Social Psychology

• Define hub discipline

  Social psychology is a hub discipline meaning that it's made up of many other aspects of psychology.
• What makes social psychology a hub discipline? What other disciplines is it connected to?

  Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, Developmental Psychology.
• Define evolutionary psychology


  the human mind evolved from many millennia ago under conditions that are dramatically different than the conditions in which we live now.
• What is the main idea behind evolutionary psychology? Why do evolutionary psychologists

  believe in it?


  it offers insight into behavioral patterns that do not seem personally adaptive or socially useful. the central idea of this perceptive is that the human mind develops over time.
• Define individualistic culture. Provide an example


  People in independent cultures are inclined to explain an individual's behavior in terms of the person's unique personality traits or motives rather than in terms of social roles and expectations that provides a common frame of reference for everyone. Ex: The United States, wanting to showcase your individual skills.
• Define collectivistic culture. Provide an example.


  They way in which people are connected to each other by virtue of occupation, family, social class, or national identity. Ex: Japanese Culture.
• What are the major differences between individualistic and collectivistic cultures?


  individualistic focus more on self interest and personal preferences. Whereas collectivistic focus more on team work and groups as the primary importance.
• Describe psychodynamic theory


  people operate like a pressure cooker. people are born with basic desires of physical nature and seek to gratify them at all costs. People can't get everything they want so they suppress the ideas/thought of it (air coming out of the pressure cooker).
• What were some of the major ideas of psychodynamic theory?


  Defense mechanism - dealing with hard to suppress thoughts (protecting one's ego/self).
• Describe social learning theory.


  Pavlov's Classic Conditioning Experiment & Skinner's Operant Reward & Punishment Experiment
• Describe dynamical systems theory.


  shows how very complex processes in all areas of science could be understood in terms of a few basic principles
• What are the major assumptions of dynamical systems theory?


  captures the tension between stability and changes in human experience.
• What are the steps of the scientific method in order?


  1)Observation (data) -> 2) Theory Construction (induction) -> 3) Hypothesis Generation (Deduction) -> 4) Verification (Systematic Data Collection)
• Why do we use the scientific method in social psychology?


  to help us produce a valid and precise understanding of the topic or of human behavior.
• Define experiment.


  Advantages: Unambiguous identification of cause and effect, control over other potential causes and influences. Disadvantages: can overlook bidirectional causality emphasizes the immediate impact of a "cause"
• Define correlation


  Advantage: Identification of subtle relationships between factors and processes, Relatively easy to perform. Disadvantage: Cannot specify causal relationships among variables. Requires large number of participants.
• What is the key difference between experiment and correlation?


  In a correlation study, the researcher does not control the variables; instead they are used to investigate the relationship between the variables. In an experimental design you manipulate the variables and measure the effects.
• What are lay beliefs?


  represents an individual's subjective and informal explanation on the world around them that do not necessarily have a connection with scientific knowledge.
• When presented with facts, are people likely to alter their lay beliefs? Why or why not?


  No, because they already have an established belief in their minds that it becomes difficult to accept or change their opinion.
• Describe an example of computer simulations in social psychology.


  allows us to study human behavior without the human participation
• What are the advantages of using computer simulations to do research in social psychology?


  Helps establish causal relations and helps us gain insight into social processes. 1)Gets over limitations by repeating the operation of the process. 2) allows researchers to investigate that are simply off limits due to ethical reasons.
• What are some of the major ethical concerns in modern social psychology research?


  Participants have to receive informed consents. IRBs - a panel of people who are in charged of weighing the scientific benefit of research against the risk of the research. Specific topic: self-esteem & impulse control
• When are experimenters allowed to conduct experiments that may cause discomfort to the

  participants?


  Sending shocks (450 volts) when the participants gives a wrong answer
• Describe an example of Big Data use in social psychology


  social media
• Define controlled processing


  conscious, intentional, under voluntary control and effortful. ex: difficult to mange situation, engaging in a deep conversation
• Define automatic processing


  unconscious, unintentional, involuntary and effortless
• Define cognitive load


  trying to think about something that requires controlled processes while also trying to manage peripheral tasks that deplete mental resources
• When experiencing a large cognitive load, is an individual more likely to engage in controlled or automatic processing?


  controlled due to the amount of mental processes being used
• Define affective forecasting


  claims that people overestimate how long their emotional reaction towards something will last. Whether its a positive or negative reaction the person will return to their regular feeling sooner than they expected.
• Describe the Framed Line Task.


  participants are shown a square and asked to draw an identical line. the first line is either absolute or relative
• How does performance on this task differ based on culture?


  analytic - less mistakes , holistic - more mistakes
• Define social feedback


  We look at ourselves through the eyes of others. We are highly sensitive to how we are perceived by the other person.
• How does social feedback contribute to the self-concept?


  Negative social feedback are unfavorable and can engage a host to feel defensive. Most people have high self-esteem and feel that they are better than everyone else. However, they don't view themselves as flatter in all aspects of their lives. This makes them questions the positive feedback they receive.
• When is a person most likely to accept feedback that is incongruent with their self-concept?


  Self-concept can be difficult due to a persons integrated sense of what behavior is. However, once they disassemble the integrated understanding of one's action into more specific ways of thinking about the behavior, their shield is removed.