Ch. 1: Intro
Would people rather be accurate or feel good about themselves?
Feel good about themselves.
What is a heuristic, and what are the three different types?
A heuristic is a mental shortcut to make decisions quickly and efficiently. Availability heuristic, which is making a judgment based on how quickly something comes to mind. Representative heuristic is making a judgment based on how much we think it represents a typical case. Base rate, information about the frequency of members of different categories in the population.
What is social perception?
The study of how we form impressions and make inferences about other people
What is the self-awareness theory?
When we focus attention on ourselves to evaluate and compare our internal standards and values
An attitude based on people’s belief about the properties of an object.
List and define the different disciplines related to social psychology (3)
Social psychology: how individuals are influenced by their social environment
Personality: focuses on individual differences
Sociology: studies groups & societies
What are the positives and negatives of counterfactual thinking
Positives: motivation to improve for the future.
Negatives: rumination of negative thoughts and can lead to depression
What is thin-slicing and give an example of when it is used?
Drawing meaningful conclusions about another person’s personality or skills based on an extremely brief sample of behavior
What is misattribution of arousal? Give an example
Making mistaken inferences about what is causing them to feel the way they do
- E.g. feeling fear on a high bridge and suddenly being attracted to the person they are with.
What is an Affectively Based Attitude?
An attitude based more on people’s feelings and values than on their beliefs about the nature of an attitutue object
Define and give an example of the fundamental attribution error.
The tendency to overestimate the role of personal traits (dispositions) and underestimate the role of situational factors when explaining other people's behavior.
Example: Varies
What are the two types of social cognition, and explain their differences?
controlled: slower and often leads to deliberation and careful selection of a solution.
automatic: fast judgment based on past experiences.
What is the Attribution Theory and What are the 2 types of attributions
The way in which people explain the causes of their own and other people’s behavior
- Internal attributions (dispositional) and External attributions (situational)
What is the self-perception theory?
The theory that when our attitudes and feelings are unclear and uncertain, we observe our behavior and the situation in which it occurs decide how we “feel”
- (We conclude our inner feelings from our behavior when we are not sure how we feel)
What is the difference between explicit and implicit attitudes?
Explicit are attitudes that we consciously endorse and can easily report while implicit attitudes exist outside of our conscious awareness.