PSYC 3315 UTA EXAM 1

social psycholgy

the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another

social psychology vs sociology

Compared with sociology (the study of people in groups and societies), social psychology focuses more on individuals and does more experimentation.

Stanley Milgram

obedience to authority; had participants administer what they believed were dangerous electrical shocks to other participants; wanted to see if Germans were an aberration or if all people were capable of committing evil actions

social psychology's great ideas

1. we construct our social reality - people have an urge to explain behavior and attribute it to a cause

2. our social intuitions are often powerful but sometimes perilous - we think on 2 levels; intuitive and deliberate. readily available images influence our thinking.

3. social influences shape our behavior - we are social animals. culture defines situations.

4. personal attitudes and dispositions also shape behavior - internal forces matter.

5. social behavior is biologically rooted - nature and nurture.

6. social psychology's principles are applicable in everyday life

How do human values influence social psychology?

obvious and subtle ways

Obvious ways values enter psychology

1. when social psychologists choose research topics (reflect social history)

2. values differ across cultures

3. values influence the types of people who are attracted to various disciplines

4. values enter as the object of social psychological analysis - psychologists investigate how, why values influence actions

subtle ways values enter psychology

1. subjective aspects of science - scholars in a given area often share the same culture and viewpoint. this can lead to biases.

2. concepts and theories are formed by values

3. defining the good life - values influence our ideas about the best life

4. personal advice - how to deal with a spouse or coworker is affected by personal values

5. forming concepts - label reflects the judgement

6. labeling - values lie hidden within our cultural definitions

criticism of social psychology

1. its trivial because it documents the obvious

2. dangerous because its findings could be used to manipulate people

social representations

A society's widely held ideas and values, including assumptions and cultural ideologies. Our social representations help us make sense of our world.

hindsight bias

The tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one's ability to have foreseen how something turned out. Also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.

theory

integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events

hypothesis

A testable prediction, often implied by a theory

purposes of hypotheses

1. allow to test a theory

2. give direction to research

3. predictive nature of good theories make them practical

types of social psychological research

a. laboratory research

b. field research

c. correlational

d. experimental

e. surveys

Correlational vs. experimental research

Correlational is a research design in which the researcher attempts to determine whether two or more variables are related without attempting to manipulate the independent variables or draw causal conclusions.

Experimental research is when the researcher manipulates the independent variable.

Potentially Biasing Influences in Surveys

1. unrepresentative samples

2. question order

3. response options

4. question wording

framing

the way a question or an issue is posed; framing can influence people's decisions and expressed opinions

mundane realism

degree to which an experiment is superficially similar to everyday situations

experimental realism

degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves its participants

demand characteristics

cues in an experiment that tell the participant what behavior is expected

random sampling

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

random assignment

the process of assigning participants to the conditions of an experiment such that all person have the same chance of being given a condition

spotlight effect

the belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are

illusion of transparency

the illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others

relationship between sense of self and our social worlds

1. social surroundings affect our self awareness

2. self interest colors our social judgement

3. self concern motivates our social behavior

4. social relationships help define our sense of self

self concept

what we know and believe about ourselves

self schemas

beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information

social comparison

evaluating one's abilities and opinions by comparing oneself with others

looking glass self

Charles Horton Cooley's term for how we think others perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves

George Herbert Mead

refined the looking glass self concept noting that what matters for our self concept is not how others see us but how we imagine they see us.

independent self

construing one's identity as an autonomous self

collectivism

giving priority to the goals of one's group (often one's extended family or work group) and defining one's identity accordingly

planning fallacy

the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task

people have greatest difficulty predicting the ______ and the ______ of their future emotions

intensity, duration

impact bias

overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events

we are especially prone to impact bias after

negative events

dual attitude system

Differing implicit (automatic) and explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same object. Verbalized explicit attitudes may change with education and persuasion; implicit attitudes change slowly, with practice that forms new habits.

self esteem

overall self evaluation or sense of self worth

terror management theory

Proposes that people exhibit self-protective emotional and cognitive responses (including adhering more strongly to their cultural worldviews and prejudices) when confronted with reminders of their mortality.

longitudinal study

Research in which the same people are studied over an extended period of time.

do narcissists actually hate themselves deep down inside?

no

self efficacy

A sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, which is one's sense of self-worth.

what is more effective at improving performance: positive feedback on self efficacy or self esteem?

self efficacy

self serving bias

the tendency to perceive oneself favorably

people attribute success to _____ factors, while they attribute failures to ____ factors

internal, external

self-serving attributions

a form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors

bias blind spot

the tendency to think that other people are more susceptible to attributional biases in their thinking than we are

which qualities trigger more self serving bias?

subjective qualities rather than quantifiable

defensive pessimism

the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one's anxiety to motivate effective action

false consensus effect

the tendency to overestimate the commonality of one's opinions and one's undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors

false consensus occurs because we

generalize from a limited sample

false uniqueness effect

the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's abilities and one's desirable or successful behaviors

why do people perceive themselves in self enhancing ways?

because of errors in how we process and remember information about ourselves. we are also influenced by self serving motives

self handicapping

protecting one's self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure

self-presentation

the act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one's ideals

self monitoring

being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one's performance to create the desired impression

priming

activating particular associations in memory

embodied cognition

the mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgments

Spontaneous trait inference

when we say something good or bad about another, people spontaneously tend to associate that trait with us

belief perseverance

persistence of one's initial conceptions, such as when the basis for one's belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives

misinformation effect

Incorporating

"misinformation" into

one's memory of the event,

after witnessing an event

and receiving misleading

information about it.

rosy retrospection

people recall mildly pleasant events more favorably than they experienced them

overconfidence phenomenon

the tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

heuristic

a thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgments

representative heuristic

the tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling a typical member

availability heuristic

A cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory. If instances of something come readily to mind, we presume it to be commonplace.

conterfactual thinking

imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn't

illusory correlation

the perception of a relationship where none exists

regression toward the average

the statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behavior to return toward one's average

misattribution

mistakenly attributing a behavior to the wrong source

attribution theory

The theory of how people explain others' behavior—for example, by attributing it either to internal dispositions (enduring traits, motives, and attitudes) or to external situations.

fundamental attribution error

the tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon others' behavior

why do we make the attribution error?

1. perspective and situational awareness

2. cultural differences

self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment

experimenter bias

a phenomenon that occurs when a researcher's expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained

behavioral confirmation

a type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people's social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations

moral hypocrisy

appearing moral while avoiding the costs of being so

When attitudes predict behavior

1. when social influences on what we say are minimal

2. when other influences on behavior are minimal

3. when attitudes are specific to the behavior

4. when attitudes are potent

when behavior affects our attitudes

1. role playing

2. saying becomes believing

3. evil and moral acts

4. interracial interaction and racial attitudes

Why does our behavior affect our attitudes?

1. self-presentation theory

2. cognitive dissonance theory

3. self-perception theory

self presentation theory

assumes that for strategic reasons we express attitudes that make us appear consistent

cognitive dissonance

tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions

cognitive dissonance theory

the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent

selective exposure

the tendency to seek information and media that agree with one's views and to avoid dissonant info

identity protective cognition

the tendency of people to selectively credit and dismiss evidence in patterns that reflect the beliefs that predominate their group

insufficient justification

reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one's behavior when external justification is "insufficient"

Dissonance after decisions

after making important decisions, people usually reduce dissonance by upgrading the chosen alternative and downgrading the option they passed over

self-perception theory

the theory that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them much as would someone observing us - by looking at our behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs

facial feedback effect

the tendency of facial expressions to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness

overjustification effect

the result of bribing people to do what they already like doing; they may then see their actions as externally controlled rather than intrinsically appealing