Social Psych Midterm

Focus is on observed behavior as responses to stimuli in the environment

Focus is on thought processes within the individual that organize and interpret information

Focus is on the internal rules or role prescriptions that are available for the individual in any given situation

the combination of a number of principles from a previous research and through logical means, arriving at a set of predictions

Borrowing models and concepts from other disciplines

Random assignment Control of extraneous variables

1. High level of control may create an artificial situation and prevent natural behaviour from being exhibited; this may also include demand characteristics (where participants guess the aim of the study and change their behaviour), which lowers validity.

2. People may behave differently in the lab, so it may be difficult to generalise to other settings, therefore having low ecological validity.

3. It is sometimes necessary to deceive and cause participants a small amount of harm to improve the validity and reliability of the study.

• Higher external validity • No demand characteristics bc participants don't know they are taking part in a study

-Might be difficulties in controlling the situation, so more interference from extraneous mariables -Experiment may be difficult to replicate exactly -Might be issues of access to where the study is to be done, such as consent from a company. -Ethical problems of deceit, consent, invasion of privacy, etc.

Examination of powerful predictor variables

1. There may be other differences which cannot be separated from the IV, making it impossible to infer cause and effect.

2. The researcher has to wait for the conditions to occur naturally so they may not be available at the the time of the research.

Straightforward Anonymous Economical

Recall/response error Low response rates

Use of unobtrusive measures open time range for study

Selective entry Selective decay

co-investigator status of subjects

Evaluation apprehension Authenticity

extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences from a study

extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings

degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves its participants

degree to which an experiment is superficially similar to everyday situations

assesses each separate act according to whether it maximizes pleasure over pain (cost-benefit analysis)

a utilitarian theory asserting that the morally right action is the one covered by a rule that if generally followed would produce the most favorable balance of good over evil, everyone considered

an ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate

suggests how we explain someone's behavior—by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.

1. control of outcomes

2. prediction of events

3. maintenance of self esteem

4. generation of meaning

1. Under negative situations

2. During unexpected/novel situations

3. When events have high hedonic relevance

4. When evens are characterized by a high level of personalism

Refers to behaviour that has important direct consequences for self.

Fritz Heider Describes the ways people think about and infer meaning from what occurs around them

1. Locus of Causality

2. Attributions of Responsibility

We are less likely to help those who seem to be responsible for their predicament, based on levels of accountability (association, causality, foreseeability, intentionality, justifiability)

A theory that states that people pay closer attention to intentional behavior than accidental behavior when making attributions, especially if the behavior is unexpected.

1. Desirability of Outcome

2. Presence and Number of Non-common effects

Behaviors that are socially desirable are less informative than undesirable actions

an outcome that can be achieved by one specific action but not others

Based on the notion of covariation; if two events are construed as causally linked, they must covary with each other

distress associated with incongruence between one's biological sex and gender identity

a group of medicines that pause the changes a body undergoes during puberty. They can provide additional time before secondary sex characteristics develop (such as a deepening voice, breast development, or facial hair). They are also referred to as blockers or hormone blockers.

Lack of research Chemically alters body Gives children more time to grow, develop, and be more confident about their gender identity

Demonstrate that learning can occur through mere observation of a model and that imitation of learned behavior can occur in the absence of that model Laboratory Experiment IVs:

• Aggression level

• Sex of model

• Sex of child

DV:

• Amount of imitative behavior and aggression shown by child

Children exposed to aggressive role model were more aggressive. Suggests children imitate aggression. Both physical and verbal, some was non-imitative suggesting they were finding their own ways of being aggressive.

More likely to copy same sex model.

Girls spent more time playing with the dolls or tea sets and boys with guns.

• Underscored degree to which prison experiments are powerful, potentially damaging situations with possible negative psychological effects. It had painful and traumatic effects. prisons should be used sparingly in the war on crime

• Revealed how even minimalist prison can be painful and powerful

• Decompression programs

• Personality tests for individual behavioral predictions in familiar scenarios may not fare well in predicting in novel settings (are of limited utility)

• Meaningful prison reform should come from those outside of the institution

• Woman was created for man

• Man was created in God's image first

• Man's direct and unmediated fashion as the image of God, manifesting the glory of God

• Difficult to accurately assess underlying motives from observable behavior

• Unable to prove anything about its central assumption

• Christians have biases when assessing Scripture

Immediately responsible for causing an event

God as a factor become more common Supernatural forces responsible for causing an event

• Emphasize the soul more (internal attributions)

• Repenting sins and belief in God will assure rewards in the afterlife

• Inward focused form of religion

• Participation in sacrament and traditions

• Outward focused form of religion