Social Psychology and Intelligence study guide

What is Intelligence?

-        Ability to learn, meet the demands of environments, and to understand and control one’s mental activities

-        Psychological Construct – operationalize

The Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

-        IQ = Mental Age / Chronological age x 100

o   Avg = 100

How do Psychologists operationalize intelligence?

-        IQ tests mainly relied on verbal ability

o   Bias for immigrants

Adaptations to the IQ Test

-        WAIS – Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

o   Assesses verbal and performance IQ

Dark history of IQ Testing

-        Created hierarchy of intelligence in eugenics

Summary of IQ Development

-        Can help provide resources to those who can benefit

-        Not the only way to operationalize intelligence

General and Specific Intelligence

Sternberg’s Three Intelligences

-        Interested in how people apply intelligence

-        Created Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

o   Internal (Analytic), External (Creative), Experiential (Practical)

§  Internal: Comparing, analyzing, evaluating

§  External: Inventing or designing solutions, and transfer of skills to new situation

§  Experiential: Applying things you know in everyday contexts

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

-        Various intelligences can influence each other

-        Limited empirical support for distinct intelligences

The Psychometric Approach to measuring Intelligence

-        A method of defining intelligence with carefully constructed psychological tests

-        Must ensure

o   Reliability: Degree to which test produces same scores over time

§  Indicates stability of measure

§  Inconsistency is due to error

o   Validity: Extent to which a test accurately measures what is supposed to measure

§  Test must accurately capture the variable

§  Ex. Measuring intelligence, does the test accurately measure intelligence?

o   Test can be reliable but not valid

§  Reliability is a prerequisite of validity

o   Are IQ tests valid and reliable?

§  Most standardized IQ tests are VERY reliable

·       BUT only some validity, related to school performance, higher correlation with years of schooling

 Where does Intelligence Come From?

-        Nature vs Nurture?

o   Intelligence is a product of BOTH!

-        Heritability

o   Statistical estimate of the amount of variability in a given trait that can be attributed to genetics

o   High: Hair colour, Low: Religion

o   Heritability Coefficient: Indicate contribution to heredity to some characteristic

§  1.0: Fully hereditary, 0: None.

·       Does not tell us about individuals

·       Dependent on environment

-        Environmental Factors

o   Family environment

o   Culture

§  Definition of intelligence varies in cultures

§  Expression of intelligence is tied to survival needs of a culture

o   School

§  Cause and result of intelligence

§  Schooling improves mental abilities

o   Environmental influence

§  Environment enrichment or deprivation

§  Shows best results when done earlier and more intensively

§  Flynn effect: Increasing trend in IQ scores over time

·       Thought to be related to environmental factors

Personality

What is personality

-        Personality: Unique characteristics responsible for patterns of inner experience and outward behaviour

-        Barnum effect: Tendency to accept as valid any description of our personality that is generally true of everyone

o   Personality is a CONSTRUCT

Early Approach

-        Phrenology: Feeling bumps on skull to determine personality

o   Five main perspectives emerged

§  Psychodynamic

§  Humanistic

§  Trait

§  Biological

§  Interactionist

-        Psychodynamic (Freud)

o   Behaviour driven by unconscious

o   Events in childhood shape adult personality

o   Defense mechanisms: Largely unconscious reactions that protect from unpleasant emotions

§  Repression: Keeping unpleasant memories buried in unconscious

·       Forgetting details of tragic accident

§  Denial: Refusing to recognize an unpleasant reality

·       Refusing to admit addiction

§  Rationalization: Creating socially acceptable excuse

·       Cheating on taxes cuz “everyone does it”

§  Reaction formation: Not acknowledging unacceptable impulses and over-emphasizing opposite  

·       Overpraising someone’s success when you resent it

§  Projection: Transferring one’s unacceptable qualities or impulses to other

·       Not trusting co-worker but believing they don’t trust you

§  Displacement: Diverting one’s impulses to a more acceptable target

·       Yelling at family after being yelled at by your boss

§  Sublimation: Channeling socially unacceptable impulses into acceptable activities

·       Redirecting aggressive behaviour by becoming a fighter

§  Regression: Reverting to immature ways of responding

·       Throwing a tantrum

-        Humanistic theories

o   Focus on inner capacities for growth

o   Subjective view of themselves and the world are important

§  Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

·       Personality comes from striving to meet needs

o   Carl Rogers

§  Believed humans are fundamentally positive striving for self-actualization

§  Importance of self-concept

§  Created person-centered therapy

§  Self-concept

·       Pattern of self-perception that remains consistent overtime

o   Strengths

§  Optimistic growth, developed idea of self-concept, influenced counselling

o   Criticisms

§  Vague

§  Unrealistic view of human nature

§  Reinforces individualism

-        Trait Theories

o   Personality is composed of a limited number of fundamental traits

o   Traits exist on a spectrum

o   Traits influence behaviour

o   inventory

§  Questionnaire designed to assess various aspects of personality

o   Gordon Allport: First trait theorist

§  Based work on Lexical Hypothesis

·       Idea that our language contains the important ways in which people can differ

o   Hans Eysenck

§  Personality superfactors

·       Extraversion (sociable)

·       Neuroticism (worried)

·       Psychoticism (nasty)

o   Costa&McCrae

§  Five-Factor Model (The Big Five)

Lecture 7: Social Psychology

Trait Theories

-        Strengths

o   Relatively stable throughout time and cultures (reliable)

o   Traits predict other attributes (valid)

o   Tend to stabilize in adulthood

-        Criticisms

o   Oversimplifies personality

o   Portrays personality as fixed rather than evolving

Person-Situation Debate

-        Does person or situation influence behaviour?

-        Historically focused on characteristics of the person (traits, personal growth, etc)

-        Situationism: View of personality which notes the social situations that people respond in similar ways

o   Ie. The situation may drive responses, not personal characteristics or internal factors

o   Main proponent: B. F. Skinner

§  We repeat actions because of past rewards

-        Interactionism: Emphasizes relationship between a person’s traits and reinforcing aspects of situations

o   How do factors interact to influence personality?

o   Reciprocal determinism: Reciprocal relationship exists between environment, behaviour, and internal mental events

o   Main proponent: Albert Bandura

Social Psychology

-        Concerned with how our behaviour is influenced by others

-        Social Scientists use scientific methods to study how people think/feel about, influence, and relate to each other

o   Study the social influences that explain why the same person will act differently in different situations

Attributions

-        Causal explanations for behaviour

o   We make them to understand our experience and explain other people’s behaviour

o   Two types

§  Internal: Something within the person we observe

·       We make a dispositional attribution

§  External: Caused by something outside the person we observe

·       We make a situational attribution

o   Strongly influences the way we interact with others

§  Ex. Driver cuts you off

·       Situational attribution: Maybe that driver is ill

o   Tolerant reaction: proceed cautiously

·       Dispositional attribution: Crazy driver

o   Unfavourable reaction: speed up and race past the other

o   Fundamental Attribution Error

§  Tendency to explain others’ behaviour by overestimating personality factors and underestimating the influence of the situation

o   Self-serving bias

§  Tendency to attribute success to internal causes and failures to external ones

-        Responding to Social pressure

o   Conformity: When people yield to real or imagined social pressure

§  Difficulty of task: Less conformity in easy conditions, more in hard.

§  Presence of an ally: One other dissenter led to less conformity

o   Obedience: Responding to a direct request by an authority figure

§  We underestimate the power a situation can have over us

§  Transfer of responsibility

Attitudes

-        Relatively stable evaluations of things and people

-        ADC model of attitudes

o   Affective component: How we feel towards the object

o   Behavioural component: How we act toward the object

o   Cognitive component: How we believe about the object

o   Ex. Pro-War Attitude

§  Affective: Fears that the world is a dangerous place

§  Behavioural: Supports pro-conflict political candidates

§  Cognitive: Believes war is necessary in the world

-        Do attitudes influence behaviour?

o   Stronger attitudes predict behaviour more accurately than weak or vague attitudes

§  More specific an attitude, the more likely to predict behaviour

o   People sometimes misrepresent their attitudes (social desirability)

§  Not always aware of their attitudes (implicit bias)

§  Ex. Misrepresenting their drinking problems, women in stem

-        Implicit Association Test (IAT)

o   Timed categorization task where you sort words

§  Faster at pairing stereotype-compatible words indicates higher level of implicit bias

-        Cognitive dissonance: Emotional discomfort as a result of holding contradictory beliefs or holding a belief that contradicts a behaviour

o   Ex. I am eating healthy, but ate mcdonalds for lunch.

§  I will workout tmr, its okay I skipped breakfast.

-        Attraction and Relationships

o   Interpersonal attraction: Positive feelings toward another person

o   What factors are important in liking?

§  Proximity: Frequency and familiarity matters

§  Similarity: Shared attitudes, interests, age, etc.

§  Self-disclosure: Disclose more to people we like, but also vice-versa

§  Situational factors: Shared experiences

§  Physical attractiveness: How attractive they are

-        Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love

o   Love has 3 key ingredients

§  Intimacy: Knowing a lot about each other

§  Commitment: Intention to maintain relationship

§  Passion: Hot stuff, sexual arousal

·       Can be combined to form different forms of love

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