Social Psychology Study Guide – Exam 1

Heredity and genetic traits determine a person’s behavior.

CHAPTER ONE – Introduction to Social Psychology

∙    social psychology – the scientific study of the nature and causes of individual  behavior and cognition in social situations  

∙    sociocultural perspective – the theoretical viewpoint that searches for the  causes of social behavior in influences from larger social groups ∙    evolutionary perspective – a theoretical viewpoint that searches for the  causes of social behavior in the physical and psychological predispositions  that helped out ancestors survive and reproduce  

∙    social learning perspective – a theoretical viewpoint that focuses on past  learning experiences as determinants of a person’s social behaviors  ∙    nature – heredity and genetic traits determine a person’s behavior ∙ nurture – environment determines behavior

∙ free will – the individual alone has control over personal behavior ∙ determinism – belief that all events are shaped and governed by forces  beyond control of individual

Cues that reveal the hypothesis under study.

∙ experimental method – objective and subjective method of research in any  scientific analysis

∙ laboratory experiment – researcher directly manipulates variables and  observes effects on behavior

∙ mundane realism – the degree to which the experiment resembles real-world  events

∙ external validity – degree of “generalizability” of the findings to other  populations

∙ demand characteristics – cues that reveal the hypothesis under study  ∙ evaluation apprehension – participant’s concern about being observed during  the study If you want to learn more check out How do Countries Respond?

∙ field experiment – same as laboratory experiment, but subjects in natural  settings

o in overt field studies, participants know they are being observed o in covert field studies, participants are unaware they are being  observed  

∙ risk-benefit ratio – ratio of risk to participants versus the benefit to society ∙ deception – research methods that conceal or mislead participants about  “true” aspects of the study

What is the goal of social psychologists?

∙ informed consent – get participants approval before the experiment (may  produce demand characteristics)

∙ debriefing – a discussion of procedures, hypotheses, and participant reactions at the complete of the study  

Main Ideas

∙ social psychologists aim to describe social behavior carefully and to assess its causes through an sociocultural, evolutionary, social, or cognitive scope ∙ social behavior is goal oriented and incorporates a continual human  interaction between people and events in the situation

∙ philosophical issues in social psychology include: nature vs. nurture, free will  vs. determinism, rationality vs. irrationality, and optimism vs. pessimism

CHAPTER TWO – The Person And The Situation

∙ schema – mental set used to organize information about the social world  ∙ social perception – the process through which we seek to know and  understand other persons We also discuss several other topics like rlcl

o verbal communication

o nonverbal communication (exchange of information based on facial  expressions, eye contact, gestures, and body movements)

∙ emotions – relatively intense feelings characterized by physiological arousal  and complex cognition  

o happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger, and disgust

∙ facial deception – blinking and false smiling, masking (hiding true emotion  with expression)

∙ display rules – cultural rules that dictate the appropriate conditions for  displaying emotions

∙ body language – gestures, movements, and postures

o emblems (body movements with a highly specific meaning in a given  culture)

o gazing and staring  

∙ Affective Communication Test (ACT) – test designed to test expressiveness ∙ socialization – the process whereby a culture teaches its members about its  beliefs, customs, habits, and language  

Main Ideas

∙ Charles Darwin wrote The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,  which highlighted facial expressions are universal innate expressions that  evolved from animal emotions and hold some survival value

∙ Ekman discovered Micro-Momentary Expressions (MMEs), wrote Telling Lies  which found that politicians and actors were the two best professions to  deceive, while the U.S. Secret Service were the best at detecting lies If you want to learn more check out bgsu weather

∙ development of facial expressions occurs within the first three years (ability  to imitate emotions)

∙ females are superior to males in the social use of cues and recognition of  nonverbal gestures

CHAPTER THREE – Social Cognition: Understanding Ourselves and Others

∙ social cognition – the cognitive processes people use to interpret, analyze,  and remember social information  

∙ casual attribution – process of explaining the causal nature of events  ∙ personal (disposition) attribution – attribution based on internal  characteristics (personality, talent, moods, effort)

∙ situational attribution – attribution based on external factors (luck,  government, religion)

∙ locus of control – generalized beliefs about the control of one’s personal and  situational behavior (and the behavior of others)

∙ internal locus of control – the individual assumed personal responsibility for  life events

∙ external locus of control – the person accepts controllable forces that  determine life events  

∙ fundamental attribution error – tendency to overestimate dispositional factors and ignore situational factors We also discuss several other topics like umass gen chem 112
We also discuss several other topics like res cognitans

∙ actor-observer difference – tendency to attribute our behavior to situation  causes and the behaviors of others of dispositional causes  

∙ self-serving attribution bias – tendency to take credit for successes but to  blame others (or the situation) for our failures

∙ false-consensus effect – tendency to overestimate commonality of one’s  opinions beliefs, attributions and behavior; people ignore consensus  information in favor of self-generated attributions (believe their behavior is  “typical”) If you want to learn more check out 03 lewis structure

∙ confirmation bias – tendency to search for information that confirms our  beliefs and attributions

Main Ideas

∙ people’s actions are critically affected by their social cognition  ∙ most people make dispositional inferences to simplify the task of  understanding the causes of others’ actions; however, there is a tendency to  underestimate the impact of situational forces (although this tendency is less  prominent when people judge their own behavior