Midterm Flashcards

(106 cards)

1
Q

What Is Social Psychology?

A

The scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are
influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.
•  At the heart of social psychology is social influence.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Fundamental attribution error (FAE)

A

The tendency to explain our own and other people’s behavior entirely in terms of personality traits
Underestimating the power of social influence

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Underestimating the Power of Social Influence Causes…

A
  • we gain a feeling of false security
  • Oversimplify complex situations
  • blame victim
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Behaviorism

A

A school of psychology maintaining that to
understand human behavior, one need consider only
reinforcing effects of environment; an “objective worldview” •  Chooses not to deal with cognition, thinking, and feeling

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Gestalt Psychology

A

-Construals
-A school of psychology stressing the importance of studying the subjective way in which an object
appears in people’s minds (the gestalt or “whole”) rather than the objective, physical attributes of the
object

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Kurt Lewin

A

Founding father of modern experimental social psychology
Ø Applied Gestalt principles to social perception
Ø Stressed the importance of taking perspective of the people in any social situation to see how they construe social
environment

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Construals shaped by two basic human motives

A

The need to be accepted Ø 
The need to feel good about ourselves
•  Motives may tug in opposite directions

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Suffering and Self-Justification

A

The more unpleasant the procedure the participants underwent to get into a group, the
better they liked the group
(Hazing, gang initiation)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Social cognition motive

A

takes into account how people think about the world
•  We try to gain accurate understandings so we can
make effective judgments and decisions
•  But we typically act on the basis of incompletely and inaccurately interpreted information

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Social Cognition

A

How people think about themselves and the social world; how people select, interpret, remember,
and use social information to make judgments and decisions

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Internal Validity

A

Making sure that nothing besides the independent variable can affect the dependent variable

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

External Validity

A

The extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other situations and to other people.
1.  Situations
the extent to which we can generalize from the experimental situation to real-life situations
2.  People
the extent to which we can generalize from the people who participated in the experiment to people in general

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Psychological Realism

A

  Psychological processes triggered by experiments are similar to psychological processes in real life

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Cover story

A

A description of the purpose of a study, given to participants, that is different from its true purpose, used to maintain psychological realism

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Improving External Validity

A

Field Experiments:
o  Experiments conducted in natural settings rather than in the laboratory
Ø Advantages:
o  Participants unaware that they are in an experiment o  Participants more diverse than typical college sample

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Basic Research

A

Designed to find the best answer to why people behave as they do
o  Conducted purely for reasons of intellectual curiosity

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Applied Research

A

o  Designed to solve a particular social problem

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Cross-Cultural Research

A

Conducted with different cultures, to see if psychological processes are present in both
cultures or specific to the culture in which people were raised.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Issues in Cross-Cultural Research

A

Researchers must:
o  Guard against imposing their own cultural viewpoints onto an unfamiliar culture
o  Ensure that IV & DV are understood in the same way in different cultures

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Evolutionary Theory

A

o  Developed by Charles Darwin to explain how animals adapt to their environments
-Genetic factors
-Natural Selection
Core idea:
o  Social behaviors prevalent today are due, in part, to
adaptations to past environments
- Impossible to test with experimental method

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

Automatic thinking (Type of social Cognition)

A

–  Quick
–  No conscious deliberation of thoughts, perceptions, assumptions
-We often size up a new situation very quickly. •  Often these quick conclusions are correct.
–  Example: You can tell the difference between a college classroom and a frat party without having to think about
it.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

Controlled thinking

A

–  Effortful and deliberate

–  Thinking about self and environment –  Carefully selecting the right course of action

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

How do we Automatic thinking?

A

Relate new situations to past experiences
–  Use schemas
-  Mental structures that organize our knowledge of the social world
-  Influences the information people notice, think about, and remember

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

schema

A

encompasses our knowledge and impression of:
–  Other people –  Ourselves
–  Social roles
§  E.g., what a librarian or engineer is like
–  Specific events
§  E.g., what usually happens when people eat a meal in a restaurant
-We base our judgement off of accessible shemas

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
What are schemas used for?
-Organize what we know –  Interpret new situationsSchemas as Memory Guides •  Helps “fill in the blanks” when trying to remember –  Remember some information that was there §  Particularly information to which our schemas led us to pay more attention –  Also remember other information that was never there §  Add this information unknowingly
26
Korsakov’s syndrome
Neurological disorder §  Can’t form memories –  Each situation is new
27
Priming
The process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept. Physical sensations can prime metaphors----> Metaphors can influence decisions
28
Accessibility and Priming (1 of 3) | •  Something can become accessible for three reasons:
–  Chronically accessible due to past experience. –  Accessible because it is related to a current goal –  Temporarily accessible because of our recent experience -priming is a good example of automatic thinking because it occurs quickly, unintentionally, and unconsciously.
29
What makes Our Schemas Come True?
The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
30
Automatic goal pursuit
–  Prime goals in subtle way to see if it influences behavior
31
Automatic decision making
–  Distracting oneself prior to making a decision •  Ensuring distraction improves decision making: –  Have a conscious goal to make a good choice –  Decision requires integration of complex information
32
Judgmental Heuristics
–  Mental shortcuts people use to make judgments quickly and efficiently
33
Availability Heuristic
  A mental rule of thumb whereby people base a judgment on the ease with which they can bring something to mind -The trouble: sometimes what is easiest to remember is not typical of the overall picture, leading to faulty conclusions
34
Representativeness heuristic
–  A mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case *Base rate information –  Information about the frequency of members of different categories in the population
35
“Barnum effect”
We tend to perceive personality tests as uncannily accurate | -Example of rep. heuristic
36
Analytic thinking style
–  focus on objects without considering surrounding | context –  associated with Western cultures
37
Holistic thinking style
–  focus on the overall context, relation between objects –  associated with Eastern cultures
38
free will
ssociation between conscious thought and behavior creates perception of free will
39
Belief in free will predicts behavior
–  Cheating | –  Helping
40
Counterfactual Reasoning
Mentally changing some aspect of the past in imagining what might have been §  “If only I had answered that one question differently, I would have passed the test.
41
Consequences of Counterfactual reasoning
``` Positive consequences –  Motivation to improve in future •  Negative consequences –  If it leads to rumination—repetitive focus on negative things –  Associated with depression ```
42
Social Perception
The study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about other people.
43
Encode
– Express or emit nonverbal behavior | Examples: smiling, patting someone on the back
44
Decode
– Interpret the meaning of nonverbal behavior | Example: deciding pat on the back was an expression of condescension, not kindness
45
Evolution and Facial Expressions
Darwin | – Nonverbal forms of communication is species, not culture, specific
46
Affect blends
– Facial expressions in which one part of the face registers one emotion while another part of the face registers a different emotion
47
Display rules
– Dictate what kinds of emotional expressions people are supposed to show – Are culture-specific
48
Emblems
-Nonverbal gestures that have well-understood definitions within a given culture – Usually have direct verbal translations, like the “OK” sign. • Emblems are not universal!
49
Thin-slicing
– Drawing meaningful conclusions about another person’s personality or skills based on an extremely brief sample of behavior
50
Primacy Effect
– When it comes to forming impressions, the first traits we perceive in others influence how we view information that we learn about them later
51
Belief Perseverance
– The tendency to stick with an initial judgment even in the face of new information that should prompt us to reconsider
52
Attribution theory
– The way in which people explain the causes of their | own and other people’s behavior
53
Internal Attribution
Infer a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person (e.g., attitude, character, personality)
54
External Attribution
Infer a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation • Assume most people would respond the same way in that situation
55
the Covariation Model
A theory that states that to form an attribution about what caused a person’s behavior, we systematically note the pattern between the presence or absence of possible causal factors and whether or not the behavior occurs
56
Consensus Information
The extent to which other people behave the same way toward the same stimulus as the actor does
57
Distinctiveness Information
The extent to which one particular actor behaves in the same way to different stimuli
58
Consistency Information
The extent to which the behavior between one actor and one stimulus is the same across time and circumstances
59
When Internal Attribution Occurs
– Consensus = Low Behavior is unique to the person – Distinctiveness = Low Person displays same behavior with different targets and in different situations – Consistency = High The person’s behavior occurs reliably across occasions
60
When External Attribution Occurs
External attribution occurs when – Consensus = High Other people behave similarly in the same situation – Distinctiveness = High The person’s behavior is specific to that situation or target – Consistency = High The person’s behavior occurs reliably across occasions
61
Evaluation of the Covariation Model
Information about all three dimensions may not be available People still make attributions Consistency and distinctiveness used more than consensus
62
The Fundamental Attribution Error
Tend to make internal attributions for other people’s behavior and underestimate the role of situational factors
63
Why does the fundamental attribution error occur?
– Tend to focus attention on person, not the surrounding situation The person is “perceptually salient” – Use the focus of attention as a starting point
64
Perceptual Salience
The seeming importance of information that is the focus of people’s attention
65
The Two-Step Attribution Process (1 of 2) | Part 1
1. Make an internal attribution – Assume that a person’s behavior was due to something about that person – Occurs quickly, spontaneousl
66
The Two-Step Attribution Process (1 of 2) | Part 2
2. Adjust attribution by considering the situation – May fail to make enough adjustment in second step – Requires effort, conscious attention *Two-step model less applicable in cultures where internal attributions not the default
67
Self-Serving Attributions
• Explanations for one’s successes that credit internal, dispositional factors, and explanations for one’s failures that blame external, situational factors
68
Why do we make self-serving attributions?
1. We want to maintain self-esteem. 2. We want other people to think well of us and to admire us. 3. We know more about the situational factors that affect our own behavior than we do about other people’s.
69
Belief in a just world
– The assumption that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get – Type of defensive attribution
70
Belief in a Just World | Advantage/ disadvantages
``` Advantage – Allows people to deal with feelings of vulnerability, mortality • Disadvantage – Blaming the victim Rape victims Battered wives ```
71
Holistic thinking
– Values in Western cultures foster this kind of thinking | – Focus on properties of object or people, pay less attention to context or situation
72
Analytic thinking
– Values in Eastern cultures foster this kind of thinking | – Focus on the object or person AND the surrounding context and relationships between them
73
Psyche
Psychological processes are assumed to be formed, shaped, and maintained as a result of each individual’s active engagement in various cultural contexts. The psyche is a function of its socioculturally and historically constituted environment. Psychological processes are assumed to be instrumental in maintaining and reproducing the cultural systems from which they have been derived.
74
Independent Model of Self
The natural, necessary, “healthy,”and good person…  is a bounded, coherent, stable, autonomous, “free”entity;  “possesses”a set of characteristic identifying attributes— preferences, motives, goals, attitudes, beliefs, and abilities—which are the primary forces that enable, guide, or constrain actions  is principally oriented toward independent “success”and “achievement;”  makes (or should make) independent, more or less rational choices in the pursuit of goals;  is largely in control of—and individually responsible for – “personal”behaviors and outcomes;  gives personal beliefs and needs priority over norms and relationships;  strives to feel good about the self;  is active, innovative and creative
75
Interdependent Model of Self
The natural, necessary, “healthy,”and good person…  is a connected, fluid, flexible, committed being bound to others;  participates in a set of relationships, roles, groups, and institutions which are the primary forces that enable, guide or constrain actions;  is principally oriented toward the harmonious functioning of these social entities;  persists to meet obligations and conforms to expected norms and standards;  engages in self-reflection and self-criticism  is a partner in interaction with others who are mutually responsible for each other and for the consequences of their joint behavior;  treats personal beliefs and needs as subordinate to norms and relationships;  tries to improve and master skills; perseveres and endures hardship
76
Self Enhancement Bias
People view themselves as better then other, | -More ethical, better drivers, healthier
77
Self-Concept
The overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributes
78
Four main functions of self:
1. Self-knowledge The way we understand who we are and organize this information 2. Self Control The way we make plans and execute decisions 3. Impression management The way we present ourselves to others and get them to see us as we want to be seen 4. Self-esteem The way we maintain positive views of ourselves
79
Introspection
– The process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives -People do not rely on introspection very often.
80
Self-Awareness Theory
The idea that when people focus their attention on themselves, they evaluate and compare their behavior to their internal standards and values
81
Ways to turn off “internal spotlight” on oneself
Alcohol abuse Binge eating Sexual masochism -Religon spirituality
82
Causal Theories
Theories about the causes of one’s own feelings and behaviors; often we learn such theories from our culture. -- Problem – Schemas and theories are not always correct. Can lead to incorrect judgments about the causes of our actions.
83
Reasons-Generated Attitude Chang
Attitude change resulting from thinking about the reasons for one’s attitudes; people assume their attitudes match the reasons that are plausible and easy to verbalize
84
Reasons-Generated Attitude Change
Attitude change resulting from thinking about the reasons for one’s attitudes; people assume their attitudes match the reasons that are plausible and easy to verbalize
85
The Consequences of Introspecting About Reasons
Problem – Focus on things that are easy to put into words – Ignore feelings harder to explain – Hard-to-explain feelings are the ones that often matter in the long run
86
Self-Perception Theory
The theory that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs -• Infer inner feelings from behavior – Only when not sure how we feel • People judge whether their behavior – Really reflects how we feel – Or the situation that made us act that way
87
Overjustification Effect
The tendency of people to view their behavior as | caused by compelling extrinsic reasons, making them underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic reasons
88
Task-contingent rewards
Rewards that are given for performing a task, | regardless of how well the task is done
89
Performance-contingent rewards
– Rewards that are based on how well we perform a task
90
Fixed mindset
– The idea that we have a set amount of an ability that cannot change
91
Growth mindset
The idea that our abilities are malleable qualities that we can cultivate and grow
92
Mindset affects motivation
– Fixed mindset more likely to give up and do poorly on subsequent tasks after failure
93
Schachter's theory | -2 factor theory of emotion
1. Experience physiological arousal. | 2. Seek an appropriate explanation for it.
94
Misattribution of Arousal
– Making mistaken inferences about what is causing them to feel the way they do - Arousal from one source (e.g., caffeine, exercise, a fright) can enhance the intensity of how the person interprets other feelings (e.g., attraction to someone).
95
Social Comparison Theory
The idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people
96
Upward social comparison:
Goal: know the furthest level to which we can aspire | Comparing to people who are better on a particular ability
97
Downward social comparison:
Goal: feel better about yourself | Comparing to people who are worse on a particular trait or ability
98
Social Tuning
The process whereby people adopt another person’s | attitudes
99
Affective Forecasts
– People’s predictions about how they will feel in | response to a future emotional event
100
Thought suppression | *Self-Control
Attempt to avoid thinking about something we would | prefer to forget – Not that efficient!
101
ingratiation
– Flattering, praising, and generally trying to make ourselves likable to another person, often of higher status
102
Self-handicapping
– Creating obstacles and excuses for ourselves
103
Behavioral self-handicapping
People act in ways that reduce the likelihood of success so that if they fail, they can blame it on obstacles rather than ability Example: pulling an all-nighter before a test
104
Reported self-handicapping
Rather than creating obstacles to success, people devise ready-made excuses in case they fail Example: complaining about not feeling well when you take a test
105
Benefits of high self-esteem
Buffers against thoughts of own mortality Terror management theory – Motivates us to persevere when going gets rough
106
Narcissism
– Combination of excessive self-love and a lack of empathy toward others – Has increased in college students since the 1980s