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BIRGing

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A process of improving our self-esteem by basking in the reflected glory of other people and groups.

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Deindividuation

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the loss of self-awareness and individual accountability in groups

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Downward Social Comparison

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comparing ourselves to people who are worse than we are on a particular trait or ability

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Narcissism

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a personality trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration and self-centeredness

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Private Self-Consciousness

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The tendency to introspect about our inner thoughts and feelings

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Public Self-consciousness

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The tendency to focus on our outer public image and to be particularly aware of the extent to which we are meeting the standards set by others

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Self

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Our sense of personal identity and of who we are as individuals

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Self-awareness

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The extent to which we are currently fixing our attention on our own self-concept

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self-complexity

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The extent to which individuals have many different and relatively independent ways of thinking about themselves.

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self-concept

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A knowledge representation that contains knowledge about us, including our beliefs about our personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals, and roles, as well as the knowledge that we exist as individuals.

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self-consciousness

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Self-awareness as a result of our concerns about being observed and potentially judged by others.

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self-esteem

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The positive or negative evaluations that we make of ourselves

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self-monitoring

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The tendency to be both motivated and capable of regulating our behavior to meet the demands of social situations.

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self-presentation

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The tendency to portray a positive self-image to others, with the goal of increasing our social status.

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self-reference effect

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The ability to well remember information that relates to the self.

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self-schema

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One of the many organized cognitive aspects of the self-concept

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social comparison

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The process of learning about our abilities and skills, about the appropriateness and validity of our opinions, and about our relative social status by comparing our own attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those of others.

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social identity

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The positive emotions that we experience as a member of an important social group.

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social status

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The extent to which we are viewed positively and esteemed by others.

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upward social comparison

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Social comparison with those we perceive as better off than we are.

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HPA axis

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A physiological response to stress involving interactions among the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands.

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amygdala

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The region in the limbic system that is primarily responsible for regulating our perceptions of, and reactions to, aggression and fear.

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anxiety

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A psychological disorder that may be accompanied by a number of physical symptoms, including diarrhea, upset stomach, sweaty hands, shortness of breath, poor concentration, and general agitation.

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arousal

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The changes in bodily sensations caused by the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, including increased blood pressure, heart rate, perspiration, and respiration.

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basic emotions

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The emotions of anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise that are based primarily on the arousal produced by the SNS and that do not require much cognitive processing.

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cortisol

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A stress hormone that releases sugars into the blood to help prepare the body to respond to threat.

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daily hassles

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Our everyday interactions with the environment that are essentially negative.

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depression

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An affective disorder in which people experience sadness, low self-esteem, negative thoughts, pessimism, and apathy.

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fight-or-flight response

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An emotional and behavioral reaction to stress that increases the readiness for action. (More common in men)

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general adaptation syndrome

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The three distinct phases of physiological change that occur in response to long-term stress: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

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misattribution of arousal

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The incorrect labeling of the source of the arousal that we are experiencing.

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optimism

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A general tendency to expect positive outcomes.

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parasympathetic nervous system (PNS)

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The division of the autonomic nervous system that is involved in resting, digesting, relaxing, and recovering.

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post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

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A medical syndrome that includes symptoms of anxiety, sleeplessness, nightmares, and social withdrawal.

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secondary emotions

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Emotions that provide us with more complex feelings about our social worlds and that are more cognitively based—for example, guilt, shame, and embarrassment.

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self-efficacy

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The belief in our ability to carry out actions that produce desired outcomes.

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self-regulation

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The process of setting goals and using our cognitive and affective capacities to reach those goals.

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stress

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The physical and psychological reactions that occur whenever we believe that the demands of a situation threaten our ability to respond to the threat.

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sympathetic nervous system (SNS)

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The division of the autonomic nervous system that is involved in preparing the body to respond to threats by activating the organs and the glands in the endocrine system.

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tend-and-befriend response

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A behavioral reaction to stress that involves activities designed to create social networks that provide protection from threats. (More common in women)

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well-being

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The sense of satisfaction with one's everyday experience.

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accommodation

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The process that occurs when existing schemas change on the basis of new information.

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anchoring and adjustment

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The tendency to weight initial information too heavily, insufficiently moving our judgment away from it

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assimilation

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The process that occurs when existing knowledge influences new information in a way that makes the conflicting information fit with existing knowledge, thus reducing the likelihood of change.

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associational learning

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Learning that occurs when an object or event comes to be associated with a natural response, such as an automatic behavior or a positive or negative emotion.

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automatic cognition

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Thinking that occurs out of our awareness, quickly, and without taking much effort.

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availability heuristic

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The tendency to make judgments of the frequency of an event or the likelihood that an event will occur according to the ease with which examples of the event can be retrieved from memory.

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base rates

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The likelihood that events occur across a large population.

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cognitive accessibility

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The extent to which knowledge is activated in memory and thus likely to be used in perception.

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cognitive heuristic

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An information-processing rule of thumb that enables us to think in ways that are quick and easy but may sometimes lead to error.

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conditioning

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The ability to connect stimuli (the changes that occur in the environment) with responses (behaviors or other actions).

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confirmation bias

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The tendency for people to favor information that confirms their expectations, regardless of whether the information is true.

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controlled cognition

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Deliberate, effortful thinking about a topic.

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counterfactual thinking

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The tendency to think about events according to "what might have been."

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false consensus bias

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The tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people are similar to us.

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learning

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Relatively permanent change in knowledge that is acquired through experience.

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observational learning (modeling)

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Learning that occurs through exposure to the behavior of others.

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operant learning

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The principle that experiences that are followed by positive emotions (reinforcements or rewards) are likely to be repeated, whereas experiences that are followed by negative emotions (punishments) are less likely to be repeated.

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prefrontal cortex

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The part of the brain that lies in front of the motor areas of the cortex and that helps us remember the characteristics and actions of other people, plan complex social behaviors, and coordinate our behaviors with those of others.

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priming

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The technique of temporarily bringing information into memory through exposure to situational events.

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processing fluency

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The ease with which we can process information in our environments.

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representativeness heuristic

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The tendency to base our judgments on information that seems to represent, or match, what we expect will happen while ignoring more informative base-rate information.

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salient

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Attracting attention—for instance, things that are unique, negative, colorful, bright, or moving.

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self-fulfilling prophecy

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An effect that occurs when our expectations about others lead us to behave toward those others in ways that make those expectations come true.

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social cognition

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Mental activity that relates to social activities and helps us meet the goal of understanding and predicting the behavior of ourselves and others.

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affect

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The feelings we experience as part of our everyday lives.

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attitude

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Knowledge that includes primarily a liking or disliking of a person, thing, or group.

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behavioral measure

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A measure designed to directly measure an individual's actions.

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collectivism

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Cultural norms, common in Eastern countries, that indicate that people should be more fundamentally connected with others and thus oriented toward interdependence.

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common-causal variable

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In a correlational design, a variable that is not part of the research hypothesis but that causes the variables of interest to be correlated, thus producing a correlation between them.

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conceptual variable

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A description of the characteristics that social psychologists try to measure.

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correlational research

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Research that involves the measurement of two or more relevant variables and an assessment of the relationship between the variables.

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cover story

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A false statement of what the research is really about.

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culture

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A group of people, normally living within a given geographical region, who share a common set of social norms, including religious and family values and moral beliefs.

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dependent variable

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In an experiment, the variable that is measured after the manipulations have occurred.

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electroencephalography (EEG)

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A technique that records the electrical activity produced by the brain's neurons through the use of electrodes that are placed around the research participant's head.

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emotion

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A brief, but often intense, mental and physiological feeling state.

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empirical

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Based on the collection and systematic analysis of observable data.

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evolutionary adaptation

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The assumption that human nature, including much of our social behavior, is determined largely by evolution.

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experimental confederate

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A person who is actually part of the experimental team but who pretends to be another participant in the study.

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experimental research design

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Research that includes the manipulation of a given situation or experience for two or more groups of individuals who are initially created to be equivalent, followed by a measurement of the effect of that experience.

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external validity

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The extent to which the results of a research design can be generalized beyond the specific settings and participants used in the experiment to other places, people, and times.

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factorial research design

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An experimental research design that uses two or more independent variables.

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falsifiability

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When the outcome of the research can demonstrate empirically either that there is support for the hypothesis (i.e., the relationship between the variables was correctly specified) or that there is actually no relationship between the variables or that the actual relationship is not in the direction that was predicted.

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field experiment

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Experimental research that is conducted in a natural environment, such as a school or a factory.

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fitness

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The extent to which having a given characteristic helps the individual organism to survive and to reproduce at a higher rate than do other members of the species who do not have the characteristic.

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functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

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A neuroimaging technique that uses a magnetic field to create images of brain structure and function.

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hindsight bias

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The tendency to think that we could have predicted something that we probably would not have been able to predict.

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independent variable

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In an experiment, the variable that is manipulated by the researcher.

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individualism

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Cultural norms, common in Western countries, that focus primarily on self-enhancement and independence.

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ingroup

answer

Other people whom we view as being similar and important to us and with whom we share close social connections.

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internal validity

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The extent to which changes in the dependent variable in an experiment can confidently be attributed to changes in the independent variable.

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kin selection

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Strategies that favor the reproductive success of one's relatives, sometimes at a cost to the survival of the individual.

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meta-analysis

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A statistical procedure in which the results of existing studies are integrated to draw new conclusions about a research hypothesis.

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Mood

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The positive or negative feelings that are in the background of our everyday experiences.

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observational research

answer

Research that involves making observations of behavior and recording those observations in an objective manner.

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operational definition

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The method that social psychologists use to measure a conceptual variable.

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other-concern

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The motivation to affiliate with, accept, and be accepted by others.

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random assignment to conditions

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The most common method of creating equivalence among the experimental conditions before the experiment begins.

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reciprocal altruism

answer

The mutual, and generally equitable, exchange of benefits between people.

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replication

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The repeating of research.

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research hypothesis

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A specific and falsifiable prediction regarding the relationship between two or more variables.

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schema

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A knowledge representation that includes information about a person or group.

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self-concern

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The motivation to protect and enhance the self and others who are close to us.

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self-report measure

answer

A measure in which individuals are asked to respond to questions posed by an interviewer or on a questionnaire.

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social cognition

answer

Mental activity that relates to social activities and that helps us meet the goal of understanding and predicting the behavior of ourselves and others.

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social exchange

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The sharing of goods, services, emotions, and other social outcomes among people.

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social influence

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The processes through which other people change our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and through which we change theirs.

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social neuroscience

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The study of how our social behavior both influences and is influenced by the activities of our brain.

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social norms

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The ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that are shared by group members and perceived by them as appropriate.

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social psychology

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The scientific study of how we feel about, think about, and behave toward the people around us and how our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are influenced by those people.

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social situation

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The people with whom we interact every day.

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social support

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The comfort that we receive from the people around us—for instance, our family, friends, classmates, and coworkers.

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Triplett 1897-1898

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Noticed when people were racing or riding bikes with other people they had faster times. Had people reel a fishing reel either alone or with other people Learned that behavior isn't caused by 1 factor.

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Kurt Lewin's equation

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B= f(person*environment)

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Why do we need social science?

answer

Common sense/ intuition errors o Birds of a Feather vs. Opposites Attract Behavioral causes are often counterintuitive. o Underestimate the power of the situation o Overestimate contribution of personality attributes to behavior

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Goals of social psych

answer

Describe, predict, explain causality

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Three major research design

answer

Descriptive, Correlational, Experimental

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Descriptive Research Design

answer

• State of one variable • Defined sample • No causal interference • Describe

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Correlational

answer

• Relationship between 2 or more variables • No causal interference Can be used to predict.

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Experimental

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• Variable X causes change in variable Y • Causal interference

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Reactance theory

answer

Perception of threat to freedom motivated to restore freedom.

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Associative links

answer

Things that have been paired together so much that it's instantaneous , connections in memory that tie one memory, or concept, to another.

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Associative networks

answer

o Beliefs o Mental representations of memories o Attitudes o Goals o Behavioral scripts o Spreading activation

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Spreading activation

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Think of one thing and all the things related to it pop up. Like a stream of consciousness .

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Semantic link

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Organized by common meaning

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Affective link

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Organized by positive or negative feelings

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3 Basic cognitively stored motivations

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Accuracy, Bias, effort

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UNC Faculty member, Keith Payne

answer

o Automatic and controlled self regulation in stereotyping o When self regulation was automatic then there was less stereotyping in both groups. o Depleted group stereotyped more than the non-depleted group

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Affect as information theory

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Affect response as evidence in judgments, people use current emotional state to make judgments and appraisals even if they do not know the source of their moods

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Sinclair: Halo Effect

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o When someone is attractive you think they are a better person. Unless you are in a bad mood.

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Janis and King

answer

gave Pepsi and Peanuts to interviewers and the people that received the favor of the Pepsi and peanuts gave more positive outcomes

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Marks and Matthew

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characteristics of attention o Manipulated mood by showing people pictures and measuring attention

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Schacter & Singer (1962)

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2-component model of emotions o Two stages of emotions • Physiological arousal • Cognitive interpretation of the arousal which develops the emotion o Because arousal generally comes first we can misattribute that arousal

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Dutton&Aron (1974)

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Had undergraduate males walk across a nice bridge and a scary bridge and then had a sexy lady greet them. The one's on the scary bridge called the sexy lady back more

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Cantor, Zillman and Bryan

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Has men run on a treadmill for 1 minute and then had them rest for 1, 5 and 9 minutes. The group that rested for 1 min knew why they were aroused so the didn't like the porn. 5 mins liked the porn and the 9 min the arousal had worn off.

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Self-fulfilling prophecy

answer

• Not nice to people you don't think like you, you act rude, they exclude you, you feel worse. • Can be positive too.

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The positive side of stress

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o Evolutionarily adaptive • Is a kind of "early alarm system" • Experience alarm and reaction, to a threat.

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Self-perception theory (Bem, 1972)

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Behavior informs our attitudes

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Wells and Petty study (1980)

answer

People were told they were testing headphones. There was a message played on the headphones. One group just listened, and another shook their head yes and another shook their head no. The group who shook yes, agreed more.

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Higher self complexity

answer

o Lower stress and illness o Greater tolerance for frustration o More positive reactions o If you have a lot of different "you's" and one thing sucks you have other things to focus on it

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