Chapter 1 Introducing Social Psychology Branches of Psychology Clinical therapist Cognitive brain processes judgment memory Developmental children and how people age Health anti smoking vaccines exercise and diets Personality Social scientific field cognition affect and behavior influences of others imagine how others will react to you Defining Social Psychology The scientific study of how people think about influence and relate to one another How does social psychology differ from other fields Personality Psychology surroundings and influential behavior Sociology societal institutions Anthropology cultural differences participant observation what causes certain behaviors Hindsight Bias tendency to exaggerate after learning an outcome one s ability to have foreseen that outcome Contradictions Inaccurate predictions are not remembered as well brain does not store it well Out of sight out of mind absence makes the heart grow founder Social Psychology Perspectives groups Sociocultural causes of social behavior lie within influences from larger social Evolutionary natural selection has developed socially adaptive behaviors in humans Social Learning past learning experiences are determinants of behavior modeling Social Cognition mental processes involved in paying attention to remembering and interpreting social experience determine social behavior and judgments Scientific Values Accuracy everything is valid find solutions to social problems Objectivity unbiased Skepticism idea of don t believe everything you hear Open Mindedness be wiling to accept results Reliability Consistency extent to which a measure applied repeatedly exhibits the same results Validity Accuracy extent to which a measure accurately reflects the concept being studied External validity applies to generalizability across situations Internal validity applies to the accuracy within the study itself o The more external validity the less internal validity o The more internal validity the less external validity Methodologies Naturalistic Observation Description o Archival Analysis o Participant Observation Correlational Method Prediction o Positive moves in same direction o Negative moves in opposite directions o Range 1 1 o Sign indicates direction o Number indicates strength of correlation CORRELATION DOES NOT CAUSE CAUSATION Surveys Pros very cheap easy to get large sample Cons may be inaccurate due to lying or do not exactly know desire to be liked sampling technique random samples wording of surveys double barreled questions only 2 options Experimental Causation o Problems Artificiality Generalizability Meta Analysis many studies on one topic o Find the average on the overall topic Ex men are more aggressive than women Media Errors Effect Sizes Samples Low Response Rates Biased Survey Questions Skewed Methodology Experimental Terminology Random Assignment assigning participants to conditions so that all person have an equal chance of being in any condition o Minimizes differences between groups Cover Story a false presentation of the topic of interest of the study o To throw off participants to obtain unbiased reactions Convenience Samples in the area easy samples Replication duplication Operational Definition clarifying specific meaning of variables Mundane Realism realistic to what would occur in everyday life Psychological Realism categorizing people Variable Types Dependent Variables affected by the independent variable variable that is being Independent Variables manipulated variable measured Confounding Variables variable that systematically changes along with then independent variable o Gender is usually an extra variable Mediating Variables how Hypotheses Theory Null No Difference Alternative Difference Scientific explanation that connects and organizes existing observations and suggests fruitful paths for future research Types of Research Basic deals with fundamental questions and theories o Ex Conservation of Energy cannot be created nor destroyed Applied applications of basic research to everyday societal needs o Ex seatbelt functions Ethics Informed Consent everything that will be done Debriefing tell truth explanation of deception Deception cover story if it does not harm participant it is ok social desirability Institutional Review Boards IRB s insists of debriefing necessary evil demand characteristics experiment o Confederate pretends to be a participant but really is apart of the Interpretation of Statistics p 0 05 Probability that results occurred due to chance is less than 5 Significance Level 0 05 Operational Definitions Defining terms or concepts in a way that is precise measurable and concrete Chapter 2 The Self and Social Comparison Self Schemas beliefs about the self that organize and guide the processing of self relevant information Self Concept how we think of ourselves autobiography the sum of all the self schemas Development of Self Concept Types of Self Concept o Independent defining oneself based on internal thoughts and feelings Western Civilization and Males Independent Cultures everyone cares for self express for self FB autonomy pleasure financial security anger results when individual s results are blocked something wrong to you o Interdependent defining oneself based on one s identity in relation to others Eastern Civilization and Females Socially dependent in organizations emphasis on belonging expertise order duty security trust in place in group anger is seen as social breakdown shame anxiety indebted to someone Types Male Collective based on jobs memberships in other groups Relational in terms of family significant others assimilating with significant others Female Self Awareness the act of thinking about ourselves act of reading your own autobiography Development of Self Concept Childhood very concrete images Adulthood less concrete things psychological things more complex and more depth to a person Success Failure Looking Glass Self how other define us is how you define yourself Self Complexity how the self concept is organized High Self Complexity more positive self concept o Ex want to play the violin practiced seems pretty good plays one concert poorly LOW SELF COMPLEXITY terrible at everything not musical HIGH SELF COMPLEXITY lowers self schema maybe I m not everything I did was a waste that good I m too busy anyway Social Identity Theory an individual gains an identity from the groups you belong to Self Concept where prejudice and stereotyping stems from Components o