Social Psychology PDF

Chapter 1 Social situation- the real or imagined presence of others Social influence- effect that social situations have on ones behavior Some findings seem like common sense but it remains important to explore them empirically in order to understand as common sense is often wrong Social Psychology...

Chapter 1 Social situation- the real or imagined presence of others Social influence- effect that social situations have on ones behavior Some findings seem like common sense but it remains important to explore them empirically in order to understand as common sense is often wrong Social Psychology focuses on the situation and its influences on behavior, the individuals in the context of the social situation Personality psychology focus on traits, characteristics, or personalities of the individual Fundamental Attribution Error- tendency to overestimate the extent to which peoples behavior is due to internal traits and underestimate the role of situational or social factors Construal- the way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world Social cognition- the way people think about themselves and the social world; how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make accurate judgements and decisions Chapter 2 In order to be considered a science it must make predictions about the physical world and measure things in the physical world in order to test these predictions Empirical research helps us understand humans behaviors and what drives them, helps us predict and influence human behavior Hindsight bias- after something happens we exaggerate how likely it was we could’ve predicted it occurred The observational method is used frequently in social psychology to study a groups behavior, however it means that while we can observe reactions we do not know why the occur Ethnography- where researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by studying it from the inside, without imposing any preconceived notions Archival analysis- studies documents and archives to draw a conclusion about behavior Correlational method- two variables are systematically measured and the relation between them is assessed Covary- when two values change in relation to each other, ex) links, predicts, correlates Third variable problem- perhaps there is a third variable that was not measured that influences both variable a and b leading to the correlation Correlation coefficient- value that assess how well you can predict one value from the other Correlation does not equal causation Experimental method- determines cause of an issue, manipulates the independent and measures the dependent, randomly assign participants to conditions, and control extraneous variables, must have two levels/conditions Experimenter bias- the experimenter behaves in ways that unintentionally leads the participants due to knowledge of the hypothesis Subject bias- participants may alter their behavior simply because they know they are being observed ◦“Good” subject tries to identify hypothesis and confirm it ◦“Negative” subject tries to identity hypothesis and disconfirm it ◦Apprehensive subject is anxious about being observed and tries to behave in a socially desirable way Internal validity- keeping everything but the independent variable the same, how well is the experiment done Probability level- how likely it is that the results occurred by chance External validity- the amount in which the results can be generalized and applied to other scenarios, does it reflect the real world  Psychological realism- the extent to which the psychological processes triggered in the experiment are similar to psychological processes that occur in everyday life Cover story- disguised version of the studies true purpose Basic dilemma of social psychologist- the trade off between external and internal validity in conducting research, it is extremely hard to create an experiment with high internal validity and is able to be generalized to other scenarios Meta-analysis- statistical technique that averages the results of two or more different studies to see if the effect of the dependent variable is reliable Basic research- asks why people behave as they do and is done for intellectual curiosity Applied research- study done to solve a specific social problem Cross-cultural research- research done with members of different cultures to see whether the same psychological processes happen in each different group or if there are specific psychological processes per group Research Ethics Desire for real world feel vs desire to minimize causing discomfort Need way to risk participants vs benefits of the research Sometimes deception is necessary Institutional Review Board reviews research plans to weigh potential risks and gains Informed consent- participants much be informed of potential risks in order to consent Debriefing- at the end the experimenter should explain the purpose of the study and why the risks were necessary Chapter 3 Social cognition- how we select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make choices Automative vs controlled cognition 4 non-mutually exclusive components of automaticity- conscious/unconscious, intentional/ unintentional, controllable/uncontrollable, and effortful/effortless Automative thinking- thinking that is no conscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless Controlled Cognition- thinking that is conscious, intentional, controllable or effortful Types of Automative Processing Schemas- mental structures people use to organize their knowledge about the social world around themes or subjects and that influence the information people notice, think about, and remember ◦Schemas are mental representations, conceptual networks of information based off of our prior knowledge ‣ ex) like our internal map of Publix and our internal ideas of where everything will be located based off of our prior experiences ◦Schemas are constantly active and ready to use to interpret ambiguous situations, an important source of our schemas is the culture we grew up with ‣ Korsakovs syndrome is a disorder in which people lose ability to form new memories and experience everything for the first time, rather than sorting it in schemas with other memories Cohen study (1981) investigated schema effects on memory recall, participants were given a video of a woman dining with a man to watch after half were told she was a waitress and other half that she was a librarian, then participants were asked to say what they remembered of her behavior in the video. Those that thought she was a waitress focused on that she was drinking beer. those that thought she was a librarian observed she had glasses and was listening to  classical music. The participants schemas and perceptions of waitresses and librarians led to the participants focusing on certain details based on their expectations of the woman based on the job Duncan (1976) investigated schemas on interpretation. White participants watched a video of a heated interaction between a black and white man as the perpetrator shoving another black or white man. Peoples stereotypical perception of black men led people to perceive the black man as violent when he shoved the other man by 75% when the white man was perceived as violent by 13%. Self-fulfilling prophecy- the case wherein people have an expectation about what another person is like, which influences how they act toward that person, which causes that person to behave consistent with the peoples original expectations, making them come true ◦Snyder, Tanke, and Berscheid (1977) used the attractiveness schema (beautiful people are good people) to test self-fulfilling prophecy. Male and female participants are seated in different cubicals for a phone call, men were given a picture of their female partner, half were given an attractive face and half an unattractive face. The men rated initial impressions of the female partner based off of the image of the female partner before talking to them on the phone for ten minutes. An assistant blind to the procedure rated the male and females sociability towards each other. More positive initial impressions led to the women being judged as more sociable, leading to the partners being judged as more sociable, with the opposite true for the unattractive faces. When the men judged them as unattractive they put less effort into interacting, leading the women to be less sociable, proving to the men that they were right about attractive people being more sociable. Person schema- contains information about the characteristics of people ◦Organized around ‘types’ or clusters of traits ◦Ex) having tattoos, being a professor, stereotypes Self Schemas- contain info about the self and guide processing of self-relevant info ◦Dominated by “central” traits, strongly fused to sense of identity ‣ Ex) intelligent, FSU Seminole, American ◦Affect perceptions of others ‣ Ex) I’m smarter then that guy Role Schemas- contains information how to act in certain roles ◦Ex) role of students and professors in classrooms, but no longer apply outside of the classroom How are Schemas Activated Accessibility- the extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of peoples minds and are therefore likely to be used when making judgements about the social world Priming- the process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, concept or goal ◦Ex) doctor just wrote a research paper about rare disease and was able to diagnose young girl when other doctors couldn’t ◦Thoughts must be accessible and applicable before they will act as primes ◦When we think or feel about something or someone, we do so with reference of how our bodies are reacting which can prime the brain as well ‣ ex) being tired means viewing more negative Higgins 1977 half of the group read a list of adventurous primes while another half read a list of reckless primes, both read the same story about Donald and were asked to rate how likeable he was, those that read a list of words primed with adventurous words viewed him as adventurous while the opposite group viewed him as reckless u Heuristics Heuristics are specific rules and shortcuts that people apply when thinking about the world, they  are used when schemas are not available/fully developed or when we do not know which schema to use Judgmental heuristics- mental shortcuts people use to make judgements quickly and efficiently Availability heuristic- a mental rule of thumb whereby people base a judgement on the ease with which they can bring something to mind Representativeness heuristic- a mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case Base rate information- information about the frequency of members of different categories in the population Heuristics vs Schemas Schemas are more complex knowledge structures Heuristics are the predetermined answers our brains have decided based on limited information Thinking Styles Analytic thinking style- a type of thinking in which people focus on the properties of objects without considering their surrounding context Holistic thinking style- a type of thinking in which people focus on the overall context, particularly the ways in which objects relate to each other Counterfactual thinking- mentally changing some aspect of the past as a way of imagining what might have been, has a big influence on our emotional reactions to events ◦Planning fallacy- the tendency for people to be overly optimistic about how soon they will complete a project, even when they have failed to get similar projects done on time in the past Automatic and controlled thinking: Dual process models ◦Dual process models posit that within a certain domain of cognition, automatic processes happen first, then controlled processes “come online” and “modulate” automatic processes ‣ MODE Model- automatically activated attitude leads to judgement or behavior but we can use motivational factors to change our behavior the automatic cognition intends for We engage in controlled thinking when we are motivated to think carefully and when we have the opportunity to do so ◦Motivation is a desire to correct/update/override automatic inclinations such as beliefs, values, and goal Devine 1989 on automatic stereotype activation, ◦Study 1 had people list stereotypes they new existed ◦study two one group given racial stereotype words while one primed with neutral words and the group with racial stereotype words viewed the person of color as more hostile in comparison to the group with neutral words. The words were moving so fast that it was processed subliminally so the people were unaware that they saw these words and it was creating a non conscious influence ◦Study 3 people listed stereotypical beliefs they knew of and rated whether or not they agreed with them, high prejudiced individuals had high knowledge and high endorsement while low prejudiced individuals has high knowledge and low endorsement as they use the opportunity provided to exert control over their thoughts on the matter Chapter 4 Social perception- the study of how we form impression of and make inferences about other people The brain processes someone’s face for 1/10 of a second before it decides impressions ◦Physical cues are easy to observe things that we can see and hear that are crucial to first impressions ‣ Artifacts (peoples stuff), facial expressions etc  Nonverbal communication- the way in which people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally without words, including via facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body posturing, movement, touch, and gaze ◦6 universal facial expressions are happiness, anger, surprise, fear, sadness, and disgust ◦Encode- to express or emit nonverbal behavior, such as smiling or patting someone on the back ◦Decode- to interpret the meaning of the behaviors of the nonverbal behavior other people express, such as deciding. Pat on the back was condescending not kindness ‣ Emmanuel and Friesen, 1974: participants watch disgusting film or pleasant film then on video participants either lied about it or told the truth and naive judges couldn’t tell when they were lying based off of watching the videos ◦Affect blends- facial expressions in which one part of the face registers one emotion while another part of the face registers a different emotion ‣ The specific initial components of emotions suggest that they were well designed by natural selection to solve problems Ex) when disgusted we close mouth and nostrils to prevent from in taking what we are disgusted by Emotional Components are feelings, bodily changes (functional changes in breathing heart rate muscle tensions etc), action tendencies (increase the probability of a functional behavior) Emotions are socially and personally functional ◦Display rules- culturally determined rules about which nonverbal behaviors are appropriate to display ‣ Ex) when ok to give a thumbs up, make eye contact, etc ◦Emblems- nonverbal gestures that have well understood definitions within a given culture, usually having direct verbal translations such as a thumbs up Impression Formation ◦Thin-slicing- drawing meaningful conclusions about another persons personality or skills based on an extremely brief sample of behavior ‣ Ex) teacher evaluations, sexual orientations, characteristics of politician candidates ‣ Primacy effect- when it comes to informing impressions, the first traits we perceive in others influence how we view information that we learn about them later ◦Belief perseverance- the tendency to stick with an initial judgement even in the face of new information that should prompt us to reconsider To sum it up ◦Initial impressions are fast ◦Initial impressions are sticky and influence downstream impressions ◦Physical cues such as race, are, gender, and various artifacts feed into these judgements Attributions ◦Perception is dependent on interpretation, the world is ambiguous ‣ Complimenting someone’s appearance: polite or creepy ‣ Partying all weekend: fun or irresponsible ◦in an ambiguous world our attributions are influenced by schemas, we call this kind of schema an implicit personality theory ‣ Implicit personality theory- a type of schema we use to group various personality traits together If Danny is warm, he is probably also generous, kind, trustworthy, helpful etc Advantages ◦Form impressions quickly ◦Reduces the amount of cognitive processing needed to make judgments about people  Disadvantages ◦Can often lead to incorrect assumptions ◦Stereotypical thinking ◦Attribution theory- a description of the way in which people explain the causes of their own and other peoples behavior, why we THINK people do the things they do, not why people REALLY do the things they do ‣ Internal attribution- the inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the person such as attitude, character or personality ‣ External attribution- the inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation ◦Attributions in relationships ‣ Secure married couples Positive behaviors are internal attributions Negative behaviors are external attributions ‣ Distressed married couples Positive behaviors are external attributions Negative behaviors are internal attributions ◦Fundamental attribution theory- external causes overestimated while external underestimated ‣ Fundamental attribution error- people overestimate affect of internal attributions unlike true psychologists Castro essay study Jones and Harris 1967- participants read essay about Castro, half read pro-Castro half read anti-Castro. Then those groups were each split and were told that the writers were forced to write the essay or chose to. When people were given a choice participants assumed they felt the way they wrote, however when people had to write the essays they were still rated as being somewhat pro- Castro in comparison to others ◦Conclusion- participants disregarded the authors situation and made an internal attribution ‣ Actor-observer effect- external attributions for the self, and internal attributions for other When i behave i focus on the situation, (does the situation force the action) When others behave i focus on them (they chose the action) I see myself in a variety of situations (so the context is visible) I cut someone off as I was late for work, they cut me off cause they are an idiot ‣ Perceptual Salience- the seeming importance if information that is the focus of peoples attention The situations influencing others behaviors are not perceptually salient to us, but peoples personalities and character are more salient Taylor and Fisk 1975, two actors are having a conversation while six observers watched the conversation from different angles so that the salience was directed towards either only one actor or both. The participants were more likely to say that the person they were facing lead the conversation, and when the participant faced both hey viewed them as leading the conversation the same amount ‣ Dual process model of Fundamental attribution error Make an automatic internal attribution, then correct for situational influences through controlled and conscious thinking about the behavior Gilberts 1989 two stage theory ◦We witness behavior then create spontaneous dispositions, if cognitively busy we fall for the fundamental attribution error, but if we are cognitively available we think deliberately and realize the influence of the situation Gilbert, Pelham, Krull 1988 participants watch 7 silent clips of a female target  talking to a stranger, in 5/7 she seems very anxious. One group told she was discussing relaxing topic while the other was told they were discussing anxiety inducing things. With no cognitive load the participants are able to figure out whether or not it was dispositional or situational that the woman was stressed, but those that were cognitively busy didn’t externalize why the target was anxious ◦Self-serving attributions- explanations for ones successes that credit internal, dispositional factors and explanations for ones failures that blame external, situational factors ◦Defensive attributions- explanations for behavior that avoid feelings of vulnerability or mortality ‣ Belief in a just world- a defensive attribution wherein people assume that bad things happen to bad things and good things to good people ‣ Bias blind spot- the tendency to think that other people are more susceptible to attribution to biases in their thinking than we are Covariation model- a theory that states that to form an attribution about what caused a persons behavior, we note the pattern between when the behavior occurs and the presence or absence of possible casual factors Consensus information- the extent to which other people behave the same way towards the same stimulus as the actor does Distinctiveness information- the extent to which a particular actor behaves in the same way towards a different stimuli Consistency information- the extent to which the behavior between one actor and one stimulus is the exact same across time and circumstances