PSY BEH 104S Study Guide - Final Guide: John Bargh, 2003 Invasion Of Iraq, Subliminal Stimuli
1 Jun 2018
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P104S: The Social Animal Fall 2017 Midterm and Final Study
Guide
Introduction:
➔ What is social psychology?
◆ The scientific study of what people do around each other
◆ “Anything a social psychologist studies”
◆ “The scientific study of how people think about, influence and relate to one
another”
◆ “The scientific”
➔ How does it differ from other subfields in psychology (e.g. abnormal,
personality, cognitive psychology) and from other fields in general (e.g.
anthropology, sociology)?
◆ Abnormal -- SP is interested in everyday behavior, but also atypical, abnormal
events (SP looks at how everyday experiences might lead someone to
aggressive behavior)
● SP studies a lot of why in regard to everyday things, issues and feelings
(why we fight, why we love, religion, etc.)
◆ Cognitive -- SP is interested in cognition - social cognition and behavior (how
people think and influence, thoughts and feelings) | cognition is built in SP
◆ Personality -- are you the same in all situations? How two people can behave
differently in the SAME situation
● SP is interested in How people behave in different situations/in the
columns how situations lead people to respond similarly to one another/
in the rows how people respond differently than others, but consistently
across situations
◆ SP is interested in situational behavior
◆ Anthropology -- attributing human characteristics to nonhuman amenities
● Getting mad at an object (computer, laptop or phone)
● Seeing religion in everyday things
● Perceiving humanness in other kinds of things
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
◆ Sociology -- Sociology? - study groups
● SP interested in individual behavior
➔ What is the person x situation matrix and how does it relate to personality
and social psychology?
◆ it is interested in how people respond differently across all situations
◆ social psychology is interested in situational behaviors
➔ Four themes to keep in mind: importance of construal, culture, natural
selection, and people
(1) Construal: subjective vs. objective situations -- this applies to social
psychology because our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are
influenced by real or imagined responses
● Stimulus (observed behavior and situational context) -> meaning? -> Response
(emotional reactions and overt behavior)
● “If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences” - Thomas
and Thomas (1923)
(2) Culture:
● Humans are “Cultural Animals”
● Key Cultural Differences:
● Individualism (independent,
western-european culture,
self as distinct from others,
desire to distinguish,
egalitarian, thinking entity-
based)
● Collectivism
(interdependent, Eastern,
Asian, Latin cultures, self
linked to others, desire to fit
in, hierarchical, holistic
thinking)
● research has found that culture differences go far deeper than beliefs and
values = they extend all the way to the level of fundamental forms of self-
conception and social existence
(3) Natural Selection: Evolution vs. Culture?
- Evolutionary approach emphasizes continuity with other species, cultures.
Functionalists Logic - functions in behaviors that served us in evolutionary past
- Evolution ⇏ strict genetic determinism
- Evolution not incompatible with cultural perspective
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
(4) People:
- Humans are “Ultra-social”
- Almost unique as a species
- We are driven by social concerns and how we appear and socialize to others
- Some species are ultra-social
Research Design:
➔ What are the three goals of science?
3 Goals of Science
➔ Description of Events
● Define, classify, categorize
➔ Prediction of Events
● Generate hypotheses
● Extremely useful at a practical level
➔ Explanation of Events
● Knowing that vs. knowing why
● Striving to get to the level of causation
➔ What are the key aspects of experimental and correlational studies and
how do they differ?
● in correlational research: psychologists simply determine whether a
relationship b/w two or more variables exists; no random assignment
● Correlational research usually cannot provide convincing evidence that there is a
causal relationship because of the possibility of self-selection
● Correlational Research
- Variables measured, no manipulation
- Can tell direction and magnitude of relation
- Gets you to the level of predication
- Third variables, confounds
- CAN’T INFER CAUSATION FROM CORRELATION
● experimental research: enabling investigators to make strong inferences about
different situations or conditions affect people’s behavior; random assignment
● Experimental Research
- Independent vs. dependent variables
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
P104s: the social animal fall 2017 midterm and final study. The scientific study of what people do around each other. The scientific study of how people think about, influence and relate to one another . Abnormal -- sp is interested in everyday behavior, but also atypical, abnormal events (sp looks at how everyday experiences might lead someone to aggressive behavior) Sp studies a lot of why in regard to everyday things, issues and feelings (why we fight, why we love, religion, etc. ) Cognitive -- sp is interested in cognition - social cognition and behavior (how people think and influence, thoughts and feelings) | cognition is built in sp. How two people can behave differently in the same situation. Sp is interested in how people behave in different situations/in the columns how situations lead people to respond similarly to one another/ in the rows how people respond differently than others, but consistently across situations.
