intro lecture Flashcards
what is social psychology?
is the study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the situation- mainly the social situation
ABC’s of social psychology
feelings= Affect behavior= Behavior thoughts= Cognition
Lewin’s Magic Formula
B=f(P,E)
behavior= function of person, environment
why is the “P” person important?
individual differences (characteristics of the person may moderate their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors)
example of individual differences
rejection sensitivity day after conflict
construal:
what is more important than the objective properties of the situation, is how the subject construes the situation,
(individual differences play a role in construal too)
why is there a difference between the objective situation and our construal of it?
unconscious and conscious processes
types of conscious and unconscious processes
proximal (motivational factors, cognitive, emotional)
distal (culture, evolution)
social psychology focuses on what aspect?
the “E” environment- focuses on the subjects construal of E
fundamental mistake we all make is that we underestimate ______
the power of the social situation
hindsight bias?
people exaggerate how much they could have predicted an outcome after it happened
two major types of studies in social psychology
- correlation
- experimental
correlational method
strength of relationship between variables
correlations range from:
-1.0 to +1.0
positive correlations
x goes up, y goes up
example: height and weight
negative correlations
x goes up, y goes down
example: stress and health
take home message of correlation:
Correlation does NOT equal causation
correlation can tell you a lot though:
- rule out some other explanations- if measured
- tell you how things are outside the laboratory
- complex longitudinal designs can provide evidence for cause and effect directions
true experiments:
-examine cause and effect relationships
two essential characteristics of true experiments
- control over the experimental procedures (e.g. manipulate IV)
- participants randomly assigned to different treatment conditions
independent variable (IV)
you manipulate IV
dependent variables (DV)
you measure DV
subject variables (SV)
- variables that characterize pre-existing differences among participants
note: can not randomly assign SVs
random assignment
assigning participants to conditions so that every participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any condition
