Social Psychology Reviewer Midterm PDF

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BSP 3104 Social psychology is related to other disciplines in the CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING SOCIAL social sciences,...

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BSP 3104 Social psychology is related to other disciplines in the CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING SOCIAL social sciences, including sociology, economics, and PSYCHOLOGY political science.  Each examines the influence of social factors on human behavior, but important differences set DEFINING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY social psychology apart—most notably in their level of analysis. 1.1 What is social psychology, and how is it  For the social psychologist, the level of analysis different from other disciplines? is the individual in the context of a social situation. Social psychology - the scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are Sociology - focuses on such topics as social class, influenced by the real or imagined presence of other social structure, and social institutions. people  The major difference is that in sociology, the level of analysis is the group, institution, or SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, society at large. SCIENCE, AND COMMON SENSE The goal of social psychology is to identify properties Social influence - a broader than attempts by one of human nature that make almost everyone person to change another person’s behavior. It susceptible to social influence, regardless of social includes our thoughts and feelings as well as our overt class or culture. acts, and takes many forms other than deliberate attempts at persuasion. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY COMPARED TO  The effect that the words, actions, or mere RELATED DISCIPLINES presence of other people have on our thoughts, Sociology Social Personality feelings, attitudes, or behavior Psychology Psychology The study of The study of the The study of the The work of philosophers is part of the foundation of groups, psychological characteristics contemporary psychology. organizations, processes that make and societies, people have in individuals Psychologists have looked to philosophers for insights rather than common that unique and into the nature of consciousness and how people form individuals. make them different from beliefs about the social world susceptible to one another. social influence. Sometimes, however, even great thinkers find themselves in disagreement with one another. THE POWER OF THE SITUATION  hypothesis, about the specific situations under which one outcome or the other would occur. 1.2 Why does it matter how people explain and interpret events—and their own and others’ HOW SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY DIFFERS FROM behavior? ITS CLOSEST COUSINS THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPLANATION Personality psychologists - who generally focus on individual differences, the aspects of people’s Fundamental attribution error - the tendency to personalities that make them different from others. overestimate the extent to which people’s behavior is  Research on personality increases our due to internal, dispositional factors and to understanding of human behavior underestimate the role of situational factors Social psychologists - believe that explaining THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERPRETATION behavior primarily through personality traits ignores a critical part of the story: the powerful role played by Behaviorism - a school of psychology maintaining social influence. that to understand human behavior, one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment (\ (\ („ ֊ „) ━━O━O━━ JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━ SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BSP 3104 Behavioral psychologists, notably the pioneering behaviorist B. F. Skinner, believed that all behavior CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY: HOW SOCIAL could be understood by examining the rewards and PSYCHOLOGISTS DO RESEARCH punishments in the organism’s environment. For social psychologists, the relationship between the SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: AN EMPIRICAL social environment and the individual is a two-way SCIENCE street. Not only does the situation influence people’s behavior; people’s behavior also depends on their 2.1 How do researchers develop hypotheses and interpretation, or construal, of their social theories? environment Hindsight bias - after people know that something Construal - the way in which people perceive, occurred, they exaggerate how much they could have comprehend, and interpret the social world predicted it before it occurred  “Naïve realism” - the conviction that we perceive things “as they really are.” FORMULATING HYPOTHESES AND THEORIES Gestalt psychology - school of psychology stressing Social psychological research begins with a the importance of studying the subjective way in hypothesis about the effects of social influence. which an object appears in people’s minds rather than the objective, physical attributes of the object Hypotheses often come from previous research findings. WHERE CONSTRUALS COME FROM: BASIC HUMAN MOTIVES RESEARCH DESIGNS 1.3 What happens when people’s need to feel good 2.2 What are the strengths and weaknesses of about themselves conflicts with their need to be various research designs that socialpsychologists accurate? use? The way in which an individual construes (perceives, METHOD FOCUS QUESTION comprehends, and interprets) a situation is largely ANSWERED shaped by two basic human motives: Observational Description What is the  the need to feel good about ourselves nature of the  the need to be accurate. phenomenon? Correlational Prediction From knowing THE SELF-ESTEEM MOTIVE: THE NEED TO X, can we FEEL GOOD ABOUT OURSELVES predict Y? Experimental Causality Is variable X a Self-Esteem - people’s evaluations of their own self- cause of worth—that is, the extent to which they view variable Y? themselves as good, competent, and decent THE OBSERVATIONAL METHOD: THE SOCIAL COGNITION MOTIVE: THE NEED DESCRIBING SOCIAL BEHAVIOR TO BE ACCURATE Observational method - the technique whereby a Social cognition - how people think about themselves researcher observes people and systematically records and the social world; more specifically, how people measurements or impressions of their behavior select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions Ethnography - the method by which researchers  How people select, interpret, remember, and use attempt to understand a group or culture by observing information to make judgments and decisions it from the inside, without imposing any preconceived notions they might have (\ (\ („ ֊ „) ━━O━O━━ JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━ SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BSP 3104 Archival analysis - a form of the observational psychologist is to identify the causes of social method in which the researcher examines the behavior. accumulated documents, or archives, of a culture THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD: ANSWERING Limits of the Observational Method CAUSAL QUESTIONS  Certain kinds of behavior are difficult to observe because they occur only rarely or only in private. Experimental method - the method in which the  Archival data tells us little about the effects on researcher randomly assigns participants to different their attitudes and behavior of doing so. conditions and ensures that these conditions are identical except for the independent variable (the one THE CORRELATIONAL METHOD: thought to have a causal effect on people’s responses) PREDICTING SOCIAL BEHAVIOR Independent variable - the variable a researcher Correlational method - two variables are changes or varies to see if it has an effect on some systematically measured, and the relationship between other variable. them—how much you can predict one from the other—is assessed. Dependent variable - the variable a researcher measures to see if it is influenced by the independent Surveys - the correlational method is often used in variable the researcher hypothesizes that the surveys, research in which a representative sample of dependent variable will depend on the level of the people are asked questions about their attitudes or independent variable behavior. Internal validity - which we can now define as Advantages of Surveys making sure that the independent variable, and only  Researchers can judge the relationship between the independent variable, influences the dependent variables that are difficult to observe, such as variable. how often people engage in safer sex.  Another advantage of surveys is the ability to External validity - the extent to which the results of a sample representative segments of the population. study can be generalized to other situations and other  As long as the sample is selected randomly, we people. can assume that the responses are a reasonable match to those of the population as a whole. Field experiments - one of the best ways to increase external validity Positive correlation - INCREASES in the value of one variable are associated with INCREASES in the Meta-analysis - a statistical technique that averages value of the other variable the results of two or more studies to see if the effect  Height and weight are positively correlated (taller of an independent variable is reliable people tend to weigh more Basic research - studies that are designed to find the Negative correlation - INCREASES in the value of best answer to the question of why people behave as one variable are associated with DECREASES in the they do and that are conducted purely for reasons of value of other Variable intellectual curiosity  Vaccination rate correlates negatively with disease rate (more vaccination, less diseases Applied research - studies designed to solve a particular social problem Potential Problem of Surveys  Accuracy of responses often people simply don’t NEW FRONTIERS IN SOCIAL know the answer—but they think they do. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH Limits of the Correlational Method: Correlation 2.3 What impact do cross-cultural studies, the Does Not Equal Causation evolutionary approach, and social neuroscience  The major shortcoming of the correlational research have on the way in which scientists method is that it tells us only that two variables investigate social behavior? are related, whereas the goal of the social (\ (\ („ ֊ „) ━━O━O━━ JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━ SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BSP 3104 Cross-cultural research - research conducted with SELECTED ETHICAL PRINCIPLES OF members of different cultures, to see whether the PSYCHOLOGISTS IN THE CONDUCT OF psychological processes of interest are present in both RESEARCH cultures or whether they are specific to the culture in which people were raised 1. Psychologists seek to promote accuracy, honesty, and truthfulness in the science, teaching, and practice Evolutionary Theory - concept developed by of psychology. Charles Darwin to explain the ways in which animals adapt to their environments 2. Psychologists respect the dignity and worth of all people, and the rights of individuals to privacy, Natural selection - the process by which heritable confidentiality, and self-determination. traits that promote survival in a particular environment are passed along to future generations; 3. When psychologists conduct research in person or organisms with those traits are more likely to produce via electronic transmission or other forms of offspring communication, they obtain the informed consent of the individual. Evolutionary psychology - the attempt to explain social behavior in terms of genetic factors that have 4. When obtaining informed consent psychologists evolved over time according to the principles of inform participants about (1) the purpose of the natural selection research, expected duration, and procedures; (2) their right to decline to participate and to withdraw from ETHICAL ISSUES IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY the research once participation has begun; (3) the foreseeable consequences of declining or withdrawing; 2.4 How do social psychologists ensure the safety (4) reasonably foreseeable factors that may be and welfare of their research participants, while at expected to influence their willingness to participate the same time testing hypotheses about the causes such as potential risks, discomfort, or adverse effects; of social behavior? (5) any prospective research benefits; (6) limits of confidentiality; (7) incentives for participation; and (8) Informed consent - agreement to participate in an whom to contact for questions about the research and experiment, granted in full awareness of the nature of research participants rights. the experiment, which has been explained in advance  To obtain informed consent, the researcher 5. Psychologists have a primary obligation and take explains the nature of the experiment to reasonable precautions to protect confidential participants before it begins and asks for their information obtained through or stored in any permission to participate. medium. Deception - misleading participants about the true 6. Psychologists do not conduct a study involving purpose of a study or the events that will actually deception unless they have determined that the use of transpire deceptive techniques is justified by the study’s  Psychologists use deception only if it is the only significant prospective scientific, educational, or way in which they can test a hypothesis about applied value and that effective nondeceptive social behavior. alternative procedures are not feasible. Debriefing - explaining to participants, at the end of 7. Psychologists explain any deception that is an an experiment, the true purpose of the study and integral feature of the design and conduct of an exactly what transpired experiment to participants as early as is feasible. Institutional Review Board (IRB) - a group made up 8. Psychologists provide a prompt opportunity for of at least one scientist, one nonscientist, and one participants to obtain appropriate information about member not affiliated with the institution that reviews the nature, results, and conclusions of the research, all psychological research at that institution and and they take reasonable steps to correct any decides whether it meets ethical guidelines misconceptions that participants may have of which the psychologists are aware. (\ (\ („ ֊ „) ━━O━O━━ JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━ SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BSP 3104 situations, because they help us figure out what is CHAPTER 3: SOCIAL COGNITION: HOW WE going on. THINK ABOUT THE SOCIAL WORLD Tragically, this is what happens to people who suffer from a neurological disorder called Korsakov’s Social cognition - how people think about themselves syndrome. and the social world; more specifically, how people  People with this disorder lose the ability to form select, interpret, remember, and use social information new memories and must approach every situation to make judgments and decisions. as if they were encountering it for the first time, even if they have actually experienced it many Two kinds of social cognition: times before  Automatic thinking - when we meet someone for the first time, we often form lightning- quick WHICH SCHEMAS DO WE USE? impressions of him or her, without consciously ACCESSIBILITY AND PRIMING deliberating about it. Similarly, we often make decisions “without thinking,” Accessibility - the extent to which schemas and  Controlled thinking - which people pause and concepts are at the forefront of the mind and are think carefully about the right course of action. therefore likely to be used when making judgments about the social world ON AUTOMATIC PILOT: LOW-EFFORT THINKING Something can become accessible for three reasons: 1. Some schemas are chronically accessible due to 3.1 What is automatic thinking, and how are past experience schemas an example of that kind of thought? What 2. Something can become accessible because it is are the advantages and disadvantages of schemas? related to a current goal 3. Schemas can become temporarily accessible A great deal of social cognition—how people think because of our recent experiences about themselves and the social world—involves automatic thinking, which is nonconscious, Priming - the process by which recent experiences unintentional, involuntary, and effortless. increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept Example: You can tell the difference between a MAKING OUR SCHEMAS COME TRUE: THE college classroom an d a frat party without having to SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY think about it. Self-fulfilling prophecy - people have an expectation PEOPLE AS EVERYDAY THEORISTS: about what another person is like, which influences AUTOMATIC THINKING WITH SCHEMAS how they act toward that person, which causes that person to behave consistently with people’s original An important part of automatic thinking is using our expectations, making the expectations come true. past knowledge to organize and interpret new information TYPES OF AUTOMATIC THINKING Schemas - mental structures for organizing their 3.2 What are other types of automatic thinking knowledge about the social world around themes or and how do they operate? subjects and for influencing what they notice, think about, and remember AUTOMATIC GOAL PURSUIT  Schemas contain our basic knowledge and impressions that we use to organize what we When it comes to setting goals for ourselves, such as know about the social world and interpret new what career path to follow, we often do so carefully situations. and consciously, deliberating for some time about  Schemas are extremely useful tools for reducing what we want to do. ambiguity about the social world and are particularly useful when we are in confusing That’s not the only way, however, that we choose what goals to follow. In our everyday lives there are (\ (\ („ ֊ „) ━━O━O━━ JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━ SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BSP 3104 often competing goals, and the choice of which one to Holistic thinking style - a type of thinking in which follow can happen automatically. people focus on the overall context, particularly the ways in which objects relate to each other. AUTOMATIC DECISION MAKING  East Asian cultures People’s unconscious minds often help them make CONTROLLED SOCIAL COGNITION: HIGH- good decisions. A good procedure is to analyze all the EFFORT THINKING alternatives, spend some time analyzing the options consciously, and then distract oneself to allow 3.4 What are some of the drawbacks of controlled unconscious processes to operate. thinking, and how can we improve its effectiveness? AUTOMATIC THINKING AND METAPHORS Controlled thinking - It is defined as thinking that is ABOUT THE BODY AND THE MIND conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful. In addition to using schemas to reduce ambiguity CONTROLLED THINKING AND FREE WILL about the world, people use metaphors about the mind and the body. Physical sensations can prime a There can be a disconnect between our conscious metaphor, which then influences people’s judgments sense of how much we are causing our own actions and how much we really are causing them MENTAL STRATEGIES AND SHORTCUTS: JUDGMENTAL HEURISTICS Sometimes we overestimate or underestimate the amount of control we have. Another form of automatic thinking is to apply specific rules and shortcuts when thinking about the But the more people believe in free will, the more social world. willing they are to help others in need and the less likely they are to engage in immoral actions such as Judgmental heuristics - which are mental shortcuts cheating people use to make judgments quickly and efficiently  Availability heuristic - a mental rule of thumb MENTALLY UNDOING THE PAST: whereby people base a judgment on the ease with COUNTERFACTUAL REASONING which they can bring something to mind.  Representativeness heuristic - a mental shortcut Counterfactual reasoning - whereby people whereby people classify something according to mentally change some aspect of the past as a way of how similar it is to a typical case imagining what might have been can have a big influence on our emotional reactions to events. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL  The easier it is to mentally undo an outcome, the COGNITION stronger the emotional reaction to it.  Sometimes the emotional consequences of 3.3 How does culture influence social thinking? counterfactual reasoning are paradoxical.  This is not so good if counterfactual thinking CULTURAL DETERMINANTS OF SCHEMAS results in rumination, whereby people repetitively focus on negative things in their lives. Although everyone uses schemas to understand the  Rumination has been found to be a contributor to world, the content of our schemas is influenced by the depression culture in which we live IMPROVING HUMAN THINKING HOLISTIC VERSUS ANALYTIC THINKING Some kinds of thinking, such as statistical reasoning, Analytic thinking style - a type of thinking in which can be improved dramatically with training people focus on the properties of objects without considering their surrounding context. Overconfidence barrier - the fact that people usually  Western cultures have too much confidence in the accuracy of their judgments (\ (\ („ ֊ „) ━━O━O━━ JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━ SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BSP 3104 They told the Fore people brief stories with emotional CHAPTER 4: SOCIAL PERCEPTION: HOW WE content and then showed them photographs of COME TO UNDERSTAND OTHER PEOPLE American men and women expressing the six emotions; the Fores’ job was to match the facial expressions of emotion to the stories. Social perception - the study of how we form impressions of other people and how we make The Fores were as accurate as Western subjects. inferences about them. The researchers then asked the Fore people to NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION demonstrate, while being photographed, facial expressions that would match the stories they were 4.1 How do people use nonverbal cues to told. understand others? These photographs, when later shown to American Nonverbal communication - refers to how people research participants, were also decoded accurately. communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words. WHY IS DECODING SOMETIMES DIFFICULT? 1. Affect blends - facial expressions in which one Most frequently used and most revealing channels part of the face registers one emotion while of nonverbal communication: another part of the face registers a different  Facial expressions emotion  Tone of voice 2. Aspects of the same facial expression can have  Gestures different implications based oncontext and other  Body positions and movement cues  The use of touch  Eye gaze CULTURE AND THE CHANNELS OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION FACIAL EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTION For decades, Paul Ekman and his colleagues have The crown jewel of nonverbal communication is the studied the influence of culture on the facial display facial-expressions channel. of emotions.  Display rules - culturally determined rules about This aspect of communication has a long history of which nonverbal behaviors are appropriate to research, beginning with Charles Darwin’s book The display Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals Other channels of nonverbal communication besides The argument that all humans: facial expressions. (These nonverbal cues are strongly  Encode or express, these emotions in the same shape by culture) way (smiling or patting someone on the back)  Eye contact and gaze are particularly powerful  Decode or interpret them, with comparable nonverbal cues accuracy (deciding that a pat on the back was an  How people use personal space. expression of condescension and not kindness) Gestures of the hands and arms are also a fascinating Darwin’s interest in evolution led him to believe that means of communication. nonverbal forms of communication were species  Emblems - nonverbal gesture that well- specific and not culture specific. understood definition within a given culture; they usually have direct verbal translation, such as the Six major emotional expressions: anger, happiness, OK sign. surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN NONVERBAL Paul Ekman and Walter Friesen traveled to New COMMUNICATION Guinea, where they studied the decoding ability of the South Fore, a preliterate tribe that, until that time, had 1. Eye contact and gaze - In American culture, direct no contact with Western civilization. eye contact is valued; In many parts of the world, (\ (\ („ ֊ „) ━━O━O━━ JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━ SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BSP 3104 direct eye contact is considered disrespectful, a variety of other cues, and this process begins within especially with superiors. milliseconds.  Indicates that these snap judgments are not just 2. Personal space and touching - Societies vary in quick; they also pick up on meaningful whether they are high-contact cultures, where people information and converge with the impressions stand close to each other and touch frequently, or low- formed by perceivers with even longer exposure contact cultures, where people maintain more to the target in question. interpersonal space and touch less often. THE LINGERING INFLUENCE OF INITIAL 3. Hand and Head Gestures IMPRESSIONS The “OK” sign - formed by making a circle with Primacy effect - what we learn first about another your thumb and index finger, with your three other person colors how we see the information we learn fingers extended upward. next.  United States, this means “okay.”; Japan means  We also have schemas regarding which traits “money.”; France, means “zero”; Mexico, it tend to appear together in clusters. That is, we means “sex.”; Ethiopia, it means use a few known characteristics to determine “homosexuality.” what other characteristics a person likely has The thumbs-up gesture - raising one thumb upward Belief perseverance - standing by initial conclusions with the rest of the fingers in the fist means “OK.” even when subsequently learned information suggests  In France it means “excellent!” However, in we shouldn’t. Japan, the same gesture means “boyfriend,” while in Iran and Sardinia, it is obscene. CAUSAL ATTRIBUTION: ANSWERING THE “WHY” QUESTION The “hand-purse” gesture - formed by straightening the fingers and thumb of one hand and bringing them 4.3 How do people determine why others do what together so the tips touch, pointing upward. they do?  In Italy, it means “What are you trying to say?”; in Spain, it means “good”; in Tunisia, it means Attribution Theory - the study of how we infer the “slow down”; and in Malta, it means “you may causes of other people’s behavior seem good, but you are really bad.” THE NATURE OF THE ATTRIBUTION PROCESS Nodding the head - In the US, nodding one’s head up and down means “yes” and shaking it from side to Heider discussed what he called “naive,” or side means “no.” “commonsense,” psychology.  In some parts of Africa and India, nodding up and  Fritz Heider is frequently referred to as the down means “no,” and shaking from side to side father of attribution theory. means “yes.” In Korea, shaking one’s head from  In his view, people were like amateur scientists, side to side means “I don’t know”. Bulgarians trying to understand other people’s behavior by indicate disagreement by throwing their heads piecing together information until they arrived at back and then returning them to an upright a reasonable explanation or cause position—which is frequently mistaken by Americans as meaning agreement. One of Heider’s most valuable contributions is a simple dichotomy: FIRST IMPRESSIONS: QUICK BUT LONG-  Internal attribution - the inference that a person LASTING is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, 4.2 How quickly do first impressions form, and character, or personality why do they persist?  External attribution - the inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of Thin-slicing - we form impressions of other people something about the situation he or she is in based on their facial structure, possessions, attire, and (\ (\ („ ֊ „) ━━O━O━━ JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━ SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BSP 3104 THE COVARIATION MODEL: INTERNAL Self-serving attributions - explanations for one’s VERSUS EXTERNAL ATTRIBUTIONS successes that credit internal, dispositional factors and explanations for one’s failures that blame external, The first, essential step in the process of social situational factors. perception is determining how people decide whether to make an internal or an external attribution. Bias blind spot - the tendency to think that other people are more susceptible to attributional biases in Covariation model - the idea that we notice and think their thinking than we are. about more than one piece of information when forming such judgments CULTURE AND SOCIAL PERCEPTION  To form an attribution about what caused a person’s behavior, we systematically note the 4.4 What role does culture play in processes of pattern between the presence or absence of social perception and attribution? possible causal factors and whether the behavior occurs HOLISTIC VERSUS ANALYTIC THINKING Three key types: The values inherent in individualistic Western  Consensus information - information about the cultures cause people, as they grow up, to develop extent to which other people behave the same more of an analytic thinking style. way toward the same stimulus as the actor does  This style involves focusing on the properties of  Distinctiveness information - information about objects (or people) while paying much less the extent to which one particular actor behaves attention, if any, to the context or situation that in the same way to different stimuli surrounds that object.  Consistency information - information about the extent to which the behavior between one actor The values of collectivistic cultures, such as those of and one stimulus is the same across time and East Asia (e.g., China, Korea, and Japan), cause circumstances people to develop more of a holistic thinking style.  Here, people focus on the “whole picture”—that According to Kelley’s theory, when these three is, the object (or person) and the context that sources of information combine into one of two surrounds that object as well as the relationships distinct patterns, a clear attribution can be made. that exist between them The covariation model assumes that people make causal attributions in a rational, logical way. CHAPTER 5: THE SELF: UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES IN A SOCIAL CONTEXT THE FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR: PEOPLE AS PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGISTS THE ORIGINS AND NATURE OF THE SELF- Fundamental attribution error - the tendency to CONCEPT overestimate the extent to which other people’s behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors and to 5.1 What is the self-concept, and how does it underestimate the role of situational factors. develop? THE TWO-STEP ATTRIBUTION PROCESS Human self-recognition develops at around 18 to 24 months of age. Rudimentary sense of self develops 1. Make an internal attribution into a full-blown self-concept  Assuming that the person’s behavior was due to something about the person. Self-concept - the overall set of beliefs that people  Occurs quickly and spontaneously have about their personal attributes.  Child’s self-concept is concrete, easily 2. Attempt to adjust the attribution by considering observable characteristics like age, sex, the situation neighborhood and hobbies.  Often do not make enough of an adjustment  Requires effort and conscious attention (\ (\ („ ֊ „) ━━O━O━━ JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━ SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BSP 3104  As we mature, we place less emphasis on Causal Theories physical characteristics and more on  When people introspect about why they feel the psychological states way they do  People have a great deal of information about CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON THE SELF- themselves, such as how they have responded in CONCEPT the past and what they happen to have been thinking about before making a choice An important influence on our self-concepts is the culture in which we grew up. FOCUSING ON THE SELF: SELF-AWARENESS THEORY In many Western cultures, people have an independent view of the self, which is a way of Self-Awareness Theory - we evaluate and compare defining oneself in terms of one’s own internal our current behavior to our internal standards and thoughts, feelings, and actions and not in terms of the values. We become self-conscious in the sense that thoughts, feelings, and actions of others. we become objective, judgmental observers of ourselves, seeing ourselves as an outside observer In contrast, many Asian and other non-Western would. cultures have an interdependent view of the self, which is a way of defining oneself in terms of one’s KNOWING OURSELVES BY OBSERVING OUR relationships to other people and recognizing that OWN BEHAVIOR one’s behavior is often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others. 5.3 In what ways do people come to know themselves by observing their behavior? FUNCTIONS OF THE SELF Self-Perception Theory - when our attitudes and 1. Self-knowledge - the way we understand who we feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these are and formulate and organize this information states by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs 2. Self-control - the way we make plans and execute  First, we infer our inner feelings from our decisions, such as your decision to read this book behavior only when we are not sure how we feel. right now instead of going out for ice cream  Second, people judge whether their behavior really reflects how they feel or whether it was the 3. Impression management - the way we present situation that made them act that way. ourselves to other people and get them to see us the way we want to be seen People use the same attributional principles to infer their own attitudes and feelings. 4. Self-esteem - the way in which we try to maintain positive views of ourselves. Intrinsic motivation - the desire to engage in an activity because we enjoy it or find it interesting, not KNOWING OURSELVES THROUGH because of external rewards or pressures. INTROSPECTION Extrinsic motivation - the desire to engage in an 5.2 To what extent do people know themselves activity because of external rewards or pressures, not through introspection, and what are the because we enjoy the task or find it interesting. consequences of introspection? Overjustification effect - results when people view Introspection - which is looking inward to examine their behavior as caused by compelling extrinsic the “inside information” that we—and we alone— reasons, such as a reward, making them underestimate have about our thoughts, feelings, and motives. the extent to which their behavior was caused by  It is not always pleasant to be thinking about intrinsic reasons. ourselves  Reasons for our feelings and behavior can be MINDSETS AND MOTIVATION hidden from conscious awareness. (\ (\ („ ֊ „) ━━O━O━━ JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━ SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BSP 3104 Fixed mindset - idea that they have a set amount of 5.5 When are people likely to succeed at self- the ability that cannot change. control, and when are they likely to fail? An important function of the self is to be the chief Growth mindset - the idea that their abilities are executive who makes choices about what to do, both malleable qualities that they can cultivate and grow. in the present and in the future UNDERSTANDING OUR EMOTIONS: Thought suppression - whereby we try to push THE TWO-FACTOR THEORY OF EMOTION thoughts out of our minds.  The more we try not to think about something, Two-Factor Theory of Emotion - Stanley the more those very thought keeps coming to Schachter’s theory mind. Understanding our emotional states requires two IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT: ALL THE steps: WORLD’S A STAGE  We must first experience physiological arousal, and 5.6 How do people portray themselves so that  We must seek an appropriate explanation or label others will see them as they want to be seen? for it Impression management - the attempt by people to USING OTHER PEOPLE TO KNOW OURSELVES get others to see them as they want to be seen. 5.4 In what ways do people use others to know Ingratiation - using flattery or praise to make themselves? yourself likable to another, often a person of higher status. KNOWING OURSELVES BY COMPARING OURSELVES TO OTHERS Self-handicapping - whereby people create obstacles and excuses for themselves so that if they do poorly Social Comparison Theory - the idea that we learn on a task, they can avoid blaming themselves. about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people. SELF-ESTEEM: HOW WE FEEL ABOUT OURSELVES The theory revolves around two important questions:  When do people engage in social comparison? 5.7 What are the pros and cons of having high self-  With whom do they choose to compare esteem? themselves? Self-esteem - people’s evaluations of their own self- Upward social comparison - which is comparing worth—that is, the extent to which they view ourselves to people who are better than we are with themselves as good, competent, and decent regard to a particular trait or ability.  High self-esteem, which has the benefits of avoiding depression, allowing us to persevere in Downward social comparison - comparing ourselves the face of failure to people who are worse than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability. Terror Management Theory - protecting us from thoughts about our own mortality. KNOWING OURSELVES BY ADOPTING OTHER PEOPLE’S VIEWS In order to protect themselves from the anxiety caused by thoughts of their own deaths, people embrace Social tuning - the process whereby people adopt cultural worldviews that make them feel like they are another person’s attitudes—can happen even when we effective actors in a meaningful, purposeful world. meet someone for the first time, if we want to get along with that person. What happens when that dose is too large? There is a form of high self-esteem that is unhealthy, namely, SELF-CONTROL: THE EXECUTIVE FUNCTION narcissism, which is the combination of excessive OF THE SELF self-love and a lack of empathy toward others (\ (\ („ ֊ „) ━━O━O━━ JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━━JEYA`` ~ ୨୧ ♡ ━━━━