User:Atcovi/Spring2024/Social Psychology/Ch. 1 - 4 EXAM STUDY GUIDE

Psyc 304

Exam 1 Review

Note: these objectives will sometimes be multiple in nature. In other words, each item below may serve as the basis for more than one test question, which is why this review may not total to 50 (as in the total number of test questions).

Chapter 1
1. How is social psychology scientific and what is its focus on? It's scientific because we can measure one's social life through measurement; focus on nature/causes of individual behavior/feelings/thoughts in a social setting.

2. Be familiar with the four headings under the “Social Psychology Seeks to Understand the  causes of Social Behavior and Thought” section. Accuracy, objectivity, skepticism (can we replicate this?), open-minded and willing to accept evidence

3. How do social relationships impact well-being? More social relationships and going out, the better our well-being is (hence, single people are happier than married people).

4. Why is it important to take social diversity into account in research? What could mean a certain thing in a certain culture can mean something totally different in another culture. Different perspectives for different cultures (skinny body preference vs. bigger body preferance).

5. Be familiar with the “Systematic Observation” section. Behavior is closely monitored and recorded using accurate measurements.

'''6. Know what correlation is. Differentiate between positive and negative correlation.''' A relationship exists between 2 variables. A positive correlation are both variables going in the same direction, while a negative correlation is both variables going in opposite directions.

7. Define hypothesis. Test predictions made.

'''8. What is an experiment? Differentiate between the independent and dependent variable.''' A certain variable of an experiment is changed to justify a reaction on the DV. IV is what we change, DV is what we see the after-effects/change on.

9. What is the role of theory in social psychology? A theory makes predictions about observable events.

10. Be familiar with “The Quest for Knowledge and the rights of Individuals” section. Deception for accuracy, 2 forms of deception (withholding/misleading info), allowed when informed consent, cautious debriefing, and if benefits > cost.

Chapter 2
13. Define heuristics. Simple rules to make complicated decisions in a quick manner.

14. Know the section on Representativeness. Assess a current stimuli that fits with your other categories (she looks and behaves like a nurse, she's a nurse!).

15. Differentiate between anchoring and adjustment. The number is the anchor, negotiating is the adjustment.

16. What is the status quo heuristic? People prefer things that have already been proven vs. newer things.

17. What is priming? '''A situation which 'calls' for a specific schema due to resemblence. Used in advertising.'''

18. What is schema persistence? Schemas will remain even if met with contradictory evidence.

19. Differentiate between automatic and controlled processing and the areas of the brain associated with each. '''Automatic: quick, takes place in the amygdala. Controlled: deliberate/logical, takes place in prefrontal cortex.'''

20. How does optimistic thinking skew our behaviors and our ability to plan effectively? Planning fallacy, probably will fail turning in an assignment on time to which you turned in late the first time.

21. Differentiate between counterfactual thinking and magical thinking. Counterfactual thinking: "What if?"; magical thinking: peace of mind (I buy insurance just to make sure I'm good).

22. How does affect influence cognition? Current moods effect cognition: mood congruence effects, mood-dependent memory.

23. What is the relationship between emotions and social cognition? Emotions can shape our socialization - for example, two-factor theory of emotion, schemas with strong affective component, and affective forecasts.

24. What evidence is there that affect and cognition are two separate systems? '''Reason vs. emotions, they interact when it comes to problem-solving and decision-making. Example is getting money from a "dictator", but denying ANY money simply because you are not in charge of how much money you get. You deny ANY money when you could've got some, but your arrogance denied this!'''

Chapter 3
25. What is social perception? Process by which we seek to know other people

26. Be familiar with each of the basic channels of nonverbal communication. Facial expressions, eye contact, body language, touching

27. What does touching convey? Friendliness or threat

28. What is the facial feedback hypothesis? Facial expressions trigger emotions

29. What nonverbal cues signal deception? Microexpressions, interchannel discrepancies, and exaggerated facial expressions

30. Define attribution. Process to seek the "why?" in other people's behaviors

31. Be familiar with the “Theories of Attribution” section. Correspondent Influence Theory by Jones and Davis (however the way one acts, we guess their traits through that; noncommon effects; actions low in social desirability) + Kelley's theory.

32. Know Kelley’s theory of causal attributions. Did behavior result from internal/external causes or BOTH? Measure using consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness.

33. Define correspondence bias. We think of people's actions based on their traits, so we attribute actions to a person's characteristics even if we not get the full picture. Happens because of lack of observance on situational causes and use of general process (automatic reaction --> controlled reaction).

34. What is the actor-observer effect? We make excuses for ourselves, but not for others. We are more aware about our external factors than other people's external factors. I didn't make the soccer team because of my bad shoes, but he didn't make the soccer team because he genuienly sucked.

35. What is self-serving bias and why does this tilt occur? Anything positive is cuz of our work, while anything negative is because of other situations. This bias exists because we want to protect our self-esteem. Our self-esteem will be protected when external causes are tied with negative events.

36. How does attribution play a role in depression? Roles are reversed.

37. What are implicit personality theories? People form impressions on other people very quickly.

38. Be familiar with the two categories of impression management. Self-enhancement (make ourselves look good) & other-enhancement (make the other person feel good).

Chapter 4
'''39. Be familiar with the self-presentation tactics. Be able to define & give examples of the following concepts: self-promotion, self-verification perspective, ingratiation, & self-deprecating -''' Self-promotion (if we want someone to think we are smart, we show off our GPAs), self-verification perspective (leading others to the views that you, yourself, want to upheld), ingratiation (praising/thanking target person as a self-enhancement tactic), self-deprecating (oh, I'm not as good-looking as you, I'm ugly!).

'''40.  How honest are our self-presentations? How about in the online environment?''' Sometimes be honest, sometimes not; Not honest, as we can choose what to put online and withold.

41.  How does introspection influence our self-understanding? Introspection would allow us to really reflect who we are, our thoughts + feelings, and what our actions are.

42. Be familiar with the section Who Am I? Define social identity theory --> essentially we want our cultural group/relatable group to do good. So if the only other brown kid is bossing it in soccer, I'm gonna like him.

43. Differentiate between intragroup & intergroup comparisons. Intragroup (within a group) comparisons are stable whilst intergroup (between groups) comparisons can radically change (men will be less insecure vs. women, and women will be MORE insecure vs. men).

44. How does “Who I think I Am” depend on the social context? Certain words can trigger identities (Muslim, ex.), one aspect could be more important in a social setting (being quiet in a library), situation may call for uniqueness (only brown dude in a white university).

45. How does self-reflection over time impact our self-perceptions? We may critique our younger selves in order to show improvement and we may think of our past-selves in more trait-like language.

46. Understand how self-control impacts self-regulation. Self-control can hinder the ability to self-regulate later on. We have limited willpower.

47. What factors decrease or increase self-esteem? Self-esteem can improve when one is proud of their identity and is at peace with it in a social/group setting and/or increased self-efficacy (confidence within one's ability) and social support. Self-esteem can decrease if stereotype threat is present, ones that have to hide their identities (closeted gays), ones that are reminded of their failures, or women attach themselves to more traditional roles.

'''48. Is high self-esteem always beneficial? Why or why not?''' Yes as a high self-esteem boosts well-being and confidence in action (positive self-talk is efficient when the person has a high self-esteem).

49. Differentiate between downward and upward social comparisons. If I want to feel good about myself, I'll compare my soccer skills to a 2yr old. Comparing my soccer skills to Messi would be an 'upward' social comparison.

50. Be familiar with the two influential perspectives on the self – 1) the self-evaluation maintenance model & 2) social identity theory: 1) I want myself to feel better so I compare my intelligence with Manny 2) We brown people here know how to stay together, look at us scoring the highest test scores!

'''51. Be familiar with the section “Self-Serving Biases & Unrealistic Optimism. A couple of questions will come from this area.''' Self-serving bias is when I think I'm all that, but I'm not really all that. Higher self-esteem is good until it becomes unrealistic (I can win the UCL at age 12 as an obese baseball player).

52. How does stereotype threat influence performance? You try to push away these racist thoughts, but you inadvertently succumb to them and prove the stereotype true. A stereotype threat makes the 'unlikeable' trait, salient. For example, women that heard that women are bad at math make their identity as a woman, salient, thereby succumbing to the stereotype whilst taking a text, while simotaneously trying to surpress those thoughts.