Exam 1 Review
• Purpose: Identify Themes
• Two major sections
– Defining Social Psychology and Research
Methods
– Social Perception

Defining Social Psychology
• What is it?
• How does it differ from other related fields?

Research Methods
• What’s a theory? How is it evaluated
• What’s a Hypothesis?
• How does applied research differ from basic research?
• Conceptual vs. Operational variables?
• Correlational Designs
• Experimental Designs
• How do correlational and experimental research differ?

Research Methods
• In Experiments:
– Random sampling vs. random assignment
– Why is random assignment important?
– What is an independent variable? Dependent variable?
– Be able to identify and translate conceptual variables to operationalized variables

Theme of this section of course: Social Perception
• How do we perceive:
– Ourselves?
– Other individuals?
– Other groups?

• Affect: How do we evaluate ourselves, enhance our self-images, and defend against threats to our self-esteem?
• Behavior: How do we regulate our actions and present ourselves according to interpersonal demands?
• Cognition: How do we come to know ourselves, develop a self-concept, and maintain a stable sense of identity?

The ABCs of the Self
• Cognition: Self-concept
• Affect: Self-esteem
• Behavior: Self-presentation

Self-concept
• Define
• Cocktail party effect
• Self-schemas
• Sources of the self-concept

Sources of the Self-Concept
• Source 1: Introspection
– Does it lead to an accurate self-concept?
– Affective forecasting & durability bias
• Source 2: Perceptions of our own behavior
– Self-perception theory (Bem)
– Self-perception of emotion
– Intrinsic/Extrinsic motivation
– Overjustification effect

Sources of the Self-Concept
• Source 3: Other people
– Social comparison theory (Festinger)
– Two-factor theory of emotion (Schacter)
• Source 4: Autobiographical memories
– Flashbulb memories
– Self-serving distortions of memories (e.g., high school grades)
• Source 5: Culture
– Individualistic vs. Collectivistic Orientations

Self-esteem
• What function does SE serve?
– Need for social belonging/acceptance
– Terror Management Theory
• Influences of Culture
• Self-discrepancy theory

– Public vs. private self-consciousness
• Self-regulation
• Ironic processes
– Trying to inhibit a thought, feeling, or behavior sometimes backfires

Mechanisms of Self-
Enhancement
• Self-serving cognitions
– Misremembering SAT scores
• Self-handicapping
• BIRGing
• Social comparison

Self-presentation
• In book, focus on:
– Strategic self-presentation strategies;
• Self-monitoring
• Ingratiation
• Self-promotion
• Self-verification

Second Topic: Person
Perception
• Attribution biases
• Observation
• Confirmation biases

Attribution Theories
• Internal/Person Attributions
 e.g., personality, ability, attitude
• External/Situational Attributions
 e.g., other people, luck, pressure,

Attribution Biases and Errors
• Kelley’s covariation theory
• Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
• FAE and culture
• Actor-observer bias
• Self-serving attribution bias

Observation
• Superficial features
– E.g., baby-facedness
• Nonverbal behaviors
– What functions are served?
– Lie detection

Information Integration
• Priming
• Implicit Personality Theories
– Central traits
– Primacy

discredited information
• Hypothesis confirmation bias
• Self-fulfilling prophecy

• Stereotypes & Prejudice
• Intergroup Interactions

How stereotypes form
• Ingroups and outgroups
• Social categorization
• Outgroup homogeneity

How stereotypes survive
• Illusory correlations
• Attributions
• Subtyping and contrast effects
• Self-fulfilling prophecy

Automaticity of Stereotypes:
Influencing Factors
• Amount of exposure to the stereotype.
• The kind and amount of information the perceiver encounters.
• The perceiver’s motivational goals.
– e.g., Protecting one’s self-esteem or self-image.

Overcoming Stereotypes
• How much personal information do we have about someone?
• What is our cognitive ability to focus on an individual member of a stereotyped group?
• What is our motivation level to form an accurate impression of someone?
• How motivated are we to avoid applying negative stereotypes?

Prejudice:
The emotional component
• Competition-based prejudice
• Explicit vs. Implicit prejudice

Competition-based prejudice
• Realistic conflict theory
– Cotton prices and lynchings

– Ambivalent Sexism
– Modern Racism
• Implicit Attitudes

• Explicit Attitudes
– Operate at conscious level
– Best measured by traditional, selfreport measures
• Implicit Attitudes
– Function in an unconscious & unintentional manner
– How do we measure??

Implicit Prejudice
• Unconscious, unintentional, automatic
• How is it measured?
– IAT
– Bona fide pipeline
– fMRI

How Stereotypes
Affect their Targets
• Stereotype Threat
– How does it operate?

Reducing prejudice
• Jigsaw Classroom