Methodology, Social Dissonance, & Social Cognition Flashcards
(124 cards)
1
Q
What is social psychology?
A
The scientific study of the way people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.
2
Q
How is social psychology different from sociology?
A
It differs from sociology in that its level of analysis is the individual as opposed to the society itself.
3
Q
How is social psychology different from personality psychology?
A
It differs from personality psychology in that it emphasizes the psychological processes shared by most people around the world that make them susceptible to social influence.
4
Q
What is the fundamental attribution error?
A
The tendency to overestimate the extent to which people’s behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors.
5
Q
Why do people explain some behaviors as stemming from internal causes and other behaviors as stemming from external causes?
A
Internal: attributing behaviors to a person’s disposition or personality traits (e.g. “he’s poor because he is lazy.”)
- done when the situation is ambiguous and there are no clear guidelines for behavior
External: attributing behaviors to the situation that a person is in (e.g. “he’s poor because economy is bad.”)
- done in ambiguous situations w/ clear guidelines for behavior
6
Q
What is naïve realism?
A
The human tendency to believe that we see the world around us objectively, and that people who disagree with us must be uninformed, irrational, or biased.
7
Q
How does our tendency as humans to be naïve realists affect our ability to negotiate in conflicts?
A
We resist compromise because we think our biased opponent will benefit more than we do, or are effectively trying to cheat us.
8
Q
What are two primary psychological motives?
A
- The need to feel good about our sense of self; self-esteem.
- The need to be accurate; how people remember, select, and interpret info accurately.
9
Q
How do social psychologists study social psychological phenomena?
A
We use the research processes. We collect data to support or refute our hypotheses and make conclusions according to that data.
The types of data are:
- Descriptive - naturalistic observation, case studies, surveys, archives.
- Correlational - statistically measurement of how closely the independent variable can predict the outcome, or dependent, variable.
- Experimental - uses manipulations and random assignment of participants to different conditions to test hypotheses.
10
Q
How does the hindsight bias affect our perception of past research?
A
It can affect our perception of past research b/c we can assume that we already implicitly understood why a certain psychological phenomenon happened. We can overestimate our own ability to have predicted the outcome, or say that we felt that we could have predicted the findings past research confirmed.
11
Q
Know the difference between independent and dependent variable
A
Independent variable - the variable that is manipulated by the experimenter.
Dependent variable - the variable that responds to the manipulation; what the manipulation is attempting to manipulate; the variable that is measured.
12
Q
Understand what a correlation coefficient is, and what signifies a small, medium, or large correlation
A
The correlation coefficient is a statistical technique that assesses how well you can predict one variable from another. It measures both the direction and the strength of the relationship b/w predictor and outcome variables.
+ correlation = outcome does happen b/c of the predictor variable (predictor causes it to increase)
- correlation = outcome does not happen b/c of the predictor variable (predictor causes it to decrease)
Small - approximately .20 +-
Medium - approximately .40 +-
Large - approximately = or > .60 +-
13
Q
What’s the difference between internal and external validity?
A
Internal validity - controlling for extraneous variables and assigning all participants randomly; ensuring that nothing besides the independent variable can affect the dependent variable.
External validity - the extent to which the results of the experiment can be generalized to other situations and people.
14
Q
What kinds of studies tend to have higher internal validity and lower external validity?
A
Experimental. Studies in a laboratory setting w/ controlled conditions and manipulated variables.
15
Q
What kinds of studies tend to have lower internal validity and higher external validity?
A
Field studies, because less variables can be accounted for and the experimenter has less control over the environment.
16
Q
What is psychological realism?
A
The extent to which the psychological processes triggered in an experiment are similar to psychological processes in real life.
17
Q
What’s the difference between basic and applied research?
A
Basic research - studies that are designed to find the best answer to the question of why people behave as they do and that are conducted purely for reasons of intellectual curiosity.
Applied research - studies designed to solve a particular social problem.
18
Q
How are participants’ rights protected in social psychological research?
A
Studies include informed consent, the right to withdraw from an experiment or have your data removed, debriefing, confidentiality, and debriefing after using a cover story or deception.
19
Q
Does correlation = causation?
A
No.
20
Q
Does causation require correlation?
A
No.
21
Q
Why is random selection and random assignment important?
A
Random selection and random assignment ensure that participants all have an equal chance of being selected AND all have an equal chance of being in any experimental condition. This reduces the likelihood that a result is due to biased sampling and controls for variability within the sample, by evenly distributing it across groups.
22
Q
What is the Culture of Honor?
A
The traditional culture of the Southern United States has been called a “culture of honor”, that is, a culture where people avoid intentionally offending others, and maintain a reputation for not accepting improper conduct by others.
23
Q
What methods were used to study the Culture of Honor?
A
Experimental - they used an assistant who bumped into the participant on purpose and aggressively. Participants could then wait to move out of the way of the assistant later, knowing that person bumped into them. The longer the participant waited, the more aggressive they were perceived.
24
Q
Why is there a higher rate of violent crimes in the South than in the other regions of the United States?
A
The south was settled by the Scottish and the Irish, who were less cooperative and had to defend their lands from outsiders/protect their animals. The north was settled by Anglo-Saxons, who faced religious persecution and relied primarily on farming, which encouraged cooperative behavior.
25
What is cognitive dissonance?
A drive or feeling of discomfort, caused by holding two or more inconsistent cognitions; caused by performing an action that is discrepant from the normal, particularly in relation to self-esteem.
26
Why is dissonance a problem?
It results in diminished self-esteem, or a lowered self-image.
27
What is external justification? Internal justification?
External justification - a reason or an explanation for dissonant behavior that is in the outside environment.
Internal justification - the reduction of dissonance by changing attitudes or beliefs from oneself.
28
When do people use internal versus external justification?
Internal justification - used when we can not find an external (or outside) reason why we engaged in a specific behavior. This involves changing our attitudes to reflect our behavior.
External justification - when a situation justifies why we behaved in a certain way (e.g., we feel angry because it rained outside and that made us late; we were given 20$ in reward, so we lied).
29
Why do people tend to come to love the things that make them suffer?
Justification of effort - the tendency to increase the liking of something a person has worked hard to attain. When something is painful or uncomfortable to experience (e.g., a long and grueling initiation into a group), the person reduces dissonance by convincing themselves that they endured the discomfort because the experience was more pleasant, enjoyable, or worthwhile.
- in order to have this thing, they had to work very hard and endure pain
- this makes them feel more attached to the thing
- if they acknowledge it as silly, unlikable, or worthless, that causes dissonance; so they convince themselves of the opposite
30
How can people reduce dissonance?
1. Change our behavior.
2. Justify our behavior by changing our attitudes.
3. Justify our behavior by adding new beliefs in line w/ the dissonant behavior.
31
What is self-perception theory?
When our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our behaviour and the situation in which it occurs.
32
How does self-perception theory differ from cognitive dissonance theory?
Self-perception theory involves inferring our attitudes from our behavior (or changing beliefs based on what behaviors we are engaged in). Our behavior does not conflict with our beliefs because we base our beliefs on what we’re doing.
Cognitive dissonance theory is the opposite: we change our beliefs when our behavior conflicts with what we claim to believe.
33
When does self-perception theory predict attitudes? When does cognitive dissonance theory predict attitudes?
1. Self-perception theory accounts for responses when people’s attitudes are vague or uncertain.
2. Cognitive dissonance theory accounts for responses when people have well defined attitudes.
34
How can you get people to like you more?
The participants asked to do the favor specifically for the experimenter liked him the most over all the other conditions. They convinced themselves the experimenter was a good person, and that was why they decided to give the money upon request.
- this is called the Benjamin Franklin Effect
- doing a favor for someone makes you like them better
35
What happens to your attitudes toward someone when you treat them poorly?
The person doing the cruel act devalues the other person in order to reduce dissonance; they assume the other person deserved it.
36
How does this relate to victim-blaming?
The need to reduce dissonance increases the closer a person is to perceive themselves as committing a cruel act. Thus: the likelihood of perceiving the victim as innocent decreases to restore constance.
37
Is dissonance reduction a conscious and intentional process? How do we know?
Typically it is an automatic process. We know this because in a study of amnesiac versus neurotypical participants, both groups showed the same amount of attitude change in a dissonance reduction task. This implies that even without cognitive awareness (or having no memory of the event), a person still tries to reduce dissonance.
- it is not intentional
- it is not consciously performed
- it is automatic
38
How can dissonance be used to create long-lasting attitude change (and compliance)?
Dissonance can be used when a punishment is mild rather than severe. A mild punishment causes more dissonance because the person cannot easily justify why their original forbidden behavior, activity, or object was worth such a small punishment.
In order to reduce dissonance, they change their attitudes to reflect that they did not want to do or care about the behavior, activity, or object instead. This creates long-lasting change because there is not sufficient external justification for why they did or avoided something forbidden.
39
Why is low-balling an effective strategy?
It creates the illusion of irrevocability, which creates dissonance and increases the motivation to decrease dissonance. There are 3 general components to why it works:
1. Creates a feeling of commitment by signing for a down payment
2. Commitment triggers the feeling of an exciting event
3. The price is usually only slightly higher than it would be somewhere else, so the buyer goes with it anyway to reduce dissonance
40
When do our friends’ successes hurt us and make us distance ourselves from our friends?
1. When we are close to the other person.
2. When the activity is important to us and our self esteem
3. When the performance of other person is higher than ours
41
What is social cognition?
How people think about themselves and the social world; how people select, interpret, remember, and use social info to make judgments/decisions.
42
What are the main types of social cognition?
Automatic thinking - unconscious, unintentional, effortless, involuntary.
Controlled thinking - conscious, intentional, effortful, voluntary.
43
Why are mental structures that people use to organize information about their social world?
Schemas are mental structures that organize our knowledge about the social world.
- Schemas influence the info people notice, think about, and remember.
- Schemas are very general.
- Schemas are used when info is ambiguous and difficult to interpret.
44
Why do we use these mental structures?
To organize our knowledge about the social world; to reduce cognitive load; to conserve our cognitive resources/energy when assessing social decisions or situations.
45
When do we use these structures?
Schemas are used when info is ambiguous and difficult to interpret.
46
Are these structures good? Bad?
Neither; they are good or bad depending on context and the outcomes of their errors.
47
Do these structures help us to accurately perceive the world around us most of the time?
Yes, both schemas and heuristics are generally very functional and efficient for everyday use. They direct attention and help us interpret ambiguous situations.
48
When do these structures lead us astray?
When we miss info due to selective attention, or when we misinterpret the information we’ve received by organizing it as a stereotype, using a self-fulfilling prophecy approach, or etc.
49
What is priming?
The process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept.
50
How can people learn things without knowing they are learning them?
Implicit learning.
51
How do we know people can learn implicitly?
Studies of language acquisition and comprehension.
52
What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?
When people have an expectation about another person, they choose to base how they act towards another person according to those expectations. This affects the other person’s behavior and reaffirms the original expectations.
53
What are heuristics?
Mental shortcuts people use to make judgments quickly and efficiently.
54
Are heuristics good or bad?
Neither; they are good or bad depending on context and the outcomes of their errors.
55
Why do we use heuristics?
To conserve our mental resources.
56
What is the availability heuristic?
A mental rule of thumb where people base on judgment on how easily they can bring something to mind (e.g., a specific thought, a type of person or thing, etc).
57
Where in your life do you use the availability heuristic?
When trying to make accurate assessments of risks (e.g., assuming that deaths from car crashes are higher because we know of more car accident related deaths).
58
Do doctors use the availability heuristic?
Yes. The text used an example where a doctor was able to diagnose a very rare and unusual neurological disability because it appeared in a book he was researching for. They also judge diagnostics based on how frequently they encounter certain symptoms.
59
What is the representativeness heuristic?
A mental shortcut where people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case (e.g., assuming someone who is blonde, easy-going, and likes to go to the beach is from California because of troped traits).
60
Where in your life do you use the representativeness heuristic?
When forming stereotypes about others, or when attempting to create first impressions.
61
What is the potential flaw in using the representativeness heuristic?
We can ignore base rates, or the actual probabilistic likelihood that any one person belongs to a certain group or has certain traits that do not occur on average in a population.
62
What does it mean to “anchor and adjust”?
The anchoring and adjustment heuristic describes cases in which a person uses a specific target number or value as a starting point, known as an anchor, and subsequently adjusts that information until an acceptable value is reached over time.
63
How does the confirmation bias relate to naïve realism?
These two mental processes create a dynamic where we:
1. ) presume we are not biased (naive realism)
2. ) search for and examine only the info that confirms our existing beliefs (confirmation bias)
3. ) ignore other info that contradicts or provides an alternative to our beliefs (confirmation bias)
4. ) convince ourselves that the info we find is objective rather than a reflection of our beliefs, which reinforces our (biased) perspectives
64
Why do people assume that if you flip a coin twice and it lands on heads the first time that it will land on tails the second time?
The Gambler’s fallacy - the tendency to believe that a particular chance event is affected by previous events and that chance events will “even out” in the short run.
65
What is “controlled thinking”? Isn’t all thinking controlled?
Controlled thinking - conscious, intentional, effortful, voluntary cognitive processes. Active processing.
All thinking is not controlled. A majority of thinking is done automatically, and is not filtered actively or consciously.
66
What is counterfactual thinking?
Mentally changing the past as a way of imagining what might have been.
67
What is the overconfidence barrier?
The fact that people usually have too much confidence in the accuracy of their own judgments.
68
How might the overconfidence barrier affect your performance in class?
You might assume that you are correct when trying to answer a set of objective questions, and overestimate how much you actually know about any particular “case” or “question.”
In other words: you don’t consider that you might be wrong or other possible answers/alternatives to your own.
69
What are some of the major differences between cultures in social cognitive styles?
“All humans have access to the same tools, but the culture in which they grow up can influence the ones they use the most.”
1. Analytic thinking style: a type of thinking in which people focus on the properties of objects without considering their surrounding context; type of thinking often found in western culture.
2. Holistic thinking style: a type of thinking in which people focus on the overall context, particularly the way in which object relate to each other; type of thinking often found in east asian cultures.
70
What type of education leads to the greatest improvement in logical and statistical reasoning?
A psychology education.
71
What does it mean to say that “we are cognitive misers”?
People have a limited amount of cognitive resources that they can devote to analyzing and understanding the social world; as a result of these limited resources, we create mental shortcuts (i.e., schemas, heuristics) to make our decisions easier and more efficient.
- we want to conserve cognitive energy
- we learn implicitly
72
What is the Shooter Bias?
While there is no absolute bias when people shoot ambiguous targets in a game, a bias does appear in the amount of errors made. People assume black targets are more likely to be armed erroneously, and therefore accidentally shoot more black targets during the task.
73
What did Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) find in their “bloomers” study?
Teachers treated the bloomers differently because they were told a test proved the bloomers were more likely to be better in school (or were smarter). This made the bloomers improve more in comparison to some of the other children.
Their expectations were either in line (bloomers did well or non-bloomers who did not do well) or violated (non-bloomers who did well or bloomers who did not do well).
74
What did the "bloomers" study show about how the teacher's opinions of the different groups changed over time?
Bloomers who did well - liked the best
Non-bloomers who did well - disliked the most
Bloomers who did not do well - disliked
Non-bloomers who did not do well - indifferent / liked
75
What is social influence?
The effect that the words, actions, and presence of other people have on our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.
76
What is the level of analysis in social psychology?
The individual in the context of a social situation.
77
What is the goal of social psychology?
To identify universal properties of human nature that make everyone susceptible to social influence, regardless of class or structure.
78
What study demonstrated the fundamental attribution error?
When participants were told a game was called the “Community Game”, they played cooperative irrespective of whether or not they were more competitive. When it was called the “Wall Street Game,” no one played cooperatively in spite of their personality differences.
79
What is self-esteem?
People’s evaluations of their self-worth; the extent to which the view themselves as good, competent, and decent.
80
What is ethnography?
A method where researchers attempt to understand a group of culture by observing it from inside (e.g., infiltrating a cult as a member), without imposing their own ideas on the behaviors observed.
Strengths: real behavior studied in real situations.
Weakness: can draw inaccurate, experience-based conclusions.
81
What is archival analysis?
Method where a researcher examines the accumulated documents, or archives, of a culture (e.g., magazines, novels, etc).
Strengths: access to large amounts of data, no difficulty generalizing.
Weakness: does not capture all behaviors and no absolute way to determine their cause.
82
What is the correlational method?
A technique where two or more variables are systematically measured and the relationship b/w them is quantified; shows how much one variable can predict the other.
83
What is the correlation coefficient?
A statistical technique that assesses how well you can predict one variable from another.
84
What is the survey-based method?
Asking people about certain things (e.g., their behaviors or beliefs).
Strengths: can study behavior and thoughts that are normally difficult to observe.
Weakness: participants may be biased or untruthful; random sampling is difficult and expensive.
85
What is the experimental method?
Field Studies: behavior is measured in the real world, but it includes manipulation.
Strengths: real Behavior and real situations.
Weakness: less control over extraneous variables and ethical issues.
Lab Studies: experiment with complete control over the variables in the study.
Strengths: most control over variables; able to use invasive methods.
Weakness: results might not generalize to real life situations.
86
What is the meta-analysis method?
The average of two or more experiments in order to see if the effect on the independent variable is reliable
Strengths: can increase the sample size across studies; increases the power of the statistical conclusion (or the likelihood that the result is replicable).
Weakness: there is variability in the quality and relevancy of the data provided, which can weaken results.
87
What is random selection?
A technique where everyone in the population sampled has an equal chance of being selected for the sample.
88
What happened in the seizure experiment? How did it demonstrate the bystander effect?
Most people did not help the person supposedly having a seizure when they thought other people were listening to the intercom. If they thought that they were alone, then they were much more likely to help.
89
What is random assignment to condition?
A process where all participants have an equal chance of taking part in any condition in an experiment; ensures differences b/w participants should be distributed randomly.
90
What is self-affirmation?
A way of reducing dissonance by reminding oneself of their positive traits.
91
What is impact bias?
The tendency to overestimate the intensity and duration of emotional reactions to future events.
92
What did one experiment show about high or low self-esteem and its relation to cheating behavior?
If participants were primed with + personality traits (high self-esteem condition), then they were the least likely to cheat. If participants were primed with - personality traits (low self-esteem condition), then they were most likely to cheat.
- Higher self-esteem reduced cheating behavior and made people more cooperative
- Lower self-esteem increased cheating behavior
93
What did one study on segregation show about rationalization in the face of dissonant information?
Because poor arguments in relation to the original position and sensible arguments in relation to the opposite position both raise dissonance, people will not remember them.
People prefer to remember plausible arguments agreeing w/ their own position and implausible arguments agreeing w/ the opposing argument the best. This reduces dissonance.
94
What is postdecision dissonance?
Dissonance that arises after making a decision.
95
How is postdecision dissonance reduced?
By enhancing the attractiveness of your actual choice and devaluing the rejected alternative choice.
96
What was one experiment that demonstrated postdecision dissonance?
Women were asked to rate the attractiveness and desirability of several kinds of small appliances. They were they told they would be given one of the appliances as a gift. Women were asked to choose between two appliances that they rated as equally attractive.
They then rerated the appliances, and rated the one they were given as somewhat higher than originally. They also lowered the rating of the appliance that they rejected.
97
What happens when a decision is permanent and less able to be changed?
There is more need to reduce cognitive dissonance.
98
What study showed that permanency of a decision influenced cognitive dissonance?
When at the racetrack, gamblers who has yet to bet on horses were less certain about their decision. Bettors who had already placed their bets and were leaving were incredibly certain of their decision.
99
What did experiments with grade schoolers cheating show about how dissonance changes personal values?
If students chose to cheat, they subsequently changed their attitudes to make cheating seem less bad. If students decided not to cheat, their attitudes towards cheating were much harsher.
100
What study demonstrated that people use justification of effort in unpleasant situations?
A study where students were invited to sex discussion groups showed that students who had to undergo a painful and embarrassing initiation rated the group as much more likable than it actually was. Students who didn’t just rated the discussion group as unlikeable.
101
What is counterattitudinal advocacy?
Stating an opinion or attitude that runs counter to one’s private belief or attitude.
102
What study discussed counterattitudinal advocacy?
When given 20$ as a reward, students did not care or change their attitudes when lying. If the reward was only 1$, however, students changed their beliefs to make the situation they were lying about seem more positive.
103
What is insufficient punishment?
The dissonance aroused what there is not sufficient external justification for having resisted an activity, object, or etc.
104
What happens when there is insufficient punishment?
People devalue the forbidden activity or object; they change their beliefs to justify why they didn’t do something if there was no harsh punishment involved.
105
What experiment showed that insufficient punishment alters avoidance behavior?
When children were told not to interact with a specific toy either by means of a heavy or mild punishment, the children who got the mild punishment changed their beliefs about how desirable the toy was. The mild punishment did not seem like a sufficient justification for not playing with it, and so they decided that they just liked it less than the thought.
106
What is self-persuasion?
A long-lasting form of attitude change that results from attempts at self-justification.
107
What is hypocrisy induction?
The arousal of dissonance by having individuals make statements that run counter to their behaviors and then reminding them of the inconsistency b/w what they advocated and their behavior.
108
What happens the closer one is to committing acts of cruelty?
The need to reduce dissonance increases; the likelihood of perceiving the victim as innocent decreases.
109
What is accessibility?
The extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of the mind and are likely to be used when making judgments.
110
When do schemas become more accessible?
1. Past history and experience to the type of schema (e.g., assumed alcoholism because family has history w/ alcohol)
2. The schema is related to a current goal or behavior in the moment (e.g., interpreting someone as mentally ill because of attending an abnormal psych class)
3. Schemas can be become temporarily accessible if they are related to our most recent experiences (e.g., seeing a man drinking on the sidewalk and then assuming someone behaving oddly is drunk)
111
What did the Donald study show?
That if participants were primed with a list of positive or negative words beforehand, they matched their perception of an ambiguous description of Donald with whatever their words primed them for (either + or - feelings).
112
What are some examples of mind or body metaphor-priming?
1. Associating something with dirtiness can cause us to view it less favorably.
2. Warm beverages make people think a stranger was more friendly; cold beverages make people think a stranger was less friendly.
3. A heavy clipboard can make people think an issue is more important; carrying a lighter clipboard causes people to treat something as less important an issue.
113
What was an example of how availability affected people’s own perceptions of themselves?
In one study, people were asked to recall either 6 examples of being assertive or 12 examples of being assertive in their recent history. If asked to recall less, they were more likely to rate themselves as assertive because it was easier to remember 6 as opposed to 12 examples.
114
What did experiments show about believing in free will as it related to controlled thinking?
1. If participants believed in free will, they were less likely to engage in immoral behavior and cheating.
2. If participants read statements implying there is no free will while taking the GRE test and able to reward themselves money, they were much more likely to award themselves money/cheat than participants who read about free will.
115
What did experiments involving silver medalists show about counterfactual thinking?
A medalist who won the silver was more unhappy than those who won the bronze, because silver medalists would more easily imagine a scenario where they could have won.
116
What is thought suppression?
When an individual consciously attempts to stop thinking about a particular thought. (e.g., "white bear" experiment - participants who were explicitly told to not think about white bears almost always did)
117
What is the hindsight bias?
Hindsight bias - the tendency of people to overestimate their ability to have predicted an outcome that could not possibly have been predicted.
118
What is a scientific example of Implicit Learning?
When participants had to design a consistent rule for why an X appeared in a certain location (as well as adapt the rule every 12 times), they were able to learn the rule without verbalizing it. Their performance always improved over time.
119
What are the results of errors in heuristics and schemas?
Biases.
120
What is the availability heuristic?
Making judgments about the frequency or likelihood of an event based on the ease that evidence comes to mind.
121
Do people ever fully compensate for their starting point in anchoring and adjustment?
No.
122
What is upward-counterfactual thinking?
“It could have been so much better.”
123
What is downward-counterfactual thinking?
“It could have gone so much worse.”
124
Is priming conscious?
No.
