Social Psychology PDF

Week One Slide Show: - What is social psychology: - The scientific study of how people think about/influence/ and relate to one another - Social Psychology asks: - Does our social behavior depend more on the situations we face or on how we...

Week One Slide Show: - What is social psychology: - The scientific study of how people think about/influence/ and relate to one another - Social Psychology asks: - Does our social behavior depend more on the situations we face or on how we construe them? - Would people be cruel if ordered? - To help? Or to help oneself? - Goal of science: - Understand - Explain - Predict - Influence - Scientific thought and mentality: - “We can only know that we know nothing anf that is the highest degree of human wisdom” - Thinking critically about: the scientific attitude - Curiosity - Skepticism - Humility - Psychology as a science: - Ways of knowing what is “true” - Absolute: as it is - Relative: as i see it - Created: is is, what i say it is - 5 ways theory of truth: - Science - Consensus - Expert - Faith - Personal experience - We construct our social reality - Ppl tend to attribute behavior to a cause. Makes it seem orderly/predictability/controllable - We react differently because we think differently - 1951 princeton-dartmouth football game demonstration/ the saints vs rams 2019 - There is an objective reality but we always view it through the lens of our beliefs and values - Objective reality/ what is “truth” - Truth: absolute/relative - Beliefs about others  - Beliefs about ourselves - Social influences shape our behavior - Culture helps define our situations: Skinner - We are social animals, speaking and thinking in words that we learned from others - (Zimbardo) Social situations have a powerful effect on our behavior - Example: Nazi influence - Our social institutions are often powerful but sometimes perilous - Intuitions shape fears, impressions, and relationships - We intuitively judge the likelihood of events—often erroneously—by how easily they come to mind - Example: fears about flying - Example: trusting one’s own memories - When accuracy matters, impulsive intuitions must be restrained with critical thinking ► Dual processing ► Conscious and deliberate ► Unconscious and automatic- offstage and out of sight - Personal attitudes and dispositions also shape behavior - Internal forces, our attitudes, affect outer behavior - Whether we vote - Susceptibility to peer pressure - Willingness to help others in need - Our attitudes also follow behavior: we often believe strongly in what we have committed ourselves to do. - Issue of Moral Disengagement (Bandura) - Personality dispositions lead different people to react differently to a situation - Social Psychology’s big ideas social thinking - Attitudes shape and are shaped by behavior. - How do Attitudes shape behavior - How does behavior shape attitudes - Is one more predictable or powerful? - Social Psychology Big Ideas Social influence - Social Influences Shape Our Behavior (Many Variables) - Locality - Educational level - Subscribed media - Culture - Ethnicity - Social Behavior is biologically rooted - Nature and nurture together form who we are - Both biology and experience Social neuroscience explores the neural bases of social and emotional processes and behaviors  Builds upon the principles of more basic sciences We are bio-psycho-social organisms To understand social behavior, we must consider under-the-skin (biological) and between-skins (social) influences - Social Psychology's big ideas everyday use - Influencing behaviors Principles of social thinking, social influence, and social relations have implications for important issues - Social psychology gives us a method for asking and answering interesting and important questions - How to know yourself better - How to understand and influence others - How to know ourselves better - Implications for human health - Implications for judicial procedures - Enabling an environmentally sustainable future - How do human values influence social psychology? Is there any good research? - Social psychology is a set of strategies for answering questions - Can social psychologists be objective? - People’s values enter into psychology in both obvious and subtle ways - Obvious Ways Values Enter Psychology - Research topics - Types of people - Object of social-psychological analysis - How values form - Why they change - How they influence attitudes and actions Obvious ways values enter psychology Not so Obvious ways Values enter - Values affect the choice of research topic psychology - Often reflect current events - Science has subjective aspects Values that influence research - Scientists interpret using their own topics vary across cultures mental categories Values influence the types of people - Culture: the enduring behaviors, who are attracted to various ideas, attitudes, and traditions disciplines shared and passed on by a large Values are also often the object of group of people social psychological analysis - Social representation: a society’s widely held ideas and values - Psychological concepts contain hidden values - Psychologists make value judgments—in their definition of the good life, in the professional advice they give others, and in the research-based concepts they form - Labeling reflects value judgments - Research Methods: how we do social psychology - Elements of social psychology research: Research is so important!!! - Forming and - Correlational testing research hypotheses - Experimental - Sampling research - Surveys and - Generalizing questionnaires from laboratory to life - Theory: an integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events - Good theories effectively summarize many observations and make clear predictions that can be used - Where do they come from: research - Find an event/problem - Think about theories around that issue - Write question you think you need answered to understand this issue (research questions) - Dont need to answer all just pick one - Literature review: - Looking for variables - This is the basis of understanding - - Hypothesis: a testable statement that describes a relationship that may exist between two variables or events ► Allows us to test a theory ► Gives direction to research ► Can make a good theory practical - Social psychology can be laboratory research or field research; and it can be correlational or experimental - Laboratory research is a controlled situation - Field (exploratory) research is everyday situations—it is done in natural, real-life settings outside the laboratory - Correlational research: the study of the naturally occurring relationships among variables—asking whether two or more factors are naturally associated - Experimental research: studies that seek clues to cause–effect relationships by manipulating some factor to see its effect on another  - Correlation Research: - Survey research Detecting Natural Associations - Random sample Using a coefficient known as r, - Unrepresentative correlations quantify samples the degree of relationship - Order of questions between two factors - Response options - −1.0 indicates that as - Wording of questions one factor goes up, the - Framing other goes down - 0 indicates no relationship - +1.0 indicates that as one factor goes up, the other also goes up - Experimental Research: - Random assignment: The Searching for Cause and great equalizer Effect Experiments are - Process of assigning controlled by random participants to the assignment of participants conditions of an to two groups: one that experiment such that receives the experimental all persons have the treatment and another—a same chance of being control group—that does not in a given condition - Independent variable: the experimental factor that a researcher manipulates - Low correlation - Dependent variable: the variable being measured, so called because it depends on manipulations of the independent variable (what you're measuring) - - Replication: Are the Results Reproducible? - Replication: Repeating a research study, often with different participants in different settings, to determine whether a finding could be reproduced.  - Ethics of Experimentation and control for error - Mundane realism - Demand - Random Assignment characteristics, Blind, - Experimental realism Double Blind - Deception - Informed consent - Debriefing - Week Three Notes 9-9 and 9-11 9-11 - Self and Culture - Individualism (score scale) - Concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications - Independent self : Construing one’s identity as an autonomous self-as a unique individual with particular abilities, traits, values and dreams. - Indicative of Western cultures - Collectivism - Giving priority to the goals of one’s group and defining one’s identity accordingly - Interdependent self: recognizing identity is found within the group. - Asian, African, and Central and South American cultures - Culture and Self-esteem - In collectivist cultures: - Self-concept is context specific rather than stable - Conflict takes place between groups - In individualistic cultures: - Self-esteem is more personal and less relational - Conflict takes place, between individuals - crime/divorce - Self Concept: Independent or interdependent Concept area Independent Interdependent (individualistic) (collectivist) Identity is… Personal, defined by Social, defined by individual traits/goals connections w/ others What matters Me- personal We- group goals/solidarity, achievements/fulfillment, our social responsibilities/ my rights/liberties relationships Disapproves of Conformity egotism Illustrative motto “To thine own self be “No one is an island” true” Cultures that support Individualistic western Collectivistic asia and third world - Self Knowledge: - Explaining our behavior: - Reasons for doing what you do - Reasons used for choices made, justification - How many thoughts per day - Predicting our behavior: - Banduras chance encounters, environment influences - Environment creates options - Banduras moral disengagement - Planning fallacy: - Tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task - People in western cultures dont hesitate to explain why they feel/act as they do; but often their inside information is wrong - Peoples self-predictions often err - Predicting feelings: - Predicting our feelings - Studies of “affective forecasting” reveal people have the greatest difficulty predicting the intensity/duration of future emotions - Impact bias: - Overestimating the enduring impact of emotional-causing events - Immune neglect: - Tendency to neglect the speed/strength of the “psychological immune system” which enables emotional recovery/resilience after bad things happen - The Wisdom and Illusions of Self-Analysis - Our intuitions are often wrong about what has influenced us and what we will feel or do. (Meyers) - Dual attitude - Automatic implicit attitudes regarding someone or something often differ from our consciously controlled, explicit attitudes  - One implication of the limits to our self-knowledge is an important research concern: Self-reports are often untrustworthy - Another implication concerns our everyday lives: Keeping our potential for error in mind can help us feel less intimidated by others and become less gullible - How do you know what is true? How many sources do you use? - What is going on today. Mass Formation (Psychosis); Dr. Mattias Desmet - What is the Nature and Motivating Power of Self-esteem (scale) - Our overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth - We have high self-esteem when we feel good about the domains important to our self-esteem (such as looks or intelligence) - In turn, when we have high self-esteem, we are more likely to value those domains - Specific self-perceptions have some influence - Feedback is best when it is true and specific; in contrast, very general positive feedback can have negative results - Self esteem motivation: - Self-esteem maintenance. Most people are extremely motivated to maintain their self-esteem; What are some reasons? - Self-esteem can be threatened by a failure or an unflattering comparison with someone else - Friends’ successes can be more threatening than that of strangers - Terror Management Theory proposes that people exhibit self-protective emotional and cognitive responses when confronted with reminders of their mortality. Humans must find ways to manage their fear of defeat and death. - Trade off of low vs high self esteem - People low in self-esteem are more vulnerable to anxiety, loneliness, and eating disorders; and they experience more problems in life - Longitudinal studies—studying the same people over an extended period of time—found people who had low self-esteem as teens were more likely to later be depressed - People with high self-esteem are more likely to savor and sustain the good feelings when good things happen - Self-esteem fosters initiative, resilience, and pleasant feelings - Self-esteem does not guarantee success, however; and many violent, destructive people have high self-esteem. (can you think of any) - Signs of high self esteem: - Having an internal locus of control, getting “okayness” from within, not from others. - Taking care of yourself – physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  - Maintaining a balance between extremes of thought, feeling, and behavior. When out-of-balance, taking action to correct. - Learning from mistakes and being able to say, “I made a mistake.” If it involves another person, being able to make amends or say, “I’m sorry.” Able to forgive self and others. - Managing your life responsibly. - Honoring individual differences among people. - Listening to other points of view. - Taking responsibility for your own perceptions and reactions; not projecting onto others. - Having the ability to listen to your wise inner self (your intuition), and to act on this guidance. - Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses. - Choosing continuous self-improvement and taking positive risks. - Balancing being and doing. - Feeling warm and loving towards self. - Giving and receiving love easily, with no strings attached. - Demonstrating self-respect, self-confidence, and self-acceptance - - Symptoms of low self-esteem - Constantly doubt themselves and do not trust their judgment - Operate out of a fear of rejection and look for approval from friends, family and co-workers. - Are typically unassertive in their behavior with others. - Blame themselves, often think everything is their fault and sensitive to criticism from others. - Seek the approval of others to be happy - Are anxious about the future and are often depressed. Ontological Anxiety. - Have a tendency not to act. They become stuck and immobilized because they are afraid of failure. - Sometimes overcompensate and become over-achievers. Blame others for failure. - Can be perfectionists. Constantly seeking to improve themselves and their environment. They are never satisfied. - Are constantly plagued with negative self-talk and self-doubt. They are unable to affirm themselves positively. - Are unable to make an honest assessment of their strengths, qualities, and good points; they find it difficult to accept compliments or recognition from others. - Social Withdrawal and Are insecure, anxious, and nervous when they are with others. - Are easily overcome with guilt (ontological guilt), despair and depression when they experience a setback or loss in their lives.  Lack of psychological immunity. Often present with physical symptoms such as fatigue, insomnia, and headaches. - Tend to overreact and become de-energized by resentment, hostility, anger, and the desire for revenge against those whom they believe have not fully accepted them. - Fulfill roles in their family that are counter-productive and co-dependent. - Are vulnerable to mental health problems. Preoccupied with personal problems. - They often use addictive behavior to medicate their emotional pain. Such addictive behavior can include alcohol, drugs, food, gambling, sex, shopping, smoking, working too much, or the endless search for truth. - Self-efficacy - How competent we feel on a task - Estimate of our ability to accomplish a task. - Leads us to set challenging goals and to persist - Components of Self-Efficacy. - Locus of Control (Scale) - Learn Helplessness versus Self-determination (Grit) - Four components of Self-Efficacy - Experience - Vicarious Experience - Social Persuasion - Physiological Feedback - What is self-serving bias - Guided by emerging human Motives; Is this Universal? Consequences? - Most of us have a good reputation with ourselves - In studies of self-esteem, even low-scoring people respond in the midrange of possible scores - Tendency to perceive oneself favorably - Explaining positive and negative events - Self-serving attributions - Tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors - Contribute to marital discord, worker dissatisfaction, and bargaining impasses - People claim they avoid self-serving bias but readily acknowledge that others commit it - A self-serving bias is any cognitive or perceptual process that is distorted by the need to maintain and enhance self-esteem, or the tendency to perceive oneself in an overly favorable manner - Can We All Be Better than Average? - Self-serving bias also appears when people compare themselves with others - On subjective, socially desirable, and common dimensions, most people see themselves as better than the average person - Example: group members’ estimates of how much they contribute to a task typically sum to more than 100% - Self-serving bias is usually stronger for traits that are more subjective or difficult to measure - Areas we believe we are above average: - Ethics - Intelligence - Professional - Parental support competence - Health - Virtues - Attractiveness - Driving - Self-serving bias is a by-product of how we process and remember information about ourselves. Because comparing ourselves with others requires us to notice, assess, and recall their behavior and ours, there are multiple opportunities for flaws in our information processing. - Motives are involved in our biased perceptions - Striving for self-esteem helps power our self-serving bias ⚫ - Self-Serving Bias may be ⚫ Adaptive ⚫ Protects people from depression ⚫ Maladaptive Group-serving bias - Examples today: - False Consensus Effect - Tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors - False Uniqueness Effect - Tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors - When we behave badly, we reassure ourselves by thinking such lapses are common; but on matters of ability, when we are successful a false uniqueness effect more often occurs  - Unrealistic Optimism: - Optimism predisposes a positive approach to life - Most humans are more disposed to optimism than pessimism - Optimism beats pessimism in promoting self-efficacy, health, and well-being - Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability - Example: failure to use contraceptives - Unrealistic Optimism - Is on the rise - Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability - Defensive Pessimism - Adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action - Also important to listen to criticism - How do people manage their self-presentation - Wanting to present a desired image both to an external audience (other people) and to an internal audience (ourselves) - Self-Handicapping (Scale).Protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure - Self-presentation: expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression - Self Monitoring. Being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting performance for the desired impression. (Impression Management) - Tendency to act like social chameleons - What does it mean to have self control: - Self’s capacity for action has limits (Bandura,et al) - Willpower requires energy; and self-control can get tired when used too much - Exertion of self-control leads to self-control failure—Justification Effect though this may be a uniquely Western occurrence - Self-control can get stronger if it is used more - Requires Awareness and Cognition - - Chapter 3: Social beliefs and judgements - How we judge our social worlds consciously and unconsciously - What functions for us to explain others behavior? Beware of Error!! - Priming: What activates a memory or perception? - Constructing memories of ourselves and our worlds: Remember we create our own Social Reality - Restructuring our past attitudes - Restructuring our past behavior - Perceiving and interpreting information: collective-political, social self. Can we implant “memories” or create false memories? - Impact of Schemas - Embodied Cognition: Preferences and social judgements that are embedded. - Belief Perseverance: The past is powerful - Intuitive Judgments - The Powers Of Intuition: Power & Limitations - Automatic processing: “implicit” thinking that is effortless, habitual, and without awareness; roughly corresponds to “intuition - Controlled processing: “explicit” thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and conscious - Limit of intuition: - Automatic, intuitive thinking can seem to “make us smart”; but the unconscious may not be as smart as once believed (Freud, Jung, Etc.) - Error-prone hindsight judgments - Capacity for illusion—for perceptual misinterpretations, fantasies, and constructed beliefs - Can lead to “testing for Truth”! Note that although people create false beliefs, not all beliefs are false - -