Quiz 1 Ch 1 3 25 multiple choice Ch 1 Be familiar with key terms any concept that gets a heading in the textbook Social psychology the study of how people think behave and feel in social contexts Interactionism the idea that a complete understanding of people s social behavior requires us to take into account individual differences the nature of situations and how those factors combine and interact Social cognition the study of the cognitive processes involved in people s social behavior Cognitive social psychology the study of the thoughts and other mental processes that under and lead to social behavior Social cognitive neuroscience an approach to studying social psychology that employs the method of cognitive neuroscience in order to understand the neural basis of social cognition and social behavior The social psychology of cognition the way in which social situations and the presence of other people affect our thinking Socially shared cognition the collective thinking engaged in by groups of people group thinking Evolutionary psychology an approach to studying human behavior that assumes that people s thoughts feelings and behaviors are directed by psychological mechanisms that evolved because they were adaptive and increased fitness Evolved social mechanisms the psychological mechanisms humans develop as a result of the social challenges they faced throughout their evolutionary history Social psychologists take the approach of life as it s lived Social psychology as a science must test ideas carefully before Social psychology versus other disciplines focus taking them seriously and applying them to people s behavior o Social how people think behave and feel in social contexts o Personality individual differences how people s traits cohere o Developmental age related differences and the processes that o Clinical diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems o Sociology social institutions and other broad social forces and or hang together play a role in normal and disturbed development factors relating to adjustment and well being their impact on human behavior Hidden influences the people places and things we encounter in our every day lives that trigger unconscious psychological processes that have profound effects on our behavior o Subliminal stimuli visual stimuli that people perceive without Review material on culture in Ch 1 and 3 individualism collectivism being aware of them regional differences o Individualism a culture in which people define themselves and others as independent individuals with unique attributes and in which individual goals take precedence over group goals North America and western Europe themselves in terms of their relationships and group memberships and less likely to assume that their own needs and desires are of primary importance Asia Africa much of South America eastern Europe o Collectivism more likely than individualists to define Ch 2 Random assignment assignment of research participants in such a way that they have an equal chance to be assigned to any of the conditions of an experiment Operationalization the process through which a theoretical variable can be made to work in a lab environment Validity the extent to which a scale measures what it claims to measure Reliability the extent to which a scale yields consistent results Internal validity the extent to which an experiment allows conclusions about cause and effect relationships External validity the extent to which experimental results can be generalized beyond a specific sample of setting Quasi experiment an experiment that is done without random assignment Survey method the collection of data from all or part of a population in order to examine the incident distribution and relationships among naturally occurring phenomena Correlation the degree to which two variables are associated Strengths of experiments removes artificiality of the lab and allows us to observe changes in behavior thoughts or feelings Weaknesses of experiments lack of control ex participants may talk to each other Correlational studies negative correlation inversely related zero correlation no relationship positive correlation perfect relationship between variables o Correlation does not equal causation Ch 3 According to the cognitive dissonance theory your attitude will not change much if you receive a large reward Accessiblity the ease with which a thought or concept comes to mind or can be retrieved from memory often boosted by priming Priming making a concept more accessible by exposing people to some representation of it typically a word or picture Salience the extent to which a person stands out from his or her surroundings Actor observer effect the tendency of people to see others behavior as being caused more by traits and less by situational factors than their own behavior Schema a mental structure that contains knowledge about a person group place thing or idea Perseverance effect the tendency for beliefs and schemas to persist despite disconfirming information Self fulfilling prophecy effect the tendency for people s beliefs to become reality as they elicit from others the behavior they expect from them without being aware of it Confirmatory hypothesis testing strategy seeking to assess the validity of one s beliefs by looking only for evidence that supports those expectations Motivated tactician model a model of person perception that assumes that people adjust their approach to making social judgments depending on their goals needs preconceptions and available mental resources Assimilation effect the tendency in some circumstances for people to interpret ambiguous behavior in a way that is consistent with the meaning of primed concepts Contrast effect the tendency of people in some circumstances to seemingly bend over backward not to allow primed concepts to affect their interpretation of ambiguous behavior Person perception the processes involved in figuring out the meaning of people s behavior and deciding what traits they have Na ve scientist model of person perception an approach to person perception that assumes people make judgments by using all the information available to them in a logical way Correspondent inference the conclusion that someone s behavior directly reflects an underlying personality trait Causal attribution a judgment about the cause of a behavior or some other event Pessimistic explanatory style the tendency to infer that unpleasant experiences can be attributed to