Social Psych Exam 1
Consider the relationship between evolution and social behavior
-Variation- organisms belonging to a given specifies vary in many different ways -Inheritance- Some of these variations can be passed on to later generations, through complicated mechanisms -Selection- some of these inherited variable provide a person with an edge in terms of reproduction-they are likely to survive, mate and pass these traits onto future generations -Social psychologist believe that these traits apply in some way to social behaviors as well as biological. Belief that we are attracted to certain characteristics, and that this is a learned behavior indicating that they may be immune to illness or may be healthy in some way. Humor has also been found to be an example-maybe signifying availability or high intelligence. Also indicated through inherited behaviors that we have learned that shape out social interactions, which helped previous generations to survive. We are influenced by this, not forced. -Many have come to believe that our preferences, behaviors, emotions, and even attitudes are affected, to some extent, by our biological inheritance, although social experiences too have a powerful effect, and often interact with genetic factors in generating the complex patterns of our social lives (pp.9-10 Baron). i.e. attractiveness, humor
Describe what attitudes are and why they are of interest to social psychologists
Attitudes are evaluations of various aspects of the social world. Attitudes influence behaviors. This is of interest because they shape and impact behavior, which is turn has an impact on social relationships and interactions. As a result, they play a significant role in how we see, shape and interact with the world.
Compare and contrast automatic and controlled processing in social thought
Controlled processing is a way of integrating information in a systematic, logical and highly effortful fashion. Automatic processing is a fast relatively effortless and intuitive way of thinking about things. These two ways of thinking can occur together at times, especially when an individual is uncertain about something. Evaluative reactions, which are based on if we like something or not, is connected with automatic processing as we place something within the framework of our mind. Automatic thinking occurs in the limbic system of the brain, while controlled processing has been found to occur in the prefrontal cortex.
Consider when and how deception is used in social psychological research
Deception involves efforts by researchers to withhold or conceal information about the purpose of a study from participants. This is used as a reflection of the belief that if individuals know the purpose of the experiment, they will alter their behaviors as a result (perhaps even unconsciously!) to make themselves look as good as possible, and as a result not provide objective data to be measured. Generally takes a mild form such as passive deception (withholding information about the true purposes of the study) or misleading information (experimenters may lead participants to believe that another person in the study has acted in a certain way (i.e., divided points or money in a bargaining game) when in fact a computer program is controlling what appears to be "the other person's responses." )
Explain why we often use heuristics and the consequences of their use
Heuristics are simple rules of thumb that we use often to make quick inferences with minimal effort. We use these in part because of information overload-when the demands of the moment exceed our capacity for cognitive processing, leaving us either unable or in a limited ability to respond appropriately. High levels of stress or other life demands can put us in this position. This is also used when we are under conditions of uncertainty-which are times in which the right answer would be difficult to know, or take a great deal of effort to determine.
The self-esteem maximize, the terror manager, the information seeker, the information processor
Hot Processes Self-Esteem Maximizer: people are motivated to maintain favorable view of self, also avoid situations in which there is the possibility for failure The Terror Manager: humans are unique in knowing that they will eventually die; behavior is a motivated response to the fear of death Cold Processes The Information Seeker: is that it is important and helpful for people to understand their worlds, and so they constantly go about trying to collect information about self and world. The central assumption of the Information Seeker approach was that whenever something happens, you respond by trying to determine what it means and what its implications are. The Information Processor: information is not simply taken in, but also processed. Result of the cognitive revolution
The hot and cold processes of social psychology in understanding people
Hot processes- Motivational Cold processes- Cognitive The "hot" perspective asserts that people are moved to act by their needs, desires, and emotion (heated action in response to needs). The "cold" perspective asserts that how people think will determine what they want and how they feel (cool and planned behavior). Early social psychology emphasized motivation over cognition, although that has been reversed considerably in recent decades. Examples of Hot processes: Consistency Seeker Self-Esteem Maximizer Terror Manager Cold Processes: The Information Seeker Information Processor
The four key components of a science
Accuracy- gathering and evaluating information about the world (including social behavior and thought) in as careful, precise, and error free way as possible. Objectivity- obtaining and evaluating such information in a manner that is as free from bias as humanly possible. Skepticism- accepting findings as accurate only to the extent they have been verified over and over again Open-Mindedness- changing one's views-even views that are strongly held-if existing evidence suggest that these views are inaccurate.
What is attribution theory and what happened to it?
Attribution theory is an attempt to explain the cause of a behavior or an event -there can be internal attributions -"I failed this test because I didn't fill out the study guide until the day before" or external attributions -"I failed this test because the test was ridiculously difficult, it was out of my control". Attribution theory was replaced by more positive social cognition theories
Explain how ego depletion can make us more vulnerable to persuasion
Ego-depletion from exerting effort on another task can undermine our ability to self-regulate and resist persuasion. When ego-depleted, people are equally likely to be persuaded by both strong and weak messages. As persuaders, the ego-depleted are also less likely to be honest.
ELM
Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion-was developed in an attempt to integrate the literature on persuasion by proposing that there was a limited set of core processes by which variable could affect attitudes, and that these processes required different amounts of thought. A common finding of ELM research is that the attitudes of people who are motivated and able to think about a message are influenced by their own thoughts following an assessment of the merits of appeal, but when they are relatively unmotivated to think, attitudes are influenced by their reaction to simple cues in the persuasion setting. Thoughtful persuasion was referred to as the Central Route Low thought persuasion was said to follow the peripheral route.
Consider how our schemas may (or may not) be altered in the face of new information
Even a discredited or disproven schema can continue to impact how we function. Schemas show a strong perseverance effect-which means they can remain unchanged even in the face of contradictory information. Schemas can be self-fulfilling in nature. Which means that they can influence our responses to the world in a way that makes it (the world) consistent with our schema. Evidence in Rosnethal and Jacobson experiment on Teachers and "blooming" students
Role of neuroscience in social psych
New advancements through fMRI and PET scans have opened to door for us to be able to measure and track brain activity in a variety of setting and differing situations. We constantly have brain activity going on, and as part of experiments now, we can track where certain activity takes place while having people work on or focus on certain areas of study (memory sleep, interactions with others). This can open the door to gaining clarity as to which parts of the brain are used and active while certain events, thoughts and behaviors are taking place.
Explain how hypocrisy can be used in a manner that produces beneficial effects
Publicly advocating some attitude, and then making salient to the person that they have acted in a way that is inconsistent with their own attitudes (hypocrisy) These findings suggest that using dissonance to make our own hypocrisy salient can indeed be a powerful tool for changing our behavior in desirable ways.
Describe why and how we may resist persuasion by discussing reactance, forewarning, and selective avoidance
Reactance: negative reactions to threats to one's personal freedom. Reactance often increases resistance to persuasion and can even produce negative attitude change or opposite to what was intended. Fear appeals —messages that are intended to arouse fear—if too frightening tend not to be effective. Positively framed messages are often more effective persuasion devices. Forewarning: advance knowledge that one is about to become the target of an attempt at persuasion. Forewarning often increases resistance to the persuasion that follows Selective Avoidance: A tendency to direct attention away from information that challenges existing attitudes. Such avoidance increases resistance to persuasion
Summarize how the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior and the attitude-to-behavior process model try to understand the attitude-behavior link
Theory of reasoned action: the decision to engage in a particular behavior is the result of a rational process in which behavioral options are considered, consequences are evaluated, and a decision is reached to act or not to act Theory of planned behavior: in addition to attitudes toward a given behavior and subjective norms about it,individuals also consider their ability to perform the behavior Implementation plan: a plan for how to implement our intentions to carry out some action
How implicit or nonconscious processes shape our behavior
-For the most part, we don't really consciously know why we think or behave in certain ways in most social contexts. We are unaware of many of the factors that influence how we think and how we behave and so cannot report on them accurately. -Example of our first impressions of things, and our confidence in these impressions. Also connected with the impact of our moods on what we tend to remember about other people or complex issues. As well as how negative attitudes towards other groups, even if we deny it, can still impact how we interact and treat members of that group. Also assumptions that a person belongs to a certain group after we have decided that they belong to that group in the past. -Overall-non-conscious factors play a pretty big role in many aspects of social thought and social behavior Automatic processes initiate without intention, occur outside of awareness, are difficult to control, and use little of the mind's limited capacity. Nonconscious processes do influence our judgments and actions, but this occurs in ways that we often are unable to control, and they can lead
Information processing model, impression formation, the 'unconscious' process, prejudice and stereotyping, role of emotion
Areas of social cognition. Information processing model- Partitions "cognition" into component processes involving attention and perception (input operations) , memory (storage operations) and judgment (processing routines). Impression formation- the need to form impressions of others. Prejudice and stereotyping- viewed as implicit cognitive concepts that sometimes lie outside of awareness and are activated automatically on exposure to a stereotyped target
Discuss the benefits of automatic processing in social thought and how automatic thought can influence our behavior
Automatic processing can be beneficial in instances in which we are faced with a consistent or predictable situation or event, one in which we are familiar with and can complete with ease since it is well known. However, this system of automatic processing can be activated at times in which we don't intend for it to be. One study focused on priming a persons automatic impulse to be either rude or polite without them being aware of it. Those that were primed to be rude were more likely to interrupt an experimenter than those who were not primed. This is dangerous because "activating stereotypes or schemas can exert seemingly automatic effects on behavior". However, our automatic responses can be helpful through make snapshot judgments as was noted in the experiment with picking the posters and following up to see what people thought best. Those who picked quickly were more happy. This may be because "conscious thought has strict limits on the amount of information that it can handle, while unconscious automatic thought has a much greater capacity." Therefore "automatic thought may reflect our real preferences more clearly."
Evolution/revolution of social cognitive theory
Basically the social cognitive theory says that are constantly influenced by our behavior and our environment. This was first proposed by Millar and Dollard in 1941 but was made way better by Bandura in 1977 -because Bandura makes everything he touches better. Basically people do not learn new behaviors on their own by trying and failing and either giving up or tying them again, but there is an aspect of observing and replicating others: Environment -is any outside factor which can influence a person's behavior. Environments can be physical but they can also totally be social -friends and and family members constitute social environment. There are five key concepts: 1. Observational learning -Behavioral acquisition that occurs by watching the actions and outcomes of others behaviors 2. Outcome expediencies -the values an individual places on a given outcome 3. Self-efficacy -the person's confidence in performing a particular behavior 4. Goal setting -reflections of future desired outcomes which lead to better learning 5. Self-regulation-The skills needed to manage ones behavior
Contrast social psychology with common sense approaches to knowledge
Because such sources (common sense) provide an inconsistent and unreliable guide to understanding human behavior. All experiences are subjective to the viewer and their perspective. Also susceptible to schemas and heuristics. At times common wisdom and sayings are also contradictory, making it difficult to understand "conventional wisdom". Need a more objective standard of exploring these concepts and ideas.
Consider when we experience cognitive dissonance, how we can reduce it, and whether it is unpleasant for most individuals
Cognitive dissonance is an internal state which results when individuals notice inconsistency between two or more attitudes or between their attitudes and their behavior Because dissonance is unpleasant, the theory states, people are motivated to reduce or eliminate it by changing their beliefs. People are motivated to reduce dissonance and engage in strategies to do so. Dissonance can lead to attitude change when we have reasons that are barely sufficient to get us to engage in attitude-discrepant behavior. Stronger reasons (or larger rewards) produce less attitude change; this is sometimes referred to as the less-leads-to-more effect.
Identify the effects that counterfactual thinking may have on our mood and general well-being
Counterfactual thinking is "thoughts about what might have been". This is times in which a person thinks about situations like"what might have happened if I wasn't 5 minutes late and didn't have that car accident!" Research has shown that emotional responses differ depending on how easy it is to mentally undo the situations that preceded it. These can impact level of sympathy, as well as our belief about what compensation is deserved by the victim. Anything that reduces our information processing capacity actually strengthens the impact of counterfactual thinking. Upwards counterfactuals-Comparing their current outcome with ones that are above their position can result in dissatisfaction and envy. This is especially true when people cannot imagine themselves being able to achieve similar outcomes in the future. (silver medal-less happy than bronze) Downwards counterfactuals-Comparing your situation with those of people that didn't do as well can result in feelings of satisfaction or hopefulness. (Bronze as compared to not medaling at all) By assuming that negative events were unavoidable for the self, it tends to make it more bearable.
State the key factors that social psychologists have historically believed lead to successful persuasion
Early research on persuasion —efforts to change attitudes through the use of messages—focused primarily on characteristics of the communicator (e.g., expertise, attractiveness), message (e.g., fear appeals, one-sided vs. two-sided arguments), and audience. Persuasion: Efforts to change others' attitudes through the use of various kinds of messages Effective communicators seem credible and are attractive in some way Messages that do not appear to be designed to change our attitudes are more persuasive than those that seem to be designed to achieve this goal
State of social cognition today
Emotions and motivations are now represented in many social cognitive theories, although often using processes and principles similar to those designed for "colder" forms of cognitive content. Automatic processes and implicit cognition are now studied alongside more deliberative and conscious phenomena. And behavior, rather than judgment, is often the ultimate focus of theory and research in the field. As a consequence of such changes, social cognition now looks more like other areas of social psychology, and less like cognitive psychology, than might have been expected in earlier years.
The research methodology and statistics in social psychology
Fields that are not scientific make assertions about the world, and about people, that are not put to the careful test and analysis required by the values that guide social psychology. Systematic Observation-carefully observing the behavior of others as it is taking place. This is accompanied by careful accurate measurements taken of a particular behavior across a range of people. May take the form of... 1. Naturalistic Observation-studying people in differing environments, in natural habitats or places of activity. 2. Survey Method-Researchers take large numbers of people and ask them to respond to questions about their attitude and behaviors. Some strong benefits as well as weaknesses that have to be taken into consideration for these. 3. Correlational studies-tendency for one event to be associated with changes in another. 4. Experimental Method-Need random assignment and must hold as many things constant as humanly possible
Discuss what is meant by "social cognition" and list the basic assumptions that most social psychologists have with respect to cognitive processes
How we think about the social world, our attempts to understand it, and ourselves and our place in it. This is reflected through a pattern of thinking about things "automatically" or in a quick and effortless fashion. (without careful reasoning). However, we are also capable of controlled processing which is when we stop and think about a situation or event in more detail. This often happens when we are confronted with something unexpected that happens-it has to be enough to jolt us out of our automatic/effortless thought. Making judgments based on the extent to which current stimuli or events resemble other stimuli or categories "The more similar an individual is to typical members of a given group, the more likely she or he is to belong to that group" Judgments based on this rule can be wrong because base rates are often ignored Social Cognition: The manner in which we interpret, analyze, remember, and use information about the social world
Discuss the importance of informed consent and debriefing in social psychological research
Informed consent- Giving participants as much information as possible about the procedures to be followed before they make their decision to participate Debriefing- providing participants with a full description of the purpose of the study after they have participated init. Such information should also provide information on deception and why it was necessary to employ it in the experiment.
Understand the less-leads-to-more effect by paying particular attention to the famous Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) study
Less-leads-to-more effect: Less reasons or rewards for performing an attitude-discrepant behavior often results in more dissonance and thus greater attitude change only occurs when people Believe that they have a choice about performing the behavior and when they feel personally responsible for their choice and its negative effects View the reward as a well-deserved payment, and not as a bribe. Dissonance is stronger and attitudes change more when there is no real justification for engaging in attitude-discrepant behavior. Direct methods -Acquiring information -Altering behavior -Disregarding inconsistency Indirect methods -Self-affirmation: restoring positive self-evaluations that are threatened by the dissonance -Hypocrisy: advocating some attitudes or behavior and then acting in a way that is inconsistent with these attitudes or behavior The Study-Pay people to tell the next ones the task was fun
State the meaning of "magical thinking," as well as the principles that pertain to this pattern of cognition
Magical Thinking: Thinking involving assumptions that don't hold up to rational scrutiny—for example, the belief that things that resemble one another share fundamental properties One principle of magical thinking assumes that one's thoughts can influence the physical world in a manner not governed by the laws of physics Also-superstitions and how they can impact your sports team? Terror management- efforts to come to terms with the certainty of death and its unsettling implications
List the ways that cognition can influence affect
Most research on the relationship between affect and cognition has focused on how feelings influence thought, but some suggests that thought can influence feelings This is known as the Two-Factor Theory of emotion, which states that often, we don't know our own feelings or attitudes directly. Rather, since these internal reactions are often somewhat ambiguous, we infer their nature from the external world—from the kinds of situations in which we experience these reactions Affective forecasts —predictions about how we would feel about an event we have not experienced—are often inaccurate because cognition and affect are based in different systems. Those in a forecasting role are sensitive to the numbers of people harmed, whereas those in an experience role are not differentially responsive to the magnitude of the tragedy
Discuss the optimistic bias and its specific forms the overconfidence barrier and the planning fallacy
Optimistic Bias-A powerful predisposition to overlook risks and expect things to turn out well. Research has shown that we are more likely to believe that they are more likely than others to experience positive events and less likely to experience negative events. Overconfidence Barrier-We often have a greater confidence in our beliefs or judgments than is justified. Research has shown this through expectations about how the next school year would be, and how confident students felt about their predictions. Even when predicting with 100% confidence that something would not happen, it still did about 15% of the time. Likewise, people who are least competent in a given domain are often MOST overconfident of their judgments in that domain. Errors of omission are part of what causes this Planning Fallacy-Our tendency to believe that we can get more done in a given period of time than we actually can. This is in part due to when we plan on something, we look towards the future, which prevents us from looking back in time to see how long similar tasks have taken before.
Consider how affect can influence cognition by discussing mood-dependent memory, mood congruence effects, and the effects of mood on creativity and use of heuristics
Our mood can influence the world around us, and vice-versa Mood Congruence Effects: The fact that we are more likely to store or remember positive information when in a positive mood and negative information when in a negative mood Mood Dependent Memory: The fact that what we remember while in a given mood may be determined, in part, by what we learned when previously in that mood Current moods (when taking in information) serves as a retrieval cue for recalling information consistent with those moods. Therefore (example from book) if we meet two new people-one during a time when we are happy and in a good mood, we will remember more positive things about them. If we meet the other after failing a test and are in a poor mood, we will remember more negative (as that was the state of mind we were in while taking in information about them). Essentially-the mood we are in when we learn something can impact how we feel about it in the future, as well as when we are more likely to think about it. Ease of recall for person you met when in a good mood will be higher when you are in a good mood. Creativity-A positive mood has been shown to increase creativity (in a number of studies). They theory behind this is that it is due to the positive mood having a higher range of activation of information that can be processed or accessed than the negative information can. (as creativity is measured through ability to combine known factors into new patterns). Positive mood is found to have a higher impact during positive arousal (happiness) vs. low arousal (relaxation) Heuristic Processing-(shortcuts)-knowledge that is acquired through past experiences. People who are experiencing positive affect are more likely to use heuristic processing than those who are experiencing negative affect. Current mood also often influences our interpretations of the motives behind people's behaviors.
Explain the role of priming and unpriming in the activation and persistence of schemas
Priming is a situation that occurs when stimuli or events increase the availability in memory or consciousness of specific types of information held in memory. Unpriming refers to the fact that the effects of the schemas tend to persist until they are somehow expressed in thought or behavior and only then do their effects decrease. Schemas can often be resistant to change, and persevere in spite of evidence to the contrary This is known as the Perseverance Effect Our schemas can influence the world around us without our realizing it Self-fulfilling prophecy: influencing the world in ways that make it consistent with previous schemas
Contrast two different types of heuristics
Representativeness heuristic- Rule of thumb in which people judge a current event by considering how much it resembles another event. This is also known as "ignoring the base rate". This in part is based on comparison of a person to our Prototype of others in that group. Prototype is a mental collection of attributes possessed by others in that group or occupation. (In other words-The more a person resembles or matches the attributes of what we believe is part of a given group, the more likely we will assume they are part of that group. This also includes incidents in which we are guessing the likelihood of something happening and over-estimate it taking place, simply because it's gotten a lot of coverage (plane accidents vs. car accidents) Availability Heuristic-This is based on "ease of access". The easier it is to think about the instance that is being discussed, the more likely we think it has or will take place. Or easier it is to picture or recall a memory, the more likely (example of talking while driving, I can remember lots of instances, so it may happen a lot, when in fact the ratio of time on and off the phone in the car may be quite low. Also can be applied when different doctors provide differing diagnosis, based on what comes to mind easiest based on their past experiences.) This one can lead us to jump to a quick conclusion about an outcome based on limited information and blind us to other possibilities based on past experiences. Anchoring and Adjustment: A tendency to make judgments using a number or value as a starting point to which adjustments then are made Judgments based on this rule can be wrong Anchors often are arbitrary Personal experiences do not serve as good anchors
Purpose and function of schemas, as well as the three basic processes that they influence
Schemas are mental frameworks that help us to organize social information, and that guide our actions and the processing of information relevant to those contexts Once they are formed, they play a role in determining what we notice about the social world what we remember and how we use and interpret information. They can be temporarily activated by Priming: Schemas have influence on: Attention (what we notice) Encoding (what we store in memory) Retrieval (what we recover)
Discuss how the self-fulfilling prophecy may operate in certain applied settings, such as classroom environments
Self-fulfilling prophecy: influencing the world in ways that make it consistent with previous schemas Example of the situation in which teachers were told that children were about to "bloom" in their educational skills. A couple of months later, those students had higher scores on the things being measured because the teachers believed that it was something that was supposed to happen, and inadvertently had a hand in making it so. Our belief about what will happen has an impact on what can happen. (review book information for answer)
Define the term "theory" and describe the procedure involved in building theories
Social Psychologists don't want to just define the world, they want to be able to explain it as well. Theories are frameworks for explaining various events or processes. Five steps to building a theory- 1.) A theory is proposed based on existing evidence. 2.) This theory, which is based on basic concepts and statements, helps to organize existing information and makes predictions about observable events. 3.) These predictions (hypotheses) are tested by actual research. 4.) If results are consistent with the theory, confidence in its accuracy is increased. If not, then the theory is modified and further tests are conducted. 5.) The theory is either accepted or rejected. If accepted, it's always open to challenge though as new methods for research are presented and new information is collected.
Outline the role of the context in the link between attitudes and behavior
Social context directly affects the attitude-behavior connection Attitudes that we hold with greater clarity or certainty are more strongly linked to behavior than attitudes about which we feel some uncertainty Pluralistic Ignorance: When we collectively misunderstand what attitudes others hold and believe erroneously that others have different attitudes than us Attitudes toward a group, issue, or object do not always directly predict behavior. Rather, there are situational constraints and norms that affect our willingness to express our true attitudes. Concerns about what others, especially those with whom we identify,may think of us can limit the extent to which our attitudes and behavior are consistent.
Outline the ways in which we may acquire attitudes through learning (ie, classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning, mere exposure, observational learning)
Social learning is the process through which people acquire new information, forms of behavior, or attitudes from other persons Classical conditioning- unconditioned stimulus regularly precedes a neutral stimulus, resulting in pairing and conditioned stimulus Example: attractive woman paired with beer ads Mere exposure- having seen an object before, but too rapidly to remember having seen it can result in attitude formation Instrumental conditioning-the strengthening of responses or attitudes that lead to positive outcomes or which avoid negative outcomes. Observational learning-learn through watching others
Explain the role of mediating variables in causality
Social psychologist often conduct experiments that measure not only one variable but also other factors that might be at work-factors that are influenced by the independent variable and therefore have an impact on the dependent variable. Mediating variables are ones that intervene between and independent variable and changes in social behavior and thought. Handling a gun, increased testosterone, then increased aggression
Contrast systematic and heuristic processing in terms of how they relate to persuasion
Systematic processing: Processing of information in a persuasive message that involves careful consideration of message content and ideas Central route: Attitude change resulting from systematic processing of information presented in persuasive messages Heuristic processing: Processing of information in a persuasive message that involves the use of simple rules of thumb or mental shortcuts Peripheral route: Attitude change that occurs in response to peripheral persuasion cues, which is often based on information concerning the expertise or status of would-be persuaders Elaboration-likelihood model: A theory suggesting that persuasion can occur in either of two distinct ways, differing in the amount of cognitive effort or elaboration it
Describe the aspects of attitudes themselves and how they may influence behavior
The term strength captures the extremity of an attitude (how strong the emotional reaction is), the degree of certainty with which an attitude is held (the sense that you know what your attitude is and the feeling that it is the correct position to hold), as well as the extent to which the attitude is based on personal experience with the attitude object Attitudes that are extreme, certain, and formed on the basis of personal experience with the attitude object tend to be strong attitudes, which are more likely to be accessible when a behavioral response is made. Greater attitude-behavior consistency is found when attitudes are strong rather than weak Research has identified two important components of attitude certainty: attitude clarity —being clear about what one's attitude is—and attitude correctness—feeling one's attitude is the valid or the proper one to hold The social context also is important in assessing the relative effects of attitude clarity and correctness. High clarity will be more predictive of behavior in private but not public contexts—where correctness concerns are likely to be greater
Discuss some of the major contemporary research trends in social psychology
There is a lot of focus on the social neuroscience -we have fMRIs and we want to know what is going on with social behavior in the brain. Additionally there is a lot of research on culture now -we've noticed that things like the fundamental attribution error exist a lot in OUR culture but do not exist in Asian cultures -why is this? How has their culture developed differently than ours? How do their brains respond differently than ours Mirror Neurons- Activated during the observation and execution of actions; play a key role in empathy
The evolution of social psychology
a. From 1850-1930 social psychology was transformed from a relatively informal conglomeration of ideas about the association of individuals to groups and societies in which they lived to a viable, self identified discipline. First psychoanalytic theory was introduced. b. From 1930-1945-Focus was presented to the frustration-aggression hypothesis (derived from stimulus-response concepts), behaviorist legacy, and the Social Learning , structure and function of attitude. Ethnic stereotype among students at Princeton and personality theory. Lewin's emigration to the US was a milestone in social psychology. Hitler also influenced the development of social psychology. c. 1946-1969-Full Steam ahead with the GI Bill, created a need for faculty and facilities. Funding increased, reflecting investment in mental health of those returning from war. Additional focus and development of a lot of different programs and opportunities in which school could be advanced. Group theories and development was a dominant theme. Laboratory experiment entered golden age. Milgram experiments. d. The ascent of Social Cognition-1970-1990-Development and integration of ideas, coming together to share information. Critiques that social psychology should be considered a historical discipline and interest in more diverse methods. New emphasis on social cognition- explanations within the mind of the individual. Social cognition research flourished. Changes in how research was conducted- research ethics boards became standard. statistical software introduced. e. 1990-Today-Spreading Tentacles-Greater expansion of information and more focused attention in different theories and ideas and their development. Able to explore concepts with more state of the art tools and resources. Growth in mainstream, spread into related disciplines and applied positions. Attention of biology in social psychology. Birth of neuroscience. Development of fMRI. Renewed interest in culture. Social psychologists have always been interested in the same core phenomena—how behavior is affected by the social world in which our lives are embedded—but the ways in which that interest is explored and expressed have varied markedly.
Discuss the role of social comparison in attitude acquisition
social comparisons-process of which we compare ourselves to others in order to determine whether our view of social reality is, or is not real Because we compare ourselves with others to determine whether our view of social reality is correct or not, we often adopt the attitudes that others hold. As a result of the process of social comparison, we tend to adopt the attitude position of those we see as similar to ourselves but not of those we see as dissimilar
