Psychology 2070A/B Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Construals, Procedural Justice, Personality Psychology

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2070A/B
• Professor: Taylor Kohut

Document Summary

Psychology: scientific study of behavior & the mind. Curiosity; some of the most important problems are social problems, & we can help solve them (environmental issues; health issues; political issues; relationship issues) Scientific social psychology: social psychology is an experimentally-based science (theories & ideas are based on empirical evidence; Researchers design studies to systematically test interesting questions: goes above and beyond: simply discussing or speculating about possible answers & making assumptions based on common sense . Social psychology"s focus: social psychologists believe it is most important to understand individuals" construal of the social environment (less concerned with the objective properties) Construal: way in which people perceive, comprehend, & interpret the social world (lewin, 1943) Social psychology vs. folk wisdom: folk wisdom is non-empirical commentary or reasoning, problem #1: explanations are speculative; how do you determine which is correct, problem #2: explanations for the same process can contradict each other.