The Scientific Skepticism Quiz

Social psychology is the scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.

Construal refers to the way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world.

Social psychology is scientific as it relies on systematic and empirical methods of study.

<p>One related discipline to social psychology is sociology.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Social influence can shape and impact thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Objective features of the social situation matter because they can influence how individuals interpret and respond to the situation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>No, construals are not always obvious and can vary among individuals.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Kurt Lewin</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The need to feel good, the need to be accurate, the need to belong</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Accuracy is always important, at least to some extent</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Self-esteem refers to the need to feel good, competent, and decent. It is important for maintaining a positive self-image.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>An example of justifying past behavior is littering, where individuals may justify their own littering but condemn others for doing the same.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Social cognition refers to how people think about themselves and the social world, including how they select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Construals are unconscious processes of interpreting social situations. They are shaped by culture, but the act of construing is universal.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Social Psychology can contribute to the solution of social problems by understanding social influence, the power of the situation, and construal.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Aggression/violence, prejudice, and pro-environmental behavior</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Scientific skepticism is the approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind, but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them as true. It differs from cynicism because it includes a willingness to change one’s mind when confronted with evidence that challenges existing beliefs.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The principles of scientific thinking include ruling out rival hypotheses, understanding that correlation is not causation, using operational definitions, testability and falsifiability, replication, and the idea that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Both social psychology and sociology focus on social behavior, but social psychology focuses on the individual in the context of a social situation, while sociology focuses on broad societal factors that influence events in a society.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Both social psychology and personality psychology focus on the individual, but personality psychology is specifically interested in individual differences.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to overestimate the extent to which people’s behavior stems from personality traits and to underestimate the role of situational factors.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Dispositional attributions can create a false sense of security and lead to an overemphasis on personality traits as the sole cause of behavior, disregarding situational factors.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Construal refers to people’s interpretation of a situation, which is often more important than the objective properties of the situation itself.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The main focus of behaviorism is on environmental factors and reinforcement principles. It was considered anti-mentalistic because it rejected subjective methods and focused exclusively on observable behavior.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The Construal Principle, according to Wilson (2022), states that to understand and predict human behavior, we must focus on people's current interpretation and understanding of themselves and their environment.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Some related terms to the Construal Principle are mindset, appraisal, attribution, interpretation, narrative, story, and meaning making.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Construals can be experimentally manipulated by altering the way individuals interpret or perceive a situation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>For example, if your romantic partner usually texts you every couple of hours but doesn't text you before you go to bed on a Friday night while they are at a party, you may interpret the situation as them being preoccupied at the party.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out evidence that supports our beliefs and ignore or distort evidence that contradicts them. It can reinforce our existing beliefs and prevent us from considering alternative perspectives.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Naïve realism is the belief that we see the world precisely as it is. It is problematic in ambiguous or complex situations because our perceptions may be influenced by biases and subjective interpretations.</p> Signup and view all the answers