Psychology and the Real World Exam 2

Widespread, erroneous perception that wealth is fixed in quantity. Has basis in the self serving bias- we internalize success and externalize failures

The wealthy are not just an outgroup, but they are a particularly unsympathetic outgroup

A market is where commercial dealings take place, and we don’t think of opening a business as prosocial behavior

Zero Sum Perception

Altruistic Behavior intended to benefit you, but it also benefits others as well, but we don’t study it as prosocial behavior. To what extent are we concerned with the motivation of altruistic behavior

Hidden Pro Social Behavior

Machine mimicking human thought and behavior

Alan Turing laid the groundwork for modern computer science and AI

Neural Networks- Teaching machines to do things through repeated exposure

Language Models- Advanced systems designed to understand, generate, and process human like text through deep learning techniques

Generative AI- A type of AI that makes new content based on existing data

AI

Environmental- Lots of Power Consumption and Water Use

Psychological- Dependence (if AI does your work for you, you aren’t strengthening that muscle), Cognitive Bias

Social- Pseudo Social Relationships

Implications of AI

can be used for simple therapy, but not for anything more complex than that

Uses for AI

Could be a malevolent force, need to make sure your AI has the right values

Alignment

the scientific study of purported psychic phenomena (psi)

(1) they violate the “laws of nature”

(2) if accepted, they would invalidate scientific achievements

(3) there are no theories to account for them.

Longstanding interests in spiritualism

As a science: Origins in 19th-century psychology

In the public, parasocial beliefs are widespread

Was used to explain things in the past that we had never studied beforESP-

Telepathy- Mind to Mind Communication

Clairvoyance/Remote Viewing- Seeing faraway locations

Precognition- Seeing future events

Psychokinesis-Moving objects with the mind

Parapsychology

Specifically bad in parapsychology:

Publication bias/File drawer problem

Optional stopping- Collect a few trials and enter data, then run analysis when you get a significant p-value. You stop

P-hacking- Misuse of data

Failure to give the null a chance

Fraud

Issues in parapsychology research

We think social media is bad for our mental health because we are seeing higher rates of mental illness

Upward- Comparing yourself to someone better off than you

Downward- Comparing yourself to someone worse off than you

Cyberbullying

Dopamine/Reward Pathways

Social Media and Mental Health

The impact of social media on mental health is not settled

Contra media reports! Example of a publicity file-drawer problem (some studies get attention and some don’t)

When measured well, effect sizes (negative impact) are consistently small

“Crud Factor”- Tiny P-values but meaningless effect size

Frequent Pattern: A “Goldilocks Zone” of screen use, you see more effects when out of moderate social media usage

Effect Size- How much did this impact that

We usually look at time spent of social media but we aren’t looking at what you are actually seeing on social media

demand effect- There is an issue in this line or research because people will know what your hypothesis is

Social Media Research

Moderators- Something that affects the relationship between two variables

Active vs. Passive Use- How is the social media being used? Are you actively posting, or are you just passively looking at stuff

Social Media Experiences- Are you being cyberbullied? Or are you engaging in social comparison

Platform- Different platforms have different experiences

Sex- Social media is worse for women

Social Media Research Modulators

Dopamine is much weaker and doesn’t immediately have an affect like nicotine does, it also might not always hit when you’re scrolling social media

Social Media and Dopamine

Ova and Sperm, Biological

Primary Characteristics:

Chromosomal Composition

Internal Reproductive Structure

Genitalia

Secondary Characteristics:

Hair

Breasts

Sex

Abnormalities in the development of sex characteristics

Chromosomal

Genitalia

Hormonal

Distinct from transgender

Term can be misleading, it’s not someone between the sexes

Very small group: .18 for every 100 live births

Intersex

Femineity: Characteristics of being female

Masculinity: Characteristics of being male

Androgyny: Neither male nor female; possessing both male and female characteristics

Continuum: Masculine — Feminine

Androgyny falls in the middle, or having both characteristics

Multiple Continua:

Masculinity —

Femininity —-

Androgyny- High/Low in Femininity or Masculinity

Gender

Height, Men are on average taller than women

Strength, men are on average taller than women

Brain, some areas have structural differences

Intelligence

Same Overall

Men: greater mathematical intelligence

Women: greater verbal intelligence

Greater Male Variability (GMVH)- Intelligence varies among men

The argument is that women have more options due to their verbal intelligence, and it pushes men into certain tracks

Personality Differences

Males:

Higher Self-esteem

More Assertive

More Aggressive

Women:

More Agreeable

More Conscientious

More Anxious

Sex Differences

Socialization and Social Roles- Males and Females are treated differently and therefore take on different roles

Hormonal Theories- Differences in hormone levels that affect behaviors and brain development

Evolutionary Psychology Theory- Men= Want to spread lots of genetic material Female= More choosy because of the amount of time it takes to grow a human

An Integrated Theoretical Perspective- Takes all the different theories into account

All single explanations for something are wrong

Theories of Sex Differences

Political Correlates- Zero Sum is more associated with the left wing. Conservatives use zero-sum when there are challenges to the status quo

Those who see line in a zero-sum way have lower life satisfaction, lower trust, lower self-esteem, more competition

participants’ responses mimicked AI bias even when the AI was no longer making suggestions. These results provide evidence of human inheritance of AI bias

When positive expressions were reduced, people produced fewer positive posts and more negative posts; when negative expressions were reduced, the opposite pattern occurred. These results indicate that emotions expressed by others on Facebook influence our own emotions

One side- Parapsychology is comparable to other psychological disciplines

Other side- Claims made by parapsychologists cannot be true.

Meta-analytic evidence for causal effects was statistically no different than zero in social media and mental health

the true prevalence of intersex is seen to be about 0.018%, almost 100 times lower than Fausto-Sterling's estimate of 1.7%.

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