Term
| What kinds of issues are important to keep in mind when developing theories? |
|
Definition
• Observe social behavior, attempt to formulate a theory to explain observed facts
• Need to pertain to whole classes of events (not just a particular event)
• Deals with causal relations among variables
• Needs to be valid – explain phenomena under consideration and make predictions about events not yet observed
Truth (logic, testability, validity, reliability), beauty (simplicity, fertility, surprise), justice (ethics of learning, ethics of knowing) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the idea of studying from a macro level, moving to the micro level, and then moving back to the macro level, it is shaped like a boat |
|
|
Term
| What kinds of issues are important to keep in mind when collecting evidence to test theories? |
|
Definition
Internal validity, external validity, investigator control, intrusiveness of measures, difficulty of conducting study, ethical problems
• Reliability of the measurement
• The more precise and focused a question, the greater will be its reliability and validity
• Make sure people’s responses are consistent across time and items |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The degree to which a measuring instrument produces the same results each time it is employed under a set of specified conditions. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The degree to which the instrument actually measures the theoretical concept we intend to measure.
Does this measure what we intended to measure? |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| provides information on the direction and strength of the relationship between variables; Research designed to examine the nature of the relationship between two or more naturally occurring variables. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| can determine cause-effect relationships.; Research designed to test cause-effect relationships between variables through manipulation of independent variable(s) and observation of dependent variable(s). |
|
|
Term
| Field Studies (relative advantages) |
|
Definition
Field studies may be the best way to investigate previously unexplored social phenomena in their natural settings
• moderate internal validity
• high external validity
• moderate investigator control |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Laboratory experiments can be especially useful in testing causal hypotheses
• high internal validity
• moderate external validity
• high investigator control |
|
|
Term
| Random Assignment (and its benefits) |
|
Definition
•in an experiment is the assignment of participants to experimental conditions on the basis of chance.
o Benefits: helps us infer cause and effect. mitigates the effects of extraneous variables, enables the investigator to infer that any observed differences between groups on the dependent variable are due only to the effects of independent variables. |
|
|
Term
| Random Sampling (and its benefits) |
|
Definition
procedure in which every person in the population being studied has an equal chance of inclusion. Creates a representative group. Choosing involves an unpredictable component
o Benefits: helps us generalize to a population |
|
|
Term
| What does it mean to conduct fertile research? |
|
Definition
| Research that inspires follow up research |
|
|
Term
| Name the 5 basic theoretical perspectives in sociology |
|
Definition
Role Theory
Reinforcement Theory
Cognitive theory
Symbolic interaction theory
Evolutionary theory |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
based on the premise that a substantial portion of observable, day-to-day social behavior is simply persons carrying out role expectations.
*Limitations: Has difficulty explaining deviant behavior because it contradicts the assumption that people are essentially conformists. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
based on the premise that social behavior is governed by external events, especially rewards and punishments.
a. Social Learning Theory: One person can acquire new responses simply by observing the behavior of another person, called imitation.
b. Social Exchange Theory: Uses the concept of reinforcement to explain stability and change in relations between individuals. Individuals become hedonistic and try to maximize rewards and minimize costs.
c. Limitations:
i. It portrays individuals primarily as reacting to environmental stimuli rather than as initiating behavior based on imaginative or creative thought. The theory does not account easily for creativity, innovation or invention.
ii. It ignores or downplays other motivations. It cannot explain selfless behavior such as altruism and martyrdom |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
based on the premise that an individual’s mental activities (perception, memory, and reasoning) are important determinants of behavior.
*Limitations: It simplifies the way in which people process information, an inherently complex phenomenon. Also, cognitive phenomena are not directly observable |
|
|
Term
| Symbolic interaction theory |
|
Definition
based on the premise that human nature and social order are products of communication among people.
a. Limitations:
i. Some critics argue that this perspective overemphasizes rational, self-conscious thought and de-emphasizes unconscious or emotional states.
ii. The individual is depicted as a specific personality type
iii. Places too much emphasis on cooperation and consensus and therefore neglects the importance of conflict. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
posits that predispositions toward some social behaviors are passed genetically from generation to generation and shaped by the process of natural selection.
a. Limitations: Circular reasoning |
|
|
Term
| What are the 3 broad areas in social psychology discussed in the lecture |
|
Definition
| Social structure and personality, group processes, and symbolic interactionism. |
|
|
Term
| Social structure and personality (concepts, assumptions, behaviors of study, mechanisms of change) |
|
Definition
Focus-effects of larger structure on individuals
Concepts- roles, expectations
Assumptions- conformists
Behaviors of study- behavior in role
Mechanisms of change- shift in role expectations |
|
|
Term
| Group Processes (concepts, assumptions, behaviors of study, mechanisms of change) |
|
Definition
Focus: basic processes in group contexts
Concepts- power, status, affiliation
Assumptions- hedonists or conformists
Behaviors of study- exchange processes, status dynamics
Mechanisms of change- change in structure |
|
|
Term
| Symbolic Interactionism (concepts, assumptions, behaviors of study, mechanisms of change) |
|
Definition
Focus: meaning-making process
Concepts- self, role-taking, symbols
Assumptions- self-monitoring, actors, role-taking
Behaviors of study- sequences of acts, situated behavior
Mechanisms of change- negotiated |
|
|
Term
| What are middle range theories |
|
Definition
| Narrow, focused theoretical framework that explains the conditions that produce some specific social behavior. (e.x. explaining the conditions under which contact between members of different ethnic and racial groups will cause stereotypes to change or disappear), they are more specific than theoretical perspectives |
|
|
Term
| What is an extraneous variable? |
|
Definition
| A variable that is not explicitly included in a research hypothesis but has a causal impact on the dependent variable. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A technique for measuring attitudes that asks a respondent to indicate the extent to which he or she agrees with each of a series of statements about an object. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A statistical technique that allows the researcher to combine the results from all previous studies of a question. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| mechanical, result of cognitive limitations |
|
|
Term
| What are the basic components of social cognition |
|
Definition
• Perception- what we take in
• Memory
o Storage- what we keep
o Retrieval-what we take out
• Inference- what we do without |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Examples you have seen. when someone calls something by a category and are known for it (ex) Hitler is an exemplar |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| in person perception, an abstraction that represents the "typical" or quintessential instance of a class or group |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a specific cognitive structure that organizes the processing of complex information about other persons, groups, or situations. They guide what we perceive in the environment, how we organize information in memory, and what inferences and judgments we make about people and things |
|
|
Term
| Name the schemas in the text |
|
Definition
| Person, self, group, role, and event schemas |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| cognitive structures that describe the personalities of others |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| structures that organize our conception of our own characteristics |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| (stereotypes) regarding the members of a particular social group or social category. Indicate the attributes and behaviors considered typical of members of that group of social category. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| indicate which attributes and behaviors are typical of persons occupying a particular role in a group. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| (scripts) regarding important, recurring social events. Specifies the activities that constitute the event, the predetermined order or sequence for these activities, and the persons participating in the event. |
|
|
Term
| How do schemas influence our cognition? |
|
Definition
They give us a way to efficiently organize, understand, and react to the complex world around us
• we rely on schemas b/c they give us a way to efficiently organize, understand and react to the complex world around us
• we do not usually remember all the precise details of what transpired in a given situation, so they provide missing facts when gaps exist in our knowledge |
|
|
Term
| What are cognitive heuristics? How do they benefit us? How do they hurt us? |
|
Definition
A type of mental shortcut that allows individuals to quickly select and apply schemas to new or ambiguous situations.
Help:
• Shortcuts, or rules- of-thumb we use to make hasty judgments
• Enable us to process large quantities of complex social information with great efficiency
Hurt:
• Trade accuracy for speed
• Can be identified through observation of systematic errors |
|
|
Term
| Name the 4 cognitive heuristics from class |
|
Definition
| Availability, Representativeness, Anchoring, Simulation |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
the reliance on available instances/exemplars in memory to make a judgment. Using instances in our memory to make decisions
o Associated with searching and retrieval errors (biases you due to search errors)
o K is more frequent as the third letter |
|
|
Term
| Representativeness Heuristic |
|
Definition
compare salient features of new instance to salient features of category representative
o Associated with stereotyping, misperceptions of chance, underutilization of base rates
o Use of stereotypes to make judgments
o Favorite way of making decisions because it is easiest |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Use more familiar instance as reference point of comparison
o Interferes with subjectivity
o Comes closest to working as a hot error
o We make sense of new things in light of things we already know (people who come from a small town/big city see Athens differently)
o In tight relationships, little differences between perspectives become over-perceived
o Want to achieve Inter-subjectivity = pure understanding
o Looks self motivated
o Not perfectly logically distinguishable from the availability heuristic
o Over time, we become more committed to our anchor and become resistant to change |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Making decisions about actions by saying “what would happen if I did ______”
o Running simulations, imagining possible outcomes
o Requires that you have theories of social process in your head, that you have some idea of what behaviors are linked to what outcomes/feelings
o Heuristic mistakes amplify biases that we are likely to have anyway. |
|
|
Term
| What is illusory correlation |
|
Definition
False impression that 2 things are related from overestimating the co-occurrence of rare things
o Spurious perception of correlations resulting from overestimating the co-occurrence of rare events
o Magnifying in our head the co-occurrence that strange things will happen |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the tendency of our general or overall liking for a person to influence our assessment of more specific traits of that person. The halo effect can produce inaccuracy in our ratings of others' traits and performances. |
|
|
Term
| What is trait centrality? |
|
Definition
| a personality trait has a high level of trait centrality when information about a person's standing on that trait has a large impact on the overall impression that others form of that person. The warm-cold trait, for example, is highly central. |
|
|
Term
| What is the primacy effect? |
|
Definition
| he tendency, when forming an impression, to be most influenced by the earliest information received. The primacy effect accounts for the fact that first impressions are especially powerful. |
|
|
Term
| What is the recency effect? |
|
Definition
| the tendency, when forming an impression, to be most influenced by the latest information received. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a decision by an observer to attribute a behavior to environmental forces facing the person who performed it rather than to that person's internal state. |
|
|
Term
| Dispositional attributions |
|
Definition
| a decision by an observer to attribute a behavior to the internal state(s) of the person who performed it rather than to factors in that person's environment. |
|
|
Term
| What is the fundamental attribution bias? |
|
Definition
| the tendency to underestimate the importance of situational influences and to overestimate personal, dispositional factors as causes of behavior. |
|
|
Term
| What is the actor-observer bias? |
|
Definition
| the bias in attribution whereby actors tend to see their own behavior as due to characteristics of the external situation, whereas observers tend to attribute actors' behavior to the actors' internal, personal characteristics |
|
|
Term
| What is the focus of attention bias? |
|
Definition
| the tendency to overestimate the casual impact of whomever or whatever we focus our attention on. |
|
|
Term
| What is the principle of covariation? |
|
Definition
| a principle that attributes behavior to the potential cause that is present when the behavior occurs and absent when the behavior fails to occur. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a predisposition to respond to a particular object in a generally favorable or unfavorable way |
|
|
Term
| What are some consistency theories? |
|
Definition
| role theory, balance theory, expectations-states theory, affect control theory, symbolic interactionaism, identity theory |
|
|
Term
| What does "balance: mean in Balance Theory? |
|
Definition
| consistency theory by Heider concerning the relationship among three-element cognitive systems. (ex) “I’m going to vote for Steve Smith because he is in favor of reducing taxes”. There are three elements: self, other, and impersonal object. Balance basically means that there is no conflict among the relationship. |
|
|
Term
| What is cognitive dissonance? |
|
Definition
| a state of psychological tension induced by dissonant relationships between cognitive elements |
|
|
Term
| What does research say about the relationship between attitudes and behavior |
|
Definition
People having a specific attitude are inclined to behave in certain ways that are consistent with that attitude
o many studies on the topic have found only a modest correlation (.30 or less) between attitude and behavior |
|
|
Term
| 4 variables influencing the relationship between attitude and behavior |
|
Definition
(1) the activation of the attitude [usually activated by exposure of the person to its object – like a cozy fire, soft lighting, and glasses of wine are all associated with seduction]
(2) the characteristics of the attitude [the degree of consistency between the evaluative and cognitive components, the extent to which the attitude is grounded in personal experience, the strength of the attitude, and the stability of the attitude over time – does the attitude stay constant or change over time?]
(3) the correspondence between attitude and behavior [attitudes are more likely to predict behavior when the two are at the same level of specificity]
(4) situational constraints on behavior [an influence on behavior due to the likelihood that other persons will learn about the behavior and respond positively or negatively to it] |
|
|
Term
| The Reasoned Action Model |
|
Definition
| This is based on the assumption that behavior is rational. Theory says behavior is determined by behavioral intention. Behavioral Intention is measured by attitude and subjective norm |
|
|
Term
| What is the difference between considering socialization to be a negative vs positive process? |
|
Definition
Process of punishment (positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment)
- Positive process involves adding to what is already there (Ex: Learning a new role).
- Negative process involves removing something that is already there (Ex: Taking away a role, i.e. role of a "child" as you become an adult) |
|
|
Term
| Social Thinkers (Negative Process) |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Social Thinkers (positive process) |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the acquisition of behavior based on the observation’s of another person’s behavior and it’s consequences for that person. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the use of consequences to modify behavior |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Learning in which an agent initially reinforces any behavior that remotely resembles the desired response and later requires increasing correspondence. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| refers specifically to physical aspects |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the physiological/societal aspects of being male or female |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The behavioral expectations associated with one’s gender. Parents are an important influence on this. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| second critical step in the genesis of self. It is this process of imaginatively occupying the position of another person and viewing the self and the situation from that person’s perspective. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| to plan, observe, guide and respond to our own behavior |
|
|
Term
| How are reflexive behavior and role taking involved in self-development? |
|
Definition
| Through role taking, the child learns to respond reflexively. Imagining others’ responses to the self, children acquire the capacity to look at themselves as if from the outside. Recognizing that others see them as objects, children can become objects (me) to themselves. They can then act toward themselves to praise (“That’s a good girl”), to reprimand (“Stop that!”), and to control their own behavior (“Wait your turn”). |
|
|
Term
| Anticipatory Socialization |
|
Definition
| Activities that provide people with knowledge about and skills for a role they have not assumed |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| When values and identities associated with a new role contradict those of earlier roles |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Recurrent and predictable activities that are basic in day-to-day social life. (ex) greeting rituals, common games, mealtime patterns |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| When people behave toward another according to a label and cause the person to respond in ways that confirm the label. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A tension among the roles connected to a single status |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Conflict among incompatible roles corresponding to two or more statuses. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Demands of one’s roles exceed the amount of time, energy and resources one has |
|
|
Term
| Attachment Styles (3), when do they develop and what outcomes can they predict |
|
Definition
| Ainsworth identified three styles of attachment in infant-caregiver relationships: secure, avoidant, anxious-ambivalent. They are assessed by how a child reacts to his/her caregiver when distressed.The roots of the style can be found in childhood. We bring them into our intimate adult relationships. It leads us to pay attention to certain aspects of people we meet (ex. Trustworthiness), creates biases in memory, and affects how we explain relationship events. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| High levels of warmth combined with control. Associated with benefits to the child (better in school etc.) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Physical punishments. More likely to be associated with poor adjustment in childhood. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| free from contamination by extraneous variables (high/low – low is when there are confounding variables that are clearly present) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| extent to which a causal relationship, once identified in a particular setting w/ a particular population, can be generalized to other populations, settings, or time periods |
|
|
