Social Psych: Chapter 3

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) study (one of most famous in social psychology) about self-fulfilling prophecy

-Administered test to all students in a school & told teachers some students had scored so well that they were sure to "bloom" academically in upcoming year (not true, however--> bloomers chosen at random) -After creating this expectation in the teachers, they observed classroom dynamics periodically over school year -Gave children IQ test: sure enough, students in each class who were labeled as bloomers showed significantly greater IQ gains than other students -Teacher's expectations had become reality b/c teachers unknowingly gave more attention & encouragement to bloomers than other students -Self-fulfilling prophecy is unconscious, un-deliberate act (automatic thinking) --> these teachers actually thought they spent LESS time with bloomers

Study by Harold Kelley (1950) regarding schemas

-College students in an economics class were told guest lecturer coming -To create schema about what lecturer would be like, gave students brief biographical note about the instructor before he came -Half of class given note that said "People who know him consider him to be a very warm person, industrious, critical, practical, and determined" -- other half given version that was identical, except instead of "warm" it said "cold person" -Students who expected him to be warm rated him MUCH higher (and asked him more Qs/participated in discussion more) than those who expected him to be cold

Personal example(s) of automatic thinking

-Driving to the wrong place on accident (when used to going to that place) -Me writing my name on a birthday card instead of writing the word "Happy" (Aka "Hannah Birthday" ;))

Why do we have schemas/what are their functions? (According to the text)

-Helps you avert a serious & perhaps deadly misunderstanding (resolve ambiguity (info open to interpretation) -Usually very useful for helping us organize and make sense of the world (to fill in knowledge gaps) -Particularly important when we encounter info that can be interpreted in a number of ways (helps reduce ambiguity) -What you're told often has a big impact -Help us reduce the amount of info we need to take in

Study by social psychologists Shariff and Norenzayan (2007)

-Participants asked to make sentence out of sets of provided words -Next, played an economic game in which they were given ten $1 coins and asked to divide them up between themselves and next participant -wanted $10, but would also feel guilty if hoarded it all -Some participants given words that had to do with God (spirit, divine, sacred, prophet), designed to prime the goal of acting kindly to one's neighbor -In control condition, got neutral words -Important: thought both tasks were entirely unrelated! -Those given words relating to God left significantly more $ for next participant (avg. $4.56) than those with neutral words ($2.56) -Third condition- nonreligious words about fairness- "civic", "contract" -- left about same amount $ as those primed with God words ($4.44) *Point: goals can be activated & influence ppl's behavior w/o their knowing it!

Study by Liljenquist, Zhong & Galinsky (2010) about relationship between mind and body (and how it influences the way we live)-- Windex

-Participants sat in room just sprayed with citrus-scented Windex & others in a room with no odor -Those in room smelling clean were more trusting of stranger & more likely to donate time/money to charity

What are some limits of self-fulfilling prophecy?

-People's true nature can win out in social interactions -These are most likely to occur when people are distracted or otherwise unable to control their automatic reactions

What does "priming using metaphors about the mind and body" refer to?

-Physical sensations can prime metaphors (it's NOT just schemas that can be primed in ways to influence judgments & behaviors) Ex: when you wash your hands, feel less guilty/more moral; personally, taking a shower after time spent kissing longer than should have, feel somewhat less guilty -Metaphors can influence decisions

Experiment by Higgins, Rholes, and Jones (1977) demonstrating the priming effect

-Research participants told they'd take part in two unrelated studies -First: perception study; asked to identify different colors while at the same time memorizing a list of words -Second: reading comprehension study; read paragraph about man named Donald & give impression of him -Many of Donald's actions = ambiguous (can interpret either positively or negatively)--> "adventurous" v. "reckless"/"impulsive" -Their impressions of him depended on whether positive or negative traits were primed & accessible... > ppl memorized + words v. - words > in other conditions, ppl memorized + or - words, however these traits didn't influence their impressions of him b/c the words didn't apply to his behavior -Therefore: thoughts have to be both ACCESSIBLE AND APPLICABLE before they will act as primes, influencing our thoughts of social world

Study about relationship between mind and body (and how it influences the way we live)-- clipboard

-Students who filled out survey attached to heavy clipboard thought student opinion should be given more consideration on a local campus issue than did students who filled out survey on light clipboard -Metaphor that associates weight w/ importance -- "carries weight" & "adding weight to the argument" -- was primed

Study by Schwarz et al. (1991) about assertiveness

-one condition: asked people to think of 6 times they'd acted assertively --> Most people had an easy time thinking of all 6 -other condition: asked people to think of 12 times they'd acted assertively --> most people had a hard time thinking about this many examples -Ppl of condition w/ 6 times rated themselves as assertive b/c of how easy it was; ppl w/ 12 times rated themselves as unassertive b/c of how difficult it was to think of all -Opposite (asking to think of unassertive times) portrayed the same findings *People use the availability heuristic when making judgements about themselves and other people*

What are the three reasons why something can become accessible?

1) Some schemas are chronically accessible due to past experience (constantly active & ready-to-interpret situations) ex: if there's a history of alcohol in fam, traits describing a person with alcoholism are likely to be chronically accessible, which means you may be more likely to think man on bus had too much to drink; ring-by-spring schema 2) Something can become accessible b/c it's related to a current goal ex: know more about mental illness during a psychopathology class semester, so may attribute mental disorder to someone more than you would when your test is over; someone running to class- seems they're late, depends on clothes 3) Schemas can become temporarily accessible b/c of recent experiences; a particular schema/trait happens to be primed by something ppl have been thinking or doing before encountering an event

When do we use heuristics? (five circumstances)

1) don't have time for systematic analysis 2) overloaded with info 3) issues not important to us 4) have little other knowledge to use when making decision 5) something in situation calls to mind heuristic

What are the two types of social cognition?

1- Automatic thinking 2- Controlled thinking

In further testing of Rosenthal & Jacobson study, what are the four critical ways that teachers have been found to treat bloomers differently?

1- Create warmer emotional climate for bloomers (more personal attn., encouragement, support) 2- Gave them more material to learn & more difficult material 3- Gave them better feedback for work 4- Gave them more opportunities to respond in class & longer to respond

How can people be taught to correct their mistakes better?

1- Make people a little more humble about their reasoning abilities (overconfidence barrier); possibly through getting them to consider the possibility that they might be wrong 2- Directly teach people some basic statistical and methodological principles about how to reason correctly, with the hope that they'll apply it to their lives.

What shortcuts do people use?

1- Schemas: to understand new situations 2- Judgmental heuristics: when too many schemas that could apply > Availability heuristic > Representativeness heuristic

According to research in social psych, why do many people believe that their horoscopes are accurate description of who they are and what is likely to happen to them? A) Horoscopes are written in a vague way so that most people view them as representative of their personalities and past behaviors. B) Horoscopes trigger automatic decision making. C) People find it difficult to bring to mind examples that are similar to the horoscope. D) Horoscopes automatically prime people's life goals.

A

Enrolling in which of the following graduate programs would be most likely to improve your statistical reasoning ability about problems in everyday life? A) Psychology B) Medicine C) Law D) Chemistry

A

Suppose you have invited a new acquaintance over to your apartment and want to make a good impression; in other words, you want this person to like you. Which of the following should you do? A) Serve the person a warm drink & hope that he or she holds it in their hands while you are talking to him or her. B) Serve the person a cold drink & hope that he or she holds it in their hands while you are talking to him or her. C) Bake some bread before the person comes over so that the apartment smells nice. D) Serve the person a snack on a very heavy plate.

A

Suppose you're driving home from watching a scary movie about a hitchhiker who was a murderer when you see someone talking loudly with a friend. Because you saw the movie, you assume you're witnessing an argument that will probably end in a fight. This is an example of A) priming B) base rate information C) belief perseverance D) controlled thinking

A

Which of the following is NOT a way in which schemas can become accessible in people's minds? A) The more negative in content a schema is, the more likely it is to accessible B) Schemas can be accessible because of people's past experiences C) Schemas can become temporarily accessibly because of priming D) Schemas can be accessible if they are related to our current goals

A

Which of the following is true about cultural differences in social thinking? A) Although everyone uses schemas to understand the world, the content of those schemas is influenced by the culture in which they live B) Schemas influence what people notice in the world but have no influence on what they remember C) Schemas influence what people remember but have no influence on what they notice in the world D) Culture has no influence on automatic thinking

A

Availability heuristic

A mental rule of thumb whereby people base a judgment on the ease with which they can bring something to mind Ex: "exactly the right place, at the right time"

Representativeness Heuristic

A mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case Ex: you meet Brian, who has blonde hair, a deep tan, seems to be very mellow, and likes to go to the beach --> assume he's from California b/c he matches that stereotype *using this is often a perfectly reasonable thing to do, but not always *can be helpful *but can cause us to ignore base-rate info

Holistic thinking style

A type of thinking in which people focus on the overall context, particularly the ways in which objects relate to each other; this type of thinking is common in *East Asian cultures* (e.g. China, Japan, and Korea) {consider surrounding context (backgrounds) of objects in pictures} Ex: If you ran into a classmate who was surrounded by a group of friends, you'd likely scan everyone's faces in the group to judge how classmate is feeling

Analytic thinking style

A type of thinking in which people focus on the properties of objects without considering their surrounding context; this type of thinking is common in *Western cultures* {more likely to focus on main objects in pictures (more likely to notice differences in these objects--ex: a plane having more windows in one pic than the other)} Ex: If you ran into a classmate who was surrounded by a group of friends, you would likely focus only on your classmate's face (object of attention) to judge how they're feeling

What does the text say about controlled thinking and free will?

An unconscious desire may have led both to the conscious thought (that you wanted ice cream) and your behavior/decision to act (to get up and go to the freezer) ~In other words, the conscious thought "I want ice cream" was a consequence of an unconscious process, and was not the cause of your decision to go to the freezer

Rob is definitely not the most attractive guy in the dorms, but he is extremely confident about who he is and how he looks. He is convinced that most women find him to be very attractive, and he in fact usually gets dates with women who are much more attractive than he is. What is the best explanation for Rob's success? A) Self-affirmation theory B) Self-fulfilling prophecy C) Representativeness heuristic D) Holistic thinking

B

Sam is playing a carnival game challenging him to guess which of the 20 cups is hiding the red ball. Unfortunately, he picked the cup directly to the left of the winning cup and thus did not win the stuffed donkey he wanted. According to social psychological research, he is most likely to A) experience cognitive dissonance B) engage in counterfactual thinking C) blame his mistake on the noise of the crowd D) subsequently avoid similar games

B

Which is the definition of analytic thinking? A) Type of thinking in which people focus on the overall context, particularly the ways in which objects relate to each other B) A type of thinking in which people focus on their properties of objects without considering surrounding C) Thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful D) Thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless

B

Which of the following is TRUE about research on free will? A) People rarely overestimate the amount of control they have over their behavior B) Sometimes people underestimate the amount of control they have over their behavior C) Studies have shown that people have free will over almost everything they do D) The more people believe in free will, the more likely they are to engage in immoral actions such as cheating

B

Which of the following is the best summary of research on automatic goal pursuit? A) People can only select which goals to work toward using controlled thinking B) People often pursue goals that have been recently primed, w/o realizing that that is why they are pursuing the goal C) People often pursue goals that have been recently primed, but only if they are consciously aware that the goal has been primed D) People never choose their goals consciously; they only pursue automatically primed goals

B

Which of the following is true of the holistic thinking style? A) It involves a focus on the properties of objects without considering their surrounding context B) People living in the West can think holistically if they are primed with pictures taken in Japan C) The holistic style of thinking has genetic basis D) It may have its roots in the Greek philosophic traditions of Aristotle and Plato

B

Researchers took photographs in randomly chosen locations in cities in Japan and the U.S. They found that on average, city scenes in Japan contained more: A) businesses and advertisements B) people and residences C) objects that competed for people's attention D) buildings and concrete

C

Suppose you're buying a new home & have looked at several different houses. According to automatic decision making research, what would be the best way for you to make up your mind about which one to buy? A) Distract yourself by working on puzzles and then choose a house. B) Think consciously about the alternatives, then make up your mind. C) Spend a few mins thinking consciously & then several minutes distracting yourself with puzzles D) Get a good night's sleep and then choose house right when you wake up in the morning

C

Which of the following is the best description of facilitated communication? A) It is a promising new way of letting communication-impaired people, such as those with autism, express their thoughts B) The facilitators, who hold the fingers and arm of communication-impaired people on a keyboard, are deliberately faking the answers C) The facilitators believe that communication-impaired people are choosing what to type, but they are probably wrong and unknowingly determining the answers themselves D) Facilitated communication helps people with mild versions of autism to communicate but does not help those with severe cases

C

Which of the following is the best summary of the function of schemas? A) Schemas usually result in erroneous judgments because of the self-fulfilling prophecy B) Schemas are always beneficial because they help people organize the world & fill in knowledge gaps C) Schemas are very useful in helping people organize info about the world, but they are problematic when they result in self-fulfilling prophecies D) Schemas are useful for helping us organize info about other people but not about events such as what we should do when eating in a restaurant

C

Self-fulfilling prophecy *I LOVE THIS CONCEPT!*

Case wherein people have an expectation about what another person is like, which influences how they act toward that person, which causes that person to behave consistently with people's original expectations, making the expectations come true (ex: one friend in opposite-sex friendship projecting feelings onto other, overestimating their reciprocation, which causes the target to start to gain feelings, making the original friend's hopes of dating come true) *The role you play often causes the target to respond the way they do *Great example p. 59

Are people's quick conclusions of situations (through automatic thinking) normally correct or incorrect?

Correct

According to this chapter, which is the best analogy to describe people's thinking abilities? A) People are cognitive misers B) People are motivated tacticians C) People are skilled detectives D) People are flawed scientists

D

Over Thanksgiving, your parents ask if you can think of 12 reasons why your college is better than its archrival. You find it hard to come up with many reasons and end up thinking "Hmm, maybe the schools aren't all that different." Which of the following mental strategies did you probably use to reach this conclusion? A) The representativeness heuristic B) Base rate info C) The anchoring and adjustment heuristic D) The availability heuristic

D

Where do differences in holistic v. analytic thinking come from? A) Genetic differences between Asians and non-Asian Westerners B) Different educational systems in the East v. West C) Different weather patterns in East v. West D) Different philosophical traditions of the East v. West

D

Which of the following is the best example of a self-fulfilling prophecy? A) Teacher believes that boys are better at math than girls, but boys in his class do worse than girls in math. B) Bob thinks that members of the Alpha Beta Psi sorority are unfriendly and snobby. Whenever he meets members of this sorority, they are friendly toward him. C) Sarah is worried that her son is not gifted in music, but he does better at his piano lessons than she expected. D) Jill thinks her daughter is not a very good reader and doesn't spend time reading with her. As a result, her daughter falls behind in reading at school.

D

What are cultural determinants of schemas? (class discussion)

Examples: -Story about "script" (schema about events) eating in India >Host brings a LOT of food out to show generosity & Dr. Tsang's friend ate/packed away all food to be "respectful" BUT in that culture she was SUPPOSED to leave food behind to show thankfulness & give to poor >People REALLY proud to be Texans >"Southern" ring-by-spring >Baylor line @ football games (no other colleges do it-- Baylor culture)

T/F: Counterfactual reasoning is unconscious and effortless.

F: Counterfactual reasoning is clearly conscious and and effortful-- obsessing about past uses lots of mental energy! *but not always intentional or voluntary; it can be difficult to "turn off" the kind of "if only" thinking (so: this is a little different degree of controlled thought)

Social cognition

How people think about themselves and the social world; more specifically, how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions

People often focus too much on _________ _______ of what they observe and too little on the _____ _______.

Individual characteristics; base rates

Base rate information

Information about the frequency of members of different categories in the population ex: know there are more New Yorkers than Californians at the university where you meet Brian

Judgmental heuristics

Mental shortcuts people use to make judgments quickly and efficiently *Disclaimer: They do not guarantee accuracy in people's inference of the world (sometimes inadequate or misapplied, leading to faulty judgments)

Schemas

Mental structures people use to organize their knowledge about the social world around themes or subjects and that influence the information people notice, think about, and remember *encompasses our knowledge about many things, like other people, ourselves, social roles, and specific events *help us fill in our gaps of knowledge

Counterfactual thinking

Mentally changing some aspect of the past as a way of imagining what might have been -The *easier* it is to mentally undo the past or imagine an alternative outcome, the *stronger* our emotional reaction to what actually occurred Ex: getting an 89 may make you feel worse than an 85 -useful if it focuses people's attention on ways they can cope better in the future

Controlled Thinking

More effortful and deliberate thinking in which people pause and think carefully about the right course of action Examples: -Deciding where to go to college, whether to break up with your boyfriend or girlfriend

Are people just passive recipients of information?

No; people often act on their schemas in ways that change the extent to which these schemas are supported or contradicted... [leading into the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy] *schemas can affect reality*

Sometimes the emotional consequences of counterfactual reasoning are *paradoxical*. For example...

Olympic medal winners- whose happier? *Silver medal = just a second off from 1st (counterfactual reasoning b/c easier to imagine winning event) *Bronze medal = elated b/c if they "hadn't given that last push" they may have received no medal! ~Medvec, Madey, and Gilovich (1995) study looked at videotapes of 1992 Olympics-- could tell difference in happiness right after receiving medals

*When* do we go off automatic pilot and think about things using controlled thinking?

One circumstance = when we experience a negative event that was a "close call"... often causes us to use counterfactual thinking ex: almost getting in an accident b/c of texting while driving; failing a test by just a point or two, etc.

Kahnerman & Tversky (1982) study of plane times- counterfactual thinking

One person = half hour late to plane's takeoff Other person = 5 min late to plane's takeoff --This is the WORST

What does automatic goal pursuit refer to?

Our decisions depend in part on which goal has been recently primed

Study by Williams & Bargh (2008) about relationship between mind and body (and how it influences the way we live)-- drink temp

Participants who held cup of hot coffee thought stranger was friendlier (metaphor of "warmer" ppl = friendly) than those who held cup of iced coffee (metaphor that unfriendly ppl are "cold")

What is the assumption of social cognition?

People are generally trying to form accurate impressions of the social world

As seen in ice cream example, people sometimes believe that they are exerting more control over events than they are. But it can also work the other way in that...

People can actually be controlling things more than they realize; (there can be a disconnect between our conscious sense of how much we are causing our own actions & how much we're really causing them) Ex: facilitator typing more for communication-impaired persons than people realized

What did Kahneman and Tversky (1973) find about when people have BOTH base-rate info & contradictory info about person in question (representativeness heuristic)?

People do not use base-rate info sufficiently, paying most attention to how representative the info about the specific person is of the general category (ex: Californians) *If info is reliable, this is not a bad strategy; but if it is flimsy info, this can be bad

Study by Xu, Zwick, & Schwarz (2011) about metaphors influencing decisions

People on a winning streak bet more; losing streak bet less, unless they washed hands

"Barnum effect"

Phenomenon demonstrated by Bertram Forer's (1949) study of a group of students who were asked how well a certain online personality test's ending description described them-- 1 (very poor) - 5 (excellent)... the average rating was 4.26. -Representativeness heuristic = one reason people believe this fits them so well; statements are vague enough that virtually everyone can find past behavior that's similar to (representative of) feedback -Reason feedback seemed so accurate is b/c we didn't *go beyond the representative examples that come to mind & think "Actually, there are just as many times I didn't feel this way"*

What does automatic decision making refer to?

Research shows that too much conscious reflection about a choice can get in the way of a good decision-- sometimes periodic distraction can help us make the best choice! *But for distraction to help, you must remember: -need to have an already conscious goal to make a good choice (set agenda) -conscious thought is superior when decision requires a series of simple rules (such as how to multiply two numbers)

What might affect which schema to use?

Setting, location, age, dress, YOUR recent activities/knowledge, etc.

What is a problem with the availability heuristic?

Sometimes what is easiest to remember is not typical of the overall picture, leading to faulty conclusions Ex: In world of medicine, a physician may observe person's symptoms that seem straightforward & quickly diagnose a disorder that comes to mind easily; however, symptoms may be a sign of several different disorder--> doctors could just as easily mis-diagnose someone as having a disorder they just saw in a movie

T/F: There is evidence that teachers in actual classrooms are especially likely to act in ways that confirm their low expectations of minority and disadvantaged students.

T (ex: teachers who think child from low-income fam doesn't have what it takes to succeed in school inadvertently acts in ways that makes child do more poorly in school)

Why does it matter what people believe about free will?

The extent to which people believe they have free will has important consequences; the more people believe, for ex, the more willing they are to help others in need & less likely they are to engage in immoral actions like cheating Ex: when experiencing temptation, people who believe that they can control their actions probably exert more effort to do so; people who believe there is no free will are more likely to believe they "might as well just go with that impulse"

Accessibility

The extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of people's minds and are therefore likely to be used when making judgements about the social world *Helps us choose which schema to use

Overconfidence barrier

The fact that people often have greater confidence in their judgments than we should (have too much confidence in accuracy of their judgments)

Priming

The process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept (even though the new event is completely unrelated to the one that originally primed the traits)

Controlled thinking

Thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful -Can usually be turned on or off at will & people are usually fully aware of what they're thinking -Requires mental energy -Can only use this type of thinking about one thing at a time

Automatic thinking

Thinking that is non-conscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless (& quick!) *base this thinking on our past experiences and knowledge of the world Examples: -When we meet someone for the first time, we often form lightning-quick impressions of him/her, w/o consciously deliberating about it -We make decisions "without thinking," such as jamming on the brakes when seeing a child step into the road

How do people, if at all, use the availability heuristic to make judgments about themselves?

We have well-developed ideas about our own personalities, such as how assertive we are; but we often lack firm schemas about our own traits

When does conscious thought help the most regarding making a decision?

When decision involves following simple rules (ex: "whatever else, the apartment has to have free Internet")

When does distraction help the most regarding making a decision?

When decision requires people to integrate a lot of complex info (such as comparing pros & cons of lots of apartments); our unconscious minds often do a better job of SIFTING through information to find best alternative

What are possible advantages & limitations of using mental shortcuts?

advantages: -For the most part, extremely useful -Makes the decision easier -Efficient disadvantages: -Can sometimes lead to erroneous inferences about the world (do not always lead to the best decision)

In the past few decades, social psychologists have discovered that ______ thinking is much more powerful and prevalent than previously believed... People's ability to think quickly and nonconsciously is impressive and critical to our survival.

automatic

Priming is a good example of _______ thinking because it occurs quickly, unintentionally, and unconsciously.

automatic

What is a "pervasive" type of autonomic thinking, according to Dr. Tsang?

automatic thinking

Counting regularly in number order would be considered ______ thinking, while counting in alphabetical order would be considered ________ thinking.

automatic, controlled

The mind is connected to the body, and when we think about something or someone, we do so with reference to how our ______ are reacting. Therefore, priming metaphors about the body and social judgments influence our ______ and _______ (what we think and do).

bodies; judgements, decisions Ex: cleanliness usually associated w/ morality ("washing our sins away") & dirtiness with immorality ("dirty thoughts")

One purpose of controlled thinking is to perform _____ & ______ for automatic thinking.

checks, balances *controlled thinking takes over when unusual events occur

The ______ of our schemas is influenced by the culture in which we live.

content

According to the "toolbox" analogy from the text, "all humans have access to the same tools, but the ______ in which they grow up can influence the ones they use the most"

culture

An apt metaphor for human thinking is that people are like "_______ _______," brilliant thinkers who are attempting to discover the nature of the social world in a logical manner but who do so imperfectly.

flawed scientists

Research shows that the scent of cleanliness (increases/decreases) the degree to which people trust strangers and their willingness to help others. (pick one)

increases

Why do you think we have schemas? (class discussion)

positives: -To connect to people -Prevents for uncomfortable situations (more efficient) negatives: -May treat people badly b/c of stereotype -May keep you from getting to know people if intimidating/known to have different beliefs than you (sorority/frat stereotypes)

If counterfactual thinking results in __________, whereby people repetitively focus on negative things in their lives, this is not so good.

rumination *seen as a contributor to depression