Sociocultural Glossary for Quiz
Confederate: An actor who participates in a psychological experiment pretending to be a subject but in actuality working for the researcher.
Content analysis: a method used to analyze qualitative data in which the research looks for "themes" or trends that emerge from the data.
Covert observation: a type of participant observation in which the identity of the researcher, the nature of the research project, and the fact that participants are being observed are concealed from those who are being studied.
Cross-sectional design: Comparing two or more groups on a particular variable at a specific time. The opposite is a longitudinal design where the researcher measures a change in an individual over time.
Longitudinal study: research over a period of time using observations, interviews, or psychometric testing. (Similar to a repeated measures design in an experiment).
Meta-analysis: Pooling data from multiple studies of the same research question to arrive at one combined answer.
Method triangulation: using more than one method to gather data, such as interviews, observations, and questionnaires.
Participant observation: When a researcher joins a group in order to better observe and understand their behavior.
Prospective research: A study that attempts to find a correlation between two variables by collecting data early in the life of participants and then continuing to test them over a period of time to measure change and development.
Retrospective research: A study of an individual after an important change or development. For example, the study of a person after a stroke. This requires the research to "reconstruct" the life of the individual prior to the event.
Confirmation bias: when people tend to seek out or remember information that supports their currently held beliefs or expectations - and ignore information that contradicts these beliefs.
Dispositional factors: individual characteristics that influence behavior and actions in a person - such as personality or temperament.
Emic approach: looking at behaviors of a group from the perspective of one member of that group.
Illusory correlation: people see a relationship between two variables even when there is none.
Informational social influence: Also known as social proof - when people look to the actions of others in an attempt to determine how to behave in a given situation.
In-group bias: favoring members of one's in-group over out-group members.
Normative social influence: when a person conforms to be liked or accepted by members of a group.
Salience: when one is highly aware of one of their membership in a social group.
Self-efficacy: one's belief in one's ability to succeed in accomplishing a task.
Social comparison: a drive within individuals to gain accurate self-evaluations by comparing oneself to other people.
Social context: how someone reacts to something depending on their immediate social or physical environment.
Stereotype: social perception of an individual in terms of group membership or physical attributes.
Stereotype threat: when worry about conforming to a negative stereotype leads to underperformance on a test or other task by a member of the stereotyped group.
Vicarious reinforcement: our tendency to repeat or imitate behaviors for which others are being rewarded.
Social cognitive theory: Bandura's social cognitive theory of human functioning emphasizes the critical role of self-beliefs in human cognition, motivation, and behavior. Bandura's theory argues that we learn from observing models that receive rewards and punishment, a process known as vicarious reinforcement.
Social identity theory: the study of the interplay between personal and social identities. The theory aims to predict the circumstances under which individuals think of themselves as individuals or as group members. The theory also considers the consequences of personal and social identities for group behavior.
Vulnerability models: Models that show that environmental and social risk factors play a role in negative mental and physical health outcomes.
According to Bandura, social cognitive learning involves the following cognitive factors.
Attention: In order to learn a behavior, the learner must pay attention to the model. There are certain factors that may influence whether attention is paid to the model, including the attractiveness of the model, the authority of the model, or the desirability of the behavior.
Retention: The observer must be able to remember the behavior that has been observed in order to produce that behavior immediately or after some time.
Motivation: Learners must want to replicate the behavior that they have observed. In order to do this, they must understand what the potential outcome is if they repeat the behavior – what Bandura called outcome expectancies.
Potential: In order to reproduce an observed behavior, observers must physically and/or mentally be able to carry out the behavior - that is, there needs to be a certain level of self-efficacy.