Research Methods + Intro to Social Psych
Definition of theories and hypotheses
theory: organized set of principles used to explain an observed phenomenon
hypotheses: specific testable prediction about relationships between two or more variables
Automatic vs controlled thinking
automatic: thinking that is generally unconscious, unintentional, involuntary and effortless, requires low effort + low mental resources, is more efficient
controlled: thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful, provides checks and balances for automatic thinking, requires mental energy and can only think in a controlled way about 1 thing at a time
Emblems: what are they and are they universal?
common hand gestures in which communicate clear messages
no not universal, culturally determined
Independent vs. Interdependent sense of self
Independent view of self - individualistic cultures: define self in terms of own internal feelings, thoughts, and actions, not based on others. Place value in standing out
interdependent view of self - collectivist cultures: define self in terms of relationship to others + recognize their behaviour is determined by the feelings, thoughts and actions of others. Place value in blending in + promoting group harmony
Counterfactual thinking: when used, benefits and + drawbacks
mentally changing some aspect of the past as a way of imagining what might could’ve been. Usually conscious, effortful, more common for the near misses, the easier it is to think it could have been avoided, the more distressed people feel
benefits: focus attention on ways that they can cope better in the future, motivates them to take steps to prevent it from happening in the future
drawbacks: can potentially serve as faulty reference points for judging reality and decisions, sometimes mislead people to adopt beliefs about the causes of events and ways to prevent undesirable outcomes in the future that are incorrect
strengths and weaknesses of correlational research
strengths: can help determine if a relationship exists between two variables, useful when unclear about relationship, want to examine if the relationship between variables that are hard or unethical to manipulate
weaknesses: can’t fully determine cause and effect. WHY? Correlation =/= _________
Definition and examples of confirmation bias and belief perseverance
confirmation bias: processing information about particular people or situations in a way that confirms or supports existing schemas. We see what we expect to see, we remember what we expect to remember, we engage in biased hypothesis testing and evidence seeking
Belief perseverance: cling to beliefs even after they have been discredited, can contribute to spread of misinformation, lead to flawed decision making (naive realism), creates breakdown in communication by placing strain on interpersonal relationships
What are the 6 universal emotions according to Ekman + Friesen
anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness
Self-concept clarity - what is it, what is it related to in western cultures and cultural differences
The extent to which knowledge about self is clear, stable, and consistently defined
western cultures tend to put more emphasis on self-concept clarity and value on standing out. Collectivist cultures care more about group harmony and less emphasis on self-concept, and through this self-esteem is not reliant on how an individual views themself but on the group and how they view the person
Naive realism
how people think about themselves and the social world, specifically how they select, interpret, remember and use social information to make judgements + decisions
Definition of social psychology + what do they study
study of the way people’s thoughts, feelings and actions are influenced by real/imagined presence of other people
social thinking, social relationships, social influence
Relationship between schemas, confirmation bias, and self-fulfilling prophecy
people can inadvertently make their schemas come true by the way they treat other people, if they consistently treat someone a certain way after they have been proved wrong, and this leads to the other person acting in the way they are being treated
Three elements of Kelly’s covariation model
covariation model suggests we form attributions by noting the pattern between the presence (or absence) of possible causal factors + whether or not the behaviour occurs
1. Consensus - concerns the extent other people behave in same way actor is
2. Distinctiveness - extent one actor behaves in same way to different stimuli
3. Consistency - extent the behaviour between action + stimulus is the same across time + circumstances
Introspection definition
source of self knowledge, process whereby people look inward and examine own thoughts, feelings, and motives (controlled process)
we need to be motivated to turn our conscious attention inwards - occurs when something in the environment triggers self-awareness
schemas (and functions)
mental structure people use to organize knowledge about the world, abstract + based on past experiences
4 types - person/group schema, role schema, event schema, self-schema
Help us have continuity + relate new experiences to past
help us organize + make sense of our world + fill in gaps of our knowledge
help us know what ot do in ambiguous situations
Where do construals come from and what are they
2. The need to to feel good - self-esteem: motivated to maintain positive view of self; self-justification: make sure behaviours line up with thoughts
Construals are subjective perceptions of our social environment
Definition and examples of availability bias and representativeness heuristics
availability bias: mental shortcut where people base judgements and decision making on on the ease of which you can bring information to mind, things that come to mind more easily are judged as more frequent. eg., shark attacks are more reported than vending machines injuries, yet vending machine injuries are more common than shark attacks
representativeness heuristics: people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case. Eg., thinking someone wearing a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase must be a lawyer because they look like a lawyer
Role of perpetual salience in FAE + actor/observer effect
both can be explained by the information that is at the focus of people’s attention; visual focus can trigger FAE and actor/observer effect
Self-concept definition
knowledge we have about who we are
Hindsight bias: def + consequences
individual’s tendency to overestimate the extent to which they could have predicted an outcome or event after it has occurred, can contribute ot perception of research findings as common sense
consequences: no questioning of why, not open to other views, easy to criticize when not in the situation + victim blaming
Liberman, Samuels and Ross on dispositional and situational influences findings
put competitive and cooperative students against each other, cued them That the game was either a cooperative game or a competitive game, assessed how cooperative they were when playing the game. players were mostly influenced by the type of game they were cued it was (the situational factor)
Findings of Rosenthal & Jacobson regarding self-fulfilling prophecy
All children in a class given an IQ test, teachers told that according to the test some children will be “bloomers”, researchers observed classroom dynamics throughout the year, then children were given another IQ test at the end of the year. Children who were said to be “bloomers” improved more than students not said to be “bloomers.”
Two step process of attribution
1. We make internal attribution assuming behaviour is caused by something about that person
2. Attempt to adjust this attribution by considering the situation the person was in, sometimes skipped because lack of time or effort, typically do step 2 when motivated to be accurate or suspicious of a behaviour
Limitations of introspection - describe one of the studies gone over in class
even though we engage in self awareness it is difficult to know why we feel the way we do
even though we don’t know the true cause of our feelings we can often readily come up with explanations
Maier - tying ropes together, only could do it once cued how to, when asked how they did it, came up with other explanations for for how they came up with the solution
Nisbet + Wilson - pantyhose judgements, when asked why they liked the one they did, came up with explanations for why but the real reason is because the way they positioned the pictures
misattribution of arousal - bridge - when asked why they called the woman they said because she was attractive but was really because they were scared of the bridge (since the people on the less scary bridge didn't call her)
Bystander effect + diffusion of responsibility
presence of others discourages individuals from intervening in an emergency situation, the more bystanders, the less likely one is to help
diffusion of responsibility: individuals feel less responsibility to take action in presence of others because they assume someone else will take action