UH PSYC 2380 - Exam 1 Study Guide (17 pages)

Unformatted text preview:

PSYC 2380 Exam 1 Study Guide Chapters 1 3 Chapter 1 Social Psychology Social Psychology An Overview A is defined as the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behavior and thought in social situations B Social psychologists ask many different questions ranging from what is jealousy to what is the relationship between heat and aggressive behavior These questions all have the goal of understanding the social side of life how we think about others and interact with them Social Psychology Is Scientific in Nature A Social psychology is a scientific discipline Science is a b Methods that can be used to study a variety of topics B Core values of a scientific field a A commitment to gathering and evaluating information about the world in as careful precise and error free a manner as possible b Objectivity A commitment to obtaining and evaluating such information in a manner that is as free from bias as humanly possible c Skepticism A commitment to accepting findings as accurate only to extent they have been verified over and over again d A commitment to changing one s view even views that are strongly held if existing evidence suggests that these views are inaccurate Social Psychology Seeks to Understand the Causes of Social Behavior and Social Thought A The actions and characteristics of others a Having others watch us can affect our thoughts and behaviors e g noticing an attractive person is looking at you and smiling at a party b In addition the physical characteristics of others may affect our thoughts and behaviors e g feeling uncomfortable around someone with a disability B Processes a We are always trying to make sense out of the social world and this basic fact leads us to engage in lots of social cognition to think long and hard about other persons and what we infer about these people influence how we behave towards them e g if a friend is late in meeting us we react with more annoyance if the excuse they give us is one they