Term
| What is the definition of social psychology? |
|
Definition
| The scientific study of the way in which people’s feelings, behaviors and thoughts are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people. |
|
|
Term
| What is social cognition? Discuss two differences between perceiving people and perceiving inanimate objects. |
|
Definition
Social Cognition – how we perceive, remember, and interpret information about ourselves and others
People perceive back
People react to being perceived
The critical features of objects can be observed
People are more likely to change over time
Accuracy of social cognition is more difficult to measure
People are more complex |
|
|
Term
| What is a schema? What are the five types of schemas that we discussed in class? Be able to give an example of each |
|
Definition
Mental representations of objects of categories of objects
They bundle knowledge in an organized way
They contain features, assumptions, examples, etc.
Schemas determine:
What information we attend to
How we interpret this information
What we remember
Individual person schemas
Self-schema
Social Role Schemas
Event Schemas/Scripts
Stereotypes |
|
|
Term
| Discuss two benefits and two weaknesses of relying on schemas to process the social world. |
|
Definition
Increase the speed of understand people and events
Allow us to sift through information for key features
Allow us to go beyond the information given
Provides structure in ambiguous settings
After weighing all the circumstances, the CEO/drug dealer decided that he would have to terminate a few employees (fire/kill)
It is easy to overly rely on schemas
E.g., seeing sleep and doctor when they weren’t there
They can persist after they are discredited
Sometimes we make our schemas true by changing our own behavior |
|
|
Term
| What is a self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP)? Discuss the steps of a SFP and be able to give an example. |
|
Definition
When you act based on a schema in such a way that the object of the schema is likely to confirm your expectations
The schema avoids being disconfirmed because your behavior makes reality conform to your expectation |
|
|
Term
| 5. What is a heuristic? What is the representativeness heuristic? What is the availability heuristic? |
|
Definition
Heuristics are mental shortcuts
They are used when we are not motivated or able to engage in more careful and effortful processing
They generally have the same benefits and problems as schemas
Representativeness Heuristic-This heuristic involves classifying things according to how similar they are to the typical case
This heuristic arises because people ignore information about base rates
Availability Heuristic Basing judgments on how easy relevant examples can be generated
We have the thought, “If it’s easy to think of, it must be right”
This explains the false consensus effect
We overestimate the extent to which others agree with us, because most of our friends do |
|
|
Term
| What is counterfactual thinking? |
|
Definition
| mentally changing some aspect of the past as a way of imagining what might have been |
|
|
Term
| What is the overconfidence barrier and how is it related to heuristics? |
|
Definition
| The fact that people usually have too much confidence in the accuracy of their judgements |
|
|
Term
| What is priming? What are the two methods of priming? |
|
Definition
The tendency for recently used words or ideas to come to mind easily and influence subsequent thoughts, judgments, or behaviors
Two ways priming has its effect
Accessibility – how easily a thought can come to mind
Spreading Activation – when activation of one thought activates related thoughts
Subliminal – below the level of consciousness
Words or images presented so quickly they cannot be consciously recognized
Supraliminal – at the conscious level
Sentence unscrambles
Word Searches
Images, Objects, etc. |
|
|
Term
| How does priming work in the case of accessibility? How does it work in the case of spreading activation? Be prepared to discuss an experiment that offers an example of each. |
|
Definition
Higgins, Rholes, & Jones (1977)—An example of accessibility
IV - Primed participants with words implying recklessness or adventurousness
Participants then read info about Donald which could be considered adventurous or reckless
DV - Asked to rate how likable Donald is
Results - Participants primed with “adventurous” liked Donald more than those primed with “reckless”
Bargh, Chen, & Burrows (1996) – Elderly Study
Participants performed a scrambled sentence task
“in she towel Florida lives” → She lives in Florida
IV – words relating to the elderly (old, Florida, grey, etc.) or a control condition
IV - scrambled sentence task with three conditions:
rudeness (bother, disturb, etc.),
politeness (respect, polite, etc.)
control condition
They are asked to get the experimenter when they’re done, but the experimenter is talking to another participant |
|
|
Term
| What are the characteristics of automatic processes and controlled processes? Under what circumstances do people rely on each? |
|
Definition
Most errors we make are because things that happen automatically in our heads
These errors can be corrected with more careful thought
But, studies show that behaviors which we assume we can control often have automatic aspects
Automatic processing-We rely on this when we are not motivated or able to think carefully
Characteristics
Unconscious
Unintentional
Involuntary
Effortless
Controlled processing-We rely on this when we are motivated and able to think carefully
Characteristics
Conscious
Intentional
Voluntary
Effortful |
|
|
Term
| What is thought suppression? What two processes are at work when we try to suppress thoughts and why does suppression often have the effect of making thoughts more accessible? |
|
Definition
Thought suppression is avoiding thinking about something we want to forget
Automatic process: searches for the unwanted thought
Controlled process: creates a thought to distract from the unwanted thought
But, often times thought suppression → having the thought more
When the controlled process breaks down, the thought becomes even more accessible
Automatic process is operating when you notice that you are thinking about the information you aren’t supposed to know
Controlled process is operating when you think of something else—I’ll go buy a soda |
|
|
Term
| Be prepared to describe both of the Zhong & Leonardelli (2008) studies. What do they demonstrate about the relationship between social and physical stimuli? |
|
Definition
Study 1
IV: thinking of an example of social inclusion or social exclusion
DV: rating of the room’s temperature
Study 2
Had participants play Cyberball (Williams, Cheung, & Choi, 2001)
IV: exclusion or inclusion during Cyberball
DV: ratings of interest in hot vs. cold food |
|
|
Term
| What are two cultural differences in social cognition? |
|
Definition
| Western cultures tend to emphasize an analytic thinking style, a type of thinking in which people focus on the properties of objects without considering their surrounding context. People who grow up in east Asian cultures tend to have a holistic thinking styyle a type of think in which people focus on the overall contect, particulary the ways in which objects relate to eash cother |
|
|
Term
| What is nonverbal behavior? What about nonverbal behavior is cross-culturally universal? What about nonverbal behavior differs depending on cultural context? |
|
Definition
the way in which people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words; nonverbal cues include facial expressions, tone of voice, geastures, body postiton and movement, the use of touch and gaze
Display rules are particual to each culture and dictate what kinds of emotional expression people are supposed to show. Emblems are gestures with well-defined meanings ane are culturally determined
the six major emotions are universal, encoded and decoded similary by people around the world: they have evolutionary significance
anger, fear, disgust, happyness, surprise, sadness |
|
|
Term
| What is an implicit personality theory? What is an example? |
|
Definition
| a type of schema people use to group various kinda of personality traits together: for example many people believe that someone who is kind is generous as well. |
|
|
Term
| What are attributions? Why do people make attributions? What are the two different types of attributions that people can make? |
|
Definition
Attribution – an explanation for behavior (either our behavior or the behavior of others)
Attribution theory – a theory about how people explain the causes of behavior
Dispositional – behavior was caused by internal factors based on our personality
Situational – behavior was caused by external factors based on the situation
Argued that we are all intuitive scientists and we try to figure others out to:
Predict our environment
Control our environment |
|
|
Term
| Describe each of the three components of Correspondent Inference Theory (CIT). Under what circumstances should we make dispositional attributions? |
|
Definition
This was a theory about how people should make attributions if they were being good intuitive scientists.
Specifically, the model focuses on when people should make dispositional attributions.
Free Choice
The more evidence that a behavior was freely chosen, the stronger the dispositional attribution
Expectedness of the Behavior
The more expected the behavior, the weaker the dispositional attribution
Effects of the Behavior
The more positive effects of a behavior, the less certain you can be about why the person produced the behavior.
Dispositional attributions will be more likely when:
Choice is high
Expectedness is low
There are few positive effects of the behavior |
|
|
Term
| Describe Gilbert’s three-stage model of attribution. What is each stage and what type of process (automatic or controlled) is used at each stage? |
|
Definition
Stage 1 - Behavioral Identification
The behavior in question is identified
This stage occurs automatically
Stage 2 - Dispositional Attribution
People make a dispositional attribution for the behavior
This stage occurs automatically
Stage 3 – Situational Correction
If motivated and able, people can correct their dispositional attributions based on situational factors
This step is controlled |
|
|
Term
| What is the Fundamental Attribution Error? Be able to give an example from your own life and an example of an experiment that demonstrates this error. |
|
Definition
The tendency to underestimate the effect of a situation and overestimate the effect of the person’s disposition in causing behavior
Also called the correspondence bias
Jones & Harris (1967) – test of the importance of free choice
Subjects read a speech about Fidel Castro (written by another student)
IV 1: Pro-Castro and Anti-Castro
IV 2: Told the writer had chosen his stance or was assigned to their topic
DV: what is the writer’s true opinion of Castro |
|
|
Term
| Why does the FAE occur? Answer this question in relation to CIT and Gilbert’s three stage model. |
|
Definition
People automatically fixate on dispositional attributions
If not motivated or able to correct for the situation, the attributions will end up mostly dispositional
Motivation and ability ↓ FAE
High accountability also ↓ FAE |
|
|
Term
| What are cultural differences in the FAE (correspondence bias)? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What is the Actor-Observer effect? Be able to give an example. Why does the Actor-Observer effect occur? |
|
Definition
The tendency to make dispositional attributions for the behavior of others and situational attributions for ourselves
Why does this happen?
Information
Attention |
|
|
Term
| What is belief in a just world? Why might this affect the types of attributions we make? |
|
Definition
The belief that there is justice in the world; that good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people
This is one of the most powerful beliefs that people have.
BJW research has found that victims of crime are often blamed for what happened to them
BJW may reduce motivation to correct dispositional attributions |
|
|
Term
| What is attributional ambiguity? Describe one study that shows a benefit of this kind of ambiguity. What is the potential downside to this type of ambiguity? |
|
Definition
Most of the time, more than one attribution is possible
For example, Simon Cowell
He’s a jerk
He’s honest
Prejudice can create attributional ambiguity
Is negative feedback due to bad performance or prejudice?
Stigma can protect self-esteem by allowing stigmatized individuals to attribute negative feedback to prejudice
E.g., I’m not bad at this, this person is just prejudiced
Crocker, Voelkl, Testa, & Major (1991)
Female Ps received negative feedback
IV: whether or not they thought the experimenter was prejudiced
DV: mood and attribution of feedback to prejudice
Results – negative feedback from a prejudiced person caused less depressed feelings and more attribution to prejudice |
|
|
Term
| What are the four main differences in attribution for independent and interdependent individuals? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| When behavior is influenced due to the direct commands of an authority figure. |
|
|
Term
| Describe the Milgram study and two variations that were conducted. How do the results reflect both normative social influence and informational social influence? |
|
Definition
You sign-up for a learning experiment.
Another participant shows up and you are “randomly” assigned to be the teacher.
The learner (a confederate) is led to another room. You get to see the learner being hooked up to an electro-shock machine.
You are given a mild shock as a demonstration.
Before you leave the shock room you overhear the learner say that he has a history of heart problems.
You are told by the experimenter that you will give the learner shocks when they miss problems (the more they miss, the more severe the shock).
You sit down in front of a machine with 30 switches (from 15 volts to 450 volts which is labeled X X X)
The learner starts out doing well, but begins to make more and more errors.
As the level of shock goes up the learner begins to protest, asks to leave the study, and screams in pain and agony
At some point you probably suggest ending the experiment.
The experimenter responds by saying, “Please continue,” “You must go on,” “It is absolutely essential that you continue,” or “You have no other choice; you must go on.”
You are confronted with the decision to walk out of the experiment, or to continue on up the dial…
Milgram had surveyed his colleagues before running the experiment – on average they thought only 1 in a 1000 people would go all the way to the end of the dial.
The actual results shocked the psychological community.
Everyone went until at least 300 volts before they stopped (the learner complains of heart problems at 150 volts).
About 65% of participants continued to the end of the dial.
Do you think that experimenters found gender differences?
Gender had no effect
What happened when the experiment was in an office building (not a laboratory)?
47% - When study was performed in office building
Participants are in a familiar context
What happened when two confederates rebelled?
10% - When two confederates rebelled
Role-models for defiance – norms are changed |
|
|
Term
| What factors increase obedience? What factors decrease obedience? |
|
Definition
People obeyed because:
The socialization of obedience
Gradual escalation of voltage
People disobeyed because:
Interpersonal processes that jam up momentum
Early resistance prevents rationalization
First, focus on your responsibility
Second, models of disobedience make disobeying easier
Third, models provide social support
Fourth, learning to question motives and competence of authority
Fifth, education really works |
|
|
