Social Psychology Exam 1 Study Guide PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Social Psychology Exam 1 Study Guide PDF

Description

Chapter 1; Introducing Social Psychology ●

●

●

●

●

Introduction ○ Social psychology: the scientific study of how individuals think, feel and behave in a social context ○ People may be real or imagined (i.e. parents, partners and strangers) ○ Social isolation is a big nono ○ Social context will affect you in many ways Social Psychology Vs. Personality Psychology ○ Social psychology: ■ you act this way because you are a person; regardless of your personality everyone acts the same ■ the study of how people’s behavior and thought patterns are influenced by social situations ○ Personality psychology: ■ find out why people differ from each other in their beliefs, attitudes and personalities ■ the study of the development of personality and individualistic traits. Personality psychologists look at people as individuals rather than as members of society Social Psychology Vs. Cognitive Psychology ○ Social Psychology ■ about dealing with how people react to the behavior patterns of others during interactive situations. ○ Cognitive Psychology ■ the scientific study of the mind as an information processor ● I.e. perception, interpretation and organization of information Social Psychology Vs. Sociology ○ Social Psychology ■ Focuses on individuality ○ Sociology ■ the scientific study and evaluation of society. (i.e. analyzing patterns of social interaction, relationships with others, and culture) ■ Focuses on groups History of Social Psychology ○ 1880s-1920s ■ birth of social psychology ○ 1930s-1970s ■ Surge in social psychological research ■ Interaction perspective by Kurt Lewin ■ Hitler and the Holocaust ○ 1970s-1990s/2000s ■ Cognitive revolution ■ Social cognition: taking cognitive things and applying it to social context

○

●

Today ■ Automatic vs. controlled processes ● Automatic ○ does not require us to pay attention, nor do we have to deliberately put in effort to control automatic processes. ○ occurs without us giving much thought to it. ● Controlled ○ requires us to pay attention and deliberately put in effort. ○ is intentionally done while we are consciously aware of what we are doing ■ Unconscious vs conscious processes ■ Mind and Body Influence ■ Neural and Social Processes ■ Culture ● A system of enduring meanings, beliefs, values, assumptions, institutions, and practices shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next ■ Social Media ■ Interdisciplinary Need to feel good about ourselves

Chapter 2: Social Psychology Research ● Introduction to Research Methods ○ Hindsight Basis ■ When the experimenter thinks they already knew the outcome when looking back ○ Scientific Method ■ Question, theory, hypothesis, research ○ Basic Research ■ To answer general questions ■ Conducted purely for intellectual curiosity ○ Applied Research ■ Research done to solve a particular problem ○ Operational definition ■ Detailed definition of what you are doing in research ○ Construct Validity ■ the degree to which a test measures what it claims, or purports, to be measuring ● Data Collection ○ Self reports/surveys ■ Advantages ● Easy to develop ● cheap/free & fast ■ Disadvantages

● ●

●

Wording effects: question may be hard to understand Social desirability: people answer with the politically correct answer ● Retroactive : asking people to reflect back and people tend to have a bad memory ○ Representative Sample ■ Population ● The group that is of interest to the researcher ■ Random Sample ● A sample taken from a population of interest, each member of the population has an equal chance of being a participant ■ Convenience sample ● People who are willing and able to participate in a study ○ Observational Designs ■ Naturalistic observation ● Observing people in social settings ● Observe very natural behavior ● Lose a lot of control ○ Ethnography: when a researcher observes a culture that is very different from their own ■ Laboratory observation ● Observational study that occurs in a lab ● Disadvantages ○ What can be observed ○ Infrequent behavior ○ People may not act natural ● Advantages ○ A lot of control Research Design ○ Descriptive ■ Correlation; ○ Experimental ○ Descriptive Research ■ Provides evidence that behavior is occurring but not why it is occuring ○ Correlational Design ■ Technique in which two or more variables are systematically measured and a relationship between them is assessed ○ Correlation coefficient’ ‘ ■ Describes strength of the relationship between two variables so that one can be predicted from the other ■ Tells us the type of relationship ■ Range from 1 to -1 ■ Positive correlation: when the two variables move in the same direction ■ Negative correlation: when the two variables move in opposite directions

○

●

Experimentation ■ Determines cause and effect ■ Variables are changed to observe the effect on the other variables ■ Variables are kept constant ■ Independent Variables ● Variable that is changed ■ Subject Variables ● Differences in people (ethnicity, gender & nationality) ■ Dependent Variables ● Variable that is measured’ ■ Control variable ● Used to control differences between independent variables ■ .Experimental condition ● People who are exposed to the independent variable ■ Control condition ● People who are not exposed to the independent variable ■ Random assignment to conditions ● To randomly decide who goes in what groups ■ Confound ● variables that the researcher failed to control, or eliminate, damaging the internal validity of an experiment ○ Internal validity ■ The degree to which differences in the dependent variable are due to the differences in the independent variable ○ Double blind study ■ Participant and the experimenter doesn't know who is in which group ○ Single blind study ■ Participant doesn't know, but the experimenter does ○ External validity ■ The degree to which findings can be applied to other settings and samples ○ Experimental realism ■ The extent to which an experiment leads participants to act naturally ■ May use a cover story ○ Mundane realism ■ Extent to which the experimental situation resembles the real world ■ Field experiment Research Ethics ○ Informed consent: ■ you know enough about the study ○ Confidentiality ○ Debriefing ■ Explain to a participant everything about the study ○ Deception:

○

■ Get to tell the participant if you lied to them Confederate ■ An actor that is in on the experiment

Chapter 3; The Social Self ● The Self ○ Self concept ■ Total of an individual’s beliefs about oneself ○ Self schemas ■ A belief a person holds about themselves that guides self relevant information processing ○ Progression of sense of self ■ Recognition of self ● Mirror test ● Knowing ourselves ○ Introspection ■ Thinking about who you are ■ Process whereby people look inward and examine their thoughts, feelings, and motives ○ Telling more than we can know ■ Idea that i can tell you things about me, that i don't really understand

●

■ Nisbett & Wilson 1977 ■ At the end of the day participants recorded their mood and explained it ○ Self Perception Theory (Bem, 1972) ■ Tells us we know who we are by observing our own behavior; has to be something you are uncertain about ■ Vicarious self perception: we view ourselves based on how we view the actions of people we closely identify with ○ Intrinsic Motivation ■ Stuff we do simply because we enjoy it ○ Extrinsic Motivation ■ Stuff we do to avoid punishment and/or to get a reward ○ Overjustification effect ■ the tendency for intrinsic motivation to diminish for activities that have become associated with reward or other extrinsic factors ( unless reward is sincere verbal praise; otherwise it enhances our intrinsic motivation) ○ Task contingent reward ■ Receive a reward for just completing the task ○ Performance contingent reward ■ Receiving a reward for completing a task AND completing it well Knowing ourselves to others ○ Social comparison theory (Leon Festinger 1954)

■

●

●

●

people evaluate their own abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to others. 2 big questions people focus on: 1. when do people look to others for comparison 2. who do they compare themselves to ○ Two factor theory of emotion (Schachter, 1964) ■ the experience of emotion is based on psychological arousal and a cognitive interpretation of that arousal ○ Upward social comparison: ■ motivates us to do better when we compare ourselves to someone in a better position ○ Downward social comparison: ■ comparing ourselves to someone below my us to make us feel better ○ Schachter & Singer 1962 ■ Advertised for a community sample for a vision study Knowing ourselves via culture ○ Cultural differences ■ Independent view of self ● Focus on things that make you unique ● Indivudalistic culure ■ Interdependent view of self ● Identify yourself in relationship to others ● Collectivist cultures Self esteem ○ A person’s self evaluation ○ Affective component of the self: emotional response to yourself ○ Sociometer Theory(Leary & Baumeister 2000) ■ Your self esteem is a reflection of how you think people love/like/accept you ○ Terror Management Theory (Greenberg et al 1997) ■ proposes that faith in one's worldview and the pursuit of self-esteem provide protection against a deeply rooted fear of death. ○ Self discrepancy theory (Higgins 1989) ■ self esteem is defined by the match/ mismatch between the actual self, the ought self ( who we should be) and the ideal self ( what we want to be). Low self esteem is created by a difference between actual and ideal selves ( self discrepancy ) ○ Self awareness Theory ■ self focused attention leads people to notice self discrepancies thereby motivating an escape from self aware behavior or a change in it. Typically people try to change( shape up) and if they can't the withdraw from self conscious thoughts ( ship out) Self Enhancement ○ Better than average effect ■ Believe that you are better than average ○ Implicit egotism

■ When we prefer random things that reminds us of yourself Self serving bias ■ Leads us to take credit for our successes and blame others for our failures ○ Self handicapping ■ behaviors designed to sabotage performance in order to provide an excuse for subsequent failure ○ Bask In Reflected Glory ■ increase self esteem by associating with others who are successful and distancing from the unsuccessful. ■ To take credit for other people’s accomplishments ○ Cutting off reflected failure ■ When we do not want to be associated with failure Impression Management ○ Self presentation: when people try to present themselves more positively to others ■ Ingratiation ● flatter/compliment others ■ Self promotion ● Talking about your accomplishments ○ Self verification ■ When people show people the real them ○ Self monitoring ■ A trait where you monitor/sensor the things you do and say in different situations ○

●...