Social Psychology Textbook Summary PDF

Chapitre 1 social psychology : scientific study of feelings , behaviors and thoughts of individuals IN social situations. goals is to establish a scientific explanation for human behaviours, reduce streotypes/prejudices people influence one another and how people respond to attempts from others to...

Chapitre 1 social psychology : scientific study of feelings , behaviors and thoughts of individuals IN social situations. goals is to establish a scientific explanation for human behaviours, reduce streotypes/prejudices people influence one another and how people respond to attempts from others to influence them. achieve greater understanding of self and others Power of the situation Kurt Lewins Jewish from Berlin escaped Nazi Germani – proffesor at Iowa and MIT studied physics and questioned about the force applied to objects: object exist within a context and so do we. (ex: force of gravity=actions, words and emotions of other people). → For humans, the field of forces is the social situation and the forces are psychological and physical Milgram experiment Stanley Milgrim , Yale university “teacher” and a “learner” teacher inflicts electric shocks ranging from 15-450 62.5 of participants gave 450 (average given is 320 volts) predicted that only 1% would go past 330 volt level. and only 20% past 150 volt-(80% actually did) Why did this happen? 1. unfamiliar situation 2. experimenter took blame 3. step-by-step nature of the experiment ( no one could have guessed the outset) 4. The chosen vocabulary Seminarians and Samaritans (Experiment) Whether you are in a hurry or not is a powerful predictor In a hurry = won't propose help (religion didn't have any sort of influence in these results) Fundamental attribution error ↪ Def: the failure to recognize the importance of the situational influences on behavior along with the tendency to overemphasize the importance of disposition on behavior. Internal factors (what kind of person you are) have way less influence then the majority thinks. disposition → def : set of internal factors such as beliefs, values, personality traits, that guide a person's behavior. We underestimate the power of external forces, need to understand the complexity of those forces. People should consider situational factors when trying to understand other people behavior before assuming the behavior is the result of disposition 1 situationism and nudges The importance of little nudges that push individuals in a certain direction have massive change in behavior or decision Circumstances can guide behavior in a particular direction by making it easier to follow path X then Y E.g: organ donation in Germany (12%) vs Austrians (99%) The Role of Construals: Def: interpretation or inference about the stimuli on situation one confronts, often non-consious - Hidden part of our cognitive activity, hence not identified as a main factor you our beliefs our thoughts perceptual process both automatic and conscious what we see is not necessarily what is really there but what is plausible ↓ Gestalt psychology: Def: (form or figure) : stresses that people's perception of objects involves active, usually unconscious interpretation of what the object represents as a whole. Naïve realism: ↪ Def: Belief that we see the world directly, without any complicated perceptual or cognitive machinery ‘doctoring’ the data. Thinking process: because I know I have biases, I can now see the world clearly. (false thinking) parents less biases, superior to classmates and general population Schemas: Def: generalized/systematized knowledge (a structure) about the physical and social world (what behavior is expected of me depending on the situation)-- helps construct the world and guides us on how to act. → They capture the regularities of life and lead us to rely on past info so we don't have to reinvent the world all the time Stereotypes: ↪ Def: a form of schema regarding beliefs that certain characteristics or attributes of members of a particular group. dangerous if applied in the wrong way or too much weight given to it. Automatic (A) vs controlled processing (C) A: Automatic, non-conscious, quick, based on emotional factors, implicit attitudes and beliefs + Function: used for matters of efficacy and parallel processing 2 C: Conscious, systematic, controlled by deliberative thought (this can change over time), explicit attitudes and beliefs → Both process can result in quite different attitudes toward the same person (A comes before C) E.g: The weapons effect Social categories that have an impact on judgment (without our knowledge): race, age, gender Types of Nonconscious Processing We can’t correctly explain the reasons for our judgments about other people. So many things can influence like: Order, words assimilated without our conscious mind, smell (by cultures), accuracy and critical thinking, body language Evolution and Human Behavior: How we are the same natural selection: ↪ Def: an evolutionary process that molds animals and plants to have traits that enhance the probability of survival and reproduction are passed on to subsequent generations. Human’s defining traits are social in nature and are inherited (E.g: capacities to learn languages, cooperate, care for offspring, play, form groups, be wary of those different from us, form beliefs about supernaturals beings) ↪'Reputed universals’: but humans share some characteristics with other mammals and the important number of universals we share with other animals is quite small. Group Living, Language and Theory of Mind groups living helped us survive but also produce language–conveys emotions/intention but also beliefs, attitudes and complex thoughts infants born with capacity for language (all phonemes)/ learn any languages (empty disk) + even with deaf parent or twins ↪Proof that there are inherited general propensities to develop language theory of mind: prewired ability to understand and organize others beliefs and desires to predict and understand their behaviors (starting before the age of 2) if not– autism → makes plausible that this appeared through evolution (not just trial-and-error) Naturalistic fallacy ↪ Def: the claim that the way things are is the way they should be (False) We are predisposed to do many things that we can overcome (biology=/= destiny) civilization are an attempt to regulate natural occurrence of a “poor, nasty, brutish and short” life -Thomas Hobbes (philosopher) Social Neuroscience (biological grounding for behavior) 100 billion neurons organized in 50 regions each neuron connects to 15000 other neurons. 3 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): Showing which brain regions are involved in the social behavior of interest by taking picture of the brain that detects the blood flow Older regions involved in nonconscious, shared with other mammals: amygdala- gut feeling, fear nucleus accumbens-dopamine receptor Prefrontal cortex: process complex thoughts and emotions Unique for humans humans vary from other mammals because size of neocortex- more layers of neurons on top older brain regions such as amygdala involved in reasoning, abstract thoughts and memory, social behavior (also moral judgment, encompassing or feeling others emotions desires and needs (theory of mind), self awareness, moral judgment, punish or forgive, empathy network and mentalizing network) →You feel very different if accepted or rejected:social security and the alarm network. 2 Uses of neuro: 1. provide a window into the development of social behavior by tracing physical changes in the brain 2. Gives info about how the brain, the mind, and behavior function as a unit and how social factors influence each of these components at the same time region of the brain that alarm when danger is underdevelop before adulthood -kids and teenager take greater risks brain, mind and behaviour all influenced by social fsactors Culture and Human Behavior: How we are different we are so successful because of our ability to adapt to any environment/ecosystem however enormous variation within human race because of it → culture cultural differences extend all the way to self-conception, social interaction, and cognitive processes/patterns of thinking Cultural Differences in Social Relations and Self-Understanding Independent (individualistic)--Western europ, Canada, Australia and U.S ↪ Def: think of themselves as unique social entities, attributes exist in the absence of connection to other people. bonds as subject to termination if they become troublesome or unproductive (so they are voluntary). denser gray matter in part brain for thoughts about self (ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and self-agency (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) Interdependent (collectivist)-- east asian, south asian, middle east and Latin countries ↪ Def: People tend to define themselves as part of a collective, less freedom and personal control over their lives (tied to others) but they don't really want or need it. expect hierarchical relationships/not universalists in terms of social norms 4  Being unique and/or better then others is not so important →these have a strong effect on the nature of their personal and social goals + striving values and beliefs ex: success is important to many east asian group solely because it brings credit to their family, not because of personal merit attribution Some variations/qualifications Variations of interdependence and independence : → Familiarism in interdependence : social value defined by interpersonal warmth, closeness and support (E.g: hispanic cultures and moving away) → Socio-economic status (SES): is a factor of influence. Lower SES are more interdependent than middle class individuals + diff. in parenting style + proof of the want of uniqueness → The same person can have a independent orientation in some situations (eg: debate tournament) and a interdependent orientation in others (E.g: signing in a choir) Why is there such variations between cultures and the individuals within 1. How to get money/types of jobs E.g: Large-scale agriculture dependent on cooperation = interdependence Solitary ventures such as trading = independent This can be applied within a nation (E.g: diif types of agricultures in China) 2. The degree of importance of family E.g: Societies organized in extended family, few ties to people outside the nuclear family, these are the norms and are more interdependent Rule makers and rule breakers Tight societies - E.g: Germany and China ↪ Def: Strict rules governing behavior and conformity to those rules is demanded E.g: Germany and China Loose societies - E.g: USA and Australia ↪ Def: Rules are fewer and less strictly enforced There's always a variation within a nation Tendency to become tighter the more you are threatened Cultures and Gender Roles -Big variations across the globe but, male dominance is the most variable one. Examples: hunter and gatherer societies, women in politics in scandinavian countries -Variations on the kinds of sexual relations that are considered normal or appropriate Eg: Monogamy (one partener) or polygyny (one man with several women) / LGBTQ relationships views around the world →These are arbitrary or have some economical/practical roots? (E.g: Nepal, Tibet or Western Europe) -Women and men differ in how they understand themselves, their emotions and motivations 5 *Many of the findings of social psych have been obtained from a very limited range of people* →Whether a society develops a particular prewired inclination or not may depend on how adaptive the behavior is for the ecological, economic, and cultural circumstances. The Use of Social Psychology Social Psych and Critical thinking, Social Media and the Good Life No better way to improve critical thinking than to study social psych ↪ improve them by engaging in exercises that make use of the scientific tools you will develop by reading research on a range of topics. Social media affects our mood, information, stress, etc. Find out that certain things we might assume would influence our happiness profoundly, doesn’t actually shape our well-being as much as we thought 6  chapter 3 the self is largely social eventhough there are variation in what the biggest social influences on the self are the self is largely inspired by the principle of psychology (william James) the self is a social entity -behaviour varies depending on the situation social me: what we know about ourselves from social situations self-knowledge: important because we are the only ones who can acces fully our past experiences, current thoughts, feelings and intentions. however, some lack accurate self-insignt and provide faulty descriptions of themselves -> because we don’t have access to certain mental process Some times: self protective experiment- (Samine Vazir+Matthis Mehl (2008)) rate themselves on how frequently they practice 25 different behaviours and rate how accurate they are at predicting this vs others predicting their behaviour , results shows we believe we know ourselves best over 4 days period recorded behaviour–results: others predictions are as accurate as our own. Some aspects of the self are only known to the self and others only accessible to others. others are less likely to be tainted by desires to see self in a positive light self-schema: knowledge structure derived from past experiences that represents a persons beliefs and feelings about the self 9both general and specific situations). it is a storage of knowledge that help us navigate situation people are very attuned to information that fits their self-schema and less to info that doesn’t. reflected self-appraisal: a beliefs about what others think of oneself. we come to know ourselves by how we THINK others see us (looking glass self) overlap between rsa and sa is greater in late adolescence than in early adolescence and in close friends rather than aquintences the self is rooted in situationism working self-concept: a subset of self knowledge brought up in particular circumstances/situations how can we reconcile the malleability and stability of the self? : we like to believe we have a constant/core self overall pool of self knowledge is relatively stable the shifts experiences depending on situations are predictable often having patterns. hence the malleability and constance of one self perception may exist. 7 culture: western cultures promote and independent self-contrual: the self is distinct and autonomous -assert uniqueness and independence as well as focusing on internal causes for behaviours conception of self is embedded in social interactions independent self-construal: inward focus on the self interdependent self-construal: outwards focus on the social situation (recreate the scene from outside perspective) Who Am I? experiment (Manford Khun and Thomas McPartland (1954) Americans describe themselves by referring to personality traits and personal preferences. interdependent cultures describe themselves as referring to relationships. contact to Western culture also adopt this tendency to describe themselves with personal characteristics (American students, Kenyan undergraduates, workers in Nairobi, Maasaintribespeople, Samburu tribespeople) socioeconomic cultures in the U.S. promote the elaboration of distinct construals of the self higher-income environments have abundant resources: greater access to education, job security, depending less on others and going after opportunities is more encouraged = developing the ideal independent construal. lower-income environment promotes more dependence on others. gender- another factor women tend to describe themselve in a more interdependent way then men in the US men prioritize differences and uniqueness while women describe themselves by there relationships same results where found in Japan when showing photos that represent them women tended to show pictures including other people women are more empathetic and attuned to others feelings and personalities while men are more attuned to their own differences self explained by socialization (women nurturing and males aggressive and competitive: - girls are thought more by their parents to care about others - early friendships also shape our perception of gender differences regading self construal-playing gender segrated groups can renforce these beleifs boys play games that emphasize competition, hierarchy and distinction - women also take on more responsibilities in rasing children emphasazing this interdependent aspect of self - media representation 8 social comparison theory: people compare themselves to other people to obtain an accurate assessment of their own opinions, abilities and internals state. judging wither we are “honest’ or “moral” is relative hence hard to judge– hece we compare ourselves to others downward social comparison: compare ourselves to inferior - boost self esteem upwards social comparison: focus on improving self Social media is also a factor of self comparison in our life and construing an opinion of ourself people also choose which social group they see as part of their sens of self social identities: parts of a person’s sense of self that are derived from group membership self-streotyping: define themselves as traits, norms, values they associate with a group they also consider a part of their self. ex: defining one-self as californian=assosiating self with perception of what it means to be in that group Self-esteem the overall positive or negative evaluation people have of themselves (attributes, qualities, successes and failures) -has many dimension Low self-esteem: less satisfied with life, hopeless, depressed, harder cope with isssues, and challenges, prone antisocial beviour and delinquency people who dislike themselves are rare and typically in specific clinical situations trait self-esteem: overall long-lasting good or bad- fairly stable across time. State self-esteem: momentary feeling of good or bad 14-23 males self-esteem rise and women’s falls contingencies of self-worth: self-esteem rise + falls with successes and failures but some aspects more important than others to some individuals wise to base self-esteem on a wide range of factors sociometer hypothesis; self-esteem is internal subjective index of the extent to wich a person is included/excluded or looked on favourably by others. because of the evolutionary basis that we needed to be in a group to survive: hence being included= high self-esteem enlightenment period (eighteenth century) focus more on individuality, freedom and rights modern Americans want to raise independent confident children independent fosters higher rates self-esteem than interdependent exposure to the West, independent emphasis rubs off on them Motives Driving Self-Evaluation 9 Self enhancement Def: The fact that people are motivated to see themselves positively. Desire to maintain, increase or protect positive views of the self. This influences: 1- how they respond to negative feedback 2-What kind of information they seek out Self-serving construals Better-than-average effect: Finding that most people think they are above average on various personality trait and ability dimensions Why does this happen? 1- How people interpret what it means to be XY. Self-serving interpretations of theses kinds of traits are one means of pursuing self-enhancement. 2- People think they are significantly above average on ambiguous traits that are easy to construe in multiple ways (artistic or sympathetic) then unambiguous ones (tall or punctual) 3- The ambiguity concerning which behaviors/characteristics count determines what someone is like. + We judge others on average behavior and ourselves when we are at our best. Self-Affirmation Another strategy to maintaining a positive view of the self Self-Affirmation theory: People's effort to maintain an overall sense of self-worth when confronted with feedback or events that threaten a valued self image by affirming a valued aspect of themselves unrelated to the threat. Other use: minimize a wide range of defensive, and potentially harmful, behaviors E.g: take responsibility only for success, putting down members of stereotyped group Self-enhancement and well-being Self-Verification Self-Verification theory: We strive for stable, subjectively accurate beliefs about ourselves. So, for others to view us as we view ourselves (confirm or verify our preexisting views about ourselves) This helps maintain a sense of coherence and predictability = better social interactions *is true even for negative self-views Self-Verification strategies 1. Selectively attend to or recall information that is consistent with the view of themselves 2. Tendency to enter relationship that promote consistent view of the self The want to verify our sense of ourselves guides our assessment of the validity of self-relevant info. While our desire to think about ourselves favorably guides our emotional reactions to the same info. 10 Self-Regulation: Motivating and Controlling Behavior Self-regulation: Process by which people initiate, alter and control behavior in pursuit of a goal no matter its form. + resist short term rewards to prioritize long-term goals Self discrepancy Theory Def: Theory that behavior is motivated by standards reflecting; ideal, actual and ought self + falling short of these standards elicits specific emotions and may lead to efforts to get closer to them a. Actual self: The self you believe you are b. Ideal self: The self that embodies your hopes, wishes and aspirations c. Ought self: The self that is concerned about your duties, obligations and external demands that you feel compelled to honor When discrepancy a and b/c - predictable consequences a and b - dejection related emotions (eg: disappointment or shame); a and c - rise to agitation-related emotions (eg: guilt and anxiety) Approaches to goal pursuit: 1. Promotion focus: Self regulation of behavior with respect to ideal-self standards, a focus on attaining positive outcomes through approach related behavior 2. Prevention focus: Self-regulation of behavior with respect to ought self-standards, a focus on avoiding negative outcomes through avoidance-related behaviors. Thinking reaching a: elevated, cheerful emotions, heightened sensitivity to positive outcomes Thinking never reaching a: dejection-related emotions; depression, shame, reduced physiological arousal Deviation from c: agitation-related emotions, elevated physiological arousal, avoidant behavior and sensitivity to negative outcomes *interdependant= prevention focus *independent= promotion focus Shifts in construals and perspectives Central to self regulation theories: how one's construal or perspective can shift One way to exercise self-control is to shift how to construe the temptation ↪ focus less on the less alluring features and more on the unappealing facets Events, goals, behavior, etc. can vary because of high-construal and low-construal High-level construal: abstract, global and core features (the forest) + facilitate self-control + increase people appreciation of the consequences of their choices and behavior for their long-term goals and values Low-level construal: Salient, incidental and concrete details (the trees) Automatic Self-Control Strategies It can operate automatically 11 Goals intentions: A goal one wants to achieve Implementation intentions: How one will behave to achieve the goal under particular circumstances + follow ‘if - then’ format Forming more but smaller implementations intentions related to the same goal increases our likelihood of goal attainment + with that behavior can be triggered by ‘if’ cues in the environment Effectiveness in wide range of goals and domains (better rates of completion): doing well in school, being healthy, succeeding at work + can soothe an anxiety-provoking interactions Bringing goals to mind first has the effect of diminishing thoughts about temptations. (always with a bit of nuance) Self-Presentation Our social self is often a dramatic performance in which we try to project a public self consistent with our hopes and aspirations (shaped by perceptions of other people and the one we want others to have of us) *Can sometimes be dangerous (eg: sacrifice of physical health) Self-presentation: Presenting to the others the person we would like others to think we are OR Impression management: how we attempt to control the particular impressions other people form about us. ‘OOPS!’ : linguistics that help reestablish social order when we have violated the rules of self-presentation and show how committed we are to preserving the self we want others to accept (contrary to some patients in mental institutions) Face: The public image of ourself that we want others to believe. The claims about ourselves play out on with social interactions + self-presentation is collaborative. ↪ depend on others to honor our desired identities and vice-versa Self-monitoring: The tendency to monitor one’s behavior to fit the current situation High-self monitors: carefully scrutinize situations and shift their self-presentations and behavior according to the people and situation Low-self monitors: behave according to their own traits and preferences, regardless of the social context (requires a lot of honesty) Effective social functioning requires participation in some degree of strategic self-presentation Self- Handicapping People don’t live up to the public self they are trying to portray. So to protect the self we engage in various self-handicapping behaviors Self-Handicapping: Tendency to engage in self-defeating behavior in order to have an excuse ready should you perform poorly or fail. ↪ gives an explanation for possible failure (sometimes they are plainly false) 12 People would rather voluntary fail and have a ready excuse for it then try for success and have no excuse for failure. Presenting the Self Online One major use is presenting itself to others, which people in majority are doing pretty accurately. This concept may be driven as much or more by self-verification motives (be known to others like like we are in our own eyes) or, a favorable online self-presentation to withstand offline scrutiny + physical aspect is of importance because of the vital role that physical appearance plays in attraction 13  Chapter 4 snap judgements: from detail impressions two dimensions when it comes to faces : positive/negative (trustworthy or not)-- should they be approached or avoided and power (confident or submissive)-- top or underdog dominant ex: had pronounced jaws trust worthy of not: shape eye socket, eyebrows position, smiling adults seen as weak or naive hold baby-like features: these features trigger hardwired predisposition to protect (favorable in court of law) but not seen as cadidate for adult jobs) ex: candiate us: those judged to be more competent at first glance won 69% of time unwise to put too much validity to our snap judgement- consensus=/= accuracy inferring causes of behaviour form judgement off meaning we give to individuals behaviours; attributions behaviour is always bot personality and situation internal (I) and external causes (E): I deep love for instrument E wanting to become famous is it a personal desire or is it desired by most people? Covariation principle : the idea that behaviour should be attributed to potential causes that occurs along observed behaviour consensus: weather most people would behave the same way distinctivness; whether behaviour is unique to particular situation or occurs in many or all situations. sometimes we imagine we would have acted differently – infer thatthe behaviour is caused by the person not the situation discounting principle: ppl assign redacted weight to particular caus eof behaviour if othe rplausibe causes mght have produced the behaviour. (confident a cause results in particular behaviour) conterfactual thinking: what we might have couldve shouldve happened “if only” emotional amplification: increase in emotional reaction proportional to how easy it is to imagine the event not happening iw; silver medalist vs bronze self serving attributions self-serving atributional bias: ppl are inclined to attribute failures = external events success = internal causes ex: sport: for victories 80% of aspects attributed to own team –53% defeat attributed to own team 14 fundamental attribution error: people from the milgrim experiment seen as unusually cruel or weak deciding how much credit give someone whos succeeding in life (broader societal forces, pure luck) Lee Ross study: college student in quiz? game competition questionner, contestat and observer ranked them rated questionner knowledge as greater eventhough they setted the question contestant rated less knowledgeable even when rating their own knowlege when observing:people tend capture more our attention compared to other aspects of the environment when you are actor: more interested in the situation you are in actor observer difference: difference is attribution de pending on who is making the assessment: actor makes situational attribution and observer makes dispositional attributions ie- married couples fight are explained by this : actor says late du to traffic or late work while observer attributes lateness to laziness or inantentivness Cultural differences cause basic differences in how understand behaviour non-westernes pay more attention to details of situation because attuned to others to match their behaviour line experiment: either had to draw line same length as original (american better) or in relation to original ration (Japanese better) frontoparietal judgement- part brain needed for difficult perceptual judgement: japanese activated when Absolute line needed to be drawn / American activated when proportional line needed to be drawn in sports : westernes more likely to make assumptions about outcome as result of infividuals performances, hong kong coaches made attribution to other situational factors. east asians less likely make disposational inferences - hence less attributional error mexican + mexican american less likely make disposinal inferences puerto Rican children describe themselves in fewer Trait words than American gender attributions: men more likely attribute failur to lack effort women more likely attribute failur lack talent Carol Dweck - student feedback: positive evaluation related to intellectual 80% times in girls and 94% times in boys. boys lean critical feedback only mean haven’t worked enough and girls learn is due to lack of talent when both given same feedback kids react to this feedback accordingly - hence not a gender difference but rather differnece of treatment in the classroom 15 How information is presented Order effects Importance is HOW the info is presented They are a type of pure framing effects: The frame of reference is changed by reordering the information even though the content of the information remains exactly the same Primacy effect: Type of order effect where the info presented first has a disproportionate (bigger) influence on our judgment - often occurs when the info is ambiguous - E.g: Description of someone and all different shades of meaning + how each is constructed depends on the information already encountered Recency effect: Type of order effect where the info presented last has a disproportionate (bigger) influence on our judgment - The closest in our memory Framing effects Order effects are a type of framing effects Def: Influence on judgment resulting from the way info is presented (words chosen or order) Spin framing: Form of framing that varies the content (used to highlight some aspects of issues but not others) E.g: The death tax VS the inheritance tax *Importance to check polls sources and be very mindful of the wording Positive and negative framing: Everything can be described or framed in ways that emphasize the good or the bad, with the same information - There is no correct frame, just different approaches - These sort of framing can influence judgments and decisions of the greatest consequences (E.g: Recommending a surgery or not) - Negative info attracts more attention and have a greater psychological impact (elicit a stronger response) than positive info Temporal Framing temporal frame: We think about actions and events within a particular time perspective Construal level theory: Theory about the relationship between temporal distance (or other kinds) and abstract or concrete thinking - Distant actions and events = Abstract - Close actions and events = Concrete terms High level abstraction: rich meaning but no details (chewing gum, put money in a donation jar) Low level of abstraction: rich in concrete details (dining out, helping a friend) How we seek information Confirmation bias 16 Def: Tendency to seek out evidence that would support your proposition rather then info that would contradict it Experiment: Effect of practice on a tennis game Proving the bias + showed that we tend to not seek out all necessary information Problem: 1. This bias can lead to all sorts of false beliefs because we can find proof for everything these days - evidence consistent with a proposition is not enough to draw a firm conclusion, we have to also seek out the evidence against it 2. Can lead people to ask questions that shape the answer they get (support your own proposition) 3. Can result in highly polarized beliefs, especially with internet and the algorithm *information bubbles: confirmatory info is shared by members of like-minded communities Overconfidence bias: Tendency to have greater confidence in your judgments and decisions than your actual accuracy merits (confidence exceeds accuracy) Motivated Confirmation Bias Fall prey to the confirmation bias when you have no motivation to particular motivation to confirm a specific outcome, but usually you search for confirmation of your proposition - Info that support what you want to be true = readily accepted - Info that contradicts = Subjected to critical scrutiny and often discounted Top-Down Processing: Using schemas to understand new information Understanding world= combining info in front of you with what you already know - actively constructed Bottom-up processing: Forming conclusion on stimuli encountered in the environment Top-Down processing: Filters and interprets new info in light of pre-existing knowledge and expectations *Preexisting knowledge is organized in schemas with related info * If situation is ambiguous = rely heavily on top-down processes to compensate for the inadequacies of the info by bottom up The Influence of schemas Affect our judgment in 3 ways: 1. Attention : Attention is selective. Knowledge we bring to given situation enables us to direct our attention to what's most important while largely ignoring everything else E.g: Pass the ball and the gorilla 2. Memory : We are most likely to remember the stimuli that had captivated our attention. ‘Memory is attention in the past tense’ E.g: Women librarian or waitress experiment 3. Construal : Also how we interpret/construe that info. The info that is the most accessible in memory can influence how we construe new info All this affects behavior Priming: Presentation of info designed to activate a concept and hence make it accessible. 17 Prime: Stimulus presented to activate the concept in question E.g: Music, pass/gamble Consciousness of activation: We don’t need to be conscious of the stimulus for it to affect us Subliminal stimuli: Stimuli presented below the threshold of consciousness Which schemas are activated and applied? Recent Activation Rencency = most common determinants of which schemas get activated, it makes it more accessible Stimuli that activate schema can be: words, objects, color of walls, cultural symbols, feedback from our own body, smell, etc. Frequent activation and chronic accessibility People differ in the schemas they use when evaluating others Using a particular schema frequently, it may become chronically accessible and therefore likely to be used still more often in the future Expectations Sometimes apply schema because of a preexisting expectation about what they will encounter. It influence info processing by priming the schema and it will be applied even if the slightest hint is there Reason, Intuition, and Heuristics Response to stimuli by two systems: 1. Intuitive system: quick, automatic, based on associations, performs many operation simultaneously - in parallel (use to not drain all of our mental energy) 2. Rational system: slower, controlled, based on rules and deduction, performs operation one at a time - serially Relation of the two system a. Two systems can agree b. Two disagree and 2 can override message from 1 c. 1 produces a response that seem right so fast that 2 is never engaged Heuristics: Intuitive mental shortcuts performed quickly and automatically, that provide efficient answers to common problems of judgment. - forestall more rational deliberation which leads to mistaken judgments (bias) The availability heuristic Def: The process whereby judgments of frequency or probability are based on how readily pertinent intense come to mind - If many examples come quickly to mind there must be many of them - so often serves us well - How available they are = accurate guide to overall frequency/probabilities 18 Biased assessment of risks: availability heuristic + pronounced tendency for the media to report bad news over good, can lead people to believe that life in general is more dangerous that it actually is More a crime is covered the more people fear it, more television=more fear about the environment. Assessment of personal harm are driven much more by personnel experiences Biased estimates of contributions to joint projects: Assessment of likelihood distorted by info we encounter and process first hand People tend to overestimate their own contributions to negative or positive outcomes Fluency: availability close cousin. Def: The feeling of ease (or difficulty) associated with processing information. Influences all sorts of judgments, based acceptance or validity on absurd bases + how people process relevant information Disfluency leads to a more ‘slow down, be careful’ approach (E.g: The font and thinking) The representativeness heuristic Def: The process whereby judgments of likelihood are based on assessment of similarity between individuals and group prototype/ cause and effect We ask implicitly if that person is similar to my prototype of X. Useful to make accurate judgements about people and events Base-rate information: Information about the relative frequency of events or members of different categories in a population Strong sense of representativeness (its not a perfect guide) sometimes leads us to ignore base-rate likelihood, which should be put to use + we need additional info Resemblance between cause and effect representativeness heuristic affects people assessment of causality Big effects= big causes Small effects= small causes Complicated effects = complicated causes and so on *but is often valid Effects are particularly striking in health and medicine and pseudoscientific belief systems The joint operation of availability and representativeness Two heuristics sometimes operate in tandem it leads to: Illusory correlation: The belief that 2 variables are correlated when in fact they are not - We expect an association with 2 entities and it makes us more likely to remember the instances when it happened - When associations or propositions seem plausible we tend to believe them regardless of the evidence Regression effect: The statistical tendency, when two variables are imperfectly correlated, for extreme values of one of them to be associated with less extreme values of the other Regression fallacy: The failure to recognize the influence of the regression effect and to instead offer a causal theory for what is really a simple statistical regularity. 19  chapter 6 attitudes: evaluation of an object either + or - that includes 3 components abc - 3 components of attitudes: A affect - emotion (like or dislike) C cognition - thought : based on prior knowledge of beliefs, often reinforces the emotion B behaviour - approach or avoid (reward or coat off different objects) self report mesures: 1. likerts scale ↪ numerical scale used asses ppls attitudes: includes set of possible answers with labelled anchors on the extreems. - dosen’t capture depth and biased to lies 2. mesure accesiblity Response latency: ↪the amount of time it takes to respond to a stimulus, susch as an attitude question 3. centrality of attitudes: ↪ mesure variety of attitudes of one topic , if it is central to you = consistent attitudes about said topic implicit attributes mesures: ↪ an indirect mesure of attitudes that dosent involve self-report people unwilling to say true feelings about a matter: affective priming and implicit association test- evaluating associations between attitude and object evaluate noncousious attitudes: ↪ attitudes people hold that may not even be aware of , these may conflict with consiously endorsed attitudes. predicting attitudes from behaviour 1934- Lapiere; toured US for 2 years with chinese couple, visited 250 estabishements: only refused at one establishment when surveyed same establishment 90% claimed would refuse to serve “Chinese race” ↪suggest attitudes don’t predict behaviour well we can only infer the opposite behaviour offers intale on attitudes 20 other attitudes and societal norms also dictate our beviour explaining mismatch in our actions vs attitudes introspection towards our emotion hardly truly represents our attitudes (Thimoty Wilson- college student experiment: reasons why they are dating their partners.) generating reasons is not a good predictor of subsequent behaviour- because only identify the easy aspects and often no the true underlying forces highly specific attitudes = predict specific beviour accurate general attitudes = how behave in general cognitive dissonance overtime- behaviour can lead us to develop certain attitudes or genuine beliefs Leon fetsigner’s cognitive dissonance- inconsistencies between a peon thoughts, sentiments and actions creates an aversive emotional states that leads to efforts to restore consistency ↪ by alternating cognition to make it consistent to action dissonance: an aversive emotional states that leads to efforts to restore consistency tendency rationalize actions/descisions post decision phenomenon: right after an irrevocable action is taken people assert more confidence in their choice to rasionalize it (ex: betting or horse and betting / voting candidate) once ppl choose a preference on something theyr will starts to distortssubsequent information to support their preference effort justification ↪the tendency to reduce dissonance by justifying time effort of money devoted to it when turns out to be disappointing/unpleasant ex: experiment on women discussion and sex- highter the initiation the less reported the experiment as disappointing $$ - paying with cash or check feels more costly hence will grow stronger commitment to product or brand. induced compliance ↪subtly compelling people to behave in a manner that is inconsistent with beliefs attitudes / values to elicit dissonance, resulting in change of original attitude ex: induced to tell people tat the experiment was fun: 1$ vs 20$ incentive; the 1 $ incentive is not enough to justify the behavior hence they change their previous attitude about the study to match their behaviour to make somone internalize a beleifs don’t go overboard on incentives forbidden toy study: mild threat – more desirable severe threath – justified – no change in attitudes towards toy -> severe punishment is enought to keepu children from doing something , but still later on desire to do it 21 When does inconsistency produce dissonance? To understand why and when : Think about when someone elses actions makes you question that person’s character and to consider the justifications that would prevent us from questioning that person's judgment Def: When there is an implication of our core sense of self (core values and beliefs) and the behavior A,B,C,D A) Free choice Critical role of freedom of choice, no emphasize on the agreement or not to a certain decision B) Insufficient justification Unjustified behavior will produce dissonance. If a person’s behavior is justified by a powerful incentive, even behavior that dramatically conflicts with the person's beliefs wont produce dissonance C) Negative consequences We judge in proportion to how much harm resulted from the given behavior. People experience dissonance only when behavior results in harm of some sort. If behavior doesn’t have real consequences, can be dismissed even if they don't align with our beliefs D) Foreseeability of the consequences We typically don’t hold people responsible for harm they’ve done if the harm wasn’t foreseeable, its the foreseaability of the negative consequences of our actions that generate dissonance Self-Affirmation and Dissonance Dissonance (as a threat to the self) can be warded off directly by dealing with the specific threat itself and indirectly by taking stock of their good qualities and core values Self-affirmation is way to cope with threats of self-esteem People who value X but fail to do so in a social setting, end up evaluating the person who triggered the X behavior more favorably and even reduce the importance the person attributed to X in the first place Is Dissonance universal? (independent vs interdependent) Western: Same result as previous studies. Affected by the self-affirmation manipulation/the control conditions Asian: No dissonance effect in either control condition. Dissonance effects only if they thought others were observing their behavior Self-Perception Theory (SPT) Inferring our own attitudes Self-perception theory 22 Def: People can come to know their own attitudes by looking at their behavior and the context in which it occurred and then inferring what their attitudes must be Attitudes don’t always come to know their attitudes by introspection, we understand ourselves the same way we understand others People aren’t troubled by any unpleasant sate of arousal like dissonance; they merely engage in a rational inference process. They don’t change their attitudes they infer what their attitudes must be. E.g: Observers-subject read descriptions of dissonance experiments and are asked what attitude a participant would’ve had, the observer subjects replicate the attitudes of the actual participant. E.g: ‘If I chose this, I must like it’ Reconciling the Dissonance and Self-Perception accounts CDT: The inconsistency presents an unpleasant psychological arousal that motivate a change (better and more accurate for the real world) SPT: no arousal is involved, people infer rationally what their attitudes should be in light of the context at this given moment ↪dissonance reduction processes and self-perception processes both occur and both attitudes and people broader view of themselves (ex p207) ↪at times it can influence really important attitudes so really important behavior Overjustification effect: Tendency do devalue something eben if they are pleasing in order to get something else The embodied nature of cognition and emotion SPT: the core of it fits with the beliefs that our thought and feeling are highly affected by our physical states and bodily movements ↪ challenge the idea that attitudes, beleifs and knowledge are abstract form in our brain. It argues tha tit can be partly embodied in the physical movements -Motor actions: smiling, pushing, nodding are really important (to the point that they can be unconscious ) Eg: Botox = harder time processing sentences containing emotions How our body is feeling and what its doing can help the act of simulation, influencing what we think and feel. Beyond Cognitive Consistency to Broader Rationalization System justification theory Def: People are motivated to see the existing sociopolitical system a desirable, fair and legitimate - thinking the world should be fair and seeing inequalities generate dissonance but extolling the virtues of that system is a way to compensate These stereotypes give ideological support to the status quo, making people more accepting of the sociocultural status quo Terror management theory 23 Def: People deal with the potential crippling anxiety associated with the inevitability of death by striving for symbolic immortality through preserving valued cultural worldviews and by believing that they have lived up to their culture standards. - Denial: only the physical body will come to an end - MY family will live on with my memory - Dying in a physical sense but continue to live symbolically, as long as we are in good standing with the institution or culture - Life after death: no need to be concerned about living symbolically, the need for self-esteem is reduced *Failure to replicate TMT worldview defense hypothesis suggest that some caution when evaluating TMT may be warranted Chapitre 2 Toi 38-49 hindsight bias def: peoples tendency after learning the outcome to be overconfident about wether they could have predicted that outcome exp: 1 group was told to make predictions and the other group was told the fact and asked to guess if they would have predicted it correctly. The 1rst group made incorrect predictions while the 2nd group where confident they would have predicted it correctly. Methods: thought experiments: a very useful critical thinking skill where one speculates about results might obtain under 2 sets of circumstances ie: used when you can’t conduct an experiment for ethical or practical reasons hypothesis: prediction about what will happen unders certain circumstances theory: set of related propositions that describe some phenomenon/aspect of the world, they also usually have support (emperical data) and hold propositions that are surprising ex: natural selection and dissonance theory Observational research: often first step of research is observing subject participant observation: ie: antropologists living with communities and forming conclusion about behaviour off observed beliefs, discussions, ect. often semi-formal: take notes and interviewing ex: roger barker study on how children interact with environment: followed these children in all aspects of their life to better understand the relationship between their environment, opportunities and environmental constraints. ! observations are sometimes misleading and need to be tested using other methods in order to make real conclusions ! 24 archival research: looking at evidence from archives:census reports, police reports, sports statistics, newspaper articles, databases ect. this type of research was used to do honor culture research: using police reports of homocide, researchers found that it was more common in the south to have homicide involving insult ( ex: claims of infidelity) hrdings people settled in the south: more likely to be aggressive to defend their living means also seen in mediterranean countries surveys: either interviews or written questionnaires, the people in the surveys just be representative of the population as a whole (random sample) conveyance sampling: surveying the people who enter the library is not random : hold some sort of bias and may be misleading sometime no data is better than misleading data ex: survey in the literary Digest claimed that Landon (republican) would win the election bases of 1 million participants. Landon actually only won in two states This is because the survey was conducted by telephone directories or automobile registrations, the people who owned telephone and automobiles at the time were wealthy and more likely to vote Republican. also people who take the time to respond to a survey most likely have different opinions that the ones who don’t respond: ie; people who respond to wight loss survey are more likely to have lost weight that not in surveys southernes where NO more likely than northerners to agree to the saying “an eye for an eye” correlation research: 2 or more variables examine whether they are related once established a correlation needs further examination to better understand weather the correlation is also causational or is caused by a third variable correlation doesn't equal causation self selection: investigator has no control over the participants level o of each variable (creates problem that maye other unknown properties are causing the observed relationship) 25 it is important to understand teh limitations of correlational findings: mays suggest causal connection but it dosent establish causation experimental research: enables to make strong inferences abt why a relationship exists longitudinal studies: study conducted at different point in time, same person independent variable: in correlational studies this variable is measured, in experimental it is manipulated becaus e it is hypothesized to be the cause of particular outcomes dependent variable: it is measured and thought to be affected by fluctuations on the independent variable Control condition: placebo random assignment: ensure participant are as likely to geet assigmend to on condition as the other cohen”s experimental study on southerners: 2 independent criterias: southerners vs westerners and incident vs no incident when asked to complete a story where someone insults someone wife, the southernes who were insulted where more likely to provide a violent ending the level of testosterone of southerners was also higher after being insulted (hormone associated with aggression in males) when the targets where asked to walk down a hallway, a confederate walked down the same hallway in the middle, the participants where tested on how long it would take them to swerve: all northerners swerved 5 ft away, southerners who had not been insured swerved 9 ft away and southerners who have been insulted swerved 3 ft away 26 Natural experiment: useful when a experience could not be conducted: ex: the tv show sesame street could only be watched by a certain part of the population because the signal was strong enough only in that part of town to broadcast the show, studies the observed that these kids performed better at school because they were more prepared for a school setting. Moi 50-61 The Criteria of Sound Research External Validity in experiments Def: How well the results of the study can be applied outside of the context of the lab Unable too = poor external validity Even if the particular context is rare (e.g: Milgram experiment) the study can illuminate why such things happens and will likely happen again Or situation is strip down to its bare essential to make a point difficult to make in real life situations Best Test = field experiment: When experiment is in the real world (not lab) and the participants are not aware they are in a study If can be applied in the real world → how broadly applicable are they? (importance of cross-cultural research, they show the same core but specific patterns/tendencies) Internal Validity in Experiment Def: In experimental research, confidence that only the manipulated variable could have produced the results. Poor internal validity = third variable could plausibly account for any observed difference between the different conditions Experimental situation: held constant; participants don’t differ in the experimental conditions (randomly assigning them to the various experimental conditions assures those conditions) Solution = Interviewing participants who have served in pilot studies or preliminary versions of the experiment Reliability and Validity of Test Measures *Specific correlation stats in the book* Reliability: The degree to which the particular way researchers measure a given variable is likely to yield consistent results. (typically measure by correlation; 0 to 1) Measurement validity: The correlation between a measure and some outcome the measure is supposed to predict Statistical Significance Def: A measure of the probability that a given result could have occurred by chance 2 Factors: 1 - The size difference between results obtained from participants in the experiment and control conditions or strength of a relationship between variable in a correlation study 2 - The number of cases on which th finding is based (large differences may not be significant if they are based on a small number of cases 27 Replication: Def : Reproduction of the research results by the original investigator or by someone else. If results are valid they should be replicable by others Some results do not replicate: - Replication attempts not made correctly - Every result have a probability of being an error - Original result itself was fluked or methods were not precise - Reported results are just fraud - Context matters Open science: Practices in effort to increase the integrity and replicability of scientific research Changes put to increase replicability - Substantial increase in sample size - Investigators report the results of all measures collected and all experimental conditions run in their studies - Pre Register and make public their methods, hypotheses, and data analysis procedures before conducting the research Ethical Concerns in Social Psychological Research Institutional review board (IRB): Committee that examines research proposals and make judgments on the ethical principles of it *especially for research that can be harmful, but as long as the research is deemed to yield significant scientific information *Different IRB = different judgements Informed consent: Signed agreement to participate in a experiment after learning all of its relevant aspects *Deception research: research in which the participants are misled about the purpose/meaning of the research or of things that are done to them → informed consent ruin the purpose of that type of study But they are eventually told in the debriefing : informs participants about the broad questions being addressed, the specific hypotheses being tested and the potential value of the results Basic and Applied Science Basic science: Concerned with trying to understand some phenomenon in its own right, with a view toward using that understanding to build valid theories about the natures of some aspects of the world Applied science: Concerned with solving important real-world problems Two way relationship: - Basic research give rise to theories that lead to an intervention (Effort to change a person’s behavior) or efforts - Applied research can produce results that feed back into basic science 28