Social Psychology - Exam 1 Study Guide (Ch 2, 3, 4, 5) (Tina Lyn)

Chapter 2: Methodology

Goals of Social Psychology

● Identify universal properties of human nature that make everyone susceptible to social influence, regardless
of social class or culture.
● Determine psychological process people have in common
● Human experience
Scientific Method
● 1.) Select a topic and review past research
● 2.) Develop a theory and testable hypothesis
● 3.) Select a research method
● 4.) Collect the data
● 5.) Analyze the data
● 6.) Report the results
● 7.) Repeat (replication)
Theory
● Theory - An organized system of ideas that tries to explain why two or more events are related
● Broad statement
● Individuals are unlikely to help when they think someone else will help
● Well-established principle which predicts events in general terms
● Arises from repeated observation and testing
● Incorporates facts, laws, predictions, and tested hypotheses that are widely accepted.
● Extensively tested and is generally accepted
What Makes A Good Theory?
● Explanation or model about how the world works
● 1) They must be verifiable (testable) - Test it with concrete evidence.
● 2) Operational definition (liking) - A description of something in terms of the operations (procedures,
actions, or processes) by which it could be observed and measured. (This person likes that person)
● 3) Falsifiable (why bother) - The logical possibility that an assertion (hypothesis), or theory can be shown
to be false by an observation or experiment.
Hypothesis
● Hypothesis - A specific, testable question about what is expected to happen in a study
● Makes a specific prediction about a specified set of circumstances
● A speculative guess that has yet to be tested
● Is new and relatively untested
● The probability and correction are high
What Makes A Good Hypothesis?
● Hypothesis are specific statements about a behavior
● They can be tested and usually include a clear prediction
● Good Example: Individuals who watch more TV will agree with more prejudicial statements.
● Bad Examples: Individuals who watch more daytime TV will dislike certain groups (too vague).
Individual’s levels of prejudice is related to their experiences in past lives (not testable)
● Hypotheses test a small amount of evidence related to the theory.
The Basic Methods (Observation, Correlation & Experimentation)
● Observational Method - The technique whereby a researcher observes people and systematically records
measurements or impressions of their behavior. It may take many forms, depending on what the researchers
are looking for, how involved or detached they are from the people they are observing, and how much they
want to qualify what they observe.
● Correlational Method - The technique whereby two or more variables are systematically measured and
the relationship between them (i.e., how much one can be predicted from the other) is assessed. People’s
behavior and attitudes can be measured in a variety of ways. (Ex: Researchers might be interested in testing
the relationship between children’s aggressive behavior and how much violent TV they watch). (Ex 2: Does
satisfaction with UAlbany increase with GPA?)
● Experimental Method - The method in which the researcher randomly assigns participants to different
conditions and ensures that these conditions are identical except for the independent variable (the one
thought to have a causal effect on people’s responses).
Correlation Coefficients
● A statistical technique that assesses how well you can predict one variable from another - for example, how
well you can predict people’s weight from their height.
● 3 Types of association:
○ Positive Correlation: Variables increase and decrease together (Ex: Exercise and positive mood
or height and shoe size) (Increases in the value of one variable are associated with increases in
the value of the other variable (+1)).
○ Negative Correlation: Variables increase or decrease in opposite directions (Ex: Elevation and
temperature) (Increases in the value of one variable are associated with decreases in the value of
the other variable (-1))
○ No Correlation: No relationship between variables (0) (Ex: Year in school and height).
○ Represented by correlation coefficient [r].
What is Good About Correlational Research?
● It is easy to collect data
● It is easy to quantify the results (one number)
● It is easy to communicate the results to the public
● Can determine relationships without manipulating either variable
 ● Allows for more naturalistic measurement
● Allows for prediction
● Can predict one variable based on what you know about another variable
Potential Problems?
It is easy to misinterpret…
● Finding: Candy sales are positively correlated with the homicide rate.
● Conclusion?
● Candy makes people homicidal…?
● Reverse Causality: A phenomenon that describes the association of two variables differently than you
would expect (Ex: A does not cause B, instead B causes A) (Interpret: A → B. In truth: A ← B)
● Third Variables: Occurs when an observed correlation between two variables can actually be explained by
a third variable that hasn't been accounted for. (Ex: A does not cause B, instead C causes both A and B) The
sale of candy causes homicides or hot weather [c] causes the sale of candy and homicides (Interpret: A →
B. In truth: B ←→ A ← C → A ←→ B.
Correlational Method Limits
● Correlation does not = Causation - Meaning that when using the correlational method, it is wrong to
jump to the conclusion that one variable is causing the other.
● How do you determine cause and effect? By conducting an experiment
Experimental Research Methods/Methodology
● Demonstrate cause and effect relationships between variables
● Systematically manipulate a variable of interests (Independent Variable) (time spent with others) and
measure the outcome (Dependent Variable) (happiness)
● Ability to draw conclusions
● Methodology
○ Research designed to examine the cause-effect relationships between variables
○ The experimenter randomly assigns participants to different levels of an independent variable and
then tests its influence on a dependent variable.
Features of Experiments
● Independent Variable - The experimental variable that the researcher manipulates
● Dependent Variable - The experimental variable that is measured because it is believed to depend on the
manipulated changes in the independent variable.
● Random Assignment (And why it's important) - Everyone in the population has an equal chance of
taking part in any condition of an experiment. Researchers can be relatively certain that differences in the
participants’ personalities or backgrounds are distributed evenly across conditions.
Kitty Genovese Murder 1962
● Kitty Genovese was attacked while walking back to her apartment and brutally murdered in an alley of an
apartment complex, which the attack lasted 45 minutes.
 ● 38 of her neighbors admitted that they rushed to their windows after hearing Kitty’s screams for help.
● No bystander attempted to help her or call the police.
Latane & Darley (1968)
● Develop a theory: Diffusion of responsibility (bystander effect) caused lack of helping
● Derive a testable hypothesis: As the number of bystanders increases, the amount of helping (giving
assistance) should decrease.
● Independent Variable: # of bystanders
● Four Bystanders
● Two Bystanders
● No Bystanders
● Dependent Variable: # of people helping
● Helping did decrease with an increase in the number of bystanders
● Results supported the hypothesis
● This lends credibility to the theory.
● **Can never prove the theory is correct, only that it passed one test to falsify it. **
Types of Validity
● External Validity - The extent to which results from the study can be generalized (people, situations)
● Generalizability: Can findings be applied to other populations?
● Internal Validity: Making sure that nothing besides the independent variable can affect the dependent
variable from condition to condition. (Requires: Random assignment to conditions (representative),
Identical procedures across conditions (confounds), control extraneous variables)
Types of Realism:
● Mundane Realism: Does this study “look like” the real world?
● Experimental Realism: Does this study “feel like” the real world?
Ethical Issues:
● Informed consent
● IRB
● Deception
● Debriefing
Chapter 3: Social Cognition
Social Cognition - How people think about themselves and the social world: select, interpret, remember, and use
social information = judgments and decisions
● People are generally trying to form accurate impressions of the world and do so much of the time
● Because we’re human, people sometimes form inaccurate impressions
● Fundamental Attributions Error (FAE)
Two Types of Social Cognition
 ● Automatic Thinking: Thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless (Ex: It is
easy to tell the difference between a college classroom and a frat party without thinking).
● Quick and automatic “without thinking” without consciously choosing one’s thoughts, perceptions,
assumptions
○ Unintentional - Involuntary and effortless; Efficient
● We have “automatic pilots” that monitor our environments, draw conclusions, and direct our behaviors
○ Interpreting new environments quickly
○ Who is there (1st day of classes)
○ What is happening
○ What might happen next
○ Often correct
● Controlled Thinking: Thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful; think carefully
about self and environment to decide course of action
● Conscious
● Voluntary
● Intentional
● Imagine stopping and analyzing every new situation
● Meeting a new person and excuse yourself for 15 minutes to analyze what you learned from them; Not very
efficient
● We form impressions quickly and effortlessly without much conscious analysis
● Based on our past experiences, perception and knowledge of the world (construals)
● Why do we not use Controlled Thinking More?
● Social psychologists believe that automatic thinking is much more powerful and prevalent than previously
believed. Some believe that we underestimated the value and power of controlled thinking.
Types of Automatic Thinking
● 1) Automatic Goal Pursuit - A goal is activated, either by conscious or nonconscious means, it will
operate effectively to guide a person’s goal-relevant cognition, affect and behavior from that point on. (Ex:
You are taking a difficult math course in which the professor grades on a curve, guaranteeing that only a
few people will get A’s. A classmate you don’t know very well tells you that he is having a difficult time
with the material. On one hand, you want to be helpful, satisfying your goal of doing well in the class and
are hesitant to hurt your chances by raising someone else’s grade. Which goal do you act on?)
● 2) Automatic Decision Making - The process by which a decision is made by automated means without
human involvement. (Ex: Suppose you are hunting for an apartment and have looked at a dozen
alternatives. You gathered a lot of information – the rents, their size, where they’re located, which ones
have free Internet access, who your neighbors would be and so on. It’s time to make a decision so you sit
down to sift through all of the information so that you can analyze it and make the best choice. But is that
the best way to proceed?)
 ● 3) Automatic Thinking and Metaphors About the Body and the Mind - It is not just schemas that can
be primed and influence people’s judgments and decisions. The mind is connected to the body, and when
we think about something or someone, we do so with reference to how our bodies are reacting, which is
straightforward. (Ex: If we are tired, we might interpret the world more negatively than if we are feeling
peppy and full of energy).
What Are Schemas?
● Schemas - Mental structures that organize our knowledge about the social world, themes or subjects;
centered around specific themes. “Rules”, guidelines or expectations for the social events (cognitive map).
○ Knowledge about many things:
○ Other people, ourselves, Social roles (e.g. what a librarian or engineer is like)
○ Specific events (scripts) (e.g., what usually happens when people eat a meal in a restaurant)
○ Basic knowledge, impressions, used to organize what we know and interpret new situations.
○ Can lead to distortions or incorrect assumptions
● Scripts: Schemas for social events that tell us 1) who is involved and 2) what they should do (movie)
● Roles: Part of the script (Who does what, rules for the part they are playing in the situation)
● Person: Prior knowledge about people (What we think we know about that person or group (stereotypes))
● They are necessary for mental efficiency
● Easy to overwhelm our capacity to process new information
● Need a quick and simple way of dealing with large amounts of social information
● Example: Dating or buying a car
Why Do We Use Schemas?
● 1) For focus, attention and memory 2) Frees up cognitive “resources” - overwhelming 3) Helpful in
confusing situations
● Example: “Take out your wallet” in a store VS. in a dark alley
● Guides affect:
● Example: You see a friend driving behind you in the rear view mirror VS. seeing a police officer driving
behind you in the rear view mirror.
● Schemas are typically useful for:
● 1) Helping us organize information 2) Make sense of the world 3) Fill in the gaps of our knowledge 4)
Confusing situations
● Schemas are important when we encounter information that can be interpreted in a number of ways and
help us reduce ambiguity.
How Do They Affect Perception?
● Two groups of students observe the same exact, 20 minute lecture, but prior to the lecture students are
given different descriptions of the guest lecturer
● Hypothesis: Students told that a speaker is warm will interpret his lecture more favorably and those told
they are a cold person do not receive his lecture favorably, even though both groups hear the same lecture.
Schemas As Memory Guides
● Schemas also help people fill in the blanks when they are trying to remember things and don't remember
exactly.
● We remember some information that we pay attention to and we “remember” other information that was
never there
● Unknowingly added
● Memory reconstructions tend to be consistent with one’s schemas, not the actual event (false memory).
● People who read a story about a marriage proposal can later insert incorrect details (e.g. future plans, roses)
but consistent with a marriage proposal schema.
● The fact that people filled in the blanks in their memory with schema-consistent details suggests that
schemas become stronger and more resistant to change over time.
Schema-Based Distortions
● Misremembering - Seeing things that are not there. Problems?
● First Impressions - The Primacy Effect (Chpt 4).
● Polarization - Biases that exist in your mind. Black or white thinking. “All or none” effect
Stereotypes
● Stereotypes: Widely held, fixed and oversimplified. Applied to specific groups, gender or races. Schemas
are referred to as stereotypes. Applied rapidly & automatically
● Example: Stereotypes about Race and Weapons
● People were significantly more likely to misidentify a tool as a gun when it was preceded by a black face
than when it was preceded by a white face
● Knowledge of a cultural stereotype can influence people in insidious ways, even if the people are not
themselves prejudiced.
Accessibility & Priming
● Accessibility - The extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of people’s minds and likely
to be used when we are making judgments about the social world (Easy to access).
● Schemas can become accessible for 3 reasons:
● 1) Some schemas are chronically accessible due to past experiences (always active & ready) (Example:
Man on bus - family history of alcohol use)
● 2) Something can become accessible because it is related to a current goal (Example: Man on the bus -
Studying for a test in Abnormal Psych or has a mental illness).
● 3) Schemas can become temporarily accessible because of recent experiences (priming) (Example: Man
on the bus - Just finished reading Girl, Interrupted (psychiatric patient) - Seeing a man drinking).
● Priming - The process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept.
(Schema is triggered). It is a good example of automatic thinking because it occurs quickly, unintentionally,
and unconsciously.
● Example: Meet Donald: Ambiguous actions could be positive or negative?
 ● People who previously memorize words like adventurous tend to form positive impressions of him.
● People primed with words like reckless and stubborn from negative impressions.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
● Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - The case whereby people have an expectation about what another person is like,
which causes that person to behave consistently with people’s original expectations, making the
expectations come true.
● Teachers led to believe particular students will bloom:
● 1) Create a warmer emotional climate for those students, giving them more personal attention,
encouragement and support
● 2) Give “bloomers” more challenging material
● 3) Give “bloomers” more and better feedback
● 4) Give “bloomers” more opportunities to respond in class and give them longer to respond
● **Students were randomly assigned to condition**
● Even act in ways that confirm their low expectation of disadvantaged and minority students
● Not as warm
● Even when students showed signs of improvement teachers behaved more coldly.
● Limitations of The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: People’s true nature can win out in social interaction.
Cultural Contributions
● An important source of our schemas is the culture in which we grew up
● Schemas are an important way cultures exert their influence
● Instill mental structures that influence how we understand and interpret the world (construal)
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
● The tendency people have to overemphasize personal characteristics and ignore situational factors in
judging others’ behavior. (Ex: Thinking that a person who didn’t answer your call is rude (internal), but in
reality, they may not have received your message (external).
Types of Heuristics:
● Heuristics -Mental shortcuts; does not guarantee that people will make accurate inferences about the
world. They are sometimes inadequate for the job at hand or are misapplied, leading to fault judgments.
● People use heuristics for a reason: Most of the time, they are highly functional and serve us well.
● Judgmental Heuristics - Mental shortcuts people use to make judgments quickly and efficiently; cannot
consider all options (e.g. “Analysis Paralysis” Never make a decision). (Ex: If we want to know how likely
it is that Jones will pass the course, we might consider the degree to which Jones represents that group of
students who pass).
● Availability Heuristics - A mental rule of thumb whereby people base a judgment on the ease with which
they can bring something to mind. (Ex: When physicians are diagnosing disease, do doctors use the
availability heuristic? Are they more likely to consider diagnoses that come to mind easily? Several studies
of medical diagnoses suggest that the answer is yes).
 ○ People use the availability heuristic to make judgments about themselves
○ Remember examples of their own past assertive behaviors.
○ 6 examples: assertive, it was easy to think of this many examples
○ 12 examples: unassertive, it was difficult to think of this many examples
○ “If I can think of it, it must be important, frequent or true”
○ Medical student syndrome
○ Fears about swimming after watching Jaws
○ Psychology student syndrome
● Representative Heuristic - A mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how
similar it is to a typical case. The more similar an individual is to a typical member of a group, the more
likely they belong to that group. How representative individuals are of a group or stereotype. Do they
resemble a specific population?
● (Example: Are Lulibeth and Tanacia students? Are their ages typical of a student? Are their fashions
typical? Are their “attitudes” typical? Are the rest of their behaviors typical?) If so we can conclude they
are students.
● Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic - Assess probabilities; people start with an implicitly suggested
reference point (the “anchor”) and make adjustments to it to reach their estimate. Number (anchor) is
arbitrary.
● Examples: Estimate the population of Turkey Vs. Actual. Price is Right.
● Judge sentencing a felon after their friend had his 75th birthday
● Without realizing why the number 75 came to mind they might think, “75 is too high. I’ll sentence this
person to 60 years”.
Chapter 4: Social Perception
Social Perception - The study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about other people (e.g. How we
understand others, explain behavior (Cognition = Thinking)
● Why are they the way they are? Why do they do what they do?
● Use observable behavior to explain internal processes
● What people do
● What they say
● Facial Expressions: Emojis
● Gestures
● Tone of voice
● Never truly know
● Form impressions and attributions
● What do we know about people when we first meet them?
● We can communicate without words (Smell, See, Hear, Feel)
Nonverbal Communication
 ● Nonverbal Communication - The way in which people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally,
without words. (Facial expressions, tone, gestures, body positions/movement, the use of touch, gaze).
(Examples: “I’m angry” or “I like you”, personality traits, supplement & accent, microexpressions used to
detect lying)
● Sarcasm is the classic example of verbal-nonverbal contradiction
● Encode: Express nonverbal
● Decode: Interpret meaning
Facial Expressions
● Are facial expressions of emotion universal?
● Yes and No
● 6 major emotional expressions:
● Anger, Happiness, Surprise, Fear, Disgust and Sadness
● Not for: Guilt, Shame, Embarrassment and Pride
● Decoding facial expressions accurately is complicated
● Affect blends occur when one part of the face registers one emotion and another part, a different emotion
● Display rules are particular to each culture and dictate what kinds of emotional expressions people are
supposed to show. (Sad at a funeral, happy at a wedding, attentive at an office meeting)
Effects of Mood on Nonverbal Decoding
● Decoding facial expressions accurately is more complicated than we have indicated, however, for multiple
reasons. One part of their face registers one emotion while another part registers a different emotion. An
affect blend is the expression you may display if a person told you something that was both horrible and
inappropriate – you’d be disgusted with the context and angry that the person told you. A second
complication is that aspects of the same facial expression can have different implications based on context
and other cues.
Attribution Theory
● Attribution Theory - A description of the way in which people explain the causes of their own and other
people’s behavior.
● Fritz Heider (1958) is frequently referred to as the “father” of attribution theory
● “Naive” or “commonsense” psychology
● All people were amateur scientists; understand, explain and predict behavior
● Trying to determine why people do what they do in order to uncover the feelings and traits that are behind
their actions. It helps us understand & predict our social world.
● Explain the CAUSES of our own and other people’s behavior
● Two types: Internal (dispositional) and External (situational)
● Internal Attribution - The inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about
the person, such as attitude, character or personality. (Internal locus of control: tendency to attribute
causality to internal factors (e.g., my ability))
 ● External Attribution - The inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about
the situation he or she is in. The assumption is that most people would respond the same way in that
situation. (External locus of control: tendency to attribute causality to external factors (e.g., luck)).
Attribution in Relationships
● Satisfied spouses tend to:
● Internal attributions: partners’ positive behaviors (e.g. “She helped me because she’s such a generous
person”)
● External attributions: partners’ negative behaviors (e.g. “He said something mean because he’s so stressed
at work this week”)
● Distressed marriages tend to show the opposite:
● External attribution: partners’ positive behaviors (e.g., “She helped me because she wanted to impress our
friends”)
● Internal attributions: negative behaviors (e.g. “He said something mean because he’s a totally self-centered
jerk”)
Actor/Observer Difference
● Actor - A person whose behavior we are trying to figure out or understand
● Observer - A person who is forming the attribution - watching actor
● Target - A person toward whom the actor is behaving
● Difference: We tend to see other people’s behavior as dispositionally caused, while we are more likely to
see our own behavior as situationally caused. Perceptual salience & info availability differ for the actor and
the observer. “You fell; I was pushed.” “I’m good; you got lucky.”
Two-Step Attribution Process (Automatic & Controlled)
● Analyzing another person’s behavior first by making an automatic internal attribution and only then
thinking about possible situational reasons for the behavior, after which one may adjust the original internal
attribution.
● (Slides definition: First we make an internal attribution; we assume that a person’s behavior was due to
something about that person. Second, we attempt to adjust this attribution by considering the situation the
person was in. But we often don’t make enough of an adjustment in this second step) Effortful, requires
motivation & conscious attention.
How We Determine Attributions
● Covariation Model - A theory that states that to form an attribution about what caused a person’s behavior,
we systematically note that pattern between the presence or absence of possible causal factors and whether
or not the behavior occurs.
● We notice and think about more than one piece of information when forming an impression
● Social desirability, desirable = not sure, undesirable = dispositional
● Choice = disposition, if no choice = not sure
● Social Role = consistent = not sure (police), violates = dispositional
 ● Expectation
Perceptual Salience
● Perceptual Salience - The seeming importance of information that is the focus of people’s attention.
● We can’t see the situation, so we ignore its importance. People have perceptual salience for us, not the
situation
● We don’t know the situation, we can’t use that situational information to help us understand behavior
● **Even when we know the situation, we still don’t know how it was perceived (getting an F on the test).
Self-Serving Bias
● Self-Serving Bias - Explanations for one’s successes that credit internal, dispositional factors and
explanations for one’s failures that blame external, situational factors. (WE WON! Sorry you lost).
● Why?
● Basic Human Motives?
● Maintain their self-esteem even if distorting reality
● When we fail at something = external attribution
● If we believe we can improves = internal
● We want others to think well of us
● Impression management
Chapter 5: The Self
What is the Self-Concept?
● Self-Concept Theory - The overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributes.
● Psychologists have studied how people’s self-concept changes from childhood to adulthood by asking
people of different ages to answer the simple question “Who am I?”. Typically, a child’s self-concept is
concrete, with references to clear-cut, easily observable characteristics like age, sex, neighborhood, and
hobbies.
Why is Self-Awareness Important? (Theory)
● Self-Awareness Theory - The idea that when people focus their attention on themselves. They evaluate
and compare their behavior to their internal standards and values. (Ex: You feel that you should quit
smoking, and one day you catch an image of yourself in a store window smoking a cigarette. How do you
think you will feel? Seeing your reflection will likely highlight the disparity between your behavior and
guidelines (e.g., quit smoking), you will do so).
● Self-Awareness is important because it keeps you out of trouble, reminds you of your sense of right and
wrong. When people are self-aware… They follow their moral standards such as avoiding the temptation to
cheat on an exam.
Escaping Self-Awareness
● Diverse activities as alcohol or drug abuse
● Binge eating; sexual promiscuity
● Turning off the internal spotlight
 ● Avoid negative thoughts about oneself
● Self-focus can be aversive
● “The knower” which is the act of thinking about ourselves (“I”) = Identity
Main Functions of the Self
● 1) Self-Knowledge (Reflexive Self) - Understand who we are and organize this information
● 2) Self-Control (Executive Self) - Make plans and executive decisions
● 3) Self-Presentation (Interpersonal Self) - Impression management (Interpersonal Self)
● 4) Self-Esteem (Reflexive Self) - Maintain positive views of ourselves
● 5) Self-Justification - Rationalize our actions
Different Types of Self
● Possible (Ideal) Self- Who we hope to become or desire to be (Related to mood, action, goals; ought self -
who we should be). (Ex: A strong work ethic, attending all classes, reading all assignments, working
diligently, and studying properly for exams).
● The Public Self - Public information about the self, or an integrated view of the self, that is conveyed to
others in action, self-descriptions, appearance and social interactions. (Ex: One’s overt behavior,
mannerisms, stylistic quirks, and expressive qualities)
● The Self-Concept - How we perceive our behaviors, abilities, and unique characteristics. The content of
the self (our knowledge about who we are), the “known” (“Me”) (Ex: “I am a good friend” or “I am a kind
person”)
● The Actual/Behavioral Self - One’s representation of the attributes that one believes one actually
possesses, or that one believes others believe one possesses. (Ex: Intelligence, athleticism, attractiveness,
etc.)
● Nature of the Self
● Situationally Dependent - Malleable - working self concept - multiple selves (Ex: Class clown, Brandon)
● Development of the Self - At or around age 2 (Child’s self-concept is concrete, objective, physical,
relationships) (Mature, emphasis on psychological states, subjective, abstract)
How Do We Gain More Self-Knowledge?
● Introspection - The process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings and
motives. (Ex: Thinking about how you really felt about something, such as figuring out a major? Or why do
you do what you do such as binging a Netflix show instead of studying for a psychology exam?)
● Self-Awareness - The idea that when people focus their attention on themselves. They evaluate and
compare their behavior to their internal standards and values. (Ex: You feel that you should quit smoking,
and one day you catch an image of yourself in a store window smoking a cigarette. How do you think you
will feel? Seeing your reflection will likely highlight the disparity between your behavior and guidelines
(e.g., quit smoking), you will do so).
● Self-Perception - The theory that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer
these states by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs (Ex: We infer our inner feelings
 from our behavior only when we are not sure how we feel. Does behavior really reflect how they feel? The
situation that made them act that way? Different because we make inferences by observing behavior.
● Determining attitudes and preferences by interpreting the meaning of our own behavior. Not sure why we
are feeling a certain way (“I’m laughing. I must think it’s funny”) (“I have a lot of clothes. I must like
shopping”)
○ Independent Variable: (“Have you ever recycled?” Do you always recycle?”)
○ Dependent Variable: Attitude towards recycling
● Social Comparison - The idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves
to other people. (Ex: Feelings, traits and abilities)
● When do people engage in social comparison? And with whom do they choose to compare themselves?
○ When: No objective standard to measure by. Uncertain about yourself. Ambiguous situations
○ With whom: Anyone, Automatic, Similar (Example: Spanish Class)
● If we want to know the top level to which we can aspire, we engage in upward social comparison -
comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are on a particular ability (Motivational)
● (Positive Effects: Hope and Inspiration) (Negative Effects: Dissatisfaction & Envy)
● You’ll feel better about yourself if you engage in downward social comparison - comparing yourself to
people who are worse than you on a particular trait or ability (Ex: self-protective, self-enhancing strategy)
● (Positive Effects: Gratitude) (Negative Effects: Scorn)
Cultural Differences on Self-Concept
● Independent View of the Self - A way of thinking oneself in terms of one’s internal thoughts, feelings, and
actions and not in terms of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other people. (Internal attributions)
● Interdependent View of the Self - A way of defining oneself in terms of one’s relationships to other
people; recognizing that one’s behavior is often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others.
(External attributions)
Self-Schemas
● Self-Schemas - Mental structures that people use to organize their knowledge about themselves and that
influence what they notice, think about, and remember about themselves. (Ex: Exciting or dull; quiet or
loud; healthy or sickly; athletic or non athletic; lazy or active; and geek or jock).
Self-Reference Effect
● Self-Reference Effect - The tendency for people to remember information better if they relate it to
themselves. (Name-letter effect, Elaborative rehearsal, Confirmation Bias, Self-serving) (Ex: Liar sentence:
“This sentence is not true”).
Self-Regulation Theory
● Self-Regulation Theory - A system of conscious, personal management that involves the process of
guiding one’s own thoughts, behaviors and feelings to reach goals. (Can be applied to impulse control,
cognitive bias, goal attainment and motivation) (Ex: We actively regulate or control whether or not we go
to the gym, eat a piece of cake, or have a positive attitude)
Ego Depletion
● Ego Depletion - The controversial idea that self-control or willpower draws upon a limited pool of mental
resources that can be used up. (Ex: If you exhaust yourself doing sprints, you will be less able to perform
other physical tasks).
How Is Self-Control Depleted & Restored and Why It’s Important
● Self-Control Depleted
● Thought Suppression - An individual consciously attempts to stop thinking about a particular thought.
Trying to push thoughts out of our minds. (Ex: People have more energy to engage in self-control in the
morning than they do in the afternoon because by the afternoon they are mentally depleted).
● Self-Control Restored
● Self-Enhancement - The tendency to focus on and present positive information about oneself and to
minimize negative information.
Affective Forecasting
● Affective Forecasting - People’s predictions about how they will feel in response to a future emotional
event. (Ex: You are single and have the opportunity to go out with someone you’ve never met. You come
across this person on a dating website and he or she seems to be nice and good-looking. This is condition
A. You suppose that you don’t know anything about the person – no dating profile – but you know that a
friend likes him or her. This is condition B. Would you rather see the profile or get your friend’s
recommendation, either Condition A or B?)
Self-Serving Bias
● Self-Serving Bias - The tendency people have to seek out information and use it in ways that advance their
self-interest. (Ex: A student who receives an A on an exam and attributes their success to their intelligence
and hard work. However, if they receive a lower grade, they blame the teacher or some aspect of the test).
Self-Serving Attribution Bias
● Self-Serving Attribution - Typical behavior of individuals taking credit for positive outcomes but finding
faults in external circumstances for negative ones (Ex: An athlete is more likely to attribute a good
performance on their own ability, and a poor one on an external cause like the event environment).
● (Internal Attribution - Occurs when a person relates personal reasons to an event’s outcome rather than
associating the situation with external causes).
● (External Attribution - Assigning outcomes to external causes. A person with self-serving attribution bias
will use external attribution in a negative outcome, associating the negative outcome with external causes
rather than themselves).
Better Than Average Effect
● Better Than Average Effect - The tendency for people to perceive their abilities, attributes and personality
traits as superior compared with their average peer. (Ex: If an individual is asked to assess their own skill at
driving compared to the rest of the group, they are likely to rate themself as an above-average driver).
Unrealistic Optimism
 ● Unrealistic Bias - Our tendency to overestimate our chances of positive experiences and underestimate our
chances of negative experiences. (Ex: When people underestimate the likelihood that their marriage will
end in divorce or that they will develop a serious mental condition during their lives).
Overjustification Effect
● Overjustification Effect - The tendency for people to view their behavior as caused by compelling
extrinsic reasons, making them underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic reasons (Ex: If
the children are rewarded for drawing, they are less likely to want to draw for fun in the future).
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation -
● Intrinsic Motivation - The desire to engage in an activity because we enjoy it or find it interesting, not
because of external rewards or pressures. (Ex: Participating in a sport because it’s fun and you enjoy it
rather than doing it to win an award).
● Extrinsic Motivation - The desire to engage in an activity because of external reasons, not because we
enjoy the task or find it interesting. (Ex: A person may wish to complete tasks to acquire stickers, toys,
money, or approval from others).
Impression Management
● Impression Management - The attempt by people to get others to see them as they want to be seen. (Ex: A
person who only tells others of their achievements to appear successful).
● Ingratiation - The process whereby people flatter, praise, and generally try to make themselves likable to
another person, often of higher status (Fulfilling their Basic Human Motives. Insincere).
● Self-Handicapping - The strategy whereby people create obstacles and excuses for themselves so that if
they do poorly on a task, they can avoid blaming themselves (Prevent disappointment). (Ex: An athlete
self-sabotages his performance with self-destructive actions before a big game due to fear of failure).
Rewards
● Task-Contingent Rewards - Rewards that are given for performing a task, regardless of how well the task
is done.
● Performance-Contingent Rewards - Rewards that are based on how well we perform a task. (Less likely
to decrease interest in a task. May even increase interest. Self-interest).
Mindsets
● Fixed Mindset - Set an amount of an ability. Cannot change. Likely to give up or fail
● Growth Mindset - Our abilities are malleable (Cultivate and grow) Mindset affects motivation