PSYCH 2720 Final Exam

social psychology

the scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.

How peoples are shaped by their SOCIAL CONTEXTS

Areas of Social Psychology

1. attraction

2. attitudes

3. peace & conflict

4. social influence

5. social cognition

Concerns of social psychology

1. construral

2. interpretation of their environments

Wilhelm Wundt

1. father of experimental psychology

2. studied folk/cultural psychology

3. understood the collective mind

4. culture is intangible

Norman Triplett Experiment

understood social facilitation where the prescnece of other people can affect performance. He tested this by noticing that cyclists are faster when racing against others than against the clock

William Mcdoougall

Says social behaviour is innate and stems from inherited instinct from group mind culture. he opposed behaviourism, saying that group mind is more apparent in people’s behaviour

floyd allport

father of experimental social psychology that rejected the idea of behaviourism

kurt lewin

Helped start the theory of the interactionist perspective - Understood that behaviour is a function of the interaction between person and environment

1970s

emergence of pluralism - a lot of different research methods were accepted

2010 - Present

Replication Crisis

Replication Crisis

Many published scientific findings, particularly in psychology, cannot be consistently reproduced when other researchers repeat the original studies. If results cannot be replicated than conclusions are likely not reliable

cumulative science

says science builds on previous research. so if studies contain unreliable findings, later researchers may build theories on faulty evidence

Paul Meel’s Critism

a psychologist who criticized how psychologists tested their theorizes, becoming far too dependent on the Null Hypothesis Test

Null Hypothesis Significance Test

This is the practice of testing an estimated effect against a null value

Type 1 error

false positive (when a result is declared to be significant when its not)

Type 2 error

false negative (when a result is declared to be significant even though it really exists)

Daryl Bem

example of a type one error (FALSE POSITIVE) where he claimed that precognition was a form of ESP, saying that peopl could resopnd to events before they occured.

Diederik Stapel 2011

Social psychologist who fabricated research data to support his claim which was fraudulent

Example of major replication failures

1. power posing

2. ego depletion

3. embodied cognition

4. behavioural priming

Problem with replication

major replication studies refuse to to post studies in which they believe the readership will design which is harmful to the cumulative nature of science

reasons results may not replicate

• sampling variability

• hidden moderators

  • low statistical power (false positives and false negatives)

publication bias

journals are biased towards publishing i.e they only post results that are flashy and post novel finds that are supring and likely to appear as headers

researcher bias

incentives for researchers to publish their fancy findings through promotions, grants, media coverage, awards

questionable research practices (QRP)

• researchers stop collecting data when a significance threshold is met

• collapse across conditions as if planned

• change study hypothesis after looking at data

  • treating peopole who dont show the effect as outliers and exclusing them

Negative effects of false positives

1. waste of resources

2. hard to refute

3. actively dangeours

4. erodes the credibility of psychological science

Culture of honour

a cultural background that emphasizes personal or family reputation and social status

social attribution

when we make educated guesses about the efforts or motives of others - essentially attributing their behaviour to a particular causefun

fundamental attribution error

the consistent way we attribute people’s actions to personality traits while overlooking situational influences is called the “fundamental attribution error”

exact replication

when a scientist attempts to exactly recreate the scientific methods used in conditions of an earlier study

conceptual replication

occurs when instead of an exact replication, the scientist tires to confirm the previous findings using different set of specific methods that test the same idea

priming

process by which a recent reference can increase accessibility of a trait

folk psychology

Everyday observations and common-sense beliefs about human behaviour that can make research findings seem obvious or familiar because they match what people have observed in real life.

Three levels of hindsight bias

1. predictability

2. inevitability

3. memory distortion

branches of empirical work

1. basic research

2. applied research

basic research

Research designed to build and test basic theoretical constructs (driven by curiosity) to understand how the world works

prediction, mechanisms

applied research

Use theories and research findings to understand and solve practical, real-world problems

understanding, generating solutions

Scientific Method

• Iterative process

• Refine hypotheses based on observed data

• Data become background for theories

• Theories support understanding

• Applies to BOTH empirical branches (basic & applied)

theory

organized set of principles used to explain observed phenomena

hypothesis

explicit testable statement about the relationship between two or more variable so the conditions under which an outcome will occur

self report

participants disclose their thoughts, feelings, desires and actions

types of measurements

1. self report

2. over observation

3. covert observation

overt observation

a research method where a researcher observes participants in a space that is visible to others

interrater reliability

level of agreement among multiple observers of the same behaviour (are we both observing said behaviour similarly?)

covert behaviour

behaviour that is invisible to the naked eye - technology is used to measure cognitive and physiological responses

1. eye tracking

2. brain imaging

3. heart rate

4. movement tracking with GPS data

research designs

1. observational method

2. correlational method

3. experimental method

observational method

A primarily descriptive research method in which researchers observe and systematically record behaviour as it naturally occurs, without necessarily manipulating it.

the purpose is to describe behaviour in real world settings

ethnography

observe and record individuals or groups without attempting to manipulate or direct behaviour - ex. Spending time in a school to understand how students form social groups

archival analysis

examine documents (diary, correspondence, social media posts, ads)

Measurement issues (observational)

1. operational definition

2. interrater reliability

3. accuracy

correlational method

A research method in which researchers measure two or more variables to determine whether they are related and how strongly one variable predicts the other.

co

correlation coefficient

a statistic that measures the strength of the relationship of two variables

positive correlation

when one variable increases, the other increases at the same time

negative correlation

inverse relationship - when one variable increases the other decreases

no correlation

no linear relationship between variables

spurious correlation

Two variables may appear related even though there is no meaningful direct relationship between them. Their association may arise from coincidence or a third variable.

experimental method

Research method where we measure independent and dependt variable to determine a causal relationship

Key variables in experimental research

1. independent variable

2. dependent variable

3. confounding variable

steps to conduct an experiment

1. manipulate the independent variable

2. control extraneous confounding variables

3. observe the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable

true experiement

researcher manipulates the independent variable, and typically randomly assigns participants to conditions, helping them establish cause and effect

quasi experiment

researchers compare pre-existing groups or conditions that they cannot randomly assign or fully manipulate ex. comparing stress levels between people who work day shifts and people who work night shifts

null hypothesis

states that one variable does not cause the other - i.e there is no effect or difference between conditions being studied

p < 5

results are significant where we reject the null

p > 5

results are not significant, fail to reject the null

Key research experiments in social psychology

1. stanford prison experiment (zimbardo)

2. priming experiment with the puzzles and old people

3. cave experiment - boys go against each other unless they are competing for scarce resources in which they stay together (muzafer sherif)

realistic conflict theory

competition over limited resources can create intergroup hostility and prejudice

superordinate goals

shared goals that require competing groups to cooperate

P-hacking

trying different statistical analyses until you get a statistically significant result where p<0.05

p curve analysis

Examines the distribution of statistically significant p-values in a body of research to help detect p-hacking and assess whether findings contain evidential value. usually if its JUST significant ovre and over again it can be sus - rather than a stronger signifcinace closer to 0.01 - 0.02

HARKing

hypothesis after results are known

what makes a study ethical

1. avoid harm

2. collected informed consent

3. debriefing

4. no invasiveness

5. keep promise to keep info confidential

6. deception only when necessary

critical thinking

the ability to think clearly and rationally; includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking

critical thinking skills

1. reasoning

2. evaluating

3. decision making

4. analyzing

5. problem solving

Critical thinking fundamentals

1. clarity

2. accuracy

3. precision

4. depth

5. relevance

6. breadth

7. logic

8. fairness

barriers to critical thinking

1. egocentrism

2. sociocentrism

3. relativistic thinking

4. wishful thinking

5. unwarranted assumptions

logic

the science of reasoning, inference, and deduction, underpiining the ability to think analytically

deductive reaoning

follow the logical process that involves starting with general ideas (theories) and using them to reach more specific conclusions

affirming the antecedent

you know the condition happened, so you can conclude the result as follows

Premise 1: If it is a golden retriever, then it is a dog.

Premise 2: It is a golden retriever.

conclusion: therefore it is a dog

affirming the consequent

premise 1: if it is a golden retriever, then it is a dog

premise 2: it is a dog

conclusion: therefore, it is a golden retriever (FALSE)

denying the consequent

If the condition guarantees a result, then the absence of that result means the original condition could not have happened.

Premise 1: If it is a car, then it has wheels.

Premise 2: It does not have wheels.

Conclusion: Therefore, it is not a car.

denying the antecedent

You know the original condition did not happen, but you incorrectly assume the result cannot happen either.

Premise 1: If it is a car, then it has wheels.

Premise 2: It is not a car.

Conclusion: Therefore, it does not have wheels.

hypothetical syllogism

a valid deductive rule that connects two if-then statements to form a conclusion

Premise 1: If I don't get out of bed, then I cannot go to work.

Premise 2: If I cannot go to work, then I will not get paid.

Conclusion: If I don't get out of bed, then I will not get paid.

logical fallacies

Errors in reasoning where the conclusion does not necessarily follow from the premises, even if the premises are true.

inductive reasoning

Starts from a set of observations and induces a general principle or theory based on those observations

small details to larger picture

errors in logic

1. mistake in conditional statements

2. mistakes in assumptions

3. mistakes in consequents

distributional thinking

the most fundamental principle of statistics is that data vary

internal validity

the degree to which a study ensures that potential findings apply to settings and samples other than the ones being studies

external validity

the degree to which a study ensures that potential findings apply to settings and samples other than the ones being studies

diary method

A research method in which participants record their thoughts, feelings, experiences, or behaviours in a diary over a period of time, often in their everyday environments.

pscyhoneruoimmunology

research where the goal is to understand the interplay of psychological factors (i.e personality traits & stress level) to the immune system.

ecological validity

refers to the degree to which an effect has been obtained under conditions that are typical for what happens in everyday life

full cycle psychology

going full cycle suggests that researchers use naturalistic approaches to understand the underlying effect of the real world and experimentation to verify the effect and its underlying processes