Note
Studied by 5 people
PSYC121 Lecture Notes
PSYC121 Notes
Brain Size and Intelligence
Brain size was considered important for social progress, material security, and education.
Studies involved comparing cranial capacity of different Parisian skulls.
Psychological Theory
THEORY: A systematic way of organizing and explaining observations.
Includes propositions about relationships among various phenomena.
Influence of Environment
ENVIRONMENT: The environment may control behavior to an extent.
Empiricism: Suggests that we are born free of characteristics, and it is the environment that has the main influence on how we develop.
Hypothesis
HYPOTHESIS: A testable statement that can be explanatory or directional.
More focused than theories.
Scientific Method in Psychology
Psychology uses the scientific method to test hypotheses.
Determines if hypotheses are supported by data.
Types of Variables
Predictor variable
Correlation isnāt necessarily causation
Predictor Variables
Predictor variables are used in correlational designs.
Correlation
Correlation is a number representing the size and direction of the relationship between two things.
Ranges from -1.0 to +1.0.
Negative correlations: As X goes up, Y goes down (e.g., -1.0, -0.5).
Positive correlations: As X goes up, Y goes up (e.g., +0.5, +1.0).
No relationship: 0.
Independent and Dependent Variables
Independent variable (IV): Manipulated in an experiment.
Dependent variable (DV): Measured to see the impact of the IV.
In an experiment, the independent variable (IV) is manipulated to see its impact on the dependent variable (DV).
Statistical Summary
A statistical summary includes:
The type of statistic (e.g., correlation).
The degrees of freedom (indication of sample size).
The value of the test statistic.
The probability of getting this result.
Example: r (3499) = 0.57, p < 0.001
little r = Correlation
Degrees of freedom = (3499)
test statistic = 0.57
Probability = p < 0.001
First Social Psychology Experiment
Norman Triplett, 1897.
Hypothesis: Individual performance is facilitated by the presence of others.
Social facilitation.
Positive effects of observers on an individual's performance.
The experiment illustrates:
A real-life situation.
Concealment of the ultimate aim.
Impact of mere presence of others.
Social facilitation became a major topic in social psychology for three decades.
Muzafer Sherif
Psychologist: Muzafer Sherif.
The Autokinetic effect: Sherif 1935.
Participants were placed alone or in groups of 2-3 in a completely dark room.
Two 'conditions', 100 trials per day:
A. Days 1-3: Spoken estimates alone; Day 4: Spoken estimates in groups.
B. Days 1-3: Spoken estimates in groups; Day 4: Spoken estimates alone.
Group 1 participants developed their own standard estimate which:
Was highly variable across participants.
Persisted but was not as stable during the final trial.
Sherif Experiment Conclusion
In ambiguous situations, individuals develop a frame of reference for future comparisons.
A frame of reference developed alone persists, but on a group level may not be a stable.
A frame of reference developed in a group may persist when alone.
Participants' judgments have been influenced in the direction of judgments expressed by others and to a limited extent they have conformed.
Replications: Experiments repeated but used confederates who unanimously agreed on the results.
Solomon Asch
Psychologist: Solomon Asch.
Conformity in ambiguous situations (1951-1956).
Invited people to participate in an experiment of visual discrimination.
Required to judge which of three reference lines was similar in length to a target line.
Group of 7, 18 trials (different stimuli each time).
Control group: 37 people, 18 trials, gave answers individually (alone).
Experimental group: All but one participant were confederates:
6 neutral confederates answered correctly.
12 experimental trials: confederates unanimously wrong.
Results of Asch Experiment
Control group: Average error rate for any given participant was 0.7%.
35 people: zero errors.
1 person: 1 error.
1 person: 2 errors.
Experimental group: The average error rate across participants was 37%.
25%: zero errors.
28%: 8+ errors (out of 12 experimental trials).
47%: 1 to 7 errors (out of 12 experimental trials).
Why Do People Conform?
Motivation:
Wanting to be right.
Wanting to make a good impression.
Leading toā¦
Informational influence:
E.g., Di Vesta (1959) - conformity increased if there were more neutral trials at the start (more evidence that confederates were competent).
Conversion.
Normative influence:
E.g., increasing interdependence of participants by promising a reward to most accurate groups; conformity doubled.
Compliance.
Compliance
Conversion
Independence vs. anticonformity
Concept
What It Is
Motivation
Result
Normative Influence
Conform to fit in
Desire for approval or to avoid rejection
Public agreement, private disagreement
Compliance
Temporary conformity
Driven by normative influence
Behavior changes, beliefs don't
Informational Influence
Conform to be right
Think others have better info
Often leads to belief change
Conversion (Internalisation)
Deep conformity
Driven by informational influence
Behavior and beliefs both change
Factors Affecting Conformity
Social norms
Wanting to be right
Wanting to make a good impression
Informational influence: conformity increased if there were more neutral trials at the start.
Normative influence: increasing interdependence of participants by promising a reward to the most accurate groups doubled conformity.
Types of Conformity
Conversion.
Compliance: Conformity primarily because of concern about how they will be perceived.
What Affects Conformity
The nature of the task
The size of the group
Individuals' behavior
Gender and Bystander Effects
A cognitive thought-based model of assisting behavior:
Attend to what's happening
Define events as an emergency
Assume responsibility
Decide what can be done
MANFORD KUHNS 20 Statements Test
Examples:
I am a person
I am good sister
I am kind
I am unhealthy
I am thoughtful
I am loving
I am passionate
I am human
Cultural Psychology
Studies the way in which people are affected by their culture.
Cross-Cultural Psychology
Tries to distinguish universal psychological processes from those specific to particular cultures.
Emic vs. Etic Approaches
Culture: Refers to the shared rules that govern behavior.
It is a filter through which we see and understand our current reality.
Indigenous Psychology: Promotes psychologies that are not imposed.
Influenced by cultural contexts.
Developed from within the culture.
Results in locally relevant psychological knowledge.
The Muller-Lyer Illusion
From a Western POV, our culture tends to say the right line is longer than the left.
When asking East and South Asian communities, this statistic reduces.
These are 2 kinds of culturally informed interpretations of these images.
Human Emotions
There are widely recognized human emotions around the entire international world:
Happiness.
Fear.
Disgust.
Sadness.
Anger.
Surprise.
But the ways in which these emotions are used and seen is culturally different wherever you go.
Milgram Experiment Cross Cultural Difference
Replicated in a number of countries.
Italy - 80%
Germany - 80%
Spain - 90%
Australia - 40%
Austria - 80%
Holland - 90%
Sex/Gender Difference in Milgram's Experiment
Only one of Milgram's (1974) experiments included females.
Milgram found an identical rate of obedience - 65%.
Obedient women consistently reported more stress than men.
There are about a dozen replications of the obedience experiment world-wide which had male and females subjects.
All of them, with one exception (16% among Aussie women).
Also found no male-female difference.
Criticisms of Milgram's Procedure
The situation involved conflicting cues.
Teachers overheard the experimenter telling the learner that there would be no lasting damage versus the lack of response from the learner after 345 volts.
Ethics of Milgram's Procedure
Did the end justify the means (was the result important enough)?
Were the subjects free to terminate the experiment?
Did the subjects consent freely to participate?
With the assistance of a psychiatrist, Milgram interviewed the participants two years later:
83.7% were glad, or very glad to have participated.
1.3% were sorry or very sorry to have participated.
Four Common Bioethical Principles
Respect for autonomy
Beneficence and non-maleficence
Justice
Stanford Prison Experiment
Philip Zimbardo.
In 1971, Zimbardo and colleagues conducted the experiment funded by the US Navy.
The study was intended to evaluate the causes of problems in navy prisons.
Like Milgram's study, 24 participants were recruited from respondents to a newspaper advert and were paid $15 a day to participate in a two-week simulation of a prison.
Participants were allocated roles of guard and prisoner on a toss of a coin.
Zimbardo took the role of superintendent. The study was ended early, six days into the fourteen planned, after Christine Maslach (a grad student) convinced Zimbardo that the study was dangerous.
More than 50 people had acted as observers by the time Maslach raised her concerns.
Depersonalization (switch to group-level self-categorization).
Deindividuation (loss of self-awareness in groups).
Zimbardo experiment observations
The participants got sucked into their given role, i.e., the guards used the authority they had been given as they thought that is how they should act.
Bo Altemeyer and Right-Wing Authoritarianism
Authoritarian submission:
People should do as they are told by legitimate authorities.
Authoritarian aggression:
If people donāt do as they are told they should be punished.
Conventionalism:
Have a preference for tradition in the structure of the social world.
Punitive socialization -> social conformity -> dangerous world belief -> authorization
Proximity
'the people you like the most are the people in the rooms next to you'
Social Comparison Theory
Upward
Downward
Lateral
Cognitive Dissonance
The feeling of uncomfortable tensions which comes from holding two conflicting thought in the mind at the same time.
Dissonance increases with:
The importance of the subject.
Strength of the conflict between dissonant thoughts.
Our inability to rationalize and explain away the conflict.
Dissonance is often strong when we believe something about ourselves but our behavior is inconsistent with that belief.
The discomfort often feels like a tension between the two opposing thoughts.
Tension may be released by:
Changing behavior.
Justifying behavior by changing the conflicting cognition.
Justifying behavior by adding new cognitions.
Dissonance is most powerful
SOCIAL FACILITATION, SOCIAL LOAFING, AND PROSOCIALITY
Research on Social Facilitation
Allport (1920) broadened Triplett's focus to include non-competitive situations.
'social facilitation is an improvement in the performance of well-learned/easy tasks and a deterioration in the performance of poorly learned/difficult tasks in the mere presence of members of the same species' (Vaughan and hogg, 1995, p.143).
Experiment - 5 random people from the class have to sort discs out in 40 seconds, there's one group of 4 and another group of 1. They count the discs.
Individual - 94
Group - 43 blue, 14 yellow, 50 reds, 12 whites - 119 total
Inhibition of Group Performance
Ringelmann (1913):
Efficiency of different size groups of animals/people performing agricultural tasks.
E.g., Young men (alone or in groups of 2, 3, or 8) pulling a rope attached to a dynamometer.
Result:
Found that force exerted per person decreased as a function of the group size - the Ringelmann effect
Ringelmann effect possible expectations
Co-ordination loss:
Distraction, tendency not to pull at the same time, etc., means that groups don't quite reach potential.
Motivation loss:
As group size increased members become less motivated (donāt try as hard).
Social Loafing
Latane, Williams, and Harkins (1979) replicated Ingham et al. (1974) using shouting, cheering, and clapping.
Same pattern of results and coined social loafing to describe the loss of motivation.
Social loafing refers to a 'reduction in an individual effort when working on a collective task (in which oneās outputs are pooled with those of other group members) compared to when working either alone or coactively' (Williams, Karau, and bourgeois, 1993, p.131).
Social loafing is a 'robust and pervasive phenomenon' (Vaughan and Hogg, 1995, p.150) across:
Different situations (e.g., tupping, pumping air, generating ideas, generation quality ratings, etc.).
Cultures (e.g., France, US, Poland, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, India).
Is loafing inevitable
A number of factors affect the degree of loafing - Loafing decreases when:
Supervision is obvious (identifiability)
The task is personally relevant (personal involvement)
Partners obviously put in a lot of effort (partner effort)
Group performance is compared to other groups (intergroup comparison)
Liking those with similar preferences
If you ask me to look at 2 paintings and ask you which one you like.
then you ask me to give meaningless points to 2 people who prefer one painting over the other
you are more likely to give better points to the person who likes the same painting as you.
Bystander Intervention
The atrocities committed during World War II motivated the research of Asch, Milgram, and others.
March, 1964 - Kitty Genovese is attacked and killed in Kew Gardens (a respectable neighborhood) in the Queens area.
What made this tragic death any more significant to social psychologists than another?
The attack took approximately half an hour.
Kitty Genovese struggled and escaped several times, but her attacker persisted when no-one came to her aid.
When police interviewed tenants the next day, 38 people (allegedly) admitted they heard the struggle but didnāt help.
Bystander effect follow up
Latane (and colleagues) conducted a series of studies on the bystander effect - the finding that a lone bystander is more likely to give aid than any one of several bystanders.
E.g. Latane and Rodin (1969)
Male subjected completed questionnaires in a waiting room alone, or with a friend, or confederate.Subjects hear a women in an adjacent room having difficulty with a filing cabinet - crash! cry of pain, moan and groans.
Results:
Subjects alone - 70%
Pairs of subjects - 40% helped
With confederate - 7%
What about situations in which one's own safety (as well of that of others) is threatened?
Latane and Darley 1970
In an emergency situation, people will look to others before deciding what to do
Alon 75% pos action
Two strangers 38% took pos action
Factors Inhibiting Assistance
Latane and others have identified a number of processes that may inhibit the giving of assistance in these types of situations.
Diffusion of responsibility - similar to social loafing.
The presence of others provides an opportunity to transfer the responsibility to act onto someone else.
The more someone-else there are, the greater the diffusion
Audience inhibition - the presence of others makes people self-conscious of an intended action. (sometimes referred to as 'fear of social blunders')
Social influence - other onlookers serves as models for action.
If others seem unworried the one may assume the situation to be less serious than if others were clearly concerned
LECTURE 2
GENDER AND BYSTANDER EFFECTS
LATANE AND DABBS (1975, FOLLOWING BRYAN AND TEST 1967):
A confederate stands at the Roadside - their car has obviously broken down.(also various with confederate hitching a ride)
Who is most likely to help - male or female?
Experiments have been repeated with single male and single female confederates, as well as male-female pairs.
LATAND AND DABBS 91975) results:
This and other experiments found the result the sex of confederate and sex of potential helper affected helping behavior an interaction.
More people stopped for single females than etc
A Cognitive (Thought-Based) Model of Helping Behavior
Based on their research, Latane and Darley developed a cognitive model of the processes involved in helping behavior.
Leadership:
Where are people more likely to help? How can helping be increased?
1. If the situation is clear and unambiguous, people are more likely to help
2. What makes a good leader?
Qualities of a good leader:
Compassion
Initiative
If they take their whiskey neat
Empathy
Charisma
Confidence
Self-reflection
Respectful
Cooperative
Takes advice
Assertive
Pastoral
Female
Open-minded
Competent
Accountable
Disciplined
Articulate
Good listener
The Halo Effect
Inferring about characteristics.
How we think if someone has desirable characteristics they automatically have other good characteristics, such as being tall.
Motivational Factors
Affiliation vs competence
High competence + low affiliation = Face
High affiliation + low competence = Velvet
Church
Daisy
Red
Motivations
Affiliation
Power achievement
Interpersonal Attraction
Interpersonal attraction refers to positive feelings towards another person
Why do we have relationships at all? After all humans are mostly entirely alone in the length and nature of relationships.
Proximity/propinquity effects
Propinquity = 'the state of being close to someone or something'
The closer you are to someone (geographically, residentially, informationally) the more likely you are to become friends.
E.g. university dorms - closer peoples doors are, more likely to become friends.
Physically attractiveness
Example - (Walster et al.. 1966)
Students were invited on a computer date (actually paired randomly)
after date participants asked how much they like to go out again.
The researches, then correlated second-date likelihood with:
Physical attractiveness (rated buy impartial judges)
Personality
Interests
Results: It boiled down to physical attractiveness
Passionate love
Companionate love
Myths About Love
When you fall in love you'll know it - myth
Confusion is not unusual, and doesnāt mean your not in love.
Love is a purely positive experience
Um, no, pain, anger common in love relationships. Lovers often more intolerant and critical of lovers than friends, peaks can occur in either direction.
Buss 1988 asked newlywed participants to rate how often they had used 23 tactics to make themselves appear more appealing to their partner
Display humor - 2.42, 2.38
Touch 2.36,2.16
Keep hair groomed 2.30,2.31
Flirt 2.13,2.09
Act nice 1.77,1.86
Dissemble 1.26,1.09
Act submissive 1.24,1.1
Gender differences in relationship strategies
Males are more likely to show off using strength, showing off etc. Whilst women are more likely to keep up their appearance, act coy etc.
Being attractive is more important for women than men
Emphasis on resources
Men are more likely to emphasize material resources, buying gifts, showing off possessions.
The more intimate the relationship is to a women the more intelligent the man is.
The same is not said for the women.
When it comes to sexual relations the point drops for men.
Question on Physical Attraction
Question:
Do people go for the most attractive person they can, or do they go for people they consider to be about as attractive as they are (the matching hypothesis)?
Attracted people are evaluated differently.If someone is good looking we tend to infer that they are nicest peopleā¦
Answer: a bit of both
ultimate match is determined to some extent by social forces (e.g., being turned down by more attractive mates-to-be)
Eye tracking of men's preferences for waist-to-hip ratio and breast size of women.
Womens Stereotypes
Eye tracking women's preferences for men's stereotypes Upper shoulders
Women looked at the lower back of the endomorph
Similarity Effect
Do birds of a feather flock together or do opposites attract? (Married or dating) couples tend to be similar in
Age
Race
Religion
Social class
Personality
Education
Intelligence
Physical attractiveness
Attitudes
Similarity causes attracting. Byrne et al. on attitudes
Dissimilarity breeds dislike e.g., Rosenbaum on political preference
Sternberg's triangular theory of love
Companionate love splits in half
Intimacy (warmth, closeness, sharing)
Commitment (intent to maintain relationship even if difficult)
Passion remains as is
Kaupapa Maori Research
Three maodri PHD project
Deciding whether km is appropriate
LECTURE 1
Three MÄori PhD projects:
Deciding whether Kaupapa MÄori is appropriate for your research
Bringing whanau into every aspect of research
There is no one way of doing Kaupapa MÄori research
Kaupapa Maori Notes
The principles she is teaching us are not guideline, its very adaptable
Whakawhanaunatanga - doesnāt and with the research
Talking to other indigenous groups and bringing this back to MÄori groups, taking inspiration from other cultural groups to talk about Kaupapa MÄori, there is collective liberation for every group
What comes to mind when you think of colonization
Why should we be considering colonization in psychology
How is MÄori health and wellbeing relevant to psychology
MÄtauranga MÄori and Kaupapa MÄori = science
How do we conduct KM (Kaupapa MÄori) research
You need a Kaupapa!
Community-focused
Theory driven
Process
How are you actually going to your project
Kaupapa MÄori principles
How are you going to collect the data
How are you analyzing the data
What are you going to do with your findings
Your hypotheses
Kaupapa MÄori Principles
Tino Rangatiratanga
MÄori self-determination and autonomy
Ensuring MÄori have power and control through the research process
*(e.g., design data collection, analysis write-up).
Integrating principles into project
How are you going to incorporate this into the project?
(i.e., taking into account your own positionality, biases within this research, try not to go in with a predetermined question that you want to answer go in with a general idea, open communication checking in with your participants, talking to your participants about they want their personal data interpreted. Involve MÄori)
Who has access to/owns this data?
Kia tupato - our positions as researchers
Taonga Tuku Iho
Acknowledging MÄori ways of knowing and being
MÄtauranga MÄori is a taonga and should be treated as such
Incorporation? - consider MÄori understanding of your research variables.
Are there differences?
Ako MÄori
Honoring culturally preferred teaching methods
MÄori learning and teaching practices are reciprocal.
KM research must also be reciprocal.
Incorporation? The seen face relationship must be reciprocal
Kia piki Ake I Nga Raruraru o Te Kainga
Whanau
Kaupapa
Ata
Te Tiriti o Waitangi
Addressing Power Imbalances
Kia piki ake i ngÄ raruraru o te kÄinga.
Acknowledging power imbalances.
MÄori and PÄkehÄ power imbalances exist due to economic discrepancies.
Extended Family (Whanau)
Need to consider the whÄnau as a whole.
We also need to nurture our own whÄnau connections (e.g., blood relations, friends, research groups, communities).
MÄori Research Collaboration
Kaupapa: A collective vision for research outcomes.
Need to benefit the wellbeing of MÄori culturally, socially, economically, or politically.
Reciprocal relationships in research (Ata):
Ensuring that relationships with participants and the community are nurtured and ongoing. Incorporation
Incorporating Te Tiriti o Waitangi
Incorporating Te Tiriti o Waitangi Honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi
Ethical Concerns
Working within Western ethics ( e.g knowing participants, continuing
relationships, kaitakitanga). Institutional
Constraints
Working within a Western institution Time constraints (e.g. grants, PhD/
Masters/Funding deadlines) MoneyDiverse realities Not āone size fits allā Researcher and participant cultural safety Working within a Western institution ensuring we are culturally competent and safe researchers navigating the system as a minority
Required reading - Kingi . T.K
MÄori mental health and wellbeing
What is wellbeing
For different people wellbeing looks like many different things (for example, whanau, marae, doing things your tipuna did, eating lots of kai, seeing friends etc.)There are many different ways of 'being well' what works for you works for you.
Disconnection harms
What is being unwell
Having a disconnected mind and body
Particular things that make you feel fatigued or tired or ill etc.
Not doing enough of things that you enjoy
Procrastination
Disconnection from our family and friends
No energy to do the things that make you well
Physical health Socioeconomic status. No access to medication you may need. Disconnect from culture loss of land (the loss or MÄori land over the years) Poverty. War. Discrimination/racism No secure sense of your self. Using alcohol, drugs etc Addiction
Cultural Considerations
What is culture
Learning shared behaviors sharing your stories/transmission of knowledge
Autokinetic effect: Sherif 1935
Social facilitation: Norman Triplett, 1897
Ringelmann effect: Ringelmann, 1913
Bystander effect: Latane
Autokinetic effect: Sherif 1935
Participants were placed alone or in groups of 2-3 in a completely dark room and asked to estimate the movement of a stationary point of light.
Social facilitation: Norman Triplett, 1897
Individual performance is facilitated by the presence of others.
Ringelmann effect: Ringelmann, 1913
Found that force exerted per person decreased as a function of the group size.
Bystander effect: Latane
The finding that a lone bystander is more likely to give aid than any one of several bystanders.
Milgram Experiment: Milgram, 1974
study to measure the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.
Stanford Prison Experiment: Philip Zimbardo, 1971
The study was intended to evaluate the causes of problems in navy prisons, participants were allocated roles of guard and prisoner