Social Psychology PDF

What is social psychology Humans are social species Social brain hypothesis: our brains evolved larger to promote social connection, which was adaptive Belief that Neanderthals died out because they weren't very good in a social aspect Social connections bring benefits...

What is social psychology Humans are social species Social brain hypothesis: our brains evolved larger to promote social connection, which was adaptive Belief that Neanderthals died out because they weren't very good in a social aspect Social connections bring benefits to us for our mental and physical health ○ Gives us meaning in our lives Social psychology is the scientific study of how individuals think, feel, and behave in a social context scientific study → scientific method vs folk wisdom Individuals → person-level, not society think, feel, behave → wide scope, not narrow social context → influence by/on others; real or imagined Is it all common sense? “I knew it all along” phenomenon Findings seem like common sense but end up being the opposite Cultural psychology All social psych research has a cultural context In the 90s, psychologists recognized different cultures or cultural thinking differ Culture: system of enduring meanings, beliefs, values, assumptions, institutions, and practies shared by a large group of people Research methods Learning it will make you a better consumer of information You will develop a false information/mistake detector Start with a hypothetical question or idea Basic research seeks to increase our understanding of human behaviour and is often designed to test a specific hypothesis from a theory Applied research focuses more specifically on making applications to the world and contributing to the solution of social problems 1. Start with a question Ideas come from observing world events  2. Gather info and plan Figure out whats already been done Go to the library, search engines Find existing research and see whats been missing Theory: an organized set of principles used to explain observer phenomena Hypothesis: explicit, testable, falsifiable prediction about what you will observe (based on theory) 3. Design your study Conceptual variables: the general topic, concept, idea (e.g., mood) Operationalization: making the general specific – how are you defining and measuring the variable? Construct validity: degree to which you are actually measuring (or manipulating) what you intend to Self-report: ask people to report their feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and actions. ○ Pros: convenience, consistency ○ Cons: social desirability, sensitive to changes in wording and scales, subject to memory distortion, dishonesty Observational research: watch actual behaviour. ○ Pros: avoids social desirability and memory errors ○ Cons: people may change beh if know they are observed Inter-rater reliability: level of agreement between multiple people on the same behaviour or measure. Archival research: Study existing documents or records to find patterns related to your variables of interest ○ e.g., crime reports, charitable giving, public surveys ○ pros: good external validity, generalizability ○ cons: no control over data collection, observer bias, random sampling Correlational studies: Correlational research measures the association between variables that the researcher does not manipulate Correlation coefficient (r )– number that represents how strongly related Two variables are; ranges from -1.0 to + 1.0 ○ Pros: can study topics ethically, view trends ○ Cons: directionality, 3rd variable problem, correlation is not causation Experimentation Gold standard for finding cause and effect 1) Random assignment to condition 2) Independent variables – what is manipulated 3) Dependent variables – what is measured What makes us feel confident in our results? Internal reliability: degree to which the study is designed to make a cause-effect conclusion Confound: some unintended factor that influenced the results, varies with the independent variable Double blind: neither participant nor experimenter knows condition; avoids experimenter expectancy effects External reliability: would these results be found in different circumstances? Experimental realism – was the study real and engaging for the participant? Mundane realism – does the study resemble the real world? Meta analyses and lit reviews Replication crisis and open science Research ethics Research Ethics Boards Informed consent/Debriefing Deception & Confederates Funding and Conflicts The self-concept Self-Concept: the total sum of a person’s beliefs about their own attributes (like a library), made up of schemas Self-schema: specific beliefs about yourself (like a book), you have many self-schemas; guide the way we think about things Self concept is malleable! We are not the same person everyday, we learn and change Introspection & Forecasting Affective forecasting: predicting how you would feel in response to future events We’re pretty bad at it. Why? Impact bias You forget that you will have supports or hardships You focus on only 1 thing and not other events Behavioural forecasting: predicting how you would act in a given situations We’re also bad at this too We are not good at understanding the reasons for our own behaviour We underestimate the profound power of a situation Self-Perception Bem (1972) – you learn about yourself by watching your own behaviour. Self-perception theory: when internal cues are hard to see or interpret, we will look at our behaviour to understand ourselves Why did I do that? Intrinsic motivation – engage in an activity because you enjoy it Extrinsic motivation – engage in activity because of reward/punishment Overjustification effect: when intrinsic motivation decreases when an external reward is provided ○ No longer doing it for your own enjoyment Social Comparison Theory Social comparison theory: people evaluate their abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to others (Festinger, 1954) Upward social comparison – compare to someone more successful Downward social comparison – compare to someone less successful Autobiographical Memory Autobiographical memory: memory of your own personal history Distorted to inflate your achievements Recency effect, with exceptions Flashbulb memories Culture and the Self-Concept Individualistic – values independence, personal achievements, being unique, distinct Collectivistic – values interdependence, group cohesion, modesty Self-Esteem Self-esteem – an affective component of the self, made up of positive and negative self-evaluations, mostly stable over life, 8 different domains State vs. trait self esteem Sociometer theory – people are inherently social and want approval from others; self-esteem is related to how much we are accepted Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins, 1989) 3 ways to think about the self, different aspects of who we are Who you are right now (actual self) Who you ought to be (duties, responsibilities, obligations) Who would you like to be ideally? When you compare who you are right now and who you ought to be your self esteem will go down Self Awareness Theory Self-awareness theory: when you are made aware of yourself, you compare yourself to a high standard—usually reduces self esteem --mirror, bright lights, images of eyes Two outcomes: Change behaviour to meet standards Withdraw from self awareness (avoidance, self-medicating) Self-Enhancement tricks Better than average effect – tendency to believe that you are better than most people at various abilities ○ Dunning-kreuger effect Self-serving beliefs/bias – tendency to take credit for success and make excuses for failures Self handicapping - engaging in actions that will sabotage your performance Self Regulation Self-regulation: process by which people control their thoughts, feelings, desires, and behaviour to achieve a personal/social goal ○ Limited resource that can be depleted Self-Presentation Self-presentation: process by which you try to shape what other people think of you (and what you think of yourself) ○ Aka “impression management” Spotlight effect - yoy think you’re in the spotlight wherever you go, think you’re more present and more people are aware ofyou Strategic - to get power, influence, sympathy, approval Goals: ingratiation, self-promotion Self-Verification Self-verification – the desire to have others see us as we truly perceive ourselves to be People select and accept personality feedback that confirms what they believe about themselves, even if it is negative Can conflict with self-enhancement motivation when self-concept is poor/negative Self Monitoring Self-monitoring: tendency to regulate behaviour to meet the demands of the social situation High self-monitors: have many selves to choose from, see it as pragmatic and flexible Low self-monitors: less concerned about what others think of their behavior, see selves as principled and honest Thin Slices & Physical Appearance Thin slices – process of making quick inferences about the traits and characteristics of a person with minimal information Within a few seconds you make inferences and cues about people (often accurate) You pick up on race, gender and age Impression of person infl. By: ○ baby faced vs mature ○ emotional display (happy vs angry) Perceiving Situations We also perceive situations – this can influence person perception ○ cultural scripts (culture of honour, face) ○ event scripts (e.g., first date) ○ what is appropriate/expected in that situation? Who has a “mind”? Mind perception: process of attributing human-like mental states to things and people 2 dimensions: ○ Agency It can do things ○ Experience Feel things for it or it will feel things Non-verbal behaviour Non-verbal behaviour – actions that reveal a person’s feelings without using words ○ Facial cues, body language, gaze, eye contact, vocal cues, emblems ○ Six basic emotions recognized worldwide: happy, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, surprise ○ Emojis – to show these in writing Attribution theories Attempt to explain how people interpret the causes of behaviour ○ Internal attributions (“dispositional”): infer that behaviour was a result of the actor’s internal disposition & traits “They’re lazy” “they’re a jerk” ○ External attributions (“situational”): infer that behaviour was the result of the situation or social context & pressures “They’re late for work” “they’re having an emergency” Correspondent Inference Theory (Jones & Davis, 1965) Correspondence bias: The tendency to assume that someone’s behaviour corresponds to their internal disposition Consider: ○ Freedom of choice ○ What behaviour was expected? ○ Anticipated effects? Covariation model (Kelly, 1967) 3 sources of “covariation” information: 1. Consensus – how do other people behave toward this stimulus? a. Ex. does everyone react this way? 2. Distinctiveness – how does the actor respond to other stimuli? a. Ex. is this kid afraid of every dog or just this one? 3. Consistency – how often does this behaviour happen around this stimulus? a. Ex. is the kid afraid because the dog lunged at him? Example: Karen is having lunch at a restaurant. She is unhappy with the service and asks to speak to the manager. Why did she act like this? Consensus: are other patrons complaining about the service? Distinctiveness: is Karen complaining about the service in other restaurants or just this one? Consistency: does karen complain every time she's at this restaurant or only today? Jones & Harris (1967) Question: How sensitive are we to situational pressures on others? Independent variable 1: Tone of essay (pro-Castro or anti-Castro) Independent variable 2: Author’s choice of topic (free choice or assigned) Dependent variable: What do you think the author really feels about this topic? Attribution errors Fundamental attribution error: tendency to overestimate personal factors & underestimate situational factors on behaviour Actor-observer bias: overestimate role of personal factors when evaluating other people, but not when evaluating your own behaviour Ultimate attribution error: personal factors explain your good outcomes; situation explains poor outcomes (can extend to ingroups) ○ I gave change to the homeless man because I’m a good person ○ I snapped at the barista because I’m stressed Attribution Biases Two ways to process information: ○ System 1: quick, easy, automatic ○ System 2: slower, controlled, effortful Heuristic errors Availability heuristic: tendency to estimate the likelihood that an event will occur by how easily we can think of instances of it. False consensus effect: overestimate the degree to which other people share your opinion Base rate fallacy: insensitivity to numeric base rates/odds Attribution errors Counterfactual thinking: tendency to imagine alternative events or outcome that might have happened but did not ○ What if? ○ Causes regret or relief Just world beliefs: tendency to think the world is a just place; bad things do not happen without cause Confirmation Biases Confirmation bias: tendency to seek, interpret, and create information that verifies your existing beliefs  Belief perseverance: maintaining beliefs even after they have been discredited Impression formation Information integration theory: our impressions are based on a weighted average of the person’s traits Central traits: exert a powerful influence on impression Negativity bias: negative traits are more informative Implicit personality theories: how traits thought to cluster Impression Formation Primacy effect: words presented early in a sequence influence the interpretation of information presented later. Asch (1948): parts told a person is either: “intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, and envious” OR “envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious and intelligent” Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Self-fulfilling prophecy: process by which your expectations about a person lead them to behave in ways that confirm your expectations (works for the self as well)