Social Psychology Test 1

-Social Psychology is the science of the social side of life. If we know why people behave in certain ways, we can predict future behavior. Social and personality psychology are linked together. Personality: understand and predict behavior. Social Psychology: Human behaviors in social situations- How our behavior would change under influence of other people. When awake, 90% of the time, you are in a social situation.

-Pelham, Mirenberg, and Jones (2002)- we are all obsessed with ourselves. Look up people's names- pick different spouce, name, occupation, etc. based on first name. Ex: Patrick more likely to marry Patricia, Christine with Christopher, etc. Dennis likely to be a Dentist, Denise likes the city of Denver. Chances are above the chance rate. Not all the time, but likely- we are not aware.

-What brain area responsible for relationship successes/ failures? Research just started. Many people pessimistic about relationships- research has showed that true love can last a lifetime. Recruit people who have been together 20 years or longer and still felt in love. 17 couples brains scanned- asked people to look at photos (spouse, opposite sex friend, or coworker, and a random opposite sex person) Loved ones- wild activity in one area- no response for other pictures. Also scanned a bunch of young couples who just fell in love- lit up same area. The same area is activated when in love and when you do drugs. Helps you feel relaxed and worry-free. Explains why you feel so good when you fall in love. Reward center- falling in love is like getting addicted.

-Natural Selection: How we develop strategies to survive in environment- maximize good things, minimize bad. Change to fit environment better. Basic emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, disgust. Other secondary emotions like guilt and shame. No matter what culture, same basic emotions- same facial expressions and interpretations- hardwired in our genes. Even infants born blind still make same facial expressions- don't need to be taught. Need emotions because you don't need a language- you can see from far away- helps us survive. Only 1 positive primary emotion- knowing something that's not going to be good for you is more important than knowing what's going to be good for you. Human infants are extremely fragile- without help, they won't survive. Human infants had to develop a strategy to ensure survival- cry and smile (attract attention-good feelings). Bond themselves with primary caregiver. Mom and child develop very strong attachment in first year. Up until a certain age, when separated from primary caregiver, they get upset. For animals, looser attachment.-Sexual Strategy: some animals develop things that doesn't do anything to ensure their survival- Peacock tail gets in their way and is cumbersome. It's there to attract mates. Natural selection doesn't explain everything. Major diff. b/w male and female reproduction. Women invest more with offspring- obligated to because of biology. Men only have to provide sperm- doesn't take very long for them to produce sperm or ejaculate. Healthy men: each ejaculate the whole size of american population. Quick and easy for men. Women: 1 egg once a month- from 12-13 until 50ish. Men can do it until 90s. 48 hours/month to get pregnant. Because of this difference, men/women have different sexual strategies. Men want to have sex with a bunch of women, women don't. Women can have about 20 children, men can have a lot of children. Women look for stability and long-term relationships. Women look for trust, someone with resources they are willing to share with you. Emotional infidelity- women will take back after one mess up if they are ready to stay with them the rest of their life. Men get more mad- scared their woman got pregnant with another man's baby.

-Systematic Observation: systematically observe behavior in natural or fabricated settings. Can't invite people to do your study. Semi-systematic- set up to some degree.-Survey: large #s of people answer questions about their behavior.-Correlation: The search for relationships- assesses how one event changes as the other changes.-Experiment

-Falsifiable: could be proven wrong. Not falsifiable: next tuesday, it might rain.-Parsimony: Simplest model possible.

-The search for relationships- assess how one event changes as the other changes. -Properties of a correlation: range from -1.00 to 1.00 Positive/ negative. The farther away from 0, the stronger correlation.

-One or more factors are systematically changed to determine whether such variations affect one or more other variables.-Used to test causality.-Independent variable is systematically changed in an experiment. -Dependent variable is measured. -Random assignment-Other than independent variable, all other factors are consistent. We do not ever like confounds- scientists have to be careful to eliminate confounds so the independent variable is the only thing that's different.

-Can you trust your results?-Internal validity: Study was done properly- have good control, no bias, random assignment, etc.-External validity: generalize findings from lab to real life. Replicate in real life- sometimes findings only occur in lab because everything is so carefully set up.

-1. No unnecessary harm or distress- find it out in real world- surveys, etc.-2. Informed consent- what you're going to do, goals. Don't give out too many details.-3. Debriefing- Tell them feedback.-4. Deception- Is it ethical or not (to lie)? If it doesn't bring about harm and there's no better way, it's okay.-Don't recruit minors/mental disorder without parental/guardian signature.

-18 months old- red dot experiment. Chimpanzees and Dolphins recognize self. Higher level primates have a sense of self.

-17 year olds- identity crisis- adolescents start to seek autonomy and the self starts to come together- lots of tension- normal everyone has a little confusion.

-Personal Identity: Who are you as a person? Intragroup comparison- differentiate you from anyone else- ex: I'm 5 feet 5, adventurous, shy.-Social Identity: What social groups do I belong to? Intergroup comparison- ex: I am an American, buddhist, republican.

-Who I am depends on the situation.-Context ->Highlight what is unique about you->Activate that part of self identity-If you go somewhere and everyone is like you, characteristic will not be highlighted- what will be highlighted is what is unique.

-Individualistic Cultures: Western European, France, Germany, Spain. Independent view of self.-Collectivist Cultures: Eastern Asia, Mexico. Interdependent view of self- other people are part of me. Lower self-esteem- define self in terms of a lot of other people. Everything from people close to you influences how you feel- you aren't happy unless everyone else is in good shape.-Americans, Kenyan undergrads describe themselves in terms of personal characteristics- workers in nairobi (capital city of Kenya), Masai and sambura tribespeople describe themselves in terms of social identity