Lecture 1/14/15 and Chapter 1 Notes- Social Psychology: the scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social situationso Psychologists elaborate on folk wisdom (commonly known facts) to discover when it applies and what lies behind the phenomenono Focuses on how group situations affect the individual rather than the overall group dynamic like in sociology Availability Heuristic: more likely to overestimate occurrences based on availability in our own lives … like a short cut in our minds- Ex: sharks are extremely deadly, but more cows kill people every year than sharks Hindsight Bias: we believe “we knew something all along”, the overestimation of what we believe we might have known (reflection on past experiences) Self-Serving Bias: giving ourselves the benefit of the doubt, geared to our good and bad behavior- Ex: I didn’t fail the test because I didn’t study, it was only because I didn’t get enough sleep Dispositions: internal factors such as beliefs, values, personality traits, or abilities that guide a person’s behavior – tend to believe dispositions are the underlying causes of behavior Fundamental Attribution Error: the failure to recognize the importance of situational factors on behavior, and the corresponding tendency to over emphasize the importance ofdispositions or traits on behavior- Reality is that Situation > Dispositions- Milgram Studies: average people asked to teach the “learners”, if the learners answered wrong they were shocked (never actually hurt)o Scientists assumed the teachers wouldn’t go too far with the shocks (no-where near lethal) because of the average person’s humanityo In reality, the people on average stopped at 360 volts but 62.5% went all the way to 450 volts Happened because of the presence of the dominating personality of the “experimenter”- Good Samaritan: priests in training told to give a presentation on the good Samaritan phenomenon, told they were either late, had time, or had extreme amounts of time, they then passed by someone who obviously needed helpo Experimenters assumed they would stop to help because of their life style and dispositionso 10% stopped when they were late and 65% stopped when they had time Happened because of the time that was pressing them Channel Factors: certain situational circumstances that appear unimportant on the surfacebut that can have great consequences for behavior, either facilitating or blocking It or guiding behavior in a particular direction- Ex: time constraints, planning something out, and other unknown shaping Construal: people’s interpretation and inference about the stimuli or situations they are confronted with (current interpretation of a situation) Schema: details, cognitive frame work that helps organize ideas- Ex: party -> grandma’s party, house party, VIP party -> what to wear at each- Prejudice: preconceived notions that isn’t based on reasons or actual experiences- Naturalistic Fallacy: the way things are, are the way things should beo Ex: men are generally biologically stronger and so they are normally the protectors, so men are commonly the good ones, so that is the way it always should be Natural Selection: traits that will aid in survival are passed along to the next generation Cross Cultural Similarities: aspects similar across all cultures- Ex: expressions, existence of dances, gender split roles, marriage, fear of specific animals- Individualistic Culture: independent social identities, unique, and in personal controlo Want individual credit when put into social situations- Collectivist Culture: identity is tied to everyone around uso Insulted if credit is given to only one