social psy

• What is evidence that we need others?


  Social creatures by nature, study show lack of social interaction is as bad as smoking, seeing pictures of our romantic partners calm us.
• What is Social Psychology?


  The study of how we think about, influence, and relate to each other.
• What did Milgram's small world experiment demonstate?

  People are interconnected.
• what did Tripletts study show?

  people perform better around others.
• What is Tripletts phenomenon called?

  social facilitation
• in what way did triplets study form a "model of social psychology"


  used real world experience to show a phenomenon
• Who were Ross & McDougall?


  Amber Edward Ross- sociologist-social focus

  Brit W. McDougall- psychologist (individual focus)
• how did Ross and McDougall differ?


  Ross= social focus, individual behavior reflects larger culture

  McDougall= individual focus, natural selection, traits adapt for survival
• What were Allport's contributions?

  may have coined the term social facilitation, may be responsible for Triplett's 1st
• who is the founder of modern social psychology


  Kurt Lewin
• what is Lewin's famous formula?


  B=(P,E) behavior is a function of the person and his or her environ (lifspan)
• what's action research?

  researcher interviews in and during research (No action without research no research without action)
• what are the functions of theories?

  explain and predict observed events
• what are the 3 categories of research?

  descriptive, correlational, experimental
• What is descriptive research?


  (shows overall pattern of one variable) the exploration and description of phenomena in real-life situations. It provides an accurate account of characteristics of particular individuals, situations, or groups. Remember, this type of study does not show cause and effect.
• What is correlation research?

  relationship between two sets of variables are examined to to determine whether they are associated, or "correlated"
• what is experimental research?

  (mainstay of social psych) gathering primary data by selecting matched groups of subjects, giving them different treatments, controlling related factors, and checking for differences in group responses
• what does 'r' represent, and what can it's values be?


  Correlation coefficient, -1,0,1
• what are the limitations of correlation research?


  can't tell us if one variable causes the other, only if it effects it
• why experimental reserch?


  real world experiment, mainstay of social psych
• what is an independent variable?

  variable that is manipulated(controlled by experimenter)
• what is the dependent variable?


  a variable that is measured every time the independent variable is changed
• what is random assignment?

  assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between the different groups
• why is random assignment important?

  used to eliminate confounding/extraneous variables

  all subjects have an equal chance of being assigned to any group or condition in the study
• what is a confederate?


  seems like a subject but is part of the experiment
• what is the self concept?


  anything we know or believe about ourselves.
• what are self-schemas?


  beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information
• what does our self come from?


  self perception/ past experiences/ social roles and social comparison
• individualistic self


  identified by self
• collectivistic self


  we are because of others
• what are social comparisons?


  judgments of one's own appearance, abilities, and behavior in relation to those of others
• whats an upward comparison?

  compare yourself to people who are better than you
• what is looking glass self?

  person's sense of self develops through perceptions of how others perceive us
• what is the self reivert effect?


  we process information about self more efficiently and remember it better.
• whats the spotlight effect?

  do things to make people notice us
• what is self esteem?


  how much you value, respect, and feel confident about yourself
• What is the overconfidence phenomenon?


  the tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs
• why is overconfidence good/bad


  more confidence than ability/ gets people to do things
• What is the false uniqueness effect?


  the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's abilities and one's desirable or successful behaviors
• when do we experience false uniqueness?

  when people give you positive feedback (even when you don't need it)