Exam 1 Social Psychology PDF

**Week 1 Social Psychology Final Exam Notes** **Social Psychology Definition:** - **Definition**: The scientific attempt to explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other people. - **Key Idea**: Soc...

**Week 1 Social Psychology Final Exam Notes** **Social Psychology Definition:** - **Definition**: The scientific attempt to explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other people. - **Key Idea**: Social psychology studies the influence of others on individual behavior, thoughts, and feelings, emphasizing the role of society, media, and interpersonal interactions. **Key Theories & Concepts:** **Gordon Allport (1954)** - **Social Psychology Focus**: How individuals\' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others. - **Main Ideas**: - Society and media shape individual attitudes. - Social psychology looks at individuals in society, considering external influences on behavior. **Schachter\'s 1959 Social Isolation Experiment** - **Experiment Setup**: 5 volunteers isolated in a windowless room with only food, water, and entertainment. - **Results**: - 80% felt uncomfortable without human contact, showing psychological stress (e.g., anxiety, depression). - One person lasted 8 days without adverse effects, while others couldn\'t last more than 2 days. - **Limitations**: - Small sample size, lack of diversity. - No control group. - Psychological impact measurement not standardized. - Ethics concerns: informed consent, freedom to withdraw, and debriefing. **Impacts of Social Isolation (Hawthorn 2006, Holt-Lunstad 2015, Shanker 2015)** - Social isolation is linked to: - High blood pressure - Mental illness (e.g., anxiety, depression) - Physical inactivity - Dementia - Emotional distress - Poor immune function - Smoking, poor sleep - Decreased well-being and premature death **Milgram's 1967 Small World Phenomenon** - **6 Degrees of Separation**: - Any two individuals are connected by at most 5 intermediaries. - This concept suggests that we are more interconnected with others than we might think, exemplified by the \"Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon\" game. **Environmental vs. Dispositional Factors** **Environmental Factors** - Why people act differently in different situations: 1. **Other people** (e.g., peer pressure, social norms) 2. **Objects** (e.g., material resources or cues) 3. **Information** (e.g., media, societal norms) 4. **Social systems** (e.g., laws, cultural expectations) 5. **Events** (e.g., life changes, societal crises) **Dispositional Factors** - Why people react differently to the same situation: 1. **Personality** (e.g., introversion vs. extroversion) 2. **Demographics**: age, gender, mood, culture, etc. 3. **Prior beliefs** (e.g., political or religious beliefs) 4. **Genetic predispositions** (e.g., temperament) 5. **Skills, education level, political preferences** **Brindal 2021 COVID Study on Life Satisfaction** - **Key Findings**: - **More life satisfaction during COVID**: - Working from home - More children at home - Time for hobbies - Open-mindedness - **Less life satisfaction**: - Increased unhealthy eating and screen time - Extraverted personalities - Concern about societal impacts of COVID - **Strengths**: - Large sample size (over 4000 participants) - Measured multiple dispositional factors. - **Limitations**: - Self-reported data, may be biased. - Reflections on past experiences may be inaccurate. - Participants may have answered in a socially desirable way. **Community Psychology & Collectivism** - **Focus**: The role of societal and environmental factors in shaping behavior. - **Rejects** individualism (focus on personal responsibility). - **Supports** collectivism, emphasizing societal issues and second-order change: - Seeks to improve social conditions that influence individuals\' lives. - Aims for **preventative measures** and **empowering community problem-solving**. - **Second-order change**: Community-wide solutions that promote long-term improvement, such as systemic social interventions. **Kelly 2019: Social Isolation in Scotland** - **Study Focus**: The impact of community activity on social isolation. - **Key Idea**: Dispositional factors (individual characteristics) influence how people react to social isolation, highlighting the importance of social connection in combating isolation. **Key Takeaways for Exam:** - **Social Psychology**: Understand how external factors (society, media, other people) influence individual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. - **Milgram's Small World Phenomenon**: Key concept that we are all connected through a small network of intermediaries (6 degrees of separation). - **Social Isolation**: Recognize the negative impacts on mental and physical health (e.g., depression, poor immune functioning). - **Environmental vs. Dispositional**: Be able to differentiate between factors that shape behavior due to external influences vs. internal traits (personality, prior beliefs). - **COVID Study**: Be familiar with the dispositional factors that impacted life satisfaction during the pandemic. - **Community Psychology**: Know the focus on societal change over individual behavior change, emphasizing second-order solutions to improve overall well-being. These notes should help you focus on key concepts, experimental findings, and their implications for social psychology. Make sure you understand both **environmental** and **dispositional** factors and how they shape human behavior, as well as the ethical considerations in psychological research.