handicapping

The action of giving one’s self a handicap in order to attribute their failure to something external to them

Self-presentation

The act of presenting one’s self in a way that generates a desirable outlook/view from other people as well as from themselves

Self-monitoring

The act of viewing how people react to one’s behaviors and changing how they act in order to elicit favorable reactions from others

System 1

Automatic thinking

System 2

Conscious thinking

Priming

Of previous stimuli affects how we process future information

Embodied cognition

The effect of physical sensations (feeling cold or warm, etc.) that affect how we perceive/interpret/process our environment

Ex. Talk w/ someone who is cold, the room feels colder

Intuition

Automatic or system 1 thinking) helps us make decisions without needing extensive reasoning

Blindsight and subliminal stimuli

Demonstrate how non-conscious thinking can guide our decision making

False beliefs

We may form these about why we do certain actions (we’re subliminally told to walk; when we get up to walk we say it’s because we wanted to get something) and can lead to overconfidence

Overconfidence

Is from ignorance of one's incompetence - this can lead to the Dunning-kruger effect

Overconfidence can be resolved two ways

• Prompt feedback

• How one may be wrong

Prompt feedback

Getting new info and using that to guide decision making

How one may be wrong

Considering how one may be wrong, rather than how one may be right

Confirmation bias

A biased way of thinking where one seeks information that aligns with their current view, rather than seeking information that goes against their view

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts in decision making

Representative heuristic

Where decisions are made based on someone or something being assigned to a typical group. The downfall of this heuristic is that you may fail to consider important information

Representative Heuristic Example

Population: 70% engineers, 30% lawyers. [given info about a person, what is the chance of them being an engineer?] [70%] The trick is that the description of the person will be more typical of a lawyer

Availability heuristic

Where decisions are made based on the speed at which information is recalled. The downfall of this heuristic is that you may put more weight on the wrong things, fearing the wrong things

Availability Heuristic Example

Shark attacks on the news. You’re afraid of sharks and going to the ocean

Counterfactual thinking

A type of thinking where one considers alternative hypothetical scenarios that could have happened in a situation that has already occurred

This can be helpful for reflecting on mistakes and trying to improve upon them

Illusory thinking

A type of thinking where we try to assign a pattern or trend to everything, even when the events occur randomly

Types of Illusory thinking

1. We assign a pattern

2. Gambling

3. Regression towards the average

We assign a pattern that

doesn’t exist or a correlation that is not as strong as we think

Gambling

Blame losses on the house, assign wins to the gambler’s skill

Regression towards the average

Someone with poor grades, getting a tutor, then improving their grades does not necessarily mean that the tutoring worked. By having poor grades, they’re more likely to get better grades by regressing towards the mean

Moods and judgements

Affect how one perceives and processes their environment

Moods and judgements example

When one is in a bad mood and they’re shown a video of themselves in a conversation, they will notice more bad qualities about themselves compared to if they were in a good mood, where they will notice more good qualities about themselves

People that perceive political events that are neutral will not see those events as neutral

Rather they will view those events in a way that is consistent with their current political standing

Belief perseverance

A type of thinking where one makes information supportive of one’s belief more important and valuable than it is, and downplays information that goes against one’s belief. Thus, preserving their belief

Misinformation effect

An effect where people may be given false information about one of their memories and as a result they will recall a false memory

Misinformation effect example

Ex. if you spoke with your crush for 15 minutes and then were asked how they felt about you, if you’re in a good mood you will recall that they felt happy or positive with you, but if you’re in a bad mood you will recall that they felt awkward or negative with you.

Reconstructing past attitudes

Depends on how you feel in the moment

If you feel angry or sad, then you may recall past memories with your significant other as angry or sad. You may interpret interactions with your partner as less favorable

Reconstructing past behaviors

Depends on how you feel in the moment as well

If you feel good, then you may describe past behavior as being more unlike the present than it actually was

Reconstructing past behaviors example

Ex. If you began a weight-loss program and have been told a bunch of uplifting, positive stuff. Then, when you look back at how you felt without the program, where you felt worse, you may say that this program really helped you. Even when, based on the results, you didn’t change that much. You may have mis-recalled the past due to you feeling good in the present

Spontaneous trait inference

The inference of one’s trait based on a quick view of that person’s behavior

Fundamental attribution error

The error whereby one underestimates the situational attribution and overestimates the dispositional attribution of another’s behavior

Examples of the FAE - Castro writing assignment and the questioner-contestant experiment

In the writing assignment, raters failed to really consider situational effects. In the questioner-contestant experiment, the audience failed to consider situational effects (the questioner and contestant were randomly assigned to their roles. Role selection was not based on intelligence).

FAE differs across cultures.

We make the FAE due perspective and situational awareness.

Self-fulfilling prophecies

Beliefs one has that may become true as they unconsciously act in a way that leads to that belief becoming true

Self-fulfilling prophecies example

Ex. The relationship between a teacher and student where the student had an older sibling that the teacher found brilliant. As a result, the teacher believes the student will be brilliant and unconsciously gives that student more support and attention, which as a result of the teacher’s unconsciously helping, the student appears brilliant, confirming the belief of the teacher. (This relationship can go both ways, not surprisingly)

Behavioral confirmation

A type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby a person unconsciously acts in a way that causes other(s) to act in a way that confirms their expectations of their behavior.

Proximity

People closer together are more likely to like each other

Interaction

People that interact more are more likely to like each other

Mere exposure effect

An effect where the more one is exposed to someone or something, the more they like them

People like people that are physically attractive. This physical attraction helps with starting relationships, but is not the most important factor as the friendship progresses

Matching phenomenon

A phenomenon where people like other people that are most similar to them in terms of attractiveness and traits

Physical-attractiveness stereotype

• A stereotype where people that are attractive and thought to be good in other traits as well

• Attractive people have average and symmetrical faces

• Females like males that are muscular because evolutionarily, they were more capable than weaker males that couldn’t protect and hunt for food as well as the muscular males

We diminish the attractiveness of people that threaten our relationship

If we’re in a moderate relationship, potential mates that pose a moderate threat to our romantic relationship will be less attractive compared to if they were a high threat. The reduction in attractiveness depends on if the level of the threat matches the level of commitment of the relationship

We like people that are similar to us

Opposites do not attract

Ingratiation

The use of strategies such as flattery to gain someone else’s favor

Ingratiation example

Ex. If someone felt like the person complimenting them were doing so for shallow or inappropriate reasons, then that someone would not be attracted to that person. Flattery does not always lead to attraction

Reward theory of attraction

The theory whereby if one feels rewarded by the actions of another person (or associate rewards with the other person), then they will feel attracted to that person

Two-factor theory of emotion

States that arousal + its label gives us emotion

Caudate nucleus

In the brain increases in activity when in love

Equity

• Is when the effort that each person puts into a relationship is proportional to what they get in return.

  • Relationships that are equitable last long.

  • Equity doesn’t need to be short-term, they can be long-term.

Perceived equity

Important in a relationship. If one person thinks the other is not giving enough in a relationship (could also be due to self-serving bias), then the relationship sours

Perceived equity example

Ex. One person in a relationship that perceives inequity leads to marital distress. Marital distress also leads to perceiving inequity. Thus, there is a loop between perceived inequity and marital distress

Self-disclosure

helps deepen relationships when done gradually. Whether someone will self-disclose or not can be reliably predicted by disclosure reciprocity

Disclosure reciprocity

If the disclosure is reciprocated, then more disclosure will likely occur

When relationships are under distress, there are ways in which people respond to this distress:

• They can constructively respond passively (staying loyal) or actively (by voicing concerns);

• Or they can destructively respond passively (through neglect of the other partner) or actively (by leaving the relationship)