| A | B |
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| Social Psychology | The scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. Focuses less on individuals’ differences and more on how individuals view and affect one another |
| Social Psycholgoy's Big Ideas | •Biology offers us natural selection and adaptation •Sociology builds on concepts such as social structure and organization • Social Psychology builds on a short list of fundamental principles |
| Dual Processing | Thinking, memory, and attitudes all operate on two levels—one conscious and deliberate, the other unconscious and automatic |
| Social Influences Shape our Behavior | social situation leads us to act contrary to our expressed attitudes |
| Personal Attitudes and Disposition Also Shape Behavior | •Inner attitudes affect our behavior •Personality dispositions also affect behavior oFacing the same situation, different people may act differently |
| Social Neuroscience | An interdisciplinary field that explores the neural bases of social and emotional processes and behaviors, and how these processes and behaviors affect our brain and biology |
| Subjective Aspects of Science | Culture and Social Representations |
| Culture | The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted form one generation to the next |
| Social Representations | A society’s widely held ideas and values, including assumptions and cultural ideologies. Our social representations help us make sense of our world |
| Psychological Concepts Contain Hidden Values | Defining the Good Life, Forming Concepts, and Labeling |
| Defining the Good Life | Values influence our idea of how best to live |
| Forming Concepts | Hidden values even seep into psychology’s research-based concepts |
| Labeling | Value judgments are often hidden w/in our social psychological language—but that is also true of everyday language •Social psychology faces two contradictory criticisms: first, that its trivial b/c it documents the obvious; second, that it is dangerous b/c its findings could be used to manipulate people •One problem w/ common sense is that we invoke it after we know the facts. Events are far more “obvious” and predictable in hindsight than beforehand |
| Hindsight Bias | The tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one’s ability to have foreseen how something turned out •Also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon |
| Theory | an integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events |
| Facts | Agreed-upon statements about what we observe |
| Hypothesis | A testable proposition that describes a relationship that may exist b/w events oFirst, allows us to test a theory by suggesting how we might try to falsify it oSecond, predictions give direction to research and sometimes send investigators looking for things they might never have thought of oThird, the predictive feature of good theories can also make them practical |
| Field Research | Research done in natural, real-life settings outside the laboratory |
| Correlational Research | The study of naturally occurring relationships among variables |
| Experimental Research | Studies that seek clues to cause-effect relationships by manipulating one or more factors (independent variables) while controlling others (holding them constant) |
| Correlational and Causation | •When two variables correlate any combination of three explanations is possible. Either one may cause the other, or both may be affected by an underlying “third factor” •Correlations indicate a relationship, but that relationship is not necessarily one of cause and effect o Correlational research allows us to predict, but it can’t tell us whether changing one variable (such as social status) will cause changes in another (such as health) •Advanced correlational techniques can suggest cause—effect relationships |
| Survey Research | Random Sampling, Response Options and Wording of Questions |
| Random Sampling | Survey procedure in which every person in the population being studied has an equal chance of inclusion |
| Wording of Questions | oThe precise wording of questions may also influence answers oSubtle changes in the tone of a question can have marked effects |
| Framing | The way a question or an issue is posed; framing can influence people’s decisions and expressed opinions |
| Independent Variable | The experimental factor that a researcher manipulates |
| Dependent Variable | The variable being measured, so called b/c it may depend on manipulations of the independent variable |
| Random Assignment | The process of assigning participants to the conditions of an experiment such that all persons have the same chance of being in a given condition. Random assignment in experiments and random sampling in surveys. Random assignment helps us infer cause and effect. Random sampling helps us generalize to a population |
| Mundane Realism | Degree to which an experiment is superficially similar to everyday situations |
| Experimental Realism | Degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves its participants |
| Deception | In research, an effect by which participants are misinformed or misled about the study’s methods and purposes |
| Demand Characteristics | Cues in an experiment that tell the participant what behavior is expected |
| Informed Consent | An ethical principle requiring that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate |
| Debriefing | In social psychology, the post experimental explanation of a study to its participants. Debriefing usually discloses any deception and often queries participants regarding their understanding and feelings |
