PSYC 2103 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Arousal, Social Class, Norm Social
PSYC 2103
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Lecture 1
What is Social Psychology?
- The scientific study of how people think about, influence and relate to one another
- The scientific study of the ways in which most individuals are affected by their social
situation
Related disciplines
- Personality psychology puts more emphasize on individual differences whereas social
psychology is interested in how the average individual would react to a social situation
- Social psychology tens to focus more on a specific group and look at larger influences
(gender, social class, ethnicity, etc.) than sociology
- Social work takes things you learn in social/personality psychology/sociology and apply
it
Hindsight bias: “I knew it all along effect” – once you know the answer it seems obvious
Ease of processing bias: If material seems easy when we first learn it, we tend to think we will
remember it very well
Depth processing: The more you think about something or the more examples you come up
with, the better you will remember it
Field study: You go to the natural environment and study the behavior as it naturally occurs
Lab study: Controlled situation where you set up the environment
Experimental study: You randomly assign people to conditions; there must be a control group
Non-experimental study: You don’t put anyone into groups (Surveys, observational study, etc.)
Lecture 2
Self- concept: An internal summary of who you are
Self-schema: The aspects of yourself that are most central to you, they describe you very well
and are important to your central self. Often how you would describe yourself
Temporal self-comparison: We compare our feelings about our present self to that of our past
self and usually we feel better. If you are less happy about your past self, you will
perceive that time as being further away
Possible selves: Vision of what we could possible be like in the future, includes both hopes and
fears
Why do we form a self-concept?
- It helps us understand our own behaviors
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- Can guide our motivation and help us figure out where we want to allude our time
- Sense of continuity over time
- Aids in processing information and helping our memory
- Helps us assess others because we tend to notice and remember things that are central to
ourselves on other people
Self-Reference: We remember information particularly well if it is connected to ourselves
The working self-concept:
- Varies due to the presence of others
o We tend to compare ourselves spontaneously to those around us and depending on
whether we perform better or worse than others, this will influence how we feel at
that moment about ourselves
- Varies due to imagined presence of others
o Just thinking about other people can affect our self-concept
- Varies due to our self-presentation
o If we talk about ourselves in a positive way, we tend to think about ourselves in a
more positive way
- Chronic variability
o High self-monitor: Tend to pay attention to themselves and what they should do
in every situation so they have variable personalities. Also tend to have a lot of
friends but those friends are compartmentalized
o Low self-monitor: Very stable people with stable behaviors and self-concept.
Tend to have fewer friends but these friends tend to be closer
- Cultural variations
o Individualistic cultures tend to have very individualistic views of themselves and
one self-concept
o Collectivist cultures tend to believe “Who I am very much depends on who I am
with”
How well do we know ourselves?
- We believe we know ourselves very well
o We are better at predicting our own internal characteristics (anxiety/optimism)
than predicting external characteristics
o Peer rating is just as good, if not better at predicting external behaviors
(Leadership or talkativeness)
- Outside observers tend to be better predictors of highly desirable traits than ourselves, we
tend to exaggerate highly desirable traits
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The scientific study of how people think about, influence and relate to one another. The scientific study of the ways in which most individuals are affected by their social situation. Personality psychology puts more emphasize on individual differences whereas social psychology is interested in how the average individual would react to a social situation. Social psychology tens to focus more on a specific group and look at larger influences (gender, social class, ethnicity, etc. ) than sociology. Social work takes things you learn in social/personality psychology/sociology and apply it. Hindsight bias: i knew it all along effect once you know the answer it seems obvious. Ease of processing bias: if material seems easy when we first learn it, we tend to think we will remember it very well. Depth processing: the more you think about something or the more examples you come up with, the better you will remember it.
