Social Psych Exam Review Unit 1 Intro to Social Psych What is social psychology and act Beginnings of social psychology How people think about relate to and influence one another how people think feel Interest sparked in the 20th century around the time of the Great Depression there was little food clothing resources etc and so there was therefore lots of conflict Then continued on into World War II this was when interest really peaked because every day people would be willing to become Nazi s and do terrible things and it was the ideal time to study the behavior of how this happened During the civil rights movement social psychology turned towards studying prejudice towards blacks and women It was seen that if there s a group that everyone hates it s not considered to be a prejudice Contemporary themes in social psychology We construct our own reality We intentionally choose the information we like and we act on what confirms our belief and forget those that disprove them We have duplex minds that enable intuitions We have autonomic and nonconscious a lot goes on that we are unaware of cocktail party effect Power of situation Our situations determine our possibilities and limitations the way you act around your parents is not the same way you act around your friends All social behavior has biological roots because we have evolved from animals Biological roots Applicable in everyday life Everyone is a na ve social psychologist Research Methods Hindsight bias I knew it all along after a situation you exaggerate your ability to have predicted the outcome prior to the event Theory vs Hypothesis Theory set of principles that explains and predicts events much broader than and guides a hypothesis Hypothesis testable prediction that can be tested with variables Correlations and third variable problems Correlational research gives general information about the relationship between 2 variables they only show correlation not causation there could always be a third variable that causes the two ex when ice cream sales go up there are more murders third variable heat Experimental research There is a control independent and dependent variables and random assignment of representative sample These do determine causation Operational definitions the way you define a variable so that it s observable and measurable very important some are easier to define than others Reliability vs validity Reliability consistency in results across items Validity the extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure The Self Spotlight effect Looking glass self how others perceive you Social comparison When we think others are paying a lot of attention to us Using others as a mirror to look at yourself people learn about themselves by imagining Examining the difference between oneself and another person Downward comparing yourself with someone doing worse than you are makes you feel better Upward comparing yourself with someone doing better than you are makes you feel worse gives you motivation Basking in Reflected Glory associating ourselves with people who will make us look good FSU wins the game we won BIRGing CORFing Cutting off reflected failure distancing ourselves from others who make us look bad FSU loses the game they lost Why we seek self knowledge wouldn t dismiss criticism believes about themselves Appraisal motive desire to learn truth about oneself no matter what it is they Consistency motive desire to get feedback that confirms what the person already Self Enhancement motive desire to learn favorable or flattering things about the self Better than average effect tendency to see oneself as better than average when it comes to Self Serving bias People claim credit for success but deny blame for failure serves to favorable qualities protect your self esteem Sociometer theory Self esteem is a gauge for social relationships if it s high you ve been built up low you ve been rejected tells us how we re doing socially Limited resource model of self control All types of control rely on one limited energy source self control is like a muscle you can use it and work out with it and it ll get stronger over time Social Cognition Fundamental Attribution Error incorrectly attributing something to either internal or external elements ex having a rude cashier and thinking that they re just a rude person whereas they might ve just had a bad day Kelley s covariation model when you re making attributions for people s behavior you make internal attributions for the other person and external for yourself to determine use consistency distinctiveness and consensus if all three are high external Confirmation bias only accepting the information that confirms your beliefs Heuristics Representativeness What we expect to see ex man vs woman you assume the man is the doctor whereas the woman would be the nurse Availability we hear about them often Anchoring What we can easily recall ex we are afraid of being attacked by a shark because You start out with an idea number something and it s hard for you to move from that Genes gender and culture 3 components of evolution Heritability a large percentage of genes passed on from parents Variation a small percentage of genes change randomly Natural selection Some variations are more beneficial for survival than others determines which random variations are passed on through heredity Genes Environment Genes are 50 of individual variation environment affects brain development Collectivist vs Individualist cultures Collective Asia Africa some south American group mindset more focus on external reasons for behavior express less emotions because it makes you different from the people around you Individual Europe America all about me self minded more focus on internal reasons for behavior more focus on being different from others Gender variation There is more variation within the genders than between them Unit 2 Emotions Emotion vs mood vs affect Emotion a specific conscious evaluative reaction to some event tend to be slow we Mood a general disposition or state positive or negative not linked to a specific have to think them through stimulus situation Affect valence of evaluation toward an event automatic gut response toward something very fast and very strong lead us to approach good things and avoid bad things Misattribution of arousal sometimes we attribute our arousal to the wrong thing Domain specificity emotion serves to motivate a behavior disgust avoid disease sadness seek
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