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What is Social
Psychology?
- The scientific study of the common aspects of individuals that make them susceptible to the effects of social influence on their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors TERM 2
What are the 2 primary social motives?
DEFINITION 2
- The motive to view the world accurately - The motive to feel good about ourselves TERM 3
What is the ABC Triad?
DEFINITION 3 BEHAVIOR AFFECTS COGNTIIVE TERM 4
Social Psychology places emphasis on .... (4)
DEFINITION 4 (1) The physical world (2) Culture (3) Power of the Person (individual and others) (4) Cognition (interpretation) TERM 5
What do Social Psychologists
do?
DEFINITION 5
- They acquire a broad understanding of how human beings think, act, and feel
Why do they want a broad understanding of
human beings?
- Curiosity about people - Making the world better - Applied research TERM 7
How do Social Psychologists Study People?
DEFINITION 7
- They use the Scientific Method TERM 8
How do Social Psychologists answer their own
questions?
DEFINITION 8
- They accumulate common wisdom - Adages are often contradictory - Poor method of discovering the truth TERM 9
List the steps in the Scientific Method
DEFINITION 9
- State a problem - Formulate a testable hypothesis - Design study and collect data - Test the hypothesis with the data - Communicate the study results TERM 10
What is a theory?
DEFINITION 10
- It summarizes and explains the facts - The scientific theory must be testable
What is the Correlational
Coefficient?
r - (-1) to (+1) TERM 17
Correlation does.....
DEFINITION 17 NOT imply causation!! TERM 18
What is a positive correlation?
DEFINITION 18
- Slant up to the right (+1) TERM 19
What is a negative correlation?
DEFINITION 19
- Slant down to the right (-1) TERM 20
What is no correlation?
DEFINITION 20
- No correlation is just a circle (0)
What is the goal of experimental design?
- To draw causal conclusions TERM 22
What is an experimental design?
DEFINITION 22
- a study in which a researcher manipulates an independent variable, randomly assign people to groups, and have a high degree of control TERM 23
An experimental
design.....
DEFINITION 23
- NEVER PROVES ANYTHING!!! TERM 24
What makes a true experiment?
DEFINITION 24
- Manipulation of an independent variable - Random assignment - Control group TERM 25
What types of variables are there?
DEFINITION 25
- Dependent and Independent
What are the final characteristics of a true
experiment?
- Random assignment - Quasi experiment - Strength of experimental design - causal relationships - Limitations - restricted use, decreased generalizability TERM 32
How much of social psychology is true?
DEFINITION 32
- Self-Correcting nature of science - Reliance on student samples - Cultural Relativity - western cultures dominate social psychology research, cultural differences may be substantial and important TERM 33
What is Social Cognition?
DEFINITION 33
- Focused on our thoughts about people and our social relationships - Perceive ourselves and other people - Inner processes serve interpersonal functions - Social acceptance, relationship formation, and maintenance - Competing against others for our goals TERM 34
What are the goals of
thinking?
DEFINITION 34
- Discover the right answer - Reach the answer quickly TERM 35
What is a Cognitive
Miser?
DEFINITION 35
- When a person is reluctant to do much thinking
What is a schema?
- Substantial information about a concept, its attributes, and its relationships to other concepts TERM 37
What are the advantages of schemas?
DEFINITION 37
- They allow us to fill in the blanks - Resolve ambiguity in a new situation TERM 38
What are the disadvantages of schemas?
DEFINITION 38
- We make snap judgments TERM 39
What is a script?
DEFINITION 39
- It is the schema for a situation - Sequence of events TERM 40
How do schemas guide our powers of critical
thinking?
DEFINITION 40
- Our interpretation of social worlds - Influence our constructed memories
What is an attribution?
- The ways people try to explain CAUSES of peoples behavior, including their own TERM 47
When do we engage in attributional
thinking?
DEFINITION 47
- Important situations - Something unexpected happens - Negative or painful events TERM 48
What are the 2 dimensions of attributions?
DEFINITION 48
- Internal VS External - Stable VS Unstable TERM 49
What are the 4 ways to explain Successes and
Failures?
DEFINITION 49
- Internal Stable - ability - Internal Unstable - Effort - External Stable - Difficulty of Task - External Unstable - Luck TERM 50
What is the Fundamental Attribution Error?
DEFINITION 50
- Tendency to overestimate the role of a person's internal disposition and underestimate the external factors
What are some explanations for the
Fundamental Attribution Error?
- Perceptual Salience - behavior - Not enough weight to situational forces - Internal attributions are easier to make TERM 52
What is the Actor/Observer Bias?
DEFINITION 52
- Actor - external attributions - Observer - internal attributions TERM 53
What is another Attributional Error?
DEFINITION 53
- Self-Serving Bias - Take credit for success and deny blame for failures TERM 54
What is a Heuristic?
DEFINITION 54
- Automatic mental shortcuts people use to make snap judgments about people, places, and social situations TERM 55
What is Representativeness Heuristi?
DEFINITION 55
- Judge the likelihood by the extent that it resembles the typical case - Make an assumption about a person even though there are not many of those types of people - Example - you assume a eprson is an astronaut because of how they talk, their interests, schooling, etc. But it is unlikely that they are an astronaut because there are so few astronauts
What is the Confirmation Bias?
- We only listen or pay attention to things that confirm our position on something TERM 62
Are people really idiots?
DEFINITION 62
- We make predictable errors - Cognitive misers - Heuristics are shortcuts TERM 63
How can we reduce Cognitive
Errors?
DEFINITION 63
- Debiasing - Consider multiple alternatives - Rely less on memory - Use meta - cognition TERM 64
What is Non-Verbal Communication?
DEFINITION 64
- Communications, intentional or unintentional, without words - Its how we make a lot of assumptions about the people around us - Facial Expressions, Body Landuage, Tone of Voice TERM 65
What are the 6 Channels of Non-Verbal
Communication?
DEFINITION 65 (1) Tone of Voice (2) Facial Expression (3) Eye Gaze / Eye Contact (4) Body Position and Movement (including interpersonal space) (5) Use of Touch (6) Gestures
What are Emblems?
- Gestures that have specific culturally - defined meanings - Shaking hands, peace sign, thumbs up, middle finger TERM 67
What are Illustrators?
DEFINITION 67
- Gestures that emphasize verbal communication - A person tends to use their hands a lot when they are talking TERM 68
What are the 5 Functions of Non-Verbal
Communication?
DEFINITION 68 (1) Express Emotions (2) Convey Attitudes (3) Communicate Personal Characteristics (4) Facilitate Verbal Communication (5) Self - Regulatory Function TERM 69
What are the 6 Emotions that are innate (not
learned)?
DEFINITION 69 (1) Anger (2) Happiness (3) Surprise (4) Fear (5) Disgust (6) Sadness TERM 70
Which group uses facial expressions to
express emotion more? Males or Females?
DEFINITION 70
