Social Psych Exam I
p-hacking - define - how it leads to findings being unreproducible
(getting results to show something) trying to get the p value to get below 0.05 by only using certain participants, or only mentioning significant dependent variable and calling the rest extra that you weren't focused on, or adding conditions that create nicer trend, or covariance (controlling for "non relevant" variable or one that messes with your result)
HARKing - define - how it leads to findings being unreproducible
(hypothesize after results are known) so changing your hypothesis, generating a rationale after results are shown — only a problem if you portray it as if this is what you hypothesized instead of testing new idea that you gained from past research
fact
A statement that can be proved - these differ from theories because theories cannot be proven gravity is not a fact - that your keys fall when you drop them is a fact, gravity is the theory of why they fall
experimental condition/group
the condition of an experiment that exposes participants to the independent variable
Why do people procrastinate? What outcomes are associated with procrastinating?
Best under pressure? Longitudinal study of health and well being among procrastinators and non-procrastinators - P had better health and stress levels at the beginning - P had worse health at the end (by a lot more than above) - P had lower grades in general
Discuss the importance of and challenges of setting up conditions that isolate the "active ingredient"
Design comparison conditions to isolate the "active ingredient" (IV's effect) Look at control conditions and make sure you are truly controlling for all variables (can have multiple controls) like if have an intervention and your control is nothing — not effective, would want alternative form)
Explain the controversy surrounding the "limited resource" (or "ego depletion") theory of self-control
Does using self control temporarily make it harder to successfully self regulate on a subsequent task? Lots of studies Cookies or radishes, give unsolvable puzzle and see how long before they give up — the people who were in the radish condition who were using self control to not eat cookies gave up faster Hard version of the stroop test (colored words) gave up faster on the wall sit and rated it as more painful - Established that all self control comes from the same temporarily depletable resource - ego-depletion theory However, there are also studies that say this effect is just a shift in motivation from work to play Some studies did not find this effect in their research — a huge preregistered study where the people who planned the study were detached and found not result - NOT RELIABLE THEORY - So why were there hundreds of studies that found this — p hacking and publication bias? (small sample size, large file drawer) Not a reliable theory - while there is something to it, there's nothing to prove it and there could be tons of other factors
How do people who display embarrassment tend to be perceived?
Embarrassment is a reaction to failure of self presentation - stupid expression, hand covering part of face, etc Showing embarrassment when you've broken a social rule shows to others that you are trustworthy person
Planning Ahead
Get help from others to increase your support system and find people who share your goals (exercise class, diet groups, etc) can be motivating, as well as holding you accountable and inspiring you Rewards/punishments - whether it be monetary or other to motivate you Avoid temptation - give lighters away for smokers, only buy healthy food, put alarm on the other side of the room Make your good choice accessible and salient - set our gym clothes the night before, keep unhealthy snack hard to get Make implementation intentions - If this happens, then I will do this plan - if my friends want to go to a movie, I will suggest renting one on amazon Timing - is this a good time for me to pursue this goal? When you have insufficient sleep and daily stress, it is very difficult to start off a new goal - Meaningful dates are helpful to start doing things (birthdays, new years resolution, decades, etc) and provide motivation for "new me"
Standards
Goals Specific and concrete - must be able to really pinpoint what you are trying to achieve (not just say eat healthy, must have plan to eat salad for lunch everyday) Non-conflicting with other goals - needs to be manageable so not pulling yourself in too many directions Challenging yet attainable (not too hard, not too easy) Aligned with personal values - making the goal a good fit for you (if you hate pursuing that goal, you're way more likely to quit) - Higher self control and self awareness are able to choose better goals for themself Approach goal rather than avoidance goal - something you want to do, not something you want to stop
What characteristics and outcomes are associated with high and low self-esteem?
High self esteem - Very positive, clear and stable view of self - React well to praise - Bounce back easily from a negative evaluation (this doesn't represent me) - Challenge is self-enhancing and greeted - savor and celebrate happy events/feelings - fosters initiative and resilience, but can also be taken to extremes (ethnocentrics and terrorists) Low self esteem - Moderately positive view of self, uncertain and fluctuating view of self (still more positive than accurate b/c of bias) - Are happy with praise but often accompanied by anxiety about future performance - Take negative evaluation personally, and generalize to whole lives ( I suck at everything ) - Challenges are something to be protected against (withdraw/give up) - more vulnerable to anxiety, loneliness, eating disorders, and depression - more problems in life
Give examples of ways illusory optimism increases our vulnerability. Describe defensive pessimism.
IO: believing ourselves immune to misfortune, we don't take precautionary measures - elderly drivers who rated themselves above average were four times more likely to get into an accident than those who rated their driving skill as moderate DP: the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one's anxiety to motivate effective actions - saves us from peril of unrealistic optimism by anticipating problems and motivation effective coping (you can be an optimistic student, but self doubt makes you study)
Imagine that someone said to you, "Self-presentation is phony and inauthentic. You should just always be yourself!" Based on lecture, how might you thoroughly challenge or critique those statements? What are the challenges or complications to authenticity or "knowing and being yourself" discussed in lecture???
Individual differences in tailoring self presentation to audience - some people more conscious - We want to be the person who doesn't care what others think (not being concerned with self presentation is a type of self presentation) Simply "be yourself" - Is it better? Is it possible? — people who tried to be themselves on dates were likely to have a more happy long term relationship (people like authenticity) - However, some people are easier to read than others - even when being yourself, people can misinterpret you incorrectly Private minds, public identities (your mind is private, but your expression is public) Self represent as authenticity? - If you repeat yourself you seem less authentic - If you don't show as much emotion (monotone face) you seem less authentic
Explain the differences between individualist and collectivist perspectives, and be able to recognize examples. Describe evidence of growing individualism
Individualist society (western) focuses more on the unique individual self than the group. These people would be more focused on personal success, goals, and attributes Collectivist societies (asian) focus more on the group than the individual. They will define their identity off of work, family, and social groups (shared traditions) instead of individual attributes Evidence of growing individualism comes from analyzing what we as societies put out into the universe. Compared to previous decades, literature uses the word "get" more than "give," the word "I" more that "we", etc. We are also putting out more self empowerment songs instead of love songs (sexyback). Lastly, we are way more likely to give our children super unique names, especially in the most individualistic parts of the world
Describe ways that people can project a likeable identity, ways people can project a competent identity, and ways people can project a high status identity, according to lecture.
Likeable - try to pay attention to people and act like you're truly interested, complements (people want to believe when you compliment them) so effective, conforming to social norms especially in public situations, women are on average more likable than men Competent - acting confident, list experience/self promote
Describe evidence that people's explanations and predictions of their behavior aren't always accurate
Limits of self insight - knowing why we feel the way we do ( we can come up with a plausible reason but can never know the true why ) We're also very bad at predicting what we are going to do b/c circumstances affect us lots that we can't take into account 95% of study thought they would speak up against sexist comment but only 56% actually spoke up b/c of fear or uncomfortability Also, when people were allowed to pick out what films they would later want to watch - however, people watched more movies when Netflix started recommending movies than when people got to pick them out Self enhancing bias - we tend to perceive ourselves as better than we really are (smarter, stronger, better personality, better morals) - we rated ourselves above average in literally everything, especially moral values
How do people reconcile change in the self over time with the conception of a "true self"?
Our true self may be subject to change but we try to see our true self as stable and will edit memories to fit our subjective self now However, if you are pleased with change you will label it a "self discovery"
invisibility cloak illusion
People have a tendency to think that they are watching others more than others are watching them
Explain how and why pre-and-post measures can be incorporated in experiments
Pre and post measures add to confidence in results (snack choice before and after) they work in experiments because you can control for all of the other variables, causing these measurements to be extremely valid measurements of the IV's effect - additionally if you suspect that other variables are effected, this a great way to measure them
If given results of a correlational study, be able to interpret the correlation coefficient (r), and to generate the three possible types of explanations for that correlation
R goes from 0-1 (weak to strong) and can be positive (as one increases, the other does) or negative (as one increases the other decreases) x causes y y causes x z causes x and y
What evidence points to the possible importance of authenticity?
Research shows that this is very important to people and is correlated with more positive life overall - True self should be guide to making decisions, and are more satisfied with the decisions when feel it was made by their authentic self (important to know yourself) ?
What is self-monitoring? How do people high vs. low in self-monitoring differ?
SM: being attuned to the way one presents themselves in social situations and adjusting one's performance to create the desired impression high - social chameleons who adjust their behavior in response to external situations and cues from others - more likely to express attitudes they don't really hold and are less likely to disagree - more commitment issues but less facebook friends low - care less about what others think and are more internally guided (not afraid to speak their mind - can come off as insensitive or inappropriate
What self-serving attributions do people generally make for success and failure? In what situations is this pattern particularly likely? How do these attributions affect interpersonal relations between spouses, coworkers, etc.?
SSA: attributing ones success to yourself amazingness and your failures to uncontrollable circumstances if you win scrabble its because of your massive and amazing vocabulary - if you lose its because you had a Q and no U (anyone would lose with that) - this is especially relevant because it combines SKILL and CHANCE, and these situations make the pattern more common this contributes to marital discord, boss/employee tension etc because we always find a way to blame the issue on the other person
Implementation
STRATEGIES: Think of willpower as unlimited - if you have the mindset that your willpower is usable and will run out, it is more likely to (self fulfilling prophecy?) Center autonomous motivation for your goal - find that it really fits who you are and expresses your true enjoyments and values Reframe, escape, focus on something else - Reframing the thing your want to do to make it not what you want - Avoid by getting out of the situation - Focus on something else or distract yourself Get experience of play, reward, or rest - find a way to reward yourself and refresh, restoring your energy/willpower The more you do it, the more it becomes a habit and not so awful
Discuss the difficulties of successfully self-promoting in a way that will not elicit negative reactions. What is humblebragging, and how is it perceived?
Self Promoting - only okay when someone asks, others are also sharing — not when no one asked or comparing yourselves to others (women are more likely to get backlash from self promoting) - people don't realize how annoying it is Humble brag - an attempt to disguise bragging behind complaints or feigned humility - Complaint type - where you complain about all the attention you're getting for your accomplishments (hoping for admiration and sympathy) -People would rather have you just complain - Humility type - seem to be baffled by accomplishments, "why do I keep getting awards I don't get it" - People would rather have you just be excited about award/brag
preregistration - define - why is it important
Tell people before the study what you are doing and what/how you're measuring They also will have people replicate the pre-registered study before publishing They will still publish if do these above things no matter what effect found really helps the problem of no-replication in research
experiment - define - what can they tell us that correlational studies cannot?
Tests whether manipulating independent variable affects dependent variable experiments are able to control extraneous variables to determine causal relationships
List specific suggestions for successful self-regulation, and explain how each is based on research.
The Cybernetic Model + - standards - planning ahead - monitoring for mismatches - implementation
independent variable
The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.
dependent variable
The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable.
hindsight bias
The tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one's ability to have foreseen how something turned out - also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.
Explain the concept of the looking-glass self, as refined by Mead. How and why do the impressions of ourselves that we form based on others' feedback and reactions tend to be biased?
This states that our self concept is based off of how we THINK others see us (often not how they actually do) - this causes bias in that we usually voice our complements and restrain our criticism, so we generally get an inflated image of ourselves
false positives - define - why are/aren't a problem
Type I Error is where they are not pregnant but the test says they are (there is no effect but the study reports one) Be aware of false positives by replicating research
How do social comparisons affect us? How do others' failures make us feel? How does Facebook affect social comparisons?
We constantly compare ourselves to others, seeing other people's lives and either (associated with low self esteem) - Hating yourself because of it or being indifferent/positive (moderator!) - When looking at social media, people genuinely think people are happier than them (study where rated on scale from 1-10)
What outcomes are associated with basing one's self-worth on something that is relatively fragile rather than stable, such as being contingent on academic success?
What should positive self views be based on? Should it be based on achievement/success in some domain? (could be bad for putting all eggs in one basket if the basket drops) - Appearance, academics, athletics are more fragile - Moral values and "goodness' of person are harder to break?
self esteem
a person's overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth
how do unrepresentative samples affect survey results?
a representative sample is a group that closely matches the characteristics of its population as a whole - the sample is a fairly accurate reflection of the population from which the sample is drawn unrepresentative samples would create results that do not truly represent the whole population
random sample
a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion
What is self-efficacy? What outcomes are associated with it? What sort of praise does Myers recommend giving?
a sense that one is competent and effective - separate from self esteem because its about competency in a role (a sharpshooter in the military may have low self esteem but high self efficacy) people with strong self efficacy are more persistent, less anxious, and less depressed. they live healthier live and are more academically successful self efficacy praise (you can do it) leads to better results than self esteem praise (you are great) because effort given is something in your control (i can choose to work hard again but idk if i can be that smart again)
operational definition
a statement of the procedures used to define research variables Things like aggression or love, we know what it is but almost impossible to define and measure (different actions for different people) Must acknowledge that these things are difficult to measure
hypothesis
a testable proposition that describes a relationship that may exist between events
theory
an integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events
generalization
asking whether results of our study transfer to different groups of people (age, nationality, race, etc) and do our methods transfer (if they can do a puzzle fast does that actually mean they are good at problem solving in other contexts?)
BIRG
bask in the reflective glory - when you allow yourself to be proud of others accomplishments without being threatened (my sister is a wonderful pianist and I don't play at all, so I BIRG)
Describe and contrast the "bottom-up" (Crocker & Wolfe) and "top-down" (Brown & Dutton) views of self-esteem.
bottom up - if we see ourselves as attractive, intelligent, and athletic we will have high self esteem top down - those with hight self esteem are more likely to value them selves in a general way, and are therefore more likely to value their athleticism, looks, and abilities (because they have high SE) - new parents, who are infatuated with the baby's fingers and toes don't value the whole baby off of those fingers and toes
small sample size - define - how it leads to findings being unreproducible
by shrinking your sample size, you increase variablitiy - this allows, if you do enough trials, for you to find a trial that aligns with your intended hypothesis
downward comparison
compare yourself to least threatening people (in your league) to keep from being down on yourself (people really struggling make us feel better about ourselves
demand characteristics - define - how can they be avoided
cues in an experiment that tell the participant what behavior is expected - directions that are obvious and intentional
Describe the factors that influence how threatening we will find others' success
friends or peers success will usually be more threatening to us because it is a feasable thing to do that we didn't/can't people with high self esteem react to a threat by compensation (working harder next time or blaming something/someone else) people with low self esteem are more likely to blame themselves or give up downward comparisons and BIRF
advantages of a correlational study
great for telling us how things act in their natural habitat/environment - this allows us to observe non-manipulatable variables such as race, gender, and social status
Describe narcissists. Compare and contrast narcissism and self-esteem.
having an inflated sense of self most people with high SE value both individual achievement and relationships with others, where narcissists are missing the relationships part - self centeredness leads to relationship problems later on - narcissists are much more likely to lash out at criticism (always take it personally) especially when publicized viewing yourself positively, but emphasizing power and superiority over others, seen as thinking yourself better (rather be admired than liked) - Wear down tolerance after a while because so self centered and self serving - Often aggressive in response to ego threats - Parenting behavior related to increased narcissism = Giving children super increased praise, constantly telling them they're better than everyone else - Parenting behavior related to self esteem not narcissism = Giving children lots of love and caring and Focus on child's improvement over time (not compare to others)
mediators (mechanisms) - define - experimental v. correlational
how these things are occurring correlational - such as physical contact as both infection and social support carrier - More hugs build immune system and destress the body so less likely to get sick experiment - when testing whether taking notes on computers/notebooks was more helpful, mediators might be which one you can write more on, lecture type, transcribing verbatim, etc
Be able to recognize language that does vs. does not imply causation. If told about a study, be able to identify whether it does or does not give evidence that one variable is causing a change in (or affecting) another variable.
look for - active words that cause - implication that doing one will cause the other, not just statement of link
examples and consequences of hindsight bias
looking at the 9/11 attacks, it now seems obvious that there was a gigantic threat that we should have seen coming - however, there is an enormous amount of noise in the intelligence community makes it almost impossible to pull out and pursue the real threats when reading a textbook, because the information is presented as factual, we find it obvious and easy when studying- then come the test where the info we learned is surrounded by other viable options, it is unclear with is correct
cross sectional design
measuring both variables at a single point in time (asking people if their sick and how many people they've hugged today) - cannot know what is causing what
Monitoring for mismatches
mismatches between what I want to be doing but what I am doing - keeping track of what you're doing and comparing it to what you usually do (specifics) so list your goals and stay self aware Posting on social media when you start/do it right What the heck effect : They told people not to eat for six hours before IV: one condition they gave you nothing when you got there, next got one milkshake, next got two DV: how much people ate in a "taste test" where report didn't matter Non dieters ate more if hungry than full, who ate more than the people who were stuffed Dieters ate less if hungry, full ate more, and stuffed ate the most - They thought that since they'd already messed up their diet, they might as well binge like heck "ahhh what the heck might as well" - This is effect of having a challenging goal Suppression leads to obsession - when trying to avoid certain things like ice cream, then you are constantly trying to avoid it so its constantly in the back of your mind, causing you to become exhausted and give in because its right there - Distraction is much better approach (approach over avoidance)
can a study prove a theory?
no - Everything is tentative & no theory is ever "proven"
Is psychology just common sense? (explain)
no - we may think so because of hindsight bias, but common sense is usually only right after the fact. we therefore easily deceive ourselves into thinking that we know and knew more than we do and did. this is why we need scientific psychological experiments
illusion of transparency
the illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others we think that people really see our emotions, but they typically don't even register b/c they're preoccupied with their own thoughts
open science - define - why is it important
the practice of science in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute, where research data, lab notes and other research processes are freely available, under terms that enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods this is important because it allows for collaborators to create really well done and in-depth studies (compared to 30 small bad ones)
time lagged design
separates the time measuring of the two variables - fill out questionnaire about how often to getting hugged, then exposed all of them to cold and followed up to find out who got sick - removes concern that infection is causing hugs
How can pursuing and focusing on one's self-esteem backfire?
students whose self worth was contingent on external sources (grades/others opinions) experienced more stress, anger, and relationship problems than those whose self worth was rooted in internal sources like personal virtues those who try to pursue self esteem (seeking to become more beautiful, rich etc.) may lose sight of what really makes them feel good about themselves (roommate study)
What is self-presentation? How can it affect the self-presenter?
the act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one's ideals the impression you want to give a general audience (and it varies significantly in different audiences) self presentation often brings the presenter a better mood (why date nights in long term relationships work)
spotlight effect
the belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are where the thing that you are uncomfy/embarrassed/self conscious about that is different from what you normally look like/wear/etc and you feel like everyone is noticing - Same with your highs as well - people just don't notice things that you notice about yourself, such as answers that are great or horrible in class
Give examples of people's tendency to perceive themselves as better than average. On what types of dimensions are people especially likely to see themselves as better than the average person? Why?
on subjective, socially desirable, and common traits we see ourselves as above average - we see ourselves as more ethical, competent, friendlier, intelligent, attractive, kinder, healthier, more insightful and less biased group members' reports of the percentage of work they did almost always add way past 100 subjective qualities give us leeway in constructing our own definition of success
how does framing/wording of questions affect survey results?
order, response, and wording effects enable people to infulence respondants responses, allowing for manipulation of the process (both intentional and unintentional) one example is opting in vs out - in countries where being an organ donor is already checked at the DMV and you have to opt out, almost 100% of people do it. In countries like the US where you would have to opt in, only 25% do it
Explain impact bias and why it occurs
overestimating the enduring impact of emotion causing events when asked to imagine how you would feel a year after your hand was chopped off, people tend to say that they would be less happy than the current moment b/c they think of all the things they wouldn't be able to do - however, they forget to take into account the "everything else" and focus only on the "event"
What did Wilson & Ross (2001) discover about evaluations of past vs. present selves?
people will acknowledge past failures (unlike present ones which they reattribute) but say that they've grow substantially since that time of failure (former self)
What is self-handicapping? What are ways people self-handicap? Why do people do it?
producing obstacles to success to use later as excuses for failure like if you're first album is a huge hit, may start using alcohol/drugs to protect yourself - if second album is shit its because you were drunk, if its great than you rose above the odds, taking blame off of your personal self We would rather be a troubled genius than a fantastic mediocrity Motives: Self protection, Self enhancement (yah I got an A, but I didn't even know we had a test today!) - Chess player who would only start off with major disadvantage
two essential ingredients of an experiment
random assignment and control
What are suggestions for more accurately predicting your behavior?
really figure out how long it took you the last time - we almost always think we spent less time on a task then we did, therefore causing us to think we need less time currently than we do also, estimate how long each step of the process will take before doing it, instead of the overall project
replication
repeating a research study, often with different participants in different settings, to determine whether a finding could be reproduced
Explain how one's self-concept and authenticity can be affect by the context. Explain why researchers might say that people have multiple selves.
self concept will change depending on our environment because self concept is reflection of ourselves at the current moment, seeing yourself in different ways depending on who you are and who you're with In some environments, you may know your true self but not feel able to express your real self because of how safe you feel around certain people/certain environments might be better for your authentic self (new job vs family) In environments where your feel you can be authentic people report being more extroverted - If are in position of power, you can always be authentic b/c everywhere is safe so they can say whatever they want and not be nervous
How does self-control (or self-regulation) work, and what makes it fail??
self control is like a muscle - it will get tired when you use it too much b/c it requires energy; however it can get stronger it its used more
control condition/group
the condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental condition and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment
how should we handle the fact that social psych has a subjective side?
the realization that human thinking always involves interpretation is precisely why we need researcher with varying bases to undertake scientific analysis, and why we need scientific analysis rather than limited personal observation in the first place -- by constantly checking our beliefs against the facts, we restrain our biases - systematic observation and experimentation help us clean the lens through with we see reality
disadvantages of a correlational study
the study is open to confounding variables and bias, cannot prove causation
correlational study - what can and can't they tell us?
the study of the naturally occurring relationships among variables can tell help us roughly predict one variable's trend with another, but cannot tell us whether one variable causes another
Explain false consensus and provide examples of it. Why does it occur?
the tendency to overestimate the commonality of one's OPINIONS and one's undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors - facebook users were very wrong about how many people disagreed with them on political vies - white Australian prejudiced against aborigines were more likely to believe that other whites were also prejudiced (when they most often were not) - when we are attracted to someone we overestimate their attraction to us this may occur because we generalize from a limited sample (ourselves), as well as the fact that we spend most time with people who are similar to us
self-serving bias (same as self enhancing bias?)
the tendency to perceive oneself favorably we tend to perceive ourselves as better than we really are (smarter, stronger, better personality, better morals) - we rated ourselves above average in literally everything, especially moral values
Describe the planning fallacy and evidence for it
the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task - Sydney Opera House was supposed to take 6 years to build and took 16 - less than a third of engaged couples completed their wedding planning when they thought they would - college students finished their senior thesis three weeks after their realistic deadline and a week after their worst case scenario deadline moms and roommates could have told them when they would finish.
Explain false uniqueness
the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's ABILITIES and one's desirable or successful behaviors we serve our self image by viewing our talents and moral behaviors as relatively unusual (a band isn't cool anymore if too many people like it
how do response options affect survey results?
the way questions are asked and how they're worded will greatly affect responses - brits answered that they wanted 41% of their energy to be nuclear when asked open-endedly, but said only 21% when they were asked to split all the percentage points between nuclear, coal, and other options
How do values enter social psychology?
they enter when psychologists choose research topics. these choices often reflect current events based on the time and culture the researcher is in - also, there are certain types of people drawn to different areas of research and disciplines additionally, we cannot completely remove our internal assumptions, attitudes, and biases from our research social representations are the beliefs we take for granted that can only be seen as biased by outside groups book pg 9
Why might researchers use deception or withhold information?
they may not want to seem unable, their methods sections not detailed enough, and most likely bad research methods that inflate the likelihood of false positive
Discuss what research has found so far about how achievement is related to general self-esteem and to specific academic self-concept
thinking you are good at a subject leads to doing well in the subject (and vice versa) feedback is most helpful when its specific and true additionally, the study where they tried to boost students self esteem with vague feedback proved to make them do worse on the next exam
List and explain two advanced correlational techniques used to suggest cause-effect relations
time lagged correlations reveal the sequence of events to correlational studies control variables can be added to these as well, such as looking at data and controlling for socioeconomic status or race
Be able to list, explain, or apply things that should be considered when critiquing or planning research
understand what type of research you are doing, how confounds such as mediators or moderators may affect it, and look for correlation/causation?
confounds - define - experimental v. correlational
variables that affect both the IV and DV that are often unknown correlational confounds will be often unknown (the Z factor) which is one reason that the are not causational experiments can control for confounds, as they are measured - thus, causation can be determined if a trend still stands when you control for a confound
Which are we more aware of: the result of our thinking/feeling or the process of our thinking/feeling? What two practical implications does this research on the limits of our self-knowledge have?
we are more aware of the result - our gut feelings are very reflective of our attitudes and feelings and how they will persist into the future however, when we try to explain why we feel the way we do, we struggle in fact, analyzing why we feel the way we do makes us less able to predict future feelings (relationship study)
What about their future emotions are people particularly bad at predicting? Describe evidence that people mis-predict their feelings
we particularly struggle with intensity and duration of future feelings - we would mispredict how we would feel some time after a breakup, losing an election, winning a game etc we think we will be sadder in natural disasters if more people die - however, in Katrina, people were the same amount of sad when 50 people had died as when 1000 - the only thing that made them sadder was seeing photos
self-knowledge (self-concept)
what we know and believe about ourselves your idea of who you actually are - Feared self, someone you can see yourself becoming and don't want - Ideal self, the person you want to be - Ought self, the standards you hold yourself to (obligations )
moderators - define - experimental v. correlational
when and under what circumstances something happens correlational - such as people who are experiencing lots of stress are under greater risk for infection - have to find out if this is true for everyone - if have lots of tension but also a lot of social support, the hugs might be a buffer so the relationship is not nearly as seen - males and not females (vice versa) as another example experimental - like BMI in the original experiment - measure at the start and end and plan to measure
how does the order of questions affect survey results?
when the first questions are related to the question preceding them, they will affect answers on the second question ex. people were more likely to favor allowing gays and lesbians to enter into legal agreements that give them the same rights as married couples when this question was asked after one about whether they favored or opposed allowing gays and lesbians to marry
What did Savitsky & Gilovich (2003) find helped nervous speech-givers?
when they told nervous speech givers about the illusion of transparency, those people were both more confident in the speech they gave and rated as better/more confident speakers by viewers this was compared to speakers with no pep talk, as well as condition of people who were given a pep talk with no mention of the effect/research
random assignment - define - why essential for experiment
where each participant has an equal change of being in the each condition - this helps researchers control for extraneous variables such as socioeconomic standing, gender, race, etc
control - define - why essential for experiment
where one group of participants is not exposed to the independent variables, giving a neutral comparison for the study - remember that control variable isn't always just "no stimulus" b/c for a new intervention strategy we would want to compare it to the current strategy (control)
the file drawer problem - define - how it leads to findings being unreproducible
where you're hung up on the study and convinced you're right, so you redo the study with a conveniently small sample size to create a greater chance of finding your study (tons of flukes) If it's fluked in direction you don't like you put it in the file drawer, if you do like the fluke you publish it
According to Williams and Gilovich (2008), do people really believe their biased self-evaluations and what is their basis for drawing this conclusion?
yes - they were willing to bet money on their projected (very high) relative test performance