Social Exam 1 PDF

*Four core assumptions- 1. behavior is product of the person & situation 2. depends socially constructed view of reality, comparision 3. influenced by social cognition 4. using scientific method to understand behavior *Sigmund Freud- behavior directed by aggriessive (defending against predators,...

*Four core assumptions- 1. behavior is product of the person & situation 2. depends socially constructed view of reality, comparision 3. influenced by social cognition 4. using scientific method to understand behavior *Sigmund Freud- behavior directed by aggriessive (defending against predators, scarce resource compitetion) and sexual drives (reproduction). psychoanalytic theory. *Nature vs Nuture- instincts (evolution) vs environment (behaviorists). *Behaviorism- only behavior that can be observed and measured accurately. mind is unobservable. focus on environment. behavior determined by experiences, conditioning. watson and skinner. *Psychoanalysis- unconscious pressing instinctual and conscious expressing them in acceptable ways. most activity is unconscious, true intent is often hidden. *Social Cognition- the way someone understands their social world, how perceive, remember, interpret events,people, & theirselves. how it develops and infoences. applied basic ideas of info processing model. still popular today but more emerged that incorporated this. *Theory of evolution- natural selection, strong survived and passing on genes. *Existential perspective- basic questions of existence & human nature like meaning, identity, body, free will. Self and core human motives. Meaning and social connections. needs for meaning. how ppl cope with morality. *Cultural psych- focus on the influence of culture on thought, feeling, and behavior, playing a centeral role in behavior. we're cultural animals, viewing reality through symbols provided by culture, providing differing beliefs about reality. *Social Neuroscience- understanding neural processes underlying thought and behavior. enhances knowlegde in role of cognitive, emotional and motivational processes. *Confirmation bias- viewing events & ppl in ways that fit how we want and expect them to be. by charles lord. *Causal Attribution- explanation of ones behavior, coming from culture. ppl observe others and infer explanations. *Cultural knowledge- vast info accumulated within a culture, explaining how world works and why things happen as they do. passed down through generations. *Demand characteristics- ascepts of the study that gives away its purpose or how participant is expected to behave, deception used to avoid this. *Experimenter bias- experimenters knowledge of the condition could affect their behavior and introduce confounding variable. seeing what we want to see. double blind study helps take care of this. *Correlational research- seeks relationships, not cause & effect. good for predictions. collection of averages that improve predictions but arent always accurate. *Reverse causality- correlation may occur because one causes the other but its impossible to determine which. *Experimental research- causality, variable manipulation & random assignment, other conditions are constant. IV (manipulated) DV (measured). internal validity if everything went correctly. *Longitudinal- over period of time, helps asses which variable influences the other but does not help the third variable problem. *Scientific limitations- aspects of reality we cant know because we rely on our senses. scientific method is objective but we humans who apply it arent. not all can be answered scientifically like ethics and morality or requires unethical. values have influence on how science is conducted, we choose what to ask and research. *domain Specific adaptations- attributes evolved to meet certain challenge but not useful when dealing with other types (photoreceptors in eyes) *domain General adaptations- useful for various challenges across different areas (human capacity for learning, distinguishing us from other primates) -Humans are social beings. strive for social contact. cant survive without others, increases prospects for survival and gene passing. negative reactions when rejected or excluded. used to categorize people. fusiform face area allows recognization of other ppl. -Intelligent beings. many ways like imagination (critical for life planning), symbolic thought & language (helps with things not within immediate environment, communicating freely), the self (think about meaning of their experiences, contemplating fear, evaluate self and provide identity), conscious (controlled) /unconscious (automatic) thinking. -Motivated, goal striving beings. satisfaction of needs and goals plays role in level of motivation. -Very emotional beings. emotions signal important changes in body and environment. experience and anticipation plays big roles in motivation. positive emotions reinforce, negative motivate to avoid. internal experience accompanied by external display (facial expressions), expressing it to others, evolutionary function. *Security & growth- psychological motives. avoiding the bad. kids seek parents for support when distressed. activates right brain regions. inclined to follow the crowd, obey authority, accept culture values. & approaching the good. activates left brain regions. exploring surrondings and expanding ability. exhibit need for unqieness, expressing views, asserting freedom. *Hedonism- prefence for pleasure over pain. mental process allows to take a step back from pleasure and consider long term effects. *Experiential system- automatic process, occurs quickly without conscious awareness. *Rational system- controlled process, more slow and deliberate, motivated by a goal that is recognized. automatization (learning turns actions initally needing conscious control into automatic, example playing instrument) *Evolution- change over time. species descended from common ancestors. different genetic characteristics for different environmental demands. *Natural selection- Charles darwin. certain attributes are successful in particular environment, becoming more represented in future generations. weak qualities go away. key ingredients are variability (mutations & sexual recombination) and competition. *Survival of the fittest- adaptations improve prospects for survival and reproduction, over time most successful outnumber and replace less well- adjusted versions. coined by Herbert Spencer. *Socialization- learning from parents and others what is desirable & not conduct in certain culture. deep influence on learning behavior in social context *Elements of cultures- influenced by phyiscal environment & cultural histories... values, norms, morals, customs, roles, symbbols, rituals, attitudes, beliefs. *Attitudes- prefences, likes, opions about what is good or bad. *Beliefs- accepting ideas about reality, unquestioned, learned from cultural authorities rather than personal. can vary between cultured, may be disputed in others. *Cultural Diffusion- transfer of inventions, knowledge and ideas from one to another, made possible by communication & desire to explore and grow. occurs thrugh friendly contact, trading, immigration, conquest. *Cultural Transmission- members learn to imitate beliefs and behaviors of others in that culture, generational teachings. *Collectivistic culture- interdependence, cooperation, welfare of the group over the individual. stresses community sharing & authority ranking. fit in with group, obey authority, a part of a whole, sensitive to how actions affect others. social harmony. prioritize guilt over pride. views outgroup negatively. *Individualistic culture- individual initiative, achievement, creativity. stresses equality matching & market pricing. focus on good for self. express personal views. prioritze pride over guilt, accomplishment. *Metaphysical environment- understanding nature of reality & significance of live without cosmic order. *Cultural worldview- shared symbolic conceptions of reality that give meaning, order, and permanence. contains theory of reality that provides answers to metaphysical, symbols & rituals that reinforce their components, set of value standards, promise of immortality if followed. gives purpose, address existential concerns. defense- derogate and downplay those to violate important ideas & revere those who uphold. *Terror management theory- to minimize fear of mortality, sustains faith that we're valued contributors to meaningful world, transcending phyiscal death. *Physical environment- skills & tools developed to meet basic biological goals of survival and reproduction. *Social environment- development of roles, relationships and order. to reduce uncertainity, people identify w culturally defined groups that have clear behavior guidelines. community sharing, authority ranking, quality matching, market pricing. *Immortality types- literal (some form of life after death to those who are worthy) symbolic (contributing to something greather, some part of us will live on) biosocial- living on through their children. creative- through contributions to culutre. natural- by identifying with nature. experiential- results from peak experiences, like self actualization. *Self construal- viewing self as.... interdependent (how one relates to others and contributes to greater whole, collectivistic, social relations) independent (unique, serving own goals, individualistic, strives to stand out, personal traits) *Types of emotions- background (general affective tone). primary involves specific bodily processes & systems, triggered by stimuli, involves brain structure (fully aware. happy, sad, fear, anger, surprise, disgust). secondary are variations of primary (joy, delight, excited) *Cognitive appraisal theory- subjective experience of emotions determined by two step process involving primary (assessing benefit or harm, occurs quickly before fully aware, involves older brain structures, physiological arousal, primary emotion) and secondary appraisal (more differentiated emotional experience, assessing situation further, modifies emotion experience, involves rational thought process and frontal lobe). *Motives of decision making 1.) *Closure- quick closure by accepting first handy decision availabble w/o much effort. when low stakes. when thinking takes a lot of effort or is unpleasant, tired. time pressure may lead to wrong focus or decision. 2.) *Confirm what we already know- decisions are in line with what one knows and fits in beliefs or attitudes, preference. need to feel validated. more likely to act on info that confirms worldview. doesnt occur when theres a big gap between expectation and reality. filter, manipulate and analyze info to maintain preferred. 3.) *Accuracy- need to by right, corrective. find truthful info for understanding. important when perception of falsen judgement or wrong deciosion would have negative consqeunces. set aside schemas and focus on objective facts. *Heuristics- mental shortcuts used for making judgements and decisions. apart of experiential system. skimming over info you may already know when studying. *Schemas & types- knowledge building blocks, mental categories, can be source of stereotype. scripts (typisal sequence of actions, temporal sequence, helps fill in missing convo info), impressions, inferences. contains prior knowledge and associations with concept. jean piaget. affected by attitudes & beliefs. types..person (behavior, looks, personality, preferences)...social (be respectful, pay on a date, dont eat garlic)...self (future goals, preferences, intelligence)...events (situation, professionalism, attire, handshakes) indirect sources like teachers, peers, media, the internet. *Chronically accessible schemas- easily accessed, personally important and used frequently, influenced by personality traits. *Cognitive vs Experiential system- dual system. conscious rational controlled thinking, when challenges come up, when awareness is needed, when we have motivation, when we have ability to put in effort. can kick in to correct bias. (studying, reading thinking, avoiding distractions) vs unconscious intuitive automatic thinking. runs in the background, guiding automatic reactions, can be more sophisticated, control behavior to reach goals, automated rountines so we can put effort into other things, basic motives, consolidates memories, creative insights, gut feelings, essential for good judgement (learned associations, rapid good enough judgments to speed up thinking process). *Implict vs Explict attitudes- automatic associations based on past learning through experiential, automatic attitudes passed through evolution, most learned from culture. vs consciously aware attitudes through cognitive system, active process. Both can coexist on different levels. *Salience- aspect of a schema that is active, those that are highly accessible have increased salience. increased by schemas that fit with characteristics of the context & priming. salient schemas shape impressions. *Self fulfilling prophecy- intially false expectations cause fulfillment of them. power of schemas, not only influences perception of reality but also create reality we expect. expectations of situation leads to behavior to confirm it. *Priming- exposure to a stimulus in environment increases the salience of schema, stored info are connected to networks of other info. if primed with negative experience, behavior may reflect it (controversal). influences behaviors when situation is ambiguous. *Function of emotions- guides decision making without a conscious understanding why. judgements without aid of emotions are riskier/ impulsive. *Ease of Retrieval effect- people judge how frequently an event occurs on basis of how easily they can retrieve examples (not thinking your assertive because you cant remember) *Availability heuristic- tendency to assume that info that easily comes to mind is frequent or common (fear of flying vs dinosars) *Fixed mindset- bad, makes negative stable attributions about themselves, performs worse and expierence more negative feelings, losing any interest to improve. *Incremental mindset- attributes change incrementally over time. postive, seeks more chances to develop skills and improve. *Covariation principle- seeing a casual relationship between an event and outcome when happens at the same time, ie superstition & lucky items. *Misinfomation effect- cues (schemas) given after an event can plant false ingo into memory. memories are biased on current understanding of world. similar to the mind filling in the blanks based on schemas. sentence wording can distort recollection. hot air balloon expirement. *Causal attributions- explanations of ones behavior. helps make sense and find meaning in social world. organize perceptions into cause and effects. quick and automatic, not much effort. relies on schemas and motive to reach closure. comes from personal experiences and general cultural knowledge. *Locus of causality- attribution of behavior to either aspect of person (internal) or aspect of situation (external) *Actor-observer effect- making interal attributions for others behaviors but external attributions for our own. thinking success due to internal, but not failures. individualistic cultures focus on personality and actions (fundamental attribution error), collectivistic attentive to situational context. *Top-down processing- perceiving others through schemas, based on own preconceived notions. occurs through transference, false consensus, implicit personality theory, stereotyping. *Bottom-up processing- decoding others behaviors and mind. gathering info through observations and senes (situation). negativity bias, weighing bad more than positive, sensitive to bad in environment or straying from usual norm. occurs through brief encounters and theory of mind. good at picking out ppls characteristics and traits. using facial expressions, voice tone, body posture. *Transference- activating schemas of a familiar person and using it to form impression on someone new. proposed by Freud. *False Consensus- assuming others share our own attitudes and opinions. occured through generalizations due to ourselves being salient and easily cognitively accessible, validation, and associating to those similar to us. *Halo effect- a given trait influences overall opinion of a person, due to the belief one trait causes another (applying schemas). positive/ negative traits go together. *Primacy effect- what we learn early influences how we judge subsequent info. *Recency effect- what we learn last are remember more clearly than those first. *Upward counterfactual- imagined alternative is better than what actually happened. makes people feel worse. important to give insight into how to avoid it next time. regret. *Downward counterfactual- imagined is worse than actual. makes us feel better, putting a positive spin. stores use this when advertising sales. satisfaction. *Short term memory- info and input that is currently activated, info from sensory encoded into memory. *Long term memory- info from past that may/ may not be currently activated. When actively rehearsed, distinctive, goal related, or salient, it gets consolidated/ stored. *Memory influences- retrieval can be influenced by bias, schemas, motives, goals. memory is a reconstructive provess. motives (accuracy, closure, confirmation) can affect. Schemas are a potential guide to what we focus on and retrieve. *Social role theory- gender difference arise because of historical role distribution and error prone assumptions that those roles are essential to the sexes nature. biological differences, men taken on physically demanding & women raising children. *Social comparison- ppl know themselves by comparing with others similar, more accurate. comparisons. throughout lives, contributes to self concept. we're more likely to compare with those in immediate environment vs larger groups. *Upward comparison- comparison with those better off (olympic runner), results in feeling inferior, gets discouraged and gives up. *Downward comparison- those worse off (4 year old in football), makes us feel good about ourselves. *Better-than-average effect- tendency to rank oneself higher than most people on positive attributes. ppl may lack skills and knowledge needed to assess themselves accurately. when aware of own ignorance, assessment becomes more accurate. *Appraisals- what others think about us. reflect appraisals are what we think others think about us, salience is important in correctness. Self other knowlegde asymmetry model says external characteristics are easily and accuratly observed vs internal the self is more accurant. *Self schema- integrated set of memories, beliefs, generalization about personally important attribute that defines the self. how to behave. reluctant to accept ingo that refutes the attribute. Working self aspects are activated by situational cues and influence feelings and action in the moment, shifting social contexts bring different aspects of self-concept (when at school, with friends, with police) *Ironic processing theory- more we try to suppress, more those thoughts enter our mind and distracts us. relaxing effortful control can eliminate it and minimize distractions. *Monitor vs Operator- effortless mental process thats on lookout for signs of unwanted thoughts, just below awareness (automatic) vs effortful, pushes unwanted thoughts out, requires energy (controlled). *Rebound effect- occurs once operator wears out and suppression stops, unwanted thought becomes more accessible than before. stress, low time, high cognitive load can wear out operator, monitor keeps running, continuously looking out. *Self concept- "me", knowlegde of the self, schema (traits, identities, experiences). emerges as we're socialized. culture gender and roles shapes greatly. *Ego- "i", self control, directs ones thoughts and actions. *Exposing people to mirrors- triggers self awareness, where values & attitudes influences behavior when attention is on the self, salience. sugerego. when feeling incapable of change, avoiding mirrors and engage in distractions. unpleasant activities over self awareness with no distractions. *Social identity theory- ppl define and evaluate themselves in terms of social groups they identify themselves with. family, race, nationality etc. Men and women describe themselves differently. Behaviors influenced by cultural experiences and expectations, indentifying and emulating same-sex parents. *Action identification theory- how ppl view actions ranges from concrete to abstract. concrete goal (how, when difficult) abstract goal (why) *Construal level theory- focus on concrete details when thinking about near future, having more details & more abstract when distant future. *Two factor theory of emotions- product of arousal (physiology, determines emotion intensity) + context, how they interpret it. *Misattribution of arousal- inadvertent ascription of arousal resulting from one source to a different source. *Hot system- automatic, driven by strong emotions, very impulsive. direction and energy to seek postive outcomes. *Cold system- controlled, level-headed reasoning, resisting temptations and push through challenges (willpower). turned on by mindful attention and viewing thoughts as passing mental events. *Cognitive reappraisal- reframing to minimize emotional reaction. trying to see the silver lining. *Affective forecasting- predicting ones emotional reactions to potential future events, tends to not be very accurate. due to overestimation of salient factor, neglecting other factors, underestimating ability to cope. may hold us back.