Social Psych exam 1

Hindsight Bias

"once you know the outcome- it seems like it would've been easy to predict" common attitude- "Isn't that obvious?" not always- some things are not obvious in the moment.

what does reactance depend on?

- Importance of the freedom - number of the freedoms threatened - strength of the message

Things to avoid/ problems for Evaluating Media Reports?

- Making causal statements with correlational data - Unrepresentative or small sample sizes - nonrandom assignment or selection - missing comparison groups - lack of study details - broad implications - poor questionnaire design - Lack of control variables

If Social Psych is Scientific- where do psychologists gather evidence about human behavior?

- Observational Research Description - Survey Research (Correlational) Prediction - Experimental Research Causality

Peripheral Cues

- Reciprocity - Commitment and Consistency - Social Proof - Liking - Perceived Authority We tend to do what people in authority positions want, even if it is only perceived authority - Scarcity

Strengths of experimental research

- Researcher control - Can study causal relationships

What is a theory in relation to social psych?

- Sets of related assumptions explanations about a phenomena (why and under what conditions it occurs) from which testable hypotheses can be drawn

Limitations of experimental research

- Some variables cannot be manipulated - It is unethical to manipulate some variables - Controlled procedures may lack realism

That's not all technique

- Start large, add details to seem smaller - Offer a discount in several stages. - Add extra 'gifts' to a product offering. Start with a high price and reduce it.

Problems with Anchoring and Adjustment?

- The anchor can be completely irrelevant. - Adjustment is often insufficient.

One-sided vs. two-sided messages

- When trying to persuade, is it better to acknowledge opposing viewpoints? - One-sided is better if: Audience already agrees, unaware, of opposing views, less knowledge. also # of arguments matter

What is a Hypothesis in relation to social psych?

- a testable prediction - often implied by a theory

What are reciprocal concessions?

- make large request (refused) - Make modest request (concession) - compliance (reciprocal concession)

Threat in a message has to be...?

- personal - vivid (language and pictures) - it can happened to me & is a threat to my health

Example of high EFFICACY in fear based messages?

- recommended response - give evidence of recommended responses effectiveness

Snyder and Swann (1978)

- told female college students that they would interview a person who was either introverted or extroverted - they were asked to come up with questions for the person they were going to meet - in general, participants came up with questions that confirmed their perceptions of introverts and extroverts

What are some aspects of experimental research?

1) one or more var. is manipulated by the experimenter 2) Extraneous variables are controlled through random assignment

What is the scientific method? 6 steps

1. Observe "interesting" data 2. Develop theories or explanations 3. Develop hypotheses 4. Design study 5. Collect and analyze data 6. Refine or replicate theory and 7. publicize data

Charles Darwin (1859) theory of evolution proposed that natural selection favors genes that

1.) Promote survival 2.) Increase the probability of producing offspring

how does attractiveness influence source?

2 components: Speakers who are SIMILAR to us and are physically ATTRACTIVE are more persuasive (usually peripheral route processing)

What is a self-fulfilling process

A false belief that leads to it's own fulfillment - a false belief about another person, they respond to false belief proving it to be true (e.g. you think someone is unfriendly so you don't say hi, they in turn don't say hi because they feel you are unkind because you are not being friendly, thereby confirming false belief.

availability heuristic

A mental rule of thumb whereby people base a judgment on the ease with which they can bring something to mind (e.g. doctor diagnosis difficult issue easily because they just wrote a book on it- on their mind)

affective component

A pos/neg feeling about the attitude object (emotion) e.g. snake - how person feels about running pos/neg immediate reactions (emotions) based on values (e.g., religion), Sensory reaction (e.g., liking the taste of chocolate) Aesthetic reaction (e.g., admiring how a car looks) Conditioning (Classical and Operant)

What is Correlation Coefficient (r)?

A statistical measure that indicates the extent to which two factors vary together The sign (+ or -) indicates the direction of the relationship

Informed Consent

Agreement to participate in an experiment, granted in full awareness of the nature of the experiment, which has been explained in advance

Presuasion

An attitude change as a result of information processing in response to messages about the attitude object

Empirical Questions

Answers derived from experimentation or measurement rather than personal opinion

How can reactance backfire?

As a result, people may Ignore the message Derogate the source of the message Become more attracted to the behavior

What does it mean to underestimate the Power of Social Influence?

Aspects of the social situation that may seem minor can have powerful effects, overwhelming the differences in people's personalities. Personality differences do exist and frequently are of great importance. But social and environmental situations can be so powerful that they have strong effects on almost everyone.

implicit attitudes

Attitudes that exist outside of conscious awareness

Explicit Attitudes

Attitudes that we consciously endorse and can easily report

availability heuristic

Basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which relevant instances come to mind. - The ease with which relevant instances come to mind is only influenced by actual frequencies but also by, - salience (the media) - recency ( recent events - over presented info) - attention (own interests) - familiarity

behavioral component

Behavioral reaction (how one acts) e.g. if person actually runs

Experimental research are used to determine what?

Cause and effect relationships.

KEY components of central (ELM - elaborate likelihood model)

Central - High motivation - Issue is relevant - Knowledgeable - No distractions

Personal reflection

Common attitude= "I wouldn't do that" ...Maybe, maybe not. people are often wrong at predicting their own behavior

Observational approaches common use? advantages? disadvantages?

Common use: To describe behavior Advantage: Can observe behavior in "natural" settings Disadvantage: Little control; cannot make causal claims

Experimental approaches common use? advantages? disadvantages?

Common use: To determine causes of behavior Advantage: Controlled environment; can make causal claims Disadvantage: Results may not generalize to real-world

Correlation approaches common use? advantages? disadvantages?

Common use: To examine associations Advantage: Works with variables that cannot be manipulated; can collect large amounts of data Disadvantage: Cannot determine causality

What is more likely if you like someone?

Compliance - compliments, co-operation, and relatability often effect likeability.

Why is random assignment important?

Confounding variables = anything that could cause change in the dependent variable (outcome) that is not the independent variable (manipulation) - Pre-existing variables that might affect the results (ex: intelligence, hunger)

Establishing causality requires what?

Control over the environment- within Experimental Research - Control for factors that effect the DV, that are not the IV - Prevent other conditions/factors from affecting the outcomes of the experiment (e.g., number of hours slept before the experiment, past behavior) Everything EXCEPT the IV is the same across all conditions

How do we decide which schema to use?

Depends on schema accessibility - Situational cues- woman in a group of men - recency of schema (adds that promote feminine steroetype) - Personal chronic constructs (how accessible something is in our mind - e.g. if you're applying to law school you'll pick up on things in the news directly related to your law interest)

Observational research

E.G's = observe kids at school public bathroom hand washing studies (people more likely to wash hands if another person was there)

When is upward thinking good?

E.g. students who do poorly and feel badly so they work harder to perform better vs those who think downward are less likely to work harder for a better grade in the future

example of operationalization

E.g., Aggression: Any form of behavior directed toward the goal of harming or injuring another living being motivated to avoid such treatment. Manipulating: Violent media Measuring: Noise blasts

What is a Between-subjects Design?

Each participant is in only one group (condition/treatment) the results of each group are compared to each other to examine differences, and thus effect the IV e.g. Participants are assigned to either write a pro medical marijuana or anti medical marijuana essay and then asked to rate their attitudes towards the topic

What is a Within-subjects Design

Each participant participates in more than one group/treatment. e.g. Participants experience a mild, neutral, and severe initiation in order to be a part of a discussion group on sex. After each initiation, they are asked to rate how much they want to belong to that group.

What is Random assignment?

Ensures that differences in participants' personalities or backgrounds are distributed evenly across conditions participants have equal chance of being in any experimental condition

What is an attitude?

Evaluation of a person, object, place, or idea Can be positive, negative, neutral, or ambivalent Ambivalent = both positive & negative

Field Experiments

Experiments conducted innatural settings rather than in the laboratory - one of the best ways to ensure external validity

Debriefing

Explaining to participants, at the end of an experiment, the true purpose of the study and exactly what transpired

commitment and consistency techniques

I do as I say I do (or as I've done) = our desire to be (appear) consistent with what we've already done. e.g "it" toys that sell out (parents want to be consistent in giving kids what they say they'll give for Christmas)

What is Correlation Research?

Identifying the relationship between variables e.g. Survey methods Variables are measured as they naturally occur (not manipulated by research)

what can Priming effect?

Impressions - if primed with pos/neg words or mood, can have a pos/neg impression on a person Behavior- smells for example can impact our mood Donald example - people had pos/neg primes based on pos/neg influences

Operationalization

In order to manipulate and measure the variables, we need operational definitions: specific procedures for manipulating or measuring a conceptual variable.

Rosenthal and Jacobson study

Intelligence and learning, self-fulfilling prophecy; Study Basics: Researchers misled teachers into believing that certain students had higher IQs. Teachers changed own behaviors and effectively raised the IQ of the randomly chosen students

_____________elapsed between measure of attitude & behavior, When situational pressures are ________

Less time, weak

Why is social cognition a continuum with two ends?

Low-Effort - automatic thinking (passively taking notes) - unintentional, effortless, non-conscious VS. High- effort - controlled, intentional (intentionally reading and thinking while note-taking) - voluntary, effortful

Attitude inoculation

Making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of the arguments against their position - (e.g. people who hear weaker arguments first are less likely to be convinced of stronger arguments later on)

Spurious correlation:

Maybe a 3rd thing, "Z" is causing both X and Y; variables are correlated through their common relationship with one or more other variables but not through a causal mechanism

Schemas are what?

Mental structures that help organize knowledge about the social world and guide the selection, interpretation, and recall of information. e.g. Social roles (firefighters, librarians, CEO, parent)

Reactance Theory

Messages aimed at changing behavior may be perceived as a threat to freedom to engage in that behavior - People enjoy and are invested in specific sets of freedoms - They expect to be able to engage in these freedoms

Deception

Misleading participants about the true purpose of a study or the events that will actually transpire

Survey Methods

Most often given to groups of people Strengths - Can have many participants can collect information on many variables Limitations - Question effects (e.g. leading questions) - samples often not representative of population - responses not always truthful

What is a triple blind study?

Neither the participant, researcher, or data analysts are aware of the conditions of the participants.

What are High-Effort Processes&Purpose as opposed to low effort processes (schemas/ heuristics)

One purpose: to correct to pitfalls of low-effort processes Example: buying a car Low effort: color, status High effort: gas mileage, dependability, cost

What is a Single blind study?

Participant doesn't know which group they are in

What is a double blind study?

Participants + researcher don't know which group subject is in (until after DV is measured)

Findings of Burnstein, Crandall, & Kitayama (1994) ---

Participants in this study were asked to imagine scenarios like the following: There are three people asleep in different rooms of a burning house: Your 7 year-old female cousin Your 75 year-old grandfather A 21 year-old acquaintance You have time to rescue only one... Who do you save?

KEY components of Peripheral (ELM - elaborate likelihood model)

Peripheral - Low motivation - Issue is irrelevant - Little prior knowledge - Distracted

Routes to Persuasion: Elaboration Likelihood Model

Persuasion induces attitude change through: 1. Central route processing - Person fully engaged with message content - High effort/more controlled processing - Argument quality 2. Peripheral route processing - Use cognitive resources that need little cognitive effort (e.g. heuristics = low effort) - Superficial cues

fear-arousing communications (Textbook notes)

Persuasive message that attempts to change people's attitudes by arousing their fears - playing to their emotions. - must have moderate fear + helpful instructions - people are likely to tune out a message that raises fear but does not give information about how to reduce it. (e.g. people who watched scary smoking video + read instructional pamphlet on how to quite)

Social Psychology: Construal

Relationship between the social environment and the individual is a 2-way street. - People are influenced by their social situations as they perceive them e.g. two people can be in the same room and be experiencing the same thing differently because of past experiences.

What do schemas do?

Schemas applied to group = stereotype - Social environment = more predictable - Help us organize information - Can influence behavior Schemas can be applied to specific individuals/ourselves.

Foot in the door

Small request first followed by a smaller request- ("if I could just get my foot in the door) - opposite of door in the face - give an inch take a mile situations

How does social psychology differ from personality psychology and other social sciences?

Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Personality psychology is the scientific study of individual differences in people's thoughts, feelings, and behavior, and how these come together as a whole. - social psychologists mainly focus upon the interaction of a person with small groups, while sociologists mainly focus upon a person's involvement with society-at-large.

Scripts def?

Step-by-step order of events for a particular situation; this script helps us know what to expect, and we may fill in things that didn't actually happen.

Bad example of Random Assignment

Students in the front of the room learn one memory technique, students in the back learn another (DV = memory).

applied research

Studies designed to solve a particular social problem

basic research

Studies that are designed to find the best answer to the question of why people behave as they do and that are conducted purely for reasons of intellectual curiosity

Social cognition

Study of how people think/feel about themselves and the social world.

social psychology

Study of how thoughts, feeling, or behaviors are impacted by the real or imagined presence of others

Psychology

Study of human thoughts & behavior

Attitude accessibility

Tells how attitude is accessed from memory. How quickly an attitude is reached when the related object or item is encountered - Attitudes that are more accessible from memory are more predictive of behavior

The power of the social situation

Tendency to ignore situational or social explanations for behavior focus is on personality (in that moment) - e.g. "that person is just mean"

What experiment had a similar self-fulfilling prophecy effect as the Rosenthal and Jacobson experiment.

The Military study (Eden and Shani) participants described as "high, reg, or low command potential) trainees described as higher level performed better on written/physical exams.

What is the Tripartite model?

The affective, behavioral, and cognitive components that make up an attitude

What is the most distinctive and important concept in contemporary American social psychology-Gordon Allport?

The attitude

Strength of correlation trend?

The closer th co-effeciant is to 1 (the stronger it is)

Social influence

The effect that the words, actions, or mere presence of other people have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behavior. e.g. anxiety of being left on read or waiting for a reply from someone.

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 judgments about the social world

External validity is what?

The extent to which the findings generalize to other people, settings, IVs, and Dv's 1. representative sample 2. replication 3. field experiments

Psychological Realism

The extent to which the psychological processes triggered in an experiment are similar to psychological processes that occur in everyday life

Internal validity is what?

The extent to which we can draw conclusions about cause and effect Good design = random assignment - control for confounds

what two things are important/ applicable in social psych?

The importance of cognition-emotion- individual differences in how people react to different things The applicability of social psychological principles

Primimng

The process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept.

What matters in relation the a potential influential message?

The source - credible? Indicators of expertise: credentials (PDH/ bachelors degree) indicators of trust: confidence (more trust) self-interest of speaker (less trust)

Representativeness Heuristic

The tendency to assume that someone/thing belongs to a particular group if similar to a typical member - People are poor at assessing base rate information and instead rely on representativeness. - However, if no representative information is given, people can properly use base-rate information. (e.g. Brian must be from Hawaii because he knows how to surf and wears floral prints)

How do you address the subjectivity of a researcher and participant reactivity in Observational research

To address participant reactivity: Participation plus observation To address subjectivity of researcher: Multiple observers

What is the Goal of Social Psychologists?

To identify universal laws of human nature that make everyone susceptible to social influence. regardless of their personality, social class, culture, etc... e.g. of universal concept- all kids obey an authority figure at some point.

Good Example of Random Assignment

Using a random numbers generator, participants are assigned to be included or excluded from a group (DV = anger). The first 50 people play a nonviolent game, the second 50 play a violent videogame (DV = GPA)

What are Fear Appeals?

Using fear to prevent bad thing from happening - studies find a MODERATE level of fear is most effective if information about how to reduce the fear is presented Key variables- amount of fear (threat) + recommendations of how to change behavior (Efficacy)

What did LaPiere (1934) do?

Visited hotels/restaurants in US with Chinese couple - Chinese couple only denied service ONCE - 6 months later wrote to establishments (Would you provide service to Chinese?) 92% "No service" mistakes - he should've asked the attitude before testing the behavior

Examples of reactance

Warning labels (e.g., violent video games) Message restriction = more agreement with message (e.g., coed dorms) e.g. the Romeo and Juliet effect = depending on parental interference = more likely to pursue relationship

What is social proof?

We can view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it If it's popular, it must be good e.g. laugh tracks on sitcoms; (pretip) tip jar.

Psychological reactance (Scarcity techniques )

We want what we cannot have or may not be able to have in the future- If rare or hard to get, more valuable.

cognitive component

What a person believes to be true e.g. person knows running is a healthy practice

Experimenter expectancy effects

When experimenters expectations about the results of an experiment affect their behavior towards the participants - thereby influencing the participants responses.

When is random assignment used? purpose? importance?

When is it used: When assigning participants to conditions Purpose: To avoid confounds by averaging out extraneous variables between conditions Importance: Internal validity

When is random sampling used? purpose? importance?

When is it used: When choosing people to be in the study Purpose: To be able to generalize to the population Importance: External validity

Subliminal Messages (advertising) textbook

Words or pictures that are not consciously perceived but may nevertheless influence judgments, attitudes, and behaviors (e.g. Bush campaign saying beurocRATS)

Heuristics are

a cognitive shortcut. There is not a guaranteed right answer but if you get it right, it will save you a lot of time. not irrational but also not illogical e.g "you get what you pay for"

What is Anchoring and Adjustment?

a process in which people make an estimate of some value by starting from an initial value (an anchor) and adjustment e.g. - First impressions - Judges & penalty decisions - Personal experiences - Negotiations

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions (beliefs & schemas)

classical conditioning

a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli. A neutral stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus (US) begins to produce a response that anticipates and prepares for the unconditioned stimulus. Also called Pavlovian or respondent conditioning.

operant conditioning

a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher Reinforcement INCREASES the likelihood of emitting a behavior Punishment DECREASES the likelihood of emitting a behavior

Elderly Stereotype Study

activation of a schema that passively influenced behavior - person instructed to walk (some with instructions that included elderly stereotypes and some not) walking speeds varied based on Priming.

Prosocial Behavior =

any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person - Prosocial behavior is NOT always selfless - Prosocial behavior requires an actual action/activity (i.e., the action of donating to a charity)

Kin selection

behaviors that help a genetic relative are favored by natural selection Thus, a gene that causes an individual to help genetic relatives is actually helping a copy of itself Example: People say they would be more likely to help their genetic relatives than their non-relatives in life-threatening situations

Positive Correlation

both variables move in the SAME direction (e.g., as X increases, Y increases)

Purposes of automatic thinking?

cognitive misers - shortcuts to understand/predict the social world - Efficiency - Past experience provides a filter to interpret people/events. Disadvantage = errors (e.g. stereotypes or schemas)

A mother who has tragically lost a child in a car accident spends many days rehearsing "if only": "If only I had driven"; "If only I had him stay home." The mother is engaging in which process? a. counterfactual thinking b. blaming the victim c. self-fulfilling prophecy d. downward comparison

counterfactual thinking

__________is important in designing an experiment because it allows us to draw cause and effect conclusions and helps control for confounds, whereas ________ is important because it allows us to generalize to other situations or people. a. External validity; internal validity b. Random sampling; random assignment c.Random assignment; internal validity d. Internal validity; external validity

d. Internal validity; external validity

Dorr-in-the-face technique

following up an extravagant request with a less extravagant ask making the (guilty party comply.

Altruism =

motive/desire to help another person even if it involves a cost (or at least no benefit) to the helper No rewards for helping - Altruism is the motivation to help with no benefit to oneself (i.e., your reason for donating) selfless

Is your sample representative of the larger population?

not always One solution = Random Sampling/ selection (= very important)

Evolutionary Psychology:

seeks to explain social behavior in terms of social factors that have evolved over time according to the principles of natural selection - If the goal is to ensure our own survival, why should we help others at a cost to ourselves?

Reciprocity

social expectation that people respond in kind EXAMPLE: Receive an invitation to a "free" event At bottom of invitation, a note that says: "Suggested donation: $30" Donations are likely due to the warmth of reciprocity.

Motivation and Ability ( THE Audience of influential message)

the more relevant the info is the audience, the more likely they are to use the central route - because their motivation is higher We also need the ability to be involved and engaged in the message - not distracted by other information/events - message not our level of comprehension

What is Counterfactual thinking?

thinking about how things could have turned out differently than they actually did - is more common after failures when closer to achieving goal. = when you're "so close" e.g. Missed flight by minutes versus an hour

Upward vs,. downward counterfactual thinking?

upward = imaging better outcomes (negative) downward = imagining worse out comes (positive) Silver medalist (usually upward thinking because of how close to gold) vs. bronze (downward because could've not made it to podium at all)

negative correlation

variables move in OPPOSITE directions (e.g., as X increases, Y decreases)

When do attitudes predict?

when attitude is important, strongly supported = more likely to be an accurate predictor of people behavior.