Psych 135 Midterm
What are the three main sources of social pressure?
Conformity to authority, situation defined by others, diffusion of responsibility.
JOHN BUTLER
Current & Future Selves:the only self that really exists is the present self.. "we should only trust what we feel and know right now in this instant." - self is a transient thing that lives and dies, begins and ends, continually. John Butler's ideology is related to being inconsiderate to your future self.. (sober steve writes letter to drunk steve example).. - "future self cant hurt me" - he believes that you dis-identify with your past self
In "being wrong," what is the problem with saying "i am wrong?"
"I am wrong" describes a logical impossibility. As soon as we know that we are wrong, we aren't wrong anymore, since to recognize a belief as false is to stop believing it. Thus we can only say "I was wrong." Call it the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle of Error: we can be wrong, or we can know it, but we can't do both at the same time.
William James
"I have as many selves as there are people who recognize me" - the self is regulated by the social environment
JEAN PAUL SARTRE
"I think therefore I am".. Pre-reflective vs. reflective.. you're only "you" when youre thinking about yourself awareness of yourself disappears when youre immersed in doing something else
RENE DESCARTES
"cogito ergo sum"-i think therefore I am. - idea was from St. Augustine
JOHANN FICHTE
"no free being becomes conscious of itself without at the same time becoming conscious of other similar beings." - first social psychological theory of self -related to Sartre later on
Duval & Wicklund
"see self as others do" - when considering a "bad" behavior, if someone else does it its their fault, if we do it, it was the situation not us.
Telling good art from bad? Significance can introspection impair decision making?
- People who don't introspect like monet better, people who do like both equally - Introspect group were asked again 2 weeks later, and most regretted that they chose to like the cartoon WHY? Because when the people introspected (thought carefully before choosing): easier to talk about the cartoon than to talk about the monet
What is naive realism
-the disbelief in subjective construal as the fundamental nature of experiencing reality - the belief that what we "see" IS reality and takes no account of the construal processes
What is automaticity
1. Automatic reflex physical) 2. Associated between words/concepts (romeo = automatic thought of juliet) 3. Freudian: Id, ego, superego type view
what are the 3 stipulations of the cuz its true constraint?
1. I can readily concede that beliefs I used to hold weren't based on the facts 2.it applies only to specific beliefs-not to my entire set of beliefs, nor to how I feel about the nature of believing in general. 3. it applies only to our own beliefs, not to those of other people.
What are the five hypotheses?
1. Situations are powerful 2. We often don't know why people do what they do 3. We don't know what we don't know 4. It is amazing that we are as accurate as we are about why people do what they do and about what kind of people they are 5. People have two fundamental social motivations: a. People want to be liked and have a need to belong b. People want to be accurate consistent and authentic
what are the two kinds of consciousness and what do they do
1. immediate experience (pre-reflective consciousness): "stream of consciousness".. perception driven by automatic construals, seems like "reality" 2. Reflective consciousness: "thought", reflections on the stream of consciousness, has the quality of ABOUTNESS (thoughts are about something). reflective consciousness is someething we personally control.
at what age do children typically pass the sally ann task, and what is this feat called?
5 years. "representational theory of mind." That is, they've figured out what a mind is, at least in general terms-not a photocopy of reality but a private and somewhat idiosyncratic means for making sense of the world-and they've figured out that everybody has one.
Do primes affect perception of ambiguous or unambiguous behavior more?
AMBIGUOUS behavior (unclear) because when unambiguous, the situational construal is more constrained, also, ambiguous situations allow the situational construal to be moved around more.
Daniel Gilbert's study tested what?
He tested Spinoza's claim in that when we encounter a new piece of information, we automatically accept it as true, and only reject it as false through a subsequent process. In Gilbert's specific study, a series of experiments, subjects who were distracted immediately after learning new information were more likely to believe that false statements were true, but not more likely to believe that true statements were false.
Tetlock 's experiment?
He would get back in touch with his subjects after the events they had predicted did or did not come to pass. In doing so, he discovered that these experts sys tematically misremembered their forecasts, believing them to have been far more accurate than his records showed.
Baumeister
Historical view of the self... Tabula Rasa - we are defined by our hard choices - the act of making a decision makes up who we are - what fills the blank slate are HARD choices that we make (where to go to college, who to marry, etc.)
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Imposing order vs. embracing chaos - opposes schopenhauer Dionysian view: to become one with existence.. accepting both the horror and beauty of the real world.. Apollonian view: to control our nature through THOUGH (reflective thinking)... creating a controllable/safe but artificial aesthetic vision "society gives you your apollonian aesthetic" Nietzsche says that the dionysian view makes us free creatures, but we restrain outselves with the apollonian. THE APOLLONIAN VIEW PREVENTS US FROM ACTUALLY EXPRESSING WHO WE REALLY ARE
Automaticity doesnt require these four things:
Intention, awareness, interference with others, effort
What is the significance of the Sally Ann task?
Kids don't yet understand that beliefs about the world can be at variance with the world itself.' Further studies show What children maintain about the imaginary Sally they also maintain about themselves: that their beliefs about the world cannot deviate from the world as it really is.
JOHN LOCKE
Memory: as far as consciousness can extend backwards in time to any past thought, so far reaches the identity of that person - we spend time creating memories to establish the self - your past experiences shape who you are
in "being wrong," what is the category problem?
Most of us don't have a mental category called "Mistakes I Have Made." or "errors." This category problem is only one reason why our past mistakes can be so elusive. We have a tendency to instantly overwrite rejected beliefs
imaginary scar experiment significance
Ourthoughtsaboutthe'other'knowingthatwehave a scar changes how we interpret their behavior - Assimilation effects: ambiguous behavior interpreted according to what is active in the mind (A B C; 12 13 14) Automatic effect of a reflectively conscious thought
significance of eat at joes experiment
People decide what others would do through subjective construal: how you personally viewed the scenario - Naïve scientist tries to be accurate and unbiased but it doesn't work Because as we reflect on what others would do in a certain situation, we reflect on a set of people who tend to be people we know, people who are similar to us.
What are the three situational factors we don't anticipate/perceive?
Proximity, The power of authority, and the slippery slope effect these situational factors change the subjects' subjective construal
what is the slippery slope effect
comparing one's next behavior to the last (see milgram's experiment). In the exp. it allowed the sujects to justify the increase in voltage
What is the Ignorance Assumption.
Since we think our own beliefs are based on the facts, we conclude that people who disagree with us just haven't been exposed to the right information, and that such exposure would inevitably bring them over to our team.
ST THOMAS AQUINAS?
Tabula rasa - the soul enters the body through experiene (over time) - social influence on the self
what is the cuz it's true constraint?
The gist of the 'Cuz It's True Constraint is that I myself can't believe that these reasons contribute in any significant way to my conviction that green tea is good for me. Instead, I must believe that this conviction is based on the facts: in this case, on the physical (rather than emotional, financial, or familial) benefits of green tea. In other words, I must believe that I believe it 'cuz it's true. the essence of the 'Cuz It's True Constraint: every one of us confuses our models of the world with the world itself-not occasionally or accidentally but necessarily.
What is Social psychology?
The study of the impact of a person or group's thoughts, feelings and behaviors on another person's thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
What did we learn about beliefs in ch 5 of "being wrong"
They are models of the world; they help us take action; and accordingly, they incur consequences
Significance of Milgram's Obedience to Authority experiment?
This is the shocking experiment where they slowly increased the voltage: Significance: we misjudge others.. we have the wrong model/theory of experience/perception.. we think we are smartphones recording reality as it is
What is Carlin's Law? Why is it problematic?
When we believe we apply a reasonable person standard, we are usually just using ourselves as reasonable person Problematic because it is an inaccurate estimate of what we would do
in "being wrong," what is a distal belief?
a distal belief is one that pertains to things remote from us in time or space or relevance.
Law of craypid?
all the ways in which we think about people who see the world differently than we do, we often respond negatively.
what is objective self-awareness
can either focus on outside world or on self.. - when objectively self-aware.. use "generalized other" to evaluate and guide behavior. comparing self to high standards and expectations is aversive objective self-awareness means that you are focusing attention on you and your behavior, which allows you to evaluate what you see based on the standards and expectations that you have developed throughout your life. *see Duval/Wicklund's experiment
For the prisoner's dilemma experiment, what caused people to become less selfish?
changing the name from"wall streetgame" to "community game"
diff between hard constraint/soft constraint?
hard constraint: more influence on final patttern/conclusion than softer constraints
Greg Markus experiment?
he asked over 3,000 people to rate their stances (along one of those seven-point "strongly disagree I strongly agree" scales) on a range of social issues, including affirmative action, the legalization ofmarijuana, and equal rights for women. A decade later, he asked these same people to assess their positions again-and also to recall how they had felt about the issues a decade earlier. Across the board, these "what I used to think" ratings far more closely reflected the subjects' current beliefs than those they had actu ally held in 1973. Here, it wasn't just the wrongness that disappeared from the process of belief change. It was the change itself.
DAVID HUME
he believed that you dont have a self
what is the bias blind spot?
if we want to discredit a belief, we will argue that it is advantageous, whereas if we want to champion it, we will argue that it is true.
what is introspective error?
introspection does not always reveal "privileged" information
G.H. Mead
learn about the self through reactions and feedback from others -- see one's social objectness through their eyes - reflected appraisals- the reflection of the self's attributes as seen from the perspective of thers "what i think you think of me" affects what i think of me introspection is really a dialogue with the generalized other "YOURE NEVER ALONE"
utilitarian/non-utilitarian judgement experience related to cognitive load-- results?
non-utilitarian judgements appear to be automatic whereas utilitarian judgements appear to requirecognitive control
what is the idiocy assumption
our oppo nents know the facts, but deny that they have the brains to comprehend them. This assumption can be a narrow judgment, applied to a specific person on a specific issue, or it can be a sweeping assessment of any indi vidual or group we regard as the opposition.
Confabulation = ?
pattern completion + metacognitive failure Your brain tries to find an explanation that "fits" even though it is not real valid reason
what is the only thing in the universe that is intrinsically ABOUT anything?
reflective conscious thoughts
what is sacred?
sacred = no way to ut on a financial scale, such as harm one's son. Sma;ll differences in seeing reality can become very big dramatic things
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER
self as a "will & idea" - our WILLS (prereflective motives and desires) degrade us, and our IDEAS (reflective thinking) saves us. -similar to freud id/superego
what don't we usually list when we are asked to write about who we are?
the flow of ongoing experience -- hopes for the future -- defining ourselves from the outside
Generalized Other
the generalized other is like your internal simulation of what your mother and others would say if they knew what you were thinking and feeling
what is the Evil Assumption-
the idea that people who disagree with us are not ignorant of the truth, and not unable to comprehend it, but have willfully turned their backs on it. The Evil Assumption has a longstand ing relationship with religion, where "unbeliever" is all but synonymous with "evildoer."
What is a situation
the immediate physical and social environment (who and what are around you) the implied physical/social environment: what you believe others are thinking and how they might respond to you your internal mental situation: your own expectations, associations, motivations, and recent thoughts
What's dynamic pattern completion
the pattern that satisfies the most constraints usually wins.. largely happens automatically
what is constraint satisfaction?
the process of computationally trying to satisfy as many of the constraints as possible to reach the best global construal - look for pattern that produces least tension
What is subjective construal
the way each of us as an individual interprets what we see around us in the world - subjective construals are automatic (WE DONT SEE REALITY FIRST, THEN ADD INTERPRETATION.
what is introspection?
turning our mental gaze inwards.. "the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes"
how do conscious/unconscious experiences work together?
unconscious/automti processes offload habitual repeatable mental acts so our conscious thinking can focus elsewhere
where does automaticity come from?
unintentional/incidental practice: cultural norms, developing your native langauge as a child, nonverbal communication Intentional practice such as typing, sports, musical instrument, study habits
Explain consequences of naive realism: Empathy gaps
we can't imagine others having different experiences. We're naive realist 99% of the time. We cant empathize with other group because we didnt have the same experience (tapping demonstration) Knowing more makes us understand others less-- the "curse of knowledge" creates "empathy gaps"
What is the hostile media effect?
when each side's bias leads them to see bias in media.
what is false polarization?
when you think you and the other person on the other side of the fence of you on the same topic are further apart than you really are ex. Gun control: in reality, positions are close, but each side thinks the opposing position is very far
are hamsters conscious can hamsters think
yes, no