Term
| What is "social psychology"? |
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Definition
A science that studies the influences of our situations, with special attention to how we view and affect one another.
More precisely said, it is the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. |
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Term
| Ways that values can influence research |
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Definition
1) through choices of disciplines, research projects and questions asked
2) through how research evidence is perceived and interpreted
3) through how research findings and conclusions are described and communicated to others |
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Term
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Definition
| what is the nature of the phenomenon? |
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Term
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Definition
- from knowing x, can we predict y?
- correlation does not imply causation |
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Term
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Definition
| is variable x a cause of variable y? |
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Term
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Definition
| - erformed by analyzing studies conducted by other researchers or by looking at historical patient records. For example, researchers recently analyzed the records of soldiers who served in the Civil War to learn more about PTSD |
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Term
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Definition
| they obtain a representative group by taking a random sample. |
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Term
| correlational versus causation |
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Definition
| correlation does not imply causation |
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Term
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Definition
| the variable that the researcher changes or varies to see if it has an effect on the other variable(s) |
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Term
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Definition
| the variable that the researcher measures to see if it is influenced by the independent variable |
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Term
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Definition
the process of assigning participants to the conditions of an experiment such that all persons have the same chance of being in a given condition
(Note the distinction between random assignment in experiments and random sampling in surveys. random assignment helps us infer cause and effect. random sampling helps us generalize to a population) |
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Term
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Definition
- the inclination to see events that have occurred as more predictable than they in fact were before they took place.
- subjects also tend to remember their predictions of future events as having been stronger than they actually were, in those cases where those predictions turn out correct. |
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Term
| The layperson as "intuitive scientist" |
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Definition
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Term
| Fundamental attribution error (FAE) |
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Definition
| the tendency for people to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences on other's behavior |
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Term
| actor-observer differences |
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Definition
| when actors tend to attribute their own behavior to their circumstances (i.e., situation causes), but tend to attribute the behaviors of those we observe to their dispositions (i.e., person causes). It is a kind of attributional bias, and therefore also a cognitive bias. |
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Term
| "Castro" Study (Jones & Harris, 1967) |
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Definition
Procedure
Subjects read other students’ essays that
either supported or attacked Castro.
Subjects were told that the essays’ position
was either freely chosen or assigned to
the students by the experimenter.
Subjects guessed how the essay writers
really felt about Castro.
Results
In both the “chosen” and the “assigned”
conditions, subjects inferred that the
students who wrote pro-Castro essays
were more favorable to Castro than those
who wrote anti-Castro essays. |
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Term
"Questioner-contestant" (College Bowl) Study
(Ross, Amabile, & Steinmetz, 1977) |
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Definition
Procedure
Subjects were randomly assigned the
role of either “questioner” or
“contestant.”
Questioners made up questions and
tested the contestants.
Afterwards, both contestants and
observers rated the questioners and
contestants on general knowledge.
Results
Questioners were rated as more
knowledgeable than contestants. |
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Term
| "Manager-clerk" Study (Humphrey) |
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Definition
Procedure
Subjects were randomly assigned the
role of either “manager” or “clerk.”
Managers were given supervisory
responsibilities and clerks were
assigned to follow orders.
Results
Managers were rated as higher than
clerks in leadership ability,
intelligence, and assertiveness. |
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Term
Why do we make the FAE?
(or, why do actor/observer differences exist?) |
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Definition
1) Difference in perspective/ perceptual salience
2) information availability
3) culture |
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Term
| Cultural differences in attribution |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
- explores interpersonal perception, self-perception, attribution
- how people think about themselves and the social world; specifically, how people select, interpret, remember and use social information to make judgements and decisions |
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Term
"Hostile media bias" Study
(Vallone, Ross & Lepper, 1985) |
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Definition
Subjects: Pro-Arab and Pro-Israeli students
Procedure: Subjects view news media coverage of the 1982 “Beirut massacre”
Measures: Subjects rate the coverage on how much it favors each side |
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Term
Capital Punishment Study
(Lord, Ross, & Lepper, 1979) |
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Definition
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Term
Belief Perseverance Study
(Ross, Lepper & Hubbard, 1975) |
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Definition
Procedure: Subjects distinguish between real and fake suicide notes
Independent Variable: “Success” vs. “Failure” conditions
Dependent Variable: Subjects’ ratings of themselves on their performance, ability, and future performance |
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Term
| Memory construction and reconstruction |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| The tendency for one’s expectation about another person to evoke behavior in that person that confirms the expectation |
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Term
"Bloomers" Study
(Rosenthal & Jackson, 1968) |
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Definition
Procedure: Elementary school children are given a fake IQ test. Their teachers are given names of students who, according to the test, will “bloom” during the upcoming academic year
I.V.: “Bloomers” vs. Controls
D.V.: Children’s scores on a real IQ test at the end of the academic year |
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Term
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Definition
| Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that people use to make judgments quickly and efficiently |
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Term
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Definition
| Mental rule of thumb whereby people base a judgment on the ease with which they can bring something to mind |
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Term
| representativeness (similarity) heuristic |
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Definition
| Mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case |
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Term
| anchoring heuristic (anchoring bias) |
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Definition
| Mental shortcut that involves using a number or value as a starting point, and then adjusting one’s answer away from this anchor; people often do not adjust their answer sufficiently |
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Term
| Overconfidence phenomenon |
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Definition
| This is the tendency for people to be more confident than correct in their judgements. Studies have shown that when people answer multiple choice questions like, "Which is longer, the Mississippi River or the Nile River?", if the answers are 60% correct, the subjects are 75% certain of their answers. |
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Term
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Definition
- the phenomenon of seeing the relationship one expects in a set of data even when no such relationship exists.
- When people form false associations between membership in a statistical minority group and rare (typically negative) behaviors, this would be a common example of illusory correlation. |
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Term
| Evidence regarding the "hot hand" in basketball |
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Definition
- players believe that when they have the "hot hand" they can make any shot.
- however studies show that there is no significant increase in the amount of shots made |
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Term
"Being sane in insane places" Study
(Rosenhan, 1973) |
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Definition
A study demonstrating
(1) belief perseverance and
(2) the biasing power of diagnostic
labels
...that is, that “clinicians see what they want to see”
Most clinicians and interviewers express more confidence in their clinical, intuitive assessments than in statistical, test-based evidence. |
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Term
| Clinical vs. Statistical prediction |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| The tendency of mildly depressed people to make accurate rather than self-serving judgments, attributions, and predictions. |
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Term
| Depressive attributional style |
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Definition
| The tendency of depressed people to attribute failures to internal, stable, and global causes. |
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Term
"Nursing home plant" Study
(Langer & Rodin, 1976) |
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Definition
Control condition: No personal responsibility
Experimental “Plant” condition: Personal responsibility stressed – take care of plants, choose movies, etc.
Results: “Plant” condition residents were later judged as happier and more active, and they lived longer than control condition residents. |
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Term
| Health Psychology (social cognition and illness) |
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Definition
| - provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine by studying the psychological roots of health and illness. |
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Term
| Knowing (and not knowing ourselves) |
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Definition
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Term
"Power saw" Study
(Nisbett & Wilson, 1977) |
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Definition
Procedure: Subjects viewed a documentary film
and then evaluated it.
Design: “Power Saw” condition versus Control condition.
Results:
1. No differences on ratings of enjoyment between conditions.
2. “Power saw” subjects thought the noise made them like the film less. |
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Term
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Definition
| Explanations for one’s successes that credit dispositional factors, and explanations for one’s failures that blame situational factors |
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Term
| self-serving self-perceptions |
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Definition
| the tendency to perceive oneself favorably |
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Term
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Definition
| - the tendency to believe that positive events are more expected to happen to oneself than others, and negative events are more expected to happen to others than oneself. |
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Term
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Definition
- False perception that one’s opinions are supported
- The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one's opinions and one's undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors |
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Term
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Definition
| - the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's abilities and one's desirable or successful behaviors |
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Term
| ways that self-serving bias are maintained |
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Definition
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Term
| ways that self-serving biases are adaptive and maladaptive |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| a sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, one's sense of self-worth. |
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Term
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Definition
- An enduring evaluation – positive or negative – of people,
objects, and ideas.
- The ABC’s of attitudes: Affect,
Behavior, and Cognition. |
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Term
| the affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of attitudes |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| - The bogus pipeline is usually used when trying to measure individuals affect or attitudes toward certain stimuli. Basically, the person whose attitude or emotion is being measured is told that they are being monitored by a machine or a polygraph (lie detector), resulting in more truthful answers. |
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Term
| Conditions under which attitudes determine behavior |
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Definition
1. Neither the attitude nor the behavior is subject to social desirability.
2. Chance situational influences on the behavior are minimal.
3. The attitude is specifically relevant to the observed behavior.
4. The attitude is potent – i.e.,
(a) on our minds
(b) gained through direct experience |
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Term
| Foot-in-the-door technique |
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Definition
The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.
Why does it work?
Self-perception and dissonance |
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Term
"Drive carefully" study
(Freedman & Fraser, 1966) |
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Definition
Control condition: Homemakers asked to put a large, ugly “Drive Carefully sign” on their front lawns.
“Foot-in-the-door” condition: Homemakers first asked to sign safe driving petition, then asked to put large, ugly “Drive Carefully” sign on their front lawns. |
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Term
| Door-in-the-face technique |
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Definition
| The tendency for people who have first turned down a large request to comply later with a smaller request. |
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Term
| "Zoo trip" study (Cialdini, 1975) |
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Definition
Control condition: Students asked to chaperone juvenile delinquents on a 2-hour trip to the zoo
“Door-in-the-face” condition: Students first asked to volunteer as a counselor for 2 years, then asked to chaperone juvenile delinquents on a 2-hour trip to the zoo
Results – Compliance Rates
Control condition – 17%
“Door-in-the-face” condition – 50% |
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Term
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Definition
A tactic for getting people to agree to something. People who agree to an initial request will be more likely to comply when the requester “ups the ante” than people who receive only the costly request.
why does it work?
1.Illusion of irrevocability
2.Anticipation
3.Step-by-step commitment |
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Term
| What is "cognitive dissonance"? |
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Definition
| Tension or discomfort caused by simultaneously holding two inconsistent cognitions. |
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Term
| ways of reducing cognitive dissonance |
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Definition
1.Change one of your cognitions or behaviors
2.Bring your cognitions in line with one another
3.Not think about it or reduce the importance of the cognitions |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
| Insufficient justification |
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Definition
- When people attempt to reduce their dissonance by changing something about themselves, for example their attitudes, they are using internal justification.
- When people attempt to explain their dissonant behaviors by focusing on reasons that reside outside of themselves, for example being paid a large sum of money, they are using external justification |
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Term
"$1 vs. $20" study
(Festinger & Carlsmith) |
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Definition
I.V. Subjects either paid $1 or $20 to say the study was interesting D.V. Ratings of how much they enjoyed the study
Results: $1 condition reported enjoying the study more than the $20 condition |
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Term
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Definition
| - an account of attitude change developed by psychologist Daryl Bem. It asserts that we develop our attitudes by observing our own behavior and concluding what attitudes must have caused them. |
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Term
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Definition
| - When you give someone something for something they already love, it undermines their intrinsic motivation. |
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Term
| Extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation |
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Definition
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Term
"Good player award" study
(Lepper, Greene & Nisbett, 1973) |
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Definition
I.V. “Good Player” award either offered or not offered for playing with magic markers
D.V. How long children subsequently played with magic markers
Results: Children who anticipated a
“Good Player” award played
less with the magic markers
than children who anticipated
no award
Note: Overjustification for playing with
magic markers |
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Term
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Definition
| - People are unlikely to change their self-concept to believe they were unskilled or foolish; instead they change their attitude towards the goal and see it positively |
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Term
| "Sex discussion group" study |
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Definition
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Term
| dissonance after decisions |
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Definition
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Term
"Appliance" study
(Brehm, 1956) |
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Definition
Procedure: Women rated 8 appliances and chose between
their 2nd and 3rd favorite appliance
Results: After choosing, Ss increased their liking for the chosen appliance and decreased their liking for the nonchosen appliance |
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