Social Psychology Exam 1 Study Guide PDF

Social Psychology Exam 1 Research Methods -​ Internal Validity – Ensures the experiment measures what it intends to by eliminating confounding variables. (are you testing what you say you're testing) -​ External Validity – Determines if study re...

Social Psychology Exam 1 Research Methods -​ Internal Validity – Ensures the experiment measures what it intends to by eliminating confounding variables. (are you testing what you say you're testing) -​ External Validity – Determines if study results can be generalized to other settings and people. Three Main Research Methods: -​ Correlational – Examines relationships between variables but does not establish causation. -​ Experimental – Manipulates variables to determine cause-and-effect relationships. -​ Observational – Observes behavior in natural settings. Cognitive Shortcuts & Biases -​ Availability Heuristic – Judging the likelihood of events based on how easily examples come to mind. -​ Representative Heuristic – Classifying something based on how similar it is to a stereotype. Thinking Styles -​ Analytic Thinking (Western cultures) – Focuses on individual objects and their properties. -​ Holistic Thinking (East Asian cultures) – Focuses on relationships between objects and their surroundings. Schemas & Priming -​ Schemas – Mental structures that help us interpret and predict the social world.  -​ Cohen (1981) investigated the effects of schemas on memory recall -​ Accessibility & Priming – Exposure to certain stimuli makes related information more likely to be used in judgment. -​ Higgins et al. (1977) participants were primed to by semantic concepts embedded within a word memory task Social Perception & Attribution -​ Fundamental Attribution Error – Overestimating personality traits and underestimating situational influences when explaining others’ behavior. -​ Jones & Harris (1967) Participants read essays about Fidel Castro -​ Perceptual salience: the seeming importance of information that is the focus of people’s attention (Taylor & Fiske ) Automatic vs. Controlled Thinking: -​ Automatic – Fast, effortless, and unconscious (e.g., recognizing a face). -​ Controlled – Slow, effortful, and deliberate (e.g., making a difficult decision). Nonverbal Communication -​ Display Rules – Cultural norms for expressing emotions. -​ Emblems – Nonverbal gestures with specific meanings within a culture (e.g., thumbs up = approval in the U.S.). Self-Fulfilling Prophecy -​ When expectations influence behavior, leading someone to act in ways that confirm those expectations. ( EX: If a teacher believes a student is gifted, they may give them more attention, causing the student to perform better.) -​ Snyder, Tanke, & Berschield (1977) used the attractiveness schema to test the self-fulfilling prophecy