Social Psych (Second Half of The Course)

Parenting Messages with Strong Contingencies (what is it?)

Strong messages have a clear contingency (if X, then Y) ● "My response and your outcomes are contingent on your behavior"

What does the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire (RFQ) measure?

The Regulatory Focus Questionnaire (RFQ) measures promotion or prevention focus. ● Some questions measure the strength of promotion pride; others, the strength of prevention pride. ● Strength can be higher in promotion or prevention, or it can be high on both, or low on both ● These motivations don't predict success ● Both motivations have benefits and downsides ● Relative strength (i.e., how one motivation compares to the other) is a closer indicator of personality differences as it demonstrates the types of motivations a person has most often ○ If both systems are equal, there's a chance they can balance each other

What do complex human societies require (social structure-wise)?

hierarchies -this is a major downside of civilizations -hierarchies were created by the elite (not god) to benefit the elite and support their status quo E.g., Hammurabi laws distinguished between superiors and commoners, and the consequences of disobeying a law were harsher for commoners(as well as women vs. men) ex. The Hammurabi Code was clearly unfair but it was beneficial.

What is the oedipus Complex?

○The Oedipus Complex states that boys want to kill their father and sleep with their mother. This theory is way too complicated to explain socialization. But it captures the idea of how important the sexual part is - look at our modern advertising.

Regan, Strauss, & Fazio ○Is performance judged as evidence of ability? ○Target's performance on a game could be high or low ○Do you think that performance on this game represents the target's ability on the game? ■Dependent Measure (Does high performance mean high ability; and vice versa) ○Participant was asked how much they like the target - they learn about positions of a target on various topics (either similar or dissimilar attitudes on issues - perceived similarity on issues) What was found? What are the implications?

○When the person was liked, the high performance was rated as evidence of high ability; but low performance was not evidence of low ability; for dislike the results are opposite, that high performance is not evidence of ability; and low performance is evidence of poor ability

Chen (1937) Solitary and coacting nest building by ants IVs: -first test in isolation -groups of two -groups of three -second test in isolation DVs: -latency of nest building in minutes -weight (per ant) in grams of earth excavated during a 6-hour period

-ants did better when building with other ants present -the mere presence of others can help, when tasks are easy/natural -"social facilitation"

What are the "roles" in Berne's Transactional Analysis?

-child role -parent role -adult role

Gates and Allee (1933) Maze learning in isolated and grouped cockroaches: average time per trial for the first day's test IVs: -alone -pairs -groups of three DV: -minutes

-cockroaches did better learning the mazes when alone -the presence of others can hurt performance/learning when the task is difficult/unnatural -"social impairment"

Through what two motivational strategies can socialization be done?

-promotion (involving ideals) -prevention (oughts) ● Every person and society have the two types in different proportions because of how different cultures and people emphasize one or the other. ○ The U.S. is more promotion-focused (~65% of people are promotion-focused). ■ U.S. average promotion score is 3.7 and prevention score is 3.4. ○ Italy and Spain are even more promotion-focused. ○ Japan, South Korea, and China are more prevention-focused. ● This is important in international negotiations because it shows there is a motivational difference between countries and cultures, so people need to be sensitive to that in order to maximize outcomes for everyone.

What is the second half of the course about? What was the first half of the course about?

-second half is how people DEAL with the social world -first half was how people UNDERSTAND the social world

What does Yuval Noah Harari argue about "shared realities" in his book, Sapians

-that shared realities are fictions but get their power from how much others believe in them

Can people serve as "environments" for each other?

-yes, this is why familiarity is so important

Recipe for Romance 1.Choose the target of your affection What should you be careful about? 2. Set the conditions that will decrease the functional distance between you and the target. Why? 3. After sufficient exposure, arrange a date with the target. Choose a restaurant that is: a. Familiar to the target. Why? b. Attractive. Why? c. Romantic. Why? d. Noisy & crowded. Why? 4. Have coffee with caffeine at dessert and then go out dancing. Why? 5. If you calculate that your outcomes/inputs ratio is too high compared to the target's outcomes/inputs ratio, then increase your inputs, such as giving a gift to the target. 6. Once romance has been established, be responsive to your partner's interests. Why?

1. be careful about transference) 2. This will increase the likelihood that the target will interact with you, and will increase your familiarity to the target (because you are an environment for the target). 3.a.(to enhance the motivation for social contact) 3.b. (fit with the date's promotion focus—hope to advance relationship—increases intensity of positive response to you) 3.c. (to activate romance as the dominant response) 3.d. (to increase arousal, thereby increasing dominant romantic response AND heightening romantic emotions from excitation transfer & stronger engagement from opposing the noise while talking [with you as the prize]). 4. (further increasing dominant romantic response and heightening romantic emotions from excitation transfer). 6.because this creates a shared reality "we" of shared feelings.

Playing with Children When you, as an adult, have played a game with young children [4-6 years old], do you: a) Let them win to build their confidence and self-esteem b) Be realistic, play by the rules, and let them win or lose Which is promotion and which is prevention?

A is a promotion parenting message by trying to make the child experience a gain ● Related to spoiling: acting like something is true just to give the child a positive experience B is a prevention parenting message by making the child know what they ought to do to learn how the world works and be safe

Preparing for an Exam When an exam is coming up, do you: a) Think about how you can do well if you work hard enough b) Think about how you might do poorly if you don't work hard enough Which is promotion and which is prevention?

A is a promotion way to self-motivate by focusing on the possible gains B is a prevention way to self-motivate by focusing on imagining the possibility of a loss then making contingencies to prevent it from happening (defensive pessimism) ● Defensive pessimism is not the same as pessimism since that would be to simply think you'd do poorly

Is this message positive OR negative, strong OR weak, and related to promotion OR prevention? PARENTING MESSAGE A: "I have placed my happiness on seeing you good and accomplished, and no distress which this world can now bring on me could equal that of your disappointing my hopes. If you love me, then strive to be good under every situation." —Thomas Jefferson to his 11-year old daughter Martha, 1783 PARENTING MESSAGE B: "I would rather see you find a grave in this ocean you have crossed than see you an immoral profligate or graceless child." — Abigail Adams to her 11-year old son,John Quincy, 1780

Both messages are negative ● While the parents may want something positive from the child (e.g. accomplishments,goodness), the means are negative ● Nowadays, in many countries, there's more emphasis on positive parenting Both messages are strong ● They are contingency messages (i.e., my response to you, and your outcomes, are contingent on, depend on, what you do or don't do) ● They are clear and define outcomes that matter Message A is promotion-focused ● Most people may think it is a prevention-focused message because it is negative, while they may see prevention as related to positive messages — this is wrong ○ Both promotion and prevention can have approach and avoidance ○ The distinction between them relates to what is being approached or avoided ■ Promotion is about avoiding 0 and approaching +1 ■ Prevention is about avoiding -1 and approaching 0 ● The promotion system relates gains to happiness and non-gains to sadness ○ Thomas Jefferson talks about what happiness and sadness would be ● He focuses on hopes and aspirations (ideals), so his message is promotion-focused Message B is prevention-focused ● Abigail Adams focuses on oughts instead of ideals

How can you ensure that people will cooperate when there are large groups?

Civilization: is a solution to the problem of the world being too big Shared Reality: is the general mechanism for understanding People as Civilized Beings

What historical period led made civilizations possible? What did this period enable?

Civilizations are possible due to the agricultural revolution, which enabled the domestication of animals and plants and the increase of food supply.

Schacter and Singer 1962 ●Experiment to test how people come to feel emotion ○Two Conditions to Manipulate Arousal: 1. Epinephrine and 2. Placebo ○Two Conditions to Manipulate Explanation: 1. Told the side effects of the drugcould be arousal (this is a non-emotional explanation), 2. Told there are no sideeffects ○Another Condition to Provide an Emotional Explanation: Participant gets put in a room with a confederate who defines the situation (possibly as one to be angry about). What was found?

Found that people felt angry when they were given an emotional explanation and were given Epinephrine.

Brown Eyed vs Blue Eyed Experiment: Ingroup/Outgroup ●Elementary school teacher wants to inform her students about discrimination. ●She divided the class between those with blue versus brown eyes. Then, she talked about how superior the blue eyed children were and then discriminated against the brown eyed children. This affected the children and the kids started to split up based on eye color. ●Then in the afternoon, she switched which eye color was being favored and similar results were seen. What does this study show us in regard to ingroup/outgroup? What is the "he Minimal Discrimination Paradigm"?

Ingroup/Outgroup ●One of the biggest problems humans have is that we have such a strong desire to create shared realities. This leads us to create ingroups. ●The Minimal Discrimination Paradigm talks about how it takes almost nothing for humans to participate and create ingroups and outgroups. ○An experiment by Tajfel showed this paradigm when it was shown that people would create ingroups based on something as trivial as preferred visual artists(Kadinsky versus Klee).

Milgram Experiment takeaways

Milgram Experiment ●The Milgram experiment should not be treated similarly to the Holocaust ○The Milgram Experiment shows the downsides to creating a shared reality with team members. We need to make sure that we aren't completing our shared reality roles in ways that hurt one another.

What do "parenting messages" do?

Parenting messages tell children what kind of world they live in ● It helps children learn what is relevant in the world and what is worthwhile paying attention to ● Children learn from others (parents, educators, family members) what perspective to have about the world (promotion: gains vs. non-gains; or prevention: losses vs.non-losses) ● Distinguishes between strong or weak contingencies, between whether message makes child feel positive or negative, and between promotion and prevention systems

Parenting Messages with Weak Contingencies

Parents don't make contingencies clear, so children don't understand how they should behave ● Overall, parenting with weak contingencies is not a good strategy

People as selfish beasts?

People as Selfish Beasts ●Seeing humans as being ruled by "passion over reason" and as having aggressive, lustful, and competitive motivations. ●As opposed to seeing humans as angels, this perspective views people as animals. ●There are many pop culture references to these two contrasting views about people and the beast side is depicted as being stronger. (E.g. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bruce Bannerand the Hulk) ●From an evolutionary perspective, Darwin showed that we evolved from animals. We are not angels.

How do people respond to social forces? (two answers)

People as civilized beings: appreciate that people are civilized People are selfish beasts: know that people are selfish

Are people either prevention or promotion focussed? Or can they be both? Is one better than the other?

People fluctuate between both motivational systems (i.e. a person may be more promotion-focused sometimes, and more prevention-focused other times) ● No one spends 100% of their life on one or the other ● One is NOT better than the other

"Sharing is Believing": Evaluatively Ambiguous Target behaviors (Originally, the "DonaldStory") ●When in communication, when you are motivated, and do share reality with anaudience - audience believes more what is said ("Saying is Believing") ●Study: ○Participants were told that the target person belonged to an eating club. They were to read a set of behaviors and then describe them to another member of the eating club without using any names, in a way that the club would be able to successfully identify who they are talking about. This kind of task is called a referential communication task. ●Conditions: ○1) Speaker is told that the audience kind of likes Michael ○2) Speaker is told that the audience doesn't really like Michael ●Audience's job was to try to identify the target person.

Positive and Negative Labelling of Target Person as a Function of Audience'sOpinion (Higgins and Rholes 1978) ●There is evidence of social tuning vis a vis counts of positive and negative labelling of the target person as a function of audience's opinion. Social tuning appears to be a default strategy. ●This strategy demonstrates a tendency to share reality with an audience as to whether Michael is kind of positive or negative. ●What does the above mean for the speaker? ○1) Was it done only out of politeness? Basic rule? If so it shouldn't have any effect on the speaker. ○2) Shared reality has an effect on the speaker, it affects the attitude ofthe speaker. ●Social tuning (shared reality) can lead to biased memory. This bias also persists over time (e.g. measured ~ 2 weeks later). History of shift from "Saying-is-Believing" to "Sharing-is-Believing" The Role of Epistemic Truth: Do You Trust This Audience For the Truth? ●Studied through comparing communication with ingroups versus outgroups

What are the problems with the Milgram study according to Professor Higgins?

Problems: ●Professor Higgins believes the study is immoral and unethical and should not have been done. ●The APA censored Milgram for this study and took away his membership. ●Participants in the study were harmed, as they believed they actually caused the learner(confederate) pain. Many went to therapy afterward. ●There was no briefing—today, such studies would require extensive debriefing. ●Milgram continued to do this research and wrote a book about obedience, stating that the participants were like concentration guards under Hitler (weak and submissive to authority). ○However, Milgram hid information inconvenient to his conclusion: participants often stopped and offered to change roles with the learner (confederate) in order to continue the experiment. ●Milgram misunderstands his own research, according to Professor Higgins. ○Milgram says people take no responsibility for their actions and simply following orders. ○The opposite is true: almost all of the participants suffered and many offered to take on the shocks themselves, indicating that they did not give up responsibility.

Social Tuning Sharing is Believing is ________ to dyadic communication but works for __________ too. -not restricted -is restricted -stereotyping -norm formation

Sharing is Believing is not restricted to dyadic communication but works for norm formation too. ■Definition of the situation can be provided by what other people aredoing in that situation ■E.g. Nero created his own theatre and when he put on dramas, heordered over a thousand soldiers to cheer and clap at the appropriatetimes. He was creating norms for how to watch his performances.

What is socialization fundamental for creating?

Socialization is fundamental to create shared realities. ● Children need to learn these shared realities through socialization.

What did Zajonc conclude in regard to social impairment/facilitation demonstrated in the ant and cockroach study?

Zajonc ●He found that when the task was familiar (already learned) then the presence of another made performance better and vice versa for a new task. ○When completing a simple task, social facilitation was observed. When the task was complex, social impairment was observed. Presence of Conspecific is Arousing; Arousal Intensifies Dominant Response ●Building a nest is a dominant response for an ant, but navigating a maze isn't for cockroaches (don't know how to do this innately, learning is novel).

Freud is the ______ example of a theory that states that fundamentally human beings are _______ and that the two main urges are sex and aggression -best -worst -selfish -kind -sex and aggression -happiness and friendship Who tries to capitalize on this?

best selfish sex and aggression Advertisers

Shared Reality

is about sharing others' inner states (just as accessibility was the mechanism to understand People as Faulty Computers) (like everything else, both accessibility and shared reality have tradeoffs)

Eckman, Meltzer, & Latane ●Study 1 ○A major factor in how close you become to another person is the familiarity with which you have with the environment in which you are interacting. ○Dependent Variable: How close the rats are willing to be with one another in a cage. ○It was found that overtime, the rats got closer and closer. ○Independent Variable: The familiarity the rats had with the cage. ■There were 3 conditions: 1. Rats had no exposure to the cage 2. One of the two rats had exposure to the cage 3. Both rats had exposure to the cage. What was found? ●Study 2 ●Dependent Variable: Grooming ●All the rats have not been exposed to the cage. ●On day 5 of the experiment, the pair of rats are moved into a new cage What happens to grooming on day 5? What does this tell us?

study 1 -○When both rats had been exposed to the cage before, upon first meeting, the rats were already close. Study 2 What happens to grooming on day 5? dramatic drop in grooming is observed. ●These experiments are examples of how different factors can affect our feelings. ●The best thing about having first years come early, is that they can get familiar with the environment when classes begin. ●There is research showing that who you end up becoming friends with is very dependent on prior exposure to the same environment. ○Even at the level of dormitories: the probability that you'll become friends is way greater if you are on the same floor. ●When ppl are on a floor in which their major is in the minority, 37% of students changed their major → crAZY cause this is based on a variable that can be random

Andersen & Baum (1994) transference study ●Two session study two weeks apart ●Session 1: Identify two people in your life that are significant in that they are important and you know them well. ○One of them you have positive feelings about - when you are with this person you feel good about yourself. ○Second person is more negative - don't like them that much, feel bad about yourself when you are with them. ●Participant is asked about the strengths and weaknesses of each of the significant others. ●A week later they are told that the university is trying to get people to feel comfortable(at NYU) by creating a buddy system. Before they meet the partner who is in the next room they will be briefed on their partner. Embedded within the information are characteristics about the buddy (based on a professional interview); e.g. they are a great listener; or shows nervousness; or can cook very well or is self-centered. This person has characteristics that match one of the significant others. Because there is a match...hypothesis is that participant will transfer how they feel about the significant other to the buddy. Did the participant transfer feeling about their significant other onto this new buddy? ●Another situation (that acted as a control condition) - get another buddy that matches someone else's characteristics. In this case there is no transference to that buddy, even though the information is the same.

they did *confused about results for "someone else's" looks like they did, but not as much

When is prosocial behavior more likely to happen?

when there is a social system (The social regulation of the system (that comes from Shared Reality), is what allows for effective self-regulation.

Megan's Lecture What did we learn overall (about how males and females experience stressors)? How do our findings relate to other research in the field?

• Females and Co-Experienced Stressors o From prior research, we know that females are more sensitive to emotional cues in other's faces and are better at mimicking other people's facial expressions in emotion-eliciting situations. o Our results imply that these behavioral abilities correspond with shared psychological states, with real-world benefits. • Males and Co-Experienced Stressors o 42% of males exhibited prototypically female responses—could be biological differences or gender role/cultural differences. o 58% of males were more reactive as shared reality increased. Amplification literature—study design compares being with another person to being alone Emotion contagion literature—study designs where stressors are endemic to the relationship itself; i.e. conflict conversations • Conclusion: the effects of another person depend on who is implicated, whether shared reality is created, and whether the stressor is endemic or exogenous to the relationship itself.

Study 2 • Participants: 102 heteronormative couples in the NYC area during 1st year of COVID-19 pandemic • Procedure: o Participate in a 2-week daily "diary" study, filling out a questionnaire each evening. § Had they co-experienced a stressful event? • If so, how much shared reality did they have? § How stressed were they by the end of the day? What were the results?

• Results: o For almost all females in the sample, shared reality decreased their self-reported stress. o For a minority of males in the sample, shared reality decreased self-reported stress. o For the majority of males in the sample, shared reality either had no effect on self-reported stress or made them more anxious.

Study 1 • Participants: 70 undergraduate females at Columbia University (P) • Research Team: Experimenter (E), Confederate (C), Operator, Evaluators • Procedure: o After physiological equipment is applied, P and C are told they will have to give a speech to a panel of expert evaluators. o An appraisal questionnaire is filled out, which E uses to compute an appraisal score and randomize into a condition (Shared Reality Confirmed, Shared Reality Disconfirmed, Ambiguous). o P fills out questionnaire with manipulation checks and self-reported stress. o P gives a speech, with C is a different room, while physiology is continuously measured. What were the results? What are the limitations?

• Results: o Shared reality seems to reduce stressor reactivity. o Overall Stress/Heart Rate—Participants less stressed in the shared reality condition than in the shared reality disconfirmed condition. oParasympathetic Nervous System ("Rest and Digest")—Participants less stressed in shared reality confirmed condition (fewer reductions of parasympathetic nervous system functions) than in shared reality disconfirmed condition. • Limitations: o Population sampled (elite university students) is not generalizable. o Only found average effect for females. o Artificial environment—tradeoff of causal inference for generalizability.

Tend-and-Befriend

• This theory is not intended to be deterministic or prescriptive. • This theory is uses sex determined at birth by reproductive organs—male or female—as opposed to gender. o Differences between males and females are central tendencies but likely do not correspond one-to-one with sex. o Culture and roles can interact with biological tendencies to drive different behavioral outcomes. • Coordinated action during a stressful situation depends on females seeing the situation in the same way. o Implies that the psychological experience of shared reality could underlie effective tending and befriending among females.

Zillman, Johnson, Day 1974 ●Emotion = Excitation x Explanation ○This is pretty much the same formula as Schacter and Singer ○He has participants do a bicycling exercise and the dependent variable is when a shock is administered. The shock is either administered right after or with a 6minute delay. When there was no delay/delay, how would participants attribute their arousal? ○Another condition was whether people had high or low recovery when it came to bouncing back from arousal. This is an interesting difference that exists between humans. In order to feel emotion, what type of recovery (low/high) would participants need to have?

■If there was no delay, the participants attribute their arousal to the exercise. When there's a delay, people would make an emotional explanation to their arousal. ○In order to feel emotion, participants needed to have low recovery (which means they would still feel aroused) and have experienced a 6 minute delay(which means they did not have an emotional explanation.

Negative interaction for the child (rejecting): ● Prevention ought: Abusive

○ Child is in a state of constant loss without any contingencies○ Child doesn't learn anything about the world, because they get hurt for no specific reason, regardless of how they behave

Negative interaction for the child (disciplining): ● Prevention ought: Punitive/critical

○ Emphasizes punishment if child doesn't do what they ought (e.g. Abigail Adams' letter; "if you don't do what you ought, then you should be punished")

Negative interaction for the child (rejecting): ● Promotion ideal: Neglecting

○ Giving the child no chance for gains; instead, they're only given non-gains ○ Children who are neglected will purposefully break rules so that they are punished because they may see that as the only way to get their parents' attention

Positive interaction for the child (managing): ● Promotion ideal: Bolstering

○ Helping the child go from status quo to a better state ○ Also called scaffolding, because parents add something to the child's behavior to guide them (e.g. "Yes, that's great! But what if you also do X?")

Negative interaction for the child (disciplining): ● Promotion ideal: Love withdrawal

○ It's strong because it has clear contingencies (e.g. Thomas Jefferson's letter; "if you don't fulfill my hopes and ideals for you, then I'll withdrawal my love")

Opposing vs. Coping with a Difficulty (Higgins, Marguc, & Scholer) ● All Ps exposed to the same background noise (animal sounds) while working to solve anagrams to win a prize. ● Two conditions: ○ Noise as an opposing interfering force (concentration) ○ Noise as a difficulty with which to be coped (divided attention) ● How well do the Ps recall the noises? (How much were they paying attention to the given task?)

○ Opposing noise strengthens engagement.

Positive interaction for the child (doting): ● Promotion ideal: Spoiling

○ Parent does whatever it takes for the child to experience gain ○ It's weak because child is not realistically learning what contingencies are needed for them to win or lose ○ Child doesn't learn self-regulation nor how to deal with challenges

Positive interaction for the child (doting): ● Prevention ought: Overprotective

○ Preventing the child from doing anything because of the possibility of them getting hurt ○ Child can't learn how the world realistically works because child is not allowed todo anything

Positive interaction for the child (managing): ● Prevention ought: Prudent-controlling

○ Preventing the child from going to a worse state; maintaining non-losses ○ Similar to helicopter parenting, where parent is always checking to make sure everything is okay (e.g. by child-proofing the house)

According to Prof Higgins, what does the Milgram study actually demonstrate?

○Instead, this study demonstrates shared reality, with participants behaving as components of a team working toward a common goal. Remember, the participants believed that they were doing important scientific work as part of a team.

What does it mean to be civilized? What are the benefits? What does civilization create?

● Being civilized means knowing the rules, roles, and norms of a culture/society. ● This creates a shared reality. ○ It has benefits such as the ability to coordinate large groups. ○ It is not something you can decide not to do; instead, it's necessary.

What is regulatory focus related to/depend on? (ex. individual, situational)

● Chronic: related to individual differences in motivation ● Situational: related to circumstances that may induce people to temporarily become more promotion- or prevention-focused

(Jo lecture) When is it good to control your emotions?

● Emotion regulation is a goal-directed process, influenced by perception of current emotional state and desired emotion state. ○ Goal: Feel good. ■ People are motivated to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. ■ Reappraisal= a widely studied emotion regulation strategy that can decrease negative emotions and/or increase positive emotions; changing how we think in order to change how we feel ○ Goal: Perform well at a task. ■ Feeling negative can be useful. ■ We can be motivated to feel fear in certain contexts.

(Jo Lecture) When is it good to express your emotions? Criticism in Close Relationships--Expressing Emotions to Others ● Criticism is one of the leading causes of relationship dissolution. In this situation, when is expressing your emotion helpful and unhelpful?

● Expressing emotions is good when it helps us understand our situation, relieve distress, and/or convey our needs. ● However, it can be unhelpful when we do not account for the impact of our expression on others.

Westgate Housing Project, MIT (Lewin, Festinger, Schachter, et al.) ● MIT allowed researchers to randomly assign housing in the Westgate Housing Project on returning veterans post-WWII. What was the most important determinant of friendships?

● Friendships were formed based on likelihood of running into one another (functional distance, based on opportunities to meet, rather than physical distance). ○ Functional distance was the most important determinant of friendships (over personality, attitude similarity, preference similarity...) ● Relates to later study in student dormitories—70% of friendships formed are between students living on the same floor, due to functional distance (and familiarity of shared environment).

(Jo Lecture) Depression ● Study: depressed participants are more likely than non-depressed participants to choose to look at sad images and listen to sad music. In addition, although they were trained in using cognitive reappraisal, depressed participants chose to increase reactions to sad pictures more often than non depressed participants. Implications?

● Implication: People with clinical depression are more likely to choose emotion regulation strategies that maintain or increase their level of sadness.

(Jo lecture) Paradoxical Effects of Valuing Happiness Study ● Manipulation: "valuing happiness" group vs. control group ● After watching a happy film clip, those in the control group had a higher measure of hedonic balance than those in the "valuing happiness" group. ○ Reactions to sad clips were similar between groups. Implications?

● Implication: The more people value happiness, the less likely they will be to obtain it.

(Joe lecture) Acceptance Study ● Testing female undergraduates and community members, Shallcross et al. found that acceptance was correlated with decreased negative affect during a negative emotion induction but not an affectively neutral condition. ● Additionally, acceptance interacted with life stress such that acceptance predicted lower levels of depressive symptoms after higher (but not lower) life stress. Implications?

● Implication: accepting negative experiences may protect individuals from experiencing negative affect and from developing depressive symptoms.

Regulatory focus fit & mug experiment Regulatory Focus Fit ● When people are in a promotion focus, the natural fit is with eager means. ○ Eager means are means of advancement; making gains ● When people are in a prevention focus, the natural fit is with vigilant means. ○ Vigilant means are means of being careful; stopping losses ● When people are in fit conditions, they are more strongly engaged in what they are doing. Mug and Pen Experiment ● Eager Means Condition—What would you gain by choosing the mug/pen? ● Vigilant Means Condition—What would you lose by not choosing the mug/pen? What was found?

● In the eager means condition, promotion-focused individuals (regulatory focus fit) are willing to pay more for the mug than prevention-focused individuals (non-fit). ● In the vigilant means condition, prevention-focused individuals (regulatory focus fit) are willing to pay more for the mug than promotion-focused individuals (non-fit). ● This is irrational—"creating value out of thin air."

Classification Scheme Modes of Caretaker-Child Interaction Background Information: Pre-Adolescence -which disorders are more prevalent in males? -are males or female usually more successful during this stage? Why?

● Males have more behavioral disorders (e.g. ADD, conduct disorder, schizoid disorder) ● Females are typically more successful (have higher grades, are hardworking and polite, are less aggressive and naughty) ○ Parents have stronger demands for daughters than sons, so daughters receive clearer contingency messages (especially from mother) so they develop more self-regulation ○ Self-regulation typically leads to higher performance, however, it also comes with self-evaluation because daughters have to constantly monitor themselves

(Jo Lecture) What is mindfulness?

● Mindfulness is an open or receptive attention to, and awareness of, ongoing events and experience--recognizing each emotion as it arises, and learning now to identify with them.

(Jo lecture) Video Game Study ● Participants were told they would be playing different kinds of video games, with: - approach goals -avoidance goals -control goals. ● Before playing, participants were asked to recall a memory (in which they were excited/enthusiastic and in which they were afraid/worried) and rate the extent to which they wanted to recall this memory. ● They also rated preferences for different types of music (excitement/fear). Findings?

● People preferred fear-inducing memories/music for avoidance goals, as it motivates them to perform better at a task.

Promotion Focus? What do they focus on? What "strategy" is preferred? (regulatory focus)

● Perceiving goals in terms of ideals ● Focus on aspirations, advancement, accomplishments ● Trying to move from the status quo (0) to a better state (+1) ○ Focus on gains ● Promotion-focused people prefer eager strategies ○ People are eager about things and look for gains

Prevention Focus? What do they focus on? What kind of strategy? (regulatory focus)

● Perceiving goals in terms of oughts ● Focus on responsibilities, safety, security ● Trying to avoid going from the status quo (0) to a worse state (-1) ○ Focus on non-losses ● Prevention-focuses people prefer vigilant strategies ○ People are vigilant against losses and making sure they don't make mistakes

(Jo lecture) suppression health outcomes

● Popular wisdom tells us that suppression is not good for our health. ● Suppression can lead to acute increases in sympathetic activity. ● Scientists are still trying to understand the link between suppression and cardio vascular health.

Strengths and weaknesses of prevention focussed?

● Strengths: committed, careful, accurate, realistic, reliable ● Weaknesses: missed opportunities, conservative/status quo, slow, inflexible

Strengths and weaknesses of promotion focussed people?

● Strengths: creative, innovative, fast, confident, seize opportunities ● Weaknesses: ignoring pitfalls, unrealistic (no plan B), mistakes/sloppy work, low maintenance/commitment

(Jo Lecture) Emotional Control Beliefs ● People vary in their beliefs about the value of emotional control. ● People who believe that emotional control is valuable try to mitigate emotional intensity, remain in control of their emotional experiences, and monitor emotional expression. ● Higher scores on emotional control beliefs scale are positively associated with suppression, which might facilitate avoidance of uncomfortable emotion. ○ Experiential avoidance is implicated in the onset and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Implications?

● Therefore, emotion regulation can be maladaptive when we avoid our emotion experience.➔ We regulate our own emotions, but we also help to regulate others' emotions.

(Jo Lecture) When is it good to express your emotions? Expressive Writing Study ● Participants instructed to write about traumatic/emotional experiences, for 3-5 sessions of 15-20 minutes. ● Health benefits included fewer doctor visits, improved mood, and greater psychological well-being. Why does this work?

● This works because translating experiences into language is powerful + affect labeling(labeling emotional states with emotional terms).

(Jo lecture) Film Clip Study ● Each group watched three types of films: amusing/funny, neutral, and sad. ● The treatment group was asked not to let their feelings show while watching the film. Did those who were asked to suppress emotions experience more or less physiological changes from baseline?

● Those who were asked to suppress emotions experienced more physiology changes from baseline.

(Jo lecture) What are the traditional views of emotion regulation? explain studies that showed the opposite

● Traditional view: ○ Reappraisal is always good. ○ Suppression is always bad. ● However, emotional regulation strategies are not one-size-fits-all solutions. ○ Reappraisal can be bad in some situations; for example, political action is central to functioning democracies and is often motivated by negative emotion. Reappraisal Study ● Dependent variable across all studies: recent or intended political action ● Study 1a/1b assessed individuals' recent use of reappraisal in managing emotions evoked by the election. ○ Reappraisals predicted lower political action. ● Study 2a/2b exposed individuals to Trump-focused news footage and assessed individuals' reappraisal during the clip and subsequent emotional responses. ○ Reappraisals predicted lower negative emotion which accounted for lower intention to engage in political action. ● Study 3a/3b experimentally manipulated reappraisal and measured subsequent emotional responses to Trump-focused news footage.○ Reappraisals predicted lower negative emotion which accounted for lower intention to engage in political action. ● Implication: Effective emotion regulation like reappraisal may be beneficial in the short-run by helping restore emotional well-being after upsetting political events, but may also be costly in the long-run by reducing the potential for productive political action.

What types of regulatory focus correlate with which clinical disorders?

● When the promotion system is too strong, it can lead to mania (hyper-eagerness) ● When the prevention system is too strong, it can lead to phobias and anxiety (excessivevigilance) ● When the promotion system is too weak, it can lead to depression (hypo-eagerness)

Berne's Transactional Analysis Where does the parent role come from? What are the traits of the parent role?

●Another role comes from the superego; this is the Parent Role. ○In the role of the parent, you are prescriptive, nurturing, and authoritative.

Berne's Transactional Analysis Complementary Transactions

●Complementary Transactions (are stable, can remain ongoing): ○Adult-Adult ○Child-Child ○Parent-Child

Berne's Transactional Analysis Conflict Transaction

●Conflict Transaction (aren't stable, conflict arises): ○Parent-Parent ■Conflict arises bc the parent role has to do with authority and both ppl in a dyad cannot be the authority ●When one person begins an interaction by taking on a role, there is a demand on the other person to take on a complementary role.

Berne's Transactional Analysis Crossed Transactions

●Crossed Transactions (aren't stable): ○Adult-Child ■An adult-child transaction may happen when a boss forces an employee to take the role of child, either by being dominant/abusive or by taking an overly nurturant parent role. ○Adult-Parent

Freud Personality Theory Ego

●Ego: reality principle; the executive; tries to help the Id

Schacter and Singer 1962 Theory of Emotion

●Emotion = Arousal x Emotional Explanation ●No emotion: When no arousal ●No emotion: When non-emotional explanation ●Cognitive + Physical combination

Friedman ●Friedman brought together groups of people and gave them a task to do (e.g. court case).○In the course case, participants work together as if they were a jury and then decide whether someone was guilty or not and decide the punishment for the guilty individual.○The case is set up so that in every group, they decide that the person is guilty. ●The dependent variable is the sentence that the group decides to get. ●The independent variable is the room in which the decision is made (as measured by the density of people in the room). ○A large room versus a small room What was the hypothesis? What was found?

●He hypothesized that a higher density would lead to stronger punishments however, this is not what he found. ●He discovered that he got opposite results when the jury was all male versus when the jury was all female. He found that for the male groups, high density (high crowding)leads to worse punishments. In the female groups, the exact opposite was observed. ○The males believed that it was their job to make sure that the guilty person gets a fitting punishment. It was their dominant response. So it was shown that the high density groups had higher arousal. implication: dominant response matters

The case of Generalized Shared Reality (Rossignac-Milon & Higgins, 2018) ●How closeness (from Shared Reality) is measuring during discussion ●Newly Acquainted Dyads

●How closeness (from Shared Reality) is measuring during discussion: ○We share the same thoughts and feelings about things ○We developed a joint perspective ○We thought of things at the exact same time ●Newly Acquainted Dyads ○Joint image perception task ■Asked questions about the a presented image ○Found that when dyads create a shared reality they experience: ■Clicking, Closeness, Desire to interact again ■Epistemic certainty, Epistemic trust, Realness

Schwarz, Strack, et al. (1991) ●Researchers asked people to either come up with 6 or 12 examples of either assertive or unassertive situations. ○Thinking rationally, the more examples a person comes up with of assertive situations, the more evidence they have for the idea that they are assertive. This should be more convincing. What was found? Why did this happen?

●However, coming up with 6 examples is easy whereas it is harder to come up with 12 examples. People took the feeling that it was easy to come up with 6 examples as evidence that they were either assertive or unassertive. ●This is evidence that people are using the feeling of difficulty to make their judgements. ●There was another manipulation in which participants had a music background (during their recall) that they were told would make their recall easier. When this happened, it got rid of the effect.

Freud Personality Theory Id

●Id - life and death instincts; sexual urges; pleasure principle; libido; selfish beast; primary process thinking; according to Freud this is all we have when we are born.It's uncontrollable and beyond consciousness; motivational energy comes from theId according to Freud

Landy & Sigall ●A study about how passions can bias judgments ●Participants are asked to judge the quality of another person's essay (critic role) - rating is the dependent variable ●Independent Variables: Prior to judging they are provided a picture ○either attractive or unattractive (manipulation 1) ○quality of essays were either high or low (manipulation 2) What was found? What are the implications?

●If the essay is high quality and the person is attractive, the essay is rated a higher quality than the same exact essay by an unattractive author ●But when the essay is poor quality and the author is unattractive the rating is profoundly penalized (low) ○This is another kind of transferring. The response to their unattractive appearance is transferred to the judge's thoughts on the individual's essay. ●NOTE that all this happens unconsciously. The raters are doing this automatically without thinking about it. ●Other studies replicate the general finding with other characteristics (that should be irrelevant to judging quality; race, ingroup-outgroup)

So what should people do when in positions of authority?

●If we start feeling distress over actions that could hurt another person, we should take a step back and ask why. ○What is making us feel wrong?○What is more important: responsibility in your role as part of a team, or responsibility as a human being not to harm another human being?

Sherif Study (1935) ●How do you study a norm? Find something that doesn't have a norm (otherwise can't understand norm construction). ●He took advantage of the Autokinetic Effect which is a phenomenon where, in a completely dark room, a stationary, small point of light appears to move. ●Individuals observe the light alone and then make a decision based on the movement of light.

●Interestingly, he found that when the people are brought together in a group, the group converges on their opinion. ●When people are separated from the group, they stick with the group norm created. ●Further, the group estimate survives multiple "generations" - it persists and becomes a norm for that group based on the original group's estimate. ●Note that different groups converged onto different norms.

Green & O'Neal Total Shock [number & intensity] to learner ●The situation was defined by what type of film the participants watched: either non-aggressive or aggressive sport. ●Arousal was manipulated when participants were watching the movie. Participants had earphones on - Loud white noise creates arousal -no white noise in the other condition. ●Dependent measure is the number and intensity of shocks in the teacher / learner situation. findings?

●It was found that arousing noise intensified the arousal felt from the film. highest shock in aggressive sport film and arousing white noise condition

Schwarz & Clore ●Authors are famous for the phrase: "feelings for information". ●Dependent Variable: They give a life satisfaction survey where participants are asked how their life is going and give ratings of their general happiness. ●Independent Variable: Whether there is rotten or beautiful weather at the time of the survey. Another manipulation is whether the idea of weather is in the participants background or foreground. ○In the foreground condition, the participant is asked what the weather is like. Therefore, the information about the weather wouldn't bias their judgement about their life when they are aware of it. What was found?

●It was found that when the weather was bad, and participants weren't aware of it, they had significantly lower evaluations of their general happiness.

The Milgram Experiment (1961)Background: ●Newspaper advertisements recruited study participants (who could not be Yale affiliates and mostly ended up being working-class) for $4.00 per hour. ●Experimenter tells participants that they want to find out what effect different people have on each other as teachers and learners, and also what effect punishment will have on learning in this situation. ●The participant goes first and always gets the teacher role (though they believe the roles were randomly assigned). The confederate takes the learner role. ●The teacher (participant) reads word pairs to the learner, and the learner (confederate)must get 20 consecutively correct. ○With a wrong answer, the learner gets a shock from the teacher —though no shocks are actually administered, the participant believes the shocks are real.○The shocks increase in intensity as the experiment goes on. ●After some time, the learner expresses concern due to a heart condition, but the experimenter emphasizes that it is important for the teacher to continue administering the shocks. ○Most teachers (participants) do continue. ●Later, the learner stops responding to questions. The teacher asks the experimenter if they should continue, and the experimenter says they should continue and treat no response as a wrong response (deserving of a shock). ○A high percentage of teachers (participants) do continue. What does Milgram conclude?

●Milgram concludes that people are obedient and see themselves as not responsible for their own actions.

Mediational Analysis (Echterhoff, Higgins, Kopietz, & Groll, 2005)

●Note that when tuning to ingroups, there is an effect on memory. When we tune to outgroups (just to be polite, however), there is no effect on memory. ○However, when an outgroup member is made an epistemic authority on the topic, the effect on memory returns .

Berne's Transactional Analysis Where does the child role come from? What are the traits of the child role?

●One role comes from the id; this is the Child Role. ○When you take on the role of a child, you are creative, intuitive, spontaneous, and have fun.

Shared Reality Development in Childhood (Perspectives on Psychological Science (Higgins,2016) ●Phase 1:

●Phase 1: Shared Feelings (6 to 12 months) ○(e.g. shared interest in something) ○Things may happen before 6 months (precursors) to set the stage for phase 1 ○Shared feelings include: ■Shared relevance ●By interacting with adults, children learn what matters anddeserves attention in the world ■Shared evaluative reactions ■Children also learn how to feel about things○You can agree something deserves attention (shared relevance) and then decide how to feel about it (shared feelings)

Shared Reality Development in Childhood (Perspectives on Psychological Science (Higgins,2016) Phase 2

●Phase 2: Shared Practices (18-24 months) ○(e.g. shared routine ways of doing things)○Shared practices include: ■Naming period (symbolic development) ●Children turn to their parents to learn how to name things ○This is "symbolic" because it is a shared reality (e.g. wehave all agreed on how to name things) ●They may also begin forming small in-groups (e.g. they may noticeif someone has an accent and may consider them a member of anout-group) ■Toilet training (psychodynamic development) ●Children learn how to do things according to their culture, such as toilet training (shared practices) ○Symbolic and psychodynamic developments are both shared reality development of particular practices

Shared Reality Development in Childhood (Perspectives on Psychological Science (Higgins,2016) Phase 3

●Phase 3: Shared Self-guides (3-5 years) ○(e.g. shared self-regulatory goals & standards with significant others)○Shared self-guides include: ■Following rules without surveillance ●Self-guides may be stronger or weaker depending on contingency messages ■Trying to become what others want you to be ●Children are motivated to learn what their parents want from them in terms of standards and oughts ○This stage is essential for people to follow and internalize the norms of society

Shared Reality Development in Childhood (Perspectives on Psychological Science (Higgins,2016) Phase 4

●Phase 4: Shared Coordinated Roles (9-13 years) ○(e.g. shared expectations about partnership reciprocity)○Shared coordinated roles include: ■Teamwork based on generalized other rather than significant other ●Children go to school rather than pre-school ■Recognizing that it is the role that matters and not the person ●All roles have to be performed in the same way, regardless of who it's playing them ○The final definition of culture and civilization is to coordinate with other people in organizations that have rules and roles ○It is not about you, but about your role

Which part of personality theory does psychotherapy try to deal with?

●Psychotherapy is trying to deal with the Superego.

Anderson & Pichert (1978) ●Social roles impact how you see the world because they determine what is relevant to you. ●For this study, participants were asked to imagine themselves in a role while reading a story and then asked to recall as many items or things as they could from the story.. ●Independent variable: Role (2 levels): homebuyer vs. burglar ●Dependent variables: ○First recall: Amount of homebuyer vs. burglar items recalled ○Second recall: Amount of new homebuyer vs. burglar items recalled when their roles were inverted What were the results?

●Results: Participants who initially imagined themselves in the homebuyer role recalled more homebuyer items (e.g. fireplace, yard), while participants in the burglar role recalled more burglar items (e.g. jewelry, money). Later, without reading the story again, participants who switched to the burglar vs. homebuyer role recalled new items they hadn't recalled before and that were related to their new role.

Echterhoff, Higgins, Kopietz, & Groll (2008)

●Shared Reality Measure (Trust) is shown to be higher among ingroups rather than outgroups. ○However, the amount of social tuning between ingroups and outgroups was seen to be the same. ●Major motivator of tuning is to create a shared reality with the audience but another motivation is to simply be polite.

Asch Paradigm ●Unlike in the Sherif Study, what happens if there is a correct answer?○If there's no group - the individual will get answers correct. ●Participants were asked to discriminate which of three presented line segments matched the length with the standard line segment. ●The discriminations varied in difficulty but when there was a correct answer the individual would get there. ●When confederates always agree with each other, and go first, the participant will still give the correct answer when the questions are easy or moderately difficult. However, if the question is difficult the participant often goes along with the confederates, the crowd. What do social psychologists call the phenomenon demonstrated above? Is this phenomenon good or bad? Does Asch believe his work demonstrates this phenomenon?

●Social Psychologists refer to this phenomenon as conformity and Americans often see this as a bad thing because it goes against rugged individualism. ●However, "conformity" can often be a good thing because it is an example of people creating shared realities. ●People claimed that Asch's work was support for conformity but he believed his work showed that people learn from others. ○If the effect was only due to compliance, then it wouldn't matter if the distinction was easy or difficult. However, this experiment showed how people sought the truth and were open to learn from others because they only followed along with the group sentiment when the distinction was difficult.

Freud Personality Theory Superego

●Superego: ego ideal; conscience; represents the rules of society

Berne's Transactional Analysis Where does the adult role come from? What are the traits of the adult role?

●The last role comes from the ego; this is the Adult Role. ○In the adult role, one is mature, practical, executive, and a problem solver.

Social Tuning

●Used to create shared realities with others ●Can occur not just from the motivation to create shared realities but also to be polite or for the possible gaining of material advantages. ●But when Social Tuning does occur for the purpose of creating shared realities, the speakers believe what they say. Thus the term Sharing is Believing arose. Definition: social tuning occurs when individuals experience a desire to get along with their interaction partner and this affiliative motivation encourages the individual to spontaneously and genuinely align their attitudes and/or behaviors with their interaction partner to achieve a sense of shared reality.

Transference

●You meet someone who reminds you of a significant other (either consciously or unconsciously). Transference is the phenomena that how you think and feel about your significant other is transferred to the new person.