SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (P304) Exam 1 Study Guide 1) MODULE 1: THE SOCIAL SELF i) Definition: the scientific study of how

w the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of an individual are influenced by the real, imagined or implied presence of other people ii) ABCs of Social psyc: A= Affect B=Behavior C=Cognition

b) Explain what social cognition is, and appreciate, in historical analogies, the different motives for people engaging in social cognition. i) Social cognition process by which people perceive interpret and explain info about other people (1) Social information is interpreted, analyzed and then stored in memory (2) Motives for engaging in social cognition (a) Social thinker is a consistency seeker world is not consistent (b) 60s thinking changed to a social thinker is a naive scientist (c) 80s shift to social thinker is a cognitive miser - does just enough to get by (d) Now- social thinker is a motivated tactician all three depending on situation c) Explain what self-concept is in general and at a more basic level what a schema, specifically a self-schema, is (L, T). Further, explain the concepts of social identity, possible selves, self-complexity, and working self-concept (L). Finally, recognize the difference between being schematic and aschematic on a particular dimension (L) i) Social self who am I? (1) William James father of American psychology 3 levels of self (a) Material self (physical body) (b) Spiritual Self (inner private aspects) (c) Social self (identities, roles we occupy / relationships) (i) Self-concept what we think (cognition) (ii) Self-esteem how we feel (affect) (iii) Self-presentation how we behave alone v. with ppl (behavioral) ii) Self-concept the totality of beliefs that an individual holds about him or herselfself knowledge (1) Schemas at the core- event schema (scripts), persons (mental representation of specific people), group members, SELF ( mental representation of ourselves) basic building blocks of self-concept (2) Self-schemas are about 2 things: (a) personality traits social identities (b) possible selves represent hopes and fears (3) Working self-concept whichever one is most dominant at a given moment (4) Self-schematic the most important to us have the most experience with (5) Self-aschematic not as important and not much experience d) Thoroughly discuss the role of others perceptions, self-perception, social comparison, autobiographical memories (L, T), and physical reality (L) in the development of self-concept i) development of self-concept -- Product of many things (a) Self-perception we learn about ourselves the same way we do others by observing our own behavior -Especially when internal ques are weak or ambiguous

(b) Others perception if others think well then we will think well of ourselves (i) looking glass self (ii) Its not important what they think its about what we think they think (c) Physical reality height / weight/ sex grounded in reality (d) social comparison we define our self-concept, we evaluate our own abilities by comparing ourselves to others (i) when do we engage--- no objective way to measure an attribute (how fast faster than you) or when we are uncertain about our own abilities (ii) with whom upward social comparison (bad)- comparing with people who are better (can be good temporarily to set goals) downward social comparison compare with people who are worse best to compare with people who are most similar (e) Autobiographical memories our self-concept depends on our abilities to remember what it feels like to be us (i) Our recollection of events in your life transitional events first (ii) Without these recollections its hard to say who you are (iii) NOT extremely accurate for 3 reasons 1. Self-reference effect we have a tendency to better recall info that is relevant to us, more so than non-relevant 2. 3. ii) Egocentric bias over emphasis role or contribution in past events Revisionism when you change the story- update as years go by

Explain what is meant by self-esteem (L, T). Thoroughly explain self-discrepancy theory and how it affects your selfesteem (L, T). Thoroughly explain self-awareness theory, describe situations that increase self-focus. Finally, explain the difference between private self-consciousness and public self-consciousness, and their relation to self-awareness and the reduction of self-discrepancy (L, T) (1) Self-esteem how your feeling this afternoon- a generalized self-evaluation / self-worth , acceptance, goodness, self=-respect (a) if positive productive / successful/ healthy (b) if negative unhappy and depressed (2) What determines how you feel about yourself? (a) Self-discrepancy theory difference between how you see yourself now and how you want to be scene difference between reality and ideality (i) Magnitude also effects self-esteem (b) Self- Awareness theory self focused attention that leads people to notice the self-discrepancy (i) Most of the time we are not self-focused in specific social situations will temporarily make us more selffocused- transitory response (3) Self-consciousness a personality trait and relatively stable and enduring characteristic (a) The degree individuals are habitually self-focused (b) 2 types (not mutually exclusive) (i) Private self-consciousness a degree you focus on your own feelings opinions attitudes

(ii) Public self-consciousness focused on yourself as a function of social attention how others view and treat you (c) High self-consciousness you are more likely top self-discrepancies therefore results in self esteem (4) 3 responses to self-discrepancies (a) Lower expectations lower goals to make it easier (b) Raise behavior- improve reality (c) Escape e) describe and be able to recognize examples of the following self-enhancement strategies employed to increase or maintain ones self-esteem; self-serving cognitions, self-handicapping, basking in reflected glory, downward social comparison (L, T), false consensus effect, and false uniqueness effect (L) i) Self-enhancement we want to feel good about ourselves (1) Self-serving cognition tendencies to view ourselves as above average we explain our failures on external causes and our successes on internal protects self-esteem (2) Self-handicapping- to handicap our own performance to make the provision for the excuse should you fail when we are unsure about our ability to preform (3) Downward social comparison compare to someone of a lesser ability at least I beat the average (4) False consensus effect tendency to ever estimate the commonality of our failures (5) False uniqueness effect underestimate the uniqueness of successes therefore increase self-esteem (6) Basking in relative glory associate ourselves with people who have achieved success already fans associate with sports teams --- We won vs. They lost f) explain what self-presentation (L, T) is. Further, explain what self-monitoring is and how high and low self-monitoring relate to self-presentation (L, T) i) Self-presentation the presentation of self in everyday life -- any behavior undertaken with the intent to create modify or maintain an impression of ourselves in the minds of other people impression management ii) Motives for engaging in self-presentation (1) Facilitate social interactions interactions go better if we present ourselves in a consistent manor that we are accustom (2) Gain material and social reward do things so people like us (3) Self-construction (limited group) engage to build self-concept and construct personal identity (a) Adolescent facing identities crisis so they engage in behaviors and see how others respond iii) Self-Monitoring the degree to which people maintain and control behavior to meet the demands of a social situation (1) High tend to perceive them as very flexible and pragmatic. Strive to be right person in any situation / search for the prototype in each situation and try and do what it takes to mimic that behavior (2) Lowview as highly principled individuals / value consistency of who they are and how they behave / own values / attitudes that guide behavior in situations always try and be themselves (3) Motivational orientation exists along a continuum and move along in different situations not only personality characteristic 2)

MODULE 2: PERCEIVING OTHERS

a) explain Heiders attribution theory in general (L, T)

i)

Attribution theory how we explain behavior through disposition (relatively stable characteristics that make up a persons personality and attitudes ) (a) Emerged when behaviorism was losing influence people do things for a reason (b) Describes the process people generate explanations dont tell why tell what others conclude why (2) Personal (dispositional) attribution attribute caused to an internal factor (inherent qualities) (3) Situational attribution attributed to external causes beyond the persons control (4) The relationship is either or what is the situation a function of more (5) We would prefer to make a dispositional bc then we can learn about others goal is not just to explain but to predict

b) understand the logic of attribution theory (L) i) ii) c) Lewinian equation B=F(S*P) behavior is a function of situational and personal

explain and be able to apply Kelleys covariation theory of attribution, to include how information of consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus leads us to different types of attributions (L, T) i) covariation theory of attribution how we generate explanations based on multiple observations (1) for something to be a cause of a behavior X, then X needs to be present when Y, the behavior occurs and absent when it does not (2) 3 Questions: (a) Consistency (most important) is the observed behavior of ind. The same when presented with the stimulus at different times if no then low consistency and DONE circumstantial attribution if yes then consistency is high and ask next question (b) Distinctiveness: is the observed behavior the same when presented with similar stimuli if no, then high distinctiveness - situational attribution if yes, then low distinctiveness personal attribution (c) Consensus: do other people behave the same way when presented with the same stimulus if yes then high consensus situational if no then low consensus personal attribution (d) Low distinctiveness and high consensus = mass dispositional social norm (e) high distinctiveness and low consensus = both B=F(S*P) behavior is a function of situational and personal

d) explain and be able to apply Jones & Daviss correspondent inference theory (L, T), to include the principles of discounting and augmenting (L), and the role of freedom of choice and social desirability (L, T), and analysis of noncommon effects (L) i) correspondence inference theory how we make attribution based on a single observation of behavior dispositional attributes (1) process by which we make personal attributions (2) correspondent inference behavior of an individual corresponds to a person stable personality (3) behavior correspondent inference an observation based on one persons behavior ii) discounting principle people will discount to the extent at which behavior is cause by a persons dispositions when there is an obvious situational factor present therefore ignoring the possibility that it is their disposition (1) non-corrospondent inference to conclude that behavior is NOT predictive of personality after one observation of behavior

(a) non-diagnostic behavior the result of a non-corresponding inference iii) Augmenting principle- people are more likely to make a corresponding inference when people act in a way that is inconsistent with the situation (1) Confidence we rely on logical rules of thumb (a) Degree of choice -did they have a choice or were they forced (b) Social desirability social undesirability -= cost to self therefore dispositional (c) Analysis of non-common effects individuals are more likely to make corresponding inf. When there are few other causes that produce the same behavior e) explain what the fundamental attribution error is (L, T), the role of culture in committing the fundamental attribution error, as well as the role of automaticity (L, T)and perceptual salience (L), and culture (L) i) Fundamental attribution error when explaining others behaviors we over estimate dispositional and underestimate situational factors (1) Why? - automaticity of social perception not enough time to analyze thoroughly (a) 1) Categorize behavior automatic processing of information 2) Personal attribution controlled and conscious 3)Correct for situation (2) Perceptual salience what captures your attention- person then situation (3) Cultural influence western focus is on the individual where eastern focus is on the group (a) Western analytical thinking (b) Eastern Holistic thinking f) explain what the actor-observer effect is and why we commit it (L, T) i) actor-observer effect we will make a dispositional attribution about someone else but more likely to make a situational about our own behavior (1) Why? because we know our own behavior varies between situation but we dont know this about other people g) explain what heuristics are in general, and be able to specifically describe and provide examples of a representativeness heuristic (along with our tendency to commit the base-rate fallacy) & availability heuristic (L, T). i) sometimes we are motivated to be cognitive advisors and not absorb everything therefore we use heuristics mental shortcuts efficient ways to process information -- allows you to arrive at answers about others but it can cause mistakes (1) representative heuristics rule of thumb we judge people to the degree they match a category schema (a) base-rate fallacy tendency to ignore the base rate info that describes a group of people and instead focus on the unique characteristics of the individual (2) availability heuristic- rule of thumb used to judge probability of an event occurring based upon the ease it comes to mind (a) with people -- rule of thumb used to judge probability of person possessing a trait based upon the ease it comes to mind h) describe the process of impression formation (L, T), be able to distinguish between an elemental model and a holistic model (L), and be able to distinguish between an additive and averaging model of impression formation within an elemental model (L, T)

i)

impression forming process of integrating different pieces of information into a single cohesive picture of the other person attribution is one type of data but we need lots

ii)

2 models (1) Elementary model when we form an impression of someone we consider each attribution / information separately (impression = a1+a2+) (a) Attributes are independent of each other (b) Should we add or average (i) Additive model we observe traits and then add them all (ii) Averaging model we take an average of all know traits - information integration theory (2) Holistic model (Asch, gestalt psy)our impression is greater than the sum of what we observed (a) The meaning of attributes changes in context in which we discover it (b) Attributes are interdependent not all weighted equal (c) Central traits infer the presence of many other traits (warm/cold) demonstrate that not all traits are weighted equal (d) Peripheral traits dont infer the presence of many traits (blunt/polite) (3) Reconciliation weighted average model

i)

discuss biases in impression formation, to include implicit personality theory, primacy effect, belief perseverance, confirmation bias, (L, T) and person positivity bias (L) i) implicit personality theory an associative network of assumptions that we make about the relationship of various traits and behaviors when we think of one trait many others come with it (1) knowledge of one trait infers the presence of another (2) principle of elevated consistency ii) the power of first impressions more favorable impression if good at first and bad if bad at first (1) we recall the first memory better because its better processed , stored, recalled primacy effect iii) person positivity bias /Pollyanna effect without knowing much we tend to make positive judgments about them (1) affect priming model of cognition emotions effect our judgment tend to make judgments that are mood congruent iv) confirmation bias our tendency to seek interpret and create information about other people in a way that confirms our initial impressions (1) difficult to change initial impression (2) belief perseverance tendency to maintain first impressions even when presented with contradictory information

j)

explain the self-fulfilling prophecy, and identify the three steps in that process as well as the two responses that will interfere with that process (L, T) i) self-fulfilling prophecy an observers expectations about an actor can ultimately lead the actor to behave in a way that is congruent with the observers expectation (1) Pygmalion in the classroom classroom ecology where you sit with performance ii) How it works (1) Observes forms an initial impression of an actor (2) Observer behaviors congruent towards actor

(3) Actor unconsciously adjusts his or her behavior ] iii) 2 ways it wont work (1) Observer wants to find real truth (2) Actor wants to prove wrong k) describe what is meant by leaky behaviors. Explain the role of facial expressions, interchannel discrepancies, and paralinguistic expressions, be able to give examples of each, and how each is employed in lie detection (L) i) how do we know if someone is lying to us Transmission of expression (a) given freely intentionally transmitted (b) nonverbal leakage dont intentionally transmit (2) facial expressions- given freely (3) inner channel discrepancies moderate leakage 2 ways of conveying the same message eye contact / positioned away- discrepancy (4) paralinguistic expression- leaky how you say what you say voice pitch goes up- speak slower stumble