PSYC 260 Social Psych PDF

Mod. 1 Intro Biological Roots ​ Our psychologies are the result of the interaction between biology and experience ​ We are a bio-psycho-social organism ​ Naturalistic fallacy is is a type of logical error where someone argues that what is "natural" is inherently "good," "right," or "...

Mod. 1 Intro Biological Roots ​ Our psychologies are the result of the interaction between biology and experience ​ We are a bio-psycho-social organism ​ Naturalistic fallacy is is a type of logical error where someone argues that what is "natural" is inherently "good," "right," or "morally acceptable," or conversely, that what is "unnatural" is inherently "bad," "wrong," or "immoral." This fallacy conflates descriptive statements (what is) with prescriptive or normative statements (what ought to be), which is an error in reasoning. ​ Hindsight Bias, tendency to exaggerate after learning outcome saying I knew that would happen or called Error-prone hindsight REST OF SLIDES AND CHAPTER ARE ABOUT RESEARCH GO THRO BEFORE MIDTERM AND MAKE SURE YOU KNOW EVERYTHING The replication crisis in psych Research dont publish all of their research they only publish the portion that shows something interesting or what they want to get published because it will get attention whereas most of their research is filed away, which results in an inaccurate representation of findings; They cherry-picking data or dont reporting null results which can undermine the validity of findings. Journals favor publishing studies with positive, novel, or significant results, leading to underreporting of null or negative findings. Impact of it The crisis has shaken confidence in psychological research, with critics questioning the validity of many findings. Mod. 2 The Self in a Social World ​ Spotlight effect, belief that clothes are paying more attention to us then they really are ​ Illusion of transparency we feel transparent when we’re self conscious and wrry about being evaluated negatively by others ​ Social surrounding affect our self awareness, if you are the only woman or brown person in the room then you become very aware of it ​ Self interest colours our social judgement, when problems come up in relationships we attribute it to the other person, when things go well we think were more responsible ​ Social relationships help define the self, were different w different people ​ Others help us shape our sense of self, why breakups can be so distressful ​ Lake wobegon effect is that we believe we are above average Sense of Self ​ Right hemisphere and medial prefrontal cortex seemed ot be associated w our sense of self ​ Our self concept is defined by our self schemas, the labels or categories we put ourselves in Social Comparisons ​ Others help us to define the standards by which we evaluate ourselves ​ Those around us have a great impact on how we see ourselves ​ We feel smart around dumb people or good looking around people who are not, etc ​ When facing competition we try to protect our self concept by telling yourself their coaches were better or they had more time or they had better training Others’ Judgements ​ When others think of us as good we tend to inherit their ideas of us into our self concept ​ Thats why people tend to adhere to their social groups, gender race ​ The looking glass self, how we think others perceive us as a mirror for how we perceive ourselves Self and Culture ​ Westernism seems to reward and admire individualism, focuses more on self identity ​ Asian and eastern countries, africa, south american and indigenous tend to value collectivism, focuses more on group identity ​ Cultures seem to being getting more individualistic over time ​ Parents are giving their kids more unique names to stand out more and not be common, more common in western countries ​ Western ppl wanna stand out whereas asians want to fit in  ​ Collectivist cultures: ▫ Self-esteem is relational and malleable ▫ Persist longer on tasks when failing ▫ Upward social comparisons ▫ Balanced self-evaluations ​ Individualist cultures: ▫ Self-esteem is less relational and more personal ▫ Persist longer on tasks when succeeding ▫ Downward social comparisons ▫ Self-evaluations biased positively Culture and Cognition ​ When shown a scene japanese ppl focused more on background features and spoke of relationships then american who focused more on focal objects\ ​ Collectivist cultures tend to promote a greater sense of belonging and integration when asked about self and others, ex. When asked about mothers, brain area associated w self lights up Culture and Self-Esteem ​ In collectivist cultures self esteem tends to be more malleable rather than stable, they are not the same self w different ppl whereas westerns report being the one true self always ​ For individualistic cultures self esteem is more personal and less relational Self Knowledge Predicting our Behaviour ​ Planning fallacy, underestimating how long it'll take to complete a task ​ Our peers seem to predict our behavior more accurately than we do ​ We are very susceptible to impact bias, overestimating the enduring impact of emotion causing events, not realizing how fleeting those emotions are ​ We often mis want or don't realize what we actually want or would make us happy ​ People neglect the speed and power of their coping mechanisms ​ We react to bad situations more readily than we expect to ​ Affective forecasting: prediction about future feelings Wisdom and Illusions of Self Analysis ​ Our intuitions are often very wrong about what has influenced us and what we’ll do ​ We are more aware of the results of our thinking rather then the process ​ Analyzing why we feel the way we do can actually make our judgement less accurate ​ We have dual attitudes, differing implicit and explicit attitudes towards the same object, verbalized explicit attitudes may change with education and persuasion, implicit attitudes change slowly with practice that forms new habits Nature and Motivating Power of Self Esteem Self Esteem Motivation ​ Affective component of self is how you feel about yourself  ​ Our self esteem gets boosted when others do worse and lowers when others do better except for when its your partner because it feels like part of you ​ High self esteem people usually react to self esteem threat by compensating blaming others to preserve their feeling while low self esteem people blame themselves or give up ​ Self esteem gauges us to be more alert to social rejection, motivated us to yearn for acceptance and do self improvement ​ Self esteem generally corresponds to more superficial traits then communal qualities ​ Self esteem depends on whether we believe we have traits that make us attractive to other and not necessarily what we think we value most ​ Ppl whos self esteem is contingent on external sources like grades or opinions experience more stress, anger, substance abuse, etc ​ Those who pursue self esteem by seeking beauty, richness or popularity lose sight of what makes them feel good about themselves ​ Pursuing self esteem is generally done in vain, it doesn't get you anywhere ​ When we focus on boosting self esteem we become less open to criticism, less likely to empathize, more pressured to succeed at life rather then enjoy it ​ Ppl with low self esteem more vulnerable to anxiety, loneliness, depression, eating disorder and self harm, make less money and ar more likely to abuse drugs Narcissism ​ Narcissist believe they are better than others, and don't much value relationships with others ​ People with high self esteem that are not narcissist still care about others ​ When parents believed their kids deserve special treatment, the child tends to score higher on narcissism ​ Narcissist are originally popular with others but eventually popularity declines as their antagonism and aggression comes out ​ Covert narcissists are more out there and have very high self esteem ​ Overt narcissist have low self esteem, no one appreciates or knows how great I am, everyone judges me and thinks I'm not capable Self Efficacy ​ Self efficacy is our sense of competence and effectiveness, whereas self esteem is our sense of worth ​ Ppl with strong self efficacy tend to be more persistent, less anxious and less depressed, they are healthier and more academically successful ​ Self efficacy and self esteem grow with achievement Self Serving Bias ​ A tendency to perceive ourselves positively ​ Attribute success to self and failure to external factors ​ Self serving attributes activates brain areas associated w reward and pleasure ​ Ppl deny having this bias but acknowledge it in others False Consensus ​ False consensus effect is our overestimate of others agreeing with our opinion ​ We overestimate the amount that people do what we do ​ False unique effect we see our talents and moral behaviours as relatively unusual we prefer to be part of a larger group on opinions like politics but part of smaller gorup on matters of taste Illusions of Self Improvement ​ Temporal comparisons, are comparisons of our older self w current self which are usually flattering ​ We also observe that we perceive positive past selves as psychologically closer in time and negative past selves as more distant. Students who recall being popular in high school report that high school feels more recent than those who recall high school as a more socially awkward time Self Handicapping ​ Self handicapping is when we sabotage our chances of success by creating impediments, ex. people will reduce their preparation for important individual athletic events, give their opponent an advantage perform poorly at the beginning of a task so as not to create unreachable expectations ​ Ppl do this in order to protect self image but ppl who do this more tend to do worse academically ​ Self presentation refers to desire to present wanted image to others and self ​ Those low in self-monitoring care less about what others think. They are more internally guided and thus more likely to talk and act as they feel and believe ​ Self discrepancy theory, the farther you are from where you want to be and who you are or who others want you to be the more guilt, anxiety, shame, disappointment frustration and sadness ​ Self monitoring: social chameleon, being very attuned to way were presented in social situations adjusting performance to make desired impression ​ The White Bear Effect, also known as ironic process theory, refers to the psychological phenomenon where trying to suppress a thought makes it more likely to surface in your mind. The term originates from a famous experiment by psychologist Daniel Wegner (1987), who asked participants not to think of a white bear—and found that they couldn’t stop themselves from doing so. Eg. break ups or anxiety when you try not to think of smth ​ Defensive pessimism is a cognitive strategy in which individuals expect negative outcomes or anticipate failure as a way to manage anxiety and prepare themselves for potential disappointment. Despite anticipating the worst, they use this expectation to motivate themselves to work harder, plan more carefully, or take necessary precautions to avoid failure. Mod 3. Social Beliefs and Judgements ​ We have two brain systems, system 1 is intuition or gut feeling implicit and system 2 is the conscious attention and effort, explicit ​ System 1 influences us more than we know Priming ​ Things that we don't consciously notice can subtly affect how we interpret or recall events ​ Ex. When cleaner spray is used in room students are more quicker to identify cleaning related words in study, recalled more cleaning memories and more likely to be clean when their ​ Most of our social info processing is automatic and unconscious ​ Social cognition is embodied, when we sit on wobbly chair think of others relationships as more unstable, our physical sensations change our social perceptions ​ Subliminal priming is short term and only really works if you're already motivated to engage in the behaviour Intuitive Judgements ​ We know more then we know we know, unconscious info processing ​ Some examples of automatic thinking: a)​ Schemas, our mental concepts or templates that intuitively guid our perceptions, whether we hear one word or another depends on the context b)​ Emotional reactions, instantaneous without thought when we have bad feelings about something c)​ Given sufficient expertise, ppl may intuitively know answers to a problem, they notice the pattern without having to really think about it d)​ Thin slices, or snap judgement given very little info on someone just glancing at a photo we can beat chance at guessing if they're gay or shy or whatever ​ Blindsight is when we are exposed to something like someone who is partly blind is whos a series of sticks in blind field and reports seeing nothing and asked if they are horizontal or vertical guessed all of them right ​ Subliminal stimuli is things that influence our thoughts and feeling without us knowing Limits of Intuition ​ Illusory intuition is when patients whose brain hemispheres had been separated will instantly believe their own explanations for behaviour, researcher flashes walk to nonverbal side and patient gets up and walks they'll say oh i did it cause i wanted water Overconfidence ​ We humans tend to be very overconfident about what we think we know, even experts ​ Incompetence feeds overconfidence ​ The stupidest people are the ones who overestimate their abilities the most ​ Others tend to predict our behaviours better then we do  ​ Maybe because ppl give too much weight to their intentions when predicting future ​ Stockbroker overconfidence, mutual funds portfolios perform about as well as randomly selected stocks ​ Student overconfidence, students think they will do better than they normally do ​ We may be this way cause ppl tend to like confident ppl more and they appear more confident then they actually are ​ Confirmatory Hypothesis Testing ▪ We seek out information that reinforces our preexisting beliefs Confirmation Bias ​ We seek info that prove us right and more reluctant to see info that proves us wrong ​ We tend to ingest media more in line with what we believe ​ Liberals and conservatives would rather not hear the argument from the other side ​ Ideological chambers, ppl will choose to listen to sources that are less reliable but affirm their beliefs ​ Calling up system 2 stops us from making this error ​ Contemplation curtails confirmation ​ This is why our self images are so stable, we seek, elicit and recall feedback that confirms our beliefs about ourselves and seek ppl who reaffirm our self beliefs Remedies for Overconfidence ​ Prompt feedback allows us to more accurately estimate ​ Another way is to ask yourself one good reason why the judgment might be wrong ​ Break up a task into its subcomponents if guessing how long itll take you to do smth Representativeness Heuristics ​ Heuristics are simple quick efficient thinking strategies ​ make judgments about the likelihood of an event, object, or person by comparing it to a prototype or stereotype they already have in mind. Instead of relying on logic, probability, or evidence, people assess similarity to something they consider representative of a broader category ​ Attribution bias systematic errors people make when explaining the causes of behavior or events. It occurs because humans naturally try to interpret and assign meaning to others' actions and their own, but these interpretations are often skewed by cognitive shortcuts, personal beliefs, or emotions. Availability Heuristic ​ We estimate the likelihood or frequency of an event based on how easily examples of it come to mind. Events that are more memorable or vivid are perceived as more common or likely to occur, even if this perception doesn't match reality. ​ We predict and estimate with emotion and what info is readily available to us as opposed to what makes sense Illusory Correlation  ​ When we expect to see a significant relationship we associate random events ​ Ppl misperceive random events as confirming their beliefs Gambling and Illusitory of Control ​ Compared to those who were given a random lottery number, ppl who could choose their number demanded 4x as much money when asked to sell it ​ When rolling dice or spinning wheel themselves they feel more confident ​ Dice players throw gently for low numbers and higher for high numbers ​ Same with stock traders ​ If we feel we have more control over the situation it creates a sense of predictability Regression Towards Average ​ Another way that illusion of control arises is when we fail to recognize the statistical phenomenal of regression towards the mean, we regress to our average eventually Mood and Judgement ​ Depressed and brooding ppl tend to me more focused inwards, depression also motivates intense thinking, a search for info that makes the environment more memorable, understandable and controllable ​ Happy ppl are more trusting, more loving, more responsive ​ Mood influences our judgements and thoughts but we don't attribute the world to our mood shifts, the world really seems different Perceiving and Interpreting Events ​ We respond not to reality as it is but reality as we construe it Political Perceptions ​ Our attitudes affect whether or not we think someone is bias ​ We view our social worlds thro spectacles of our beliefs, attitudes and values ​ Our beliefs and schemas shape our interpretation of everything Belief Perseverance ​ Its difficult to demolish a falsehood once the person conjures up a rationale for it ​ Beliefs can take on life of their own and survive discrediting of evidence ​ Once we examine our theories and why they may be true we become more close to info that could change our belief ​ We normally benefit from our beliefs Constructing Memories of Ourselves ​ We construct memories when we withdraw it ​ Misinformation effect: phenomenon in which a person’s memory of an event becomes distorted due to exposure to misleading or incorrect information after the event has  occurred. This effect demonstrates how suggestive information can alter or reshape existing memories, often leading people to confidently recall false details. Reconstructing Past Attitudes ​ We will deny our former attitudes after adopting new ones ​ Rosy retrospection, ppl will recall mildly pleasurable events shaving been more pleasurable ​ Ppl who report their relationship as good and break up later and are asked will say that their relationship was always bad ​ When memories are hazy, current feelings guide our recall Reconstructing Past Behaviour ​ We remember our actions how we desire them ​ We underreport bad behaviour and overreport good behaviour Attributing Causality ​ Attribution theory analyses how we explain ppls behaviours and what we infer from it ​ Happy couples externalized stuff like they are late cause of traffic rather then internalize he was late cause he doesn't care Inferring Traits ​ Spontaneous trait inference refers to the automatic and unconscious process by which people infer personality traits about others based on their behavior or actions, without any deliberate intention to make such judgments. This phenomenon highlights how humans effortlessly attribute traits to others in everyday social interactions. Fundamental Attribution Error ​ bias where people tend to overemphasize personality traits or internal characteristics to explain someone else’s behavior while underestimating the influence of external, situational factors. This bias occurs most often when observing others, not ourselves. ​ While we attribute our mistakes to external errors ​ Doesn't matter how educated you are, you still make the error Perspective and Situational Awareness ​ When we act environment demands attention as opposed to when others act they occupy centre of our attention ​ We find causes where we look for them ​ Our perspective of someone comes only from the context we see them in Cultural Differences ​ Cultures influence attribution errors ​ Eastern asian cultures are less ready to assume ppls mistakes are internal errors ​ Collectivist cultures look to more environment factors  ​ Experimenter bias, research participants will live up to what they believe experimenter expects from them Teacher Expectations and Student Performance ​ If teachers expect you to do well you will do better than if they don't ​ Attitudes class has towards teacher and vice versa affect learning ​ What we expect from others and life is what we get, self fulfilling prophecy ​ Social beliefs can be self confirming, how we treat others affects how they treat us ​ Behavioural Confirmation A type of self-fulfilling prophecy where peoples’ social expectations lead them to act in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING ▪ Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but did not eg. silver medal Mod 4. Behaviours and Attitudes ​ Affect, behaviour and attitudes are closely related ​ Attitude A favourable or unfavourable evaluative reaction toward something or someone, exhibited in one’s beliefs, feelings, or intended behavior ​ Attitude not good predictor for behaviour ​ Peoples expressed attitudes hardly predict their behaviour ​ Attitudes, perceived subjective norms, and feelings of control together determine intention and behaviour ​ Attitudes follow behaviour When Attitudes Predict Behaviour ​ We often say what we think others want to hear ​ Implicit association test IAT uses reaction times to measure how fast ppl associate concepts and is used to measure implicit racial attitudes ​ Implicit biases are pervasive. For example, 80% of people show more implicit negativity toward the elderly compared with the young. ​ People differ in implicit bias. Depending on their group memberships, their conscious attitudes, and the bias in their immediate environment, some people exhibit more implicit bias than others. ​ People are often unaware of their implicit biases. Despite thinking themselves unprejudiced, even the researchers exhibit some implicit biases (negative associations with various social groups). ​ Implicit biases can harm. Implicit biases toward Indigenous people and people of colour in Canada can lead to their not receiving necessary life-saving health care. ​ Both implicit and explicit attitudes do predict our behavior ​ Amygdala is active in implicit reactions ​ IAT has low test retest scores so not very reliable ​ When the attitude is a general one and the behaviour is very specific there isn't much correlation ​ So far we have seen two conditions under which attitudes will predict behaviour: (1) when we minimize other influences on our attitude statements and our behaviour, and (2) when the attitude is specifically relevant to the observed behaviour. There is a third condition: An attitude predicts behaviour better when it is potent ​ Self conscious people are more in toch with attitudes ​ When attitudes are forged by experience they are stronger Behaviours Shaping Attitudes ​ Stanford prison experiment exemplifies this, our attitudes accommodate to follow our behaviour  ​ Eg split brain patients being cued by other side and doing smth come up with excuse for why they did it Gender Roles and other roles ​ Woman more likely to be judged on appearance ​ People change themselves to fit into the image of them ​ Actions expected of those who occupy a particular social position When Saying Becomes Believing ​ We say what others want to hear but end up convincing ourselves as well ​ Foot in the door phenomenon, one small thing slowly followed by another and another until they ask for much bigger ​ Low ball technique is when someone agrees to buys smth and then many additional charges are added on that you assume was already included to make you pay smth you initially wouldn't have ​ Once we commit to smth, we are more easily convinced into a bigger commitment ​ Door in the face technique is tendency for ppl who been asked big request to subsequently agree to a smaller request, we feel bad about saying no initially so we say yes Immoral and Moral Acts ​ Small immoral acts lead to bigger ones ​ Another way in which immoral acts influence attitudes lies in the paradoxical fact that we tend not only to hurt those we dislike but also to dislike those we hurt. Several studies found that harming an innocent victim—by uttering hurtful comments or delivering electric shocks— typically leads aggressors to disparage their victims, thus helping them justify their cruel behaviour. Especially when we voluntarily do smth ​ We hurt those we dislike and dislike those we hate ​ Ppl would justify slavery by saying that thats what they are made for and they are helping them ​ Moral action especially when done voluntarily effects moral thinking ​ Attitudes follow even forced actions ​ ▪ Immoral acts sometimes result from gradually escalating commitments: ▪ e.g., after harming their victim, aggressors often blame the victim, which serves to justify their behaviour ▪ Dehumanization and moral disengagement Social Movements ​ We feel a need to make beliefs consistent with acts ​ Once schools were desegregated most people said that they believed thats right whereas less then half before ​ Social psychology's detectives suspect three possible sources: (1) Self-presentation theory assumes that, for strategic reasons, we express attitudes  that make us appear consistent; (2) cognitive dissonance theory assumes that to reduce discomfort, we justify our actions to ourselves; and (3) self-perception theory assumes that our actions are self-revealing (when uncertain about our feelings or beliefs, we look to our behaviour, much as anyone else would). Self Presentation ​ We express attitudes that are consistent with our actions so we don't look foolish even if it means being insincere or hypocrisy ​ Even to someone who didn't know our past actions we will still show the same attitude ​ People tend to internalize their self presentations as genuine attitude changes. This phenomenon is explained by 2 theories, cognitive dissonance and ? Cognitive Dissonance ​ This theory states we feel a tension when two simultaneous thoughts or beliefs, or behaviours, or attitude are inconsistent therefore we will shift one ​ To minimize this dissonance, ppl choose to be exposed to more agreeable info ​ Therefore we listen to sources that agree with us Insufficient Justification ​ When paid more to lie we say they didn't enjoy the experiment as much whereas those paid less said they enjoyed it more ​ Money wasn't enough justification for why they lied so they had to adjust their belief ​ You feel responsible for your actions and words so you change your mind to adhere Dissonance after Decision ​ After making important decisions, we usually reduce dissonance by upgrading the chosen alternative and downgrading the unchosen option. In the first published dissonance experiment ​ With simple decisions, this deciding-becomes-believing effect can breed overconfidence "What I have decided must be right." ​ Same experiments done with japanese ppl showed they did not rate times higher after having chosen them so collectivism plays a part they don't feel the need to protect self concept ​ Collectivistic ppl tend to not experience dissonance the same Self Perception ​ Self perception theory assumes we make similar inferences when we observe our own behaviour, suggests that people develop their attitudes and beliefs by observing their own behavior and the context in which it occurs, rather than by accessing internal cues or feelings. Expression and Attitude ​ Those who were told to make angry faces reported feeling angry ​ Those who were told to smile reported being happier  ​ Paralyzing the frowning muscles with Botox slows activity in people's emotion-related brain circuits and slows their reading of sadness- or anger-related sentences, also not being able to mimic others’ emotions they cant understand the emotion as much ​ When people are instructed to sit straight and push out their chest, they feel more confidence in their written ideas than when sitting slouched forward and with eyes downcast ​ Nodding along with someone while they talk rather than shaking head mallows us to agree with them more ​ We mimic ppls emotional states, with politicians we like we get angry when they get angry, if we don't like them we get amused when they are angry Overjustification and Intrinsic Motivation ​ Recall the insufficient justification effect-the smallest incentive that will get people to do something is usually the most effective in getting them to like the activity and keep on doing it. Cognitive dissonance theory offers one explanation for this: When external inducements are insufficient to justify our behaviour, we reduce dissonance by internally justifying the behaviour. ​ Overjustification effect: Rewarding people for doing what they already enjoy may lead them to attribute their doing it to the reward, thus undermining their self-perception that they do it because they like it. Undermines their motivation ​ As self-perception theory implies, an unanticipated reward does not diminish intrinsic interest because people can still attribute their action to their own motivation ​ The overjustification effect occurs when someone offers an unnecessary reward beforehand in an obvious effort to control behaviour. What matters is what a reward implies: Rewards and praise that inform people of their achievements boost intrinsic motivation. Rewards that seek to control people and lead them to believe it was the reward that caused their effort diminish the intrinsic appeal of an enjoyable task Comparing the Theories ​ We have seen one explanation of why our actions seem to affect our attitudes (self-presentation theory). And we have seen two explanations of why our actions genuinely affect our attitudes: (1) the dissonance-theory assumption that we justify our behaviour to reduce our internal discomfort, and (2) the self-perception theory assumption that we observe our behaviour and make reasonable inferences about our attitudes, as we observe other people and infer their attitudes. ​ Self affirmation theory: individuals are motivated to maintain a positive self-image and, when faced with threats to their self-esteem or identity, they will engage in strategies that affirm their sense of self-worth to restore balance. ​ Self-perceiving when not self-contradicting: ▪Dissonance theory is inconsistent with two findings. ▪People with no change arousal can have attitude change. ▪Overjustification effect Mod. 5