Chapter 1 and 2 Lecture

Question 1

Hindsight Bias

Answer 1

the “i knew it all along effect.” Telling people a fact and then the person goes “of that makes total sense, I could’ve told you that” even when the facts are opposite to the truth. Coming up with an explanation AFTER seeing the results

Question 2

Definition of Social Psychology

Answer 2

Attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of an individual are influence by the ACTUAL, IMAGINED, or IMPLIED presence of others.

Question 3

Father of social psych

Answer 3

Gordan Allport

Question 4

3 ways that we are affected by other people

Answer 4

1) mere presence
2) by their characteristics (vibes, personality, physical traits)
3) by their ACTIONS

Question 5

2 main challenges with scientifically studying human behavior

Answer 5

1) social nature of the research process

2) participants perceptions of the experiments

Question 6

what two things influence the “social nature of the research process” which poses a challenge to the scientific study of human behavior?

Answer 6

1) experimenter-participant interactions

2) experimenter as a source of info

Question 7

Explain how rosenthal studied experimenter-participant interactions. How did interactions towards the participant differ between male and female experimenters

Answer 7

Rosenthal studied how interactions between the experimenter and the participant could confound the setting of the research process. THe gender, race, age, etc. of the experimenters or participant may affect the outcome of behavior.

Rosenthall primarily studied how GENDER may affect social interactions.

• had male and female experiments handing out questionairs to male and female participants
• noticed that 70% of experimenters smiled at female subjects, and only 12% of experimenters smiled at male participants when handing out forms.
• noticed when MALE experimenters handed out the forms, they took more time in giving the questionair to female participants.
• MALE experimenters were perceived as more friendly than female experimenters.
• noticed that FEMALE experimenters kept more DISTANCE from male participants compared to female experimenters.

this suggests that different people have different research experience dependent on experimenters,, even if there is not much of an interaction between experimenters and participants.

Question 8

How does “experimenters acting as a source of info” confound the study?

Answer 8

-people are generally inquisitive about what will be happening in the experiment. people may look to the experimenter for more info, and the experimenter might unintentionally convey the hypothesis to the research partciipant. This might change the behavior of the participant if they know the hypothesis.

Question 9

When a researcher’s cognitive bias causes them to subconsciously influence the participants of an experiment, this is called the ____ ____ effect.

Answer 9

Experimenter-expectancy effect.

the experimenter might unintentionally convey the hypothesis to the research partcipant, whose behavior may change as a result of this interaction. Confirmation bias can lead to the experimenter interpreting results incorrectly because of the tendency to look for information that conforms to their hypothesis

Question 10

when the behavior of the participant is no longer natural as a result of knowing the hypothesis, there are no longer ___-___ ____s.

Answer 10

real world dynamics–> the behavior is elicted in the lab setting and is no longer generalizable.

Question 11

how did rosenthal study the experimenter expectancy effect? confounds?

Answer 11

there were 2 groups of experiments. Told them that the point of the experiment is to see if you can tell how successful someone is by looking at the photos.

• both groups were asked to rank pictures on a scale of 10 in terms of failures.
• in one group, rosenthal dropped casual hints to participants –> “I wonder if the pictures were placed in the order of success”
• she noticed that the success rating of the expeirmental group was rated higher. Somehow, experiments who knew about the hint conveyed.
• therefore, the ranking wasn’t genuine. The participants were influenced by her suggestions, and rosenthals “expectations” of success were reflected in the participants outcomes because they modified their responses.
• problems in this study is that the participants may have been influenced by her tone of voice/physical characteristics, not just her suggestions.

Question 12

Solutions to avoid the experimenter-expectancy effect and to mitigate experimenters giving away information?

Answer 12

blinded studies: experimenters do not know the hypothesis, so they can’t convey it.

Question 13

in addition to looking at the experimenter for clue about the experiment, where else may a participant look for info?

Answer 13

the environment or lab setting.

Question 14

Martine ___ studied demand characteristics. What are these?

Answer 14

Martin Orne.

Demand characteristics: facts in an experimental setting that suggests what is expected to the lab participant.

Question 15

What is a subject cooperative set?

Answer 15

once people have come up with their interpretation behind the reasoning of the experiment (regardless if it is true or not) participants will try to work towards achieving what they think the researcher is measuring. They become more cooperative.

• this may act as a confound. The behavior is not natural, and the behavior is just trying to please the experimenter.

Question 16

How did Orne study a subject cooperative set and the idea that participants will continue to do something in the lab setting?

Answer 16

he studied hypnosis. He tried to come with tasks that normal wouldn’t do, and see if hypnotized people would do them.

• gave a sheet of math problems and a stack of index cards
• told participants to do the math problem, then read what is on the index card
• all index cards say to do another math sheet
• people realize that its the same sheet of questions after 3-4 rounds
• Orne originally thought ‘normal” people would do 2-3 rounds before realizing its a loop, but people kept going for multiple rounds.
• they thought it was a test for endurance.
• shows that people will do almost anything in a lab by interpreting or assigning their own “purposes” for doing something, even if its wrong or they truly don’t know.

Question 17

What is a faithful subject

Answer 17

people who are pretty sure they figured out the hypothesis, but realized they shouldn’t modify their behavior, so they still try to act naturally. Pretend to act like you didn’t figure it out.

Question 18

what is a screw you subject

Answer 18

people who discover the hypothesis ,but then deliberately try to act oppositely to the hypothesis to mess up the data .

Question 19

explain the Dutton and Aron study on physiological arousal interpretation. What were the variables?

Answer 19

Hypotheses: when we feel physiological arousal when we are in the presence of an attractive person, we will interpret the excitement as feelings of love/interest.

• used a bridge to elicit arousal.
• 2 groups; walking on a low, stable bridge vs the capilano suspension bridge, which is narrow and wobbly.
• introduced an attractive woman to approach the male subjects on both bridges to hand them a questionnaire
• questionair asked for person’s “true feelings”/ rate the attractiveness.
• asked both groups to write stories after being exposed to attractive woman and being physiologically aroused by the height of the bridge.
• the men exposed to the beautiful person on the HIGH BRIDGE had more sexual content in their story.

-independent variable: level of arousal via bridge scenario
dependent variable: how erotic the stories they were, and whether they called the attractive researcher or not.

• after running stats, the men experiencing physiological arousal from a different source (BRIDGE) attributed the arousal by feelings of love/attractiveness from women.

Question 20

4 basic steps in conducting an experiment

Answer 20

1) identify a problem and form a hypothesis.
2) design an experiment. Declare variables and types of participants.
3) conduct the experiment
4) analyze the results; statistics.