social_psychology_notes.doc

Research Paper Outline MERGEFIELD Last Ellmann PAGE \* roman i Research Paper Outline MERGEFIELD Last Ellmann PAGE \* roman i COg soc psych paradigm perceptions, interpretaions, understandings of stimuli and the environment in which they occur that is the major determinant of human social behavior we act towards things based on meaning of those things as we percieve them diff from behaviorsim=humans are passive, and behave according to rewards and punishments, can be conditioned to behave stimulus->response we are no different from other organisms ex. Pavlov?s dogs dog was conditioned to make connection between food and ringing of bell we are us b/c of rewards and punishments we?ve felt cog soc psychs don?t think behaviorism explains complexities of human behavior sufficiently we respond to stimulus b/c of what stimulus means to us stimulus->organism->response we don?t have instincts (which are not under our control). we have impulses, but we can control them we are active element in environment focus shifted on how people think? what?s process of thinking? how does it affect our growth and behavior? humans similar to computers b/c information processors we take in data, analyze it, and act accordingly but we?re not perfect at processing information only as good as cog. capactities are we?re subject to many errors depends on how you learn how to process info women?s ways of knowing (gilligan) women socialized diff from men, so they think different from men people of diff. socioeconomic levels think differently selective perception=can?t attend to all stimuli so we learn what to attend to we select things to pay attention to to narrow down all the stimuli that we pay attention to Processing Error=if not taught what meanings associated with what stimuli, we see things that others don?t Bias=we might be motivated to see things incorrectly we must see ourselves in ways that comfort us...otherwise we feel anxious racism?? ex. self-serving attribution=judgement we make on the basis of our perceptions. these make us feel better about ourselves distortion=anxieties are just distortions anxiety is what you feel when there?s no real threat Heider asked why we make judgements? we must have a coherent understanding of world around us to live we run on decision making capacities we must be able to manipulate the environment to our own advantage we must bea ble to understand the people with whom we?re interacting Jones and Davis studied inference process in Effect-Disposition Process will make judgements of people based on what we see we see an act, and the consequences to that act but we must infer what?s going on in person we travel backwards from behavior and consequences to figure out what?s happening in person?s head Understand 2 things: was person aware of consequences of thier behavior? does this person have the ability to do what they?ve done, and did they do it out of choice? if can answer these yes, it gets you closer to an inference about the person then can infer intention and an internal disposition 9/15 Jones, Effect-Disposition Principle study Gave out 2 diff shopping lists which differed in just one item: ground coffee vs. instant coffee (new, flashy) asked people to characterize the person who made up shopping list ground coffee=industrious, good homemaker, smart shopper (wife) instant coffee=lazy homemaker, bad mother because of our need to understand, we leap to conclusions very quickly we don?t do the same with oursleves though we say ?i do it b/c demands of situation? Harold Kelly did Attribution Theory Discounting Principle=if there is more than one potential cause for an event, then our ability to make inferences about which cause was opperating is impaired its hard to make a judgement Principle of Covariation= 3 diff categories of effects: Entity (stimulus object) could have caused the action (target demanded behavior) Actor is the cause (their personality is reason) Context was the source of behavior perceiver looks for patterns in 3 diff dimensions to figure out which is the right reason (of the 3 above) Distinctiveness=does actor behave in the same way only with respect to this particular entity? Consensus=do the other actors behave the same way toward this entity Consistency=does the actor behave this way at other times/in other situations that are similar McArthur tested covatiation theory handed out hypothetical event: mary laughed uproariously at the comedian last night why did she laugh comedian (entity) Mary (actor) in comedy club (context) which one? depends on levels of (diff scenarios given) distinctiveness- High (didn?t laugh at anyone else) consensus- high (everyone laughing) consistency- high (laughs every time sees comedian) its the comedian then (entity) 61% distinctiveness- low (laughed at everything) consensus- low (only she laughs) consistency- high (laughs every time sees comedian) cause is her 86% (Actor) distinctiveness- high (didn?t laugh at anyone else) consensus- low (only she laughs) consistency- low (usually never laughs) context is cause 72% there is consistency in how we perceive meaning our information processing is subject to bias Weiner (1972) develped typology for behavior when have a task given to you How make sense of outcome? 4 diff sources of success or failure: Ability Effort Task Difficulty Luck these 4 causes can be cross classified in 2 dimensions Stability (ability and effort do not change) Variable (effort and luck) Locus of potential cause (ability and effort are internal to the person) External causes to the person (task diff. and luck) when task is successfully completed, people more likely to make internal attributions for failure, attribute it to external factors we do this because WE MUST LIKE OURSELVES 9/17 sections start next week week 1 done now Self-Attributions=we make inferences about things in our environment Bem says that WE are also objects in our own environment so we can make inferences about ourselves in similar ways that we make them about others so we follow effect-disposition principle to discover what our behavior says about us we try to perceive the meaning of the world to understand it do the same with ourselves this is the basis for froming a cognitive understanding of ourselves Actor-Observer Attribution (Jones + Nisbett 1972) people make diff attributions for their own behavior than they would if someone else did it or if someone saw them do it there?s a pervasive tendency for actors to attribute their own behavior to external causes observers psychologize--they believe that the person did what they did b/c person is that kind of person this happens b.c actor and observer have diff info about actor?s behavior (only actor has info about internal forces) actor knows/remembers their own past whereas observer lacks this info differences in the process in info processing focus on diff aspects of situation perspective for observer environment is stable, actor is dynamic for actor, its the environment that?s changing we must focus on the changes of our environment aspects that call forth our behavior Is what is learned a conglomeration of things or do we impose a structure? We organize our perceptions Schema= a structure of the process of cognition that operates as a framework to organize and interpret our environment schemata are learned, made more complex and sophisticated as we mature use a schema to teach us how to live in the world what info to pay attention to so we can make quicker sense of the world ex. gender (not sex=physiological make up) a socially constructed and shared understanding of what it means to be a man or woman we make ideasa of masculinity and femininity we have not changed much in the most basic understanding of what it is to be a man and a woman Alan Wolfe we live in 3 spheres of society political legal system economic experiences social experiences problem is we take social problems and try to incorporate them into political and economic Schema simplifies things, points out what data is meaningful, data reduction services don?t need to do indepth interview b/c can use gender schema shema also fills in when there?s not enoguh info schema influences what info gets attention, has selective influence on retrieval and organissation of memory, and it fuctions as an interpreter of behavior self fulfilling prophecy (my groups supposed to be bad at this, then does bad) Markus notes that the self is an object for schemata we organize info about ourselves to understand ourselves our cognitive construction of the self is called the Self-Concept COg soc psych paradigm perceptions, interpretaions, understandings of stimuli and the environment in which they occur that is the major determinant of human social behavior we act towards things based on meaning of those things as we percieve them diff from behaviorsim=humans are passive, and behave according to rewards and punishments, can be conditioned to behave stimulus->response we are no different from other organisms ex. Pavlov?s dogs dog was conditioned to make connection between food and ringing of bell we are us b/c of rewards and punishments we?ve felt cog soc psychs don?t think behaviorism explains complexities of human behavior sufficiently we respond to stimulus b/c of what stimulus means to us stimulus->organism->response we don?t have instincts (which are not under our control). we have impulses, but we can control them we are active element in environment focus shifted on how people think? what?s process of thinking? how does it affect our growth and behavior? humans similar to computers b/c information processors we take in data, analyze it, and act accordingly but we?re not perfect at processing information only as good as cog. capactities are we?re subject to many errors depends on how you learn how to process info women?s ways of knowing (gilligan) women socialized diff from men, so they think different from men people of diff. socioeconomic levels think differently selective perception=can?t attend to all stimuli so we learn what to attend to we select things to pay attention to to narrow down all the stimuli that we pay attention to Processing Error=if not taught what meanings associated with what stimuli, we see things that others don?t Bias=we might be motivated to see things incorrectly we must see ourselves in ways that comfort us...otherwise we feel anxious racism?? ex. self-serving attribution=judgement we make on the basis of our perceptions. these make us feel better about ourselves distortion=anxieties are just distortions anxiety is what you feel when there?s no real threat Heider asked why we make judgements? we must have a coherent understanding of world around us to live we run on decision making capacities we must be able to manipulate the environment to our own advantage we must bea ble to understand the people with whom we?re interacting Jones and Davis studied inference process in Effect-Disposition Process will make judgements of people based on what we see we see an act, and the consequences to that act but we must infer what?s going on in person we travel backwards from behavior and consequences to figure out what?s happening in person?s head Understand 2 things: was person aware of consequences of thier behavior? does this person have the ability to do what they?ve done, and did they do it out of choice? if can answer these yes, it gets you closer to an inference about the person then can infer intention and an internal disposition 9/15 Jones, Effect-Disposition Principle study Gave out 2 diff shopping lists which differed in just one item: ground coffee vs. instant coffee (new, flashy) asked people to characterize the person who made up shopping list ground coffee=industrious, good homemaker, smart shopper (wife) instant coffee=lazy homemaker, bad mother because of our need to understand, we leap to conclusions very quickly we don?t do the same with oursleves though we say ?i do it b/c demands of situation? Harold Kelly did Attribution Theory Discounting Principle=if there is more than one potential cause for an event, then our ability to make inferences about which cause was opperating is impaired its hard to make a judgement Principle of Covariation= 3 diff categories of effects: Entity (stimulus object) could have caused the action (target demanded behavior) Actor is the cause (their personality is reason) Context was the source of behavior perceiver looks for patterns in 3 diff dimensions to figure out which is the right reason (of the 3 above) Distinctiveness=does actor behave in the same way only with respect to this particular entity? Consensus=do the other actors behave the same way toward this entity Consistency=does the actor behave this way at other times/in other situations that are similar McArthur tested covatiation theory handed out hypothetical event: mary laughed uproariously at the comedian last night why did she laugh comedian (entity) Mary (actor) in comedy club (context) which one? depends on levels of (diff scenarios given) distinctiveness- High (didn?t laugh at anyone else) consensus- high (everyone laughing) consistency- high (laughs every time sees comedian) its the comedian then (entity) 61% distinctiveness- low (laughed at everything) consensus- low (only she laughs) consistency- high (laughs every time sees comedian) cause is her 86% (Actor) distinctiveness- high (didn?t laugh at anyone else) consensus- low (only she laughs) consistency- low (usually never laughs) context is cause 72% there is consistency in how we perceive meaning our information processing is subject to bias Weiner (1972) develped typology for behavior when have a task given to you How make sense of outcome? 4 diff sources of success or failure: Ability Effort Task Difficulty Luck these 4 causes can be cross classified in 2 dimensions Stability (ability and effort do not change) Variable (effort and luck) Locus of potential cause (ability and effort are internal to the person) External causes to the person (task diff. and luck) when task is successfully completed, people more likely to make internal attributions for failure, attribute it to external factors we do this because WE MUST LIKE OURSELVES 9/17 sections start next week week 1 done now Self-Attributions=we make inferences about things in our environment Bem says that WE are also objects in our own environment so we can make inferences about ourselves in similar ways that we make them about others so we follow effect-disposition principle to discover what our behavior says about us we try to perceive the meaning of the world to understand it do the same with ourselves this is the basis for froming a cognitive understanding of ourselves Actor-Observer Attribution (Jones + Nisbett 1972) people make diff attributions for their own behavior than they would if someone else did it or if someone saw them do it there?s a pervasive tendency for actors to attribute their own behavior to external causes observers psychologize--they believe that the person did what they did b/c person is that kind of person this happens b.c actor and observer have diff info about actor?s behavior (only actor has info about internal forces) actor knows/remembers their own past whereas observer lacks this info differences in the process in info processing focus on diff aspects of situation perspective for observer environment is stable, actor is dynamic for actor, its the environment that?s changing we must focus on the changes of our environment aspects that call forth our behavior Is what is learned a conglomeration of things or do we impose a structure? We organize our perceptions Schema= a structure of the process of cognition that operates as a framework to organize and interpret our environment schemata are learned, made more complex and sophisticated as we mature use a schema to teach us how to live in the world what info to pay attention to so we can make quicker sense of the world ex. gender (not sex=physiological make up) a socially constructed and shared understanding of what it means to be a man or woman we make ideasa of masculinity and femininity we have not changed much in the most basic understanding of what it is to be a man and a woman Alan Wolfe we live in 3 spheres of society political legal system economic experiences social experiences problem is we take social problems and try to incorporate them into political and economic Schema simplifies things, points out what data is meaningful, data reduction services don?t need to do indepth interview b/c can use gender schema shema also fills in when there?s not enoguh info schema influences what info gets attention, has selective influence on retrieval and organissation of memory, and it fuctions as an interpreter of behavior self fulfilling prophecy (my groups supposed to be bad at this, then does bad) Markus notes that the self is an object for schemata we organize info about ourselves to understand ourselves our cognitive construction of the self is called the Self-Concept 9/20 go over notes to understand terms article get writing fellows sheet humans organize perceptions according to schemata Who am I? build answer according to what we learn from others in our lives they are constantly teaching us how to view ourselves must understand to get along it is the primary goal of human development most of this is done in childhood and adolescence self concept=entire collection of thoughts, beliefs, feelings that we have with reference to the self as the object task of childhood is to build a good understanding of ourselves Rosenberg 1979 says self is not just agglomeration of facts, we organize theis understanding we try to make an integrated understanding of us so we can get true apprecitation of whole thing How we build self concept: Content-some elements of the self make up personal identity (attributes that make up physical(height, sex), cognitive(thoughts, belief structures) and emotional(feelings, temperament) parts of self). Social Identity is the socially understood categories that u belong to (race, gender, your role, something that would have no meaning were it not for what it meant to society) Structure Salience-element of self is salient if it is atypical in either a positive or negative way Centrality- element of self concept is central if it is self-defining, if it is an essential part of your make up if a thing is perceived to be real, it?s real in its consequences Consistency-the elements of the self concept hang together in a meaningful and coherent way lots of elements of the self concept have motivational power Dimensions- continuum on which people can be placed according to their sense of socialization Mattering-the extent to which you think you matter. have to learn whether you matter. can be placed on a continuum of (why people go on reality tv) Self-Esteem- global evaluation of the elements of the self. overall do pluses outweigh the minuses Self-COncept Stability- are u the same person from one interaction to the next? or are you fragmented? one person in one circumstance, another in diff circumstance? the above 3 have strong motivational power those with high self esteem labor to keep it high those with low self esteem really want to improve it have to change self to improve self threatens motivation to keep self stable 9/22 look at email (prompt in play for both options for Paper 1) use the terms discussed in paper see attachment VERY IMPORTANT GUIDELINE VERY IMPORTANT want ANALYTICAL in paper, not opinions must substantiate every assertion made in paper (why? what makes it an example) mon 1-2 202 maxcy thurs 1-2:30 at advising central (3rd floor of JWW 313) jukebox, EARS EXTRA CREDIT Planes Perceived Real Self-the self as it appears under your own scrutiny, what you see of yourself cog soc psych idea b/c its YOUR PERCEPTION. the PERCEIVED MEANING that is real to you always come back to this one Potential Self-the self you could be if you put your mind to it look at perceived real self, and decide that that could develop into something else reasonably possible Fantasy Self-the self that we know we can?t be but that it is fun to pretend to be Normative Self- the self that i should be. morally constrained self ex. shouldn?t feel angry, lose temper i should treat myself and others w/ dignity Presentational Self- the self that we allow others to see in a given interaction the parts of ourselves that we choose to highlight Mattering-PRIMITIVELY CRITICAL that we believe we matter. the perception that in any of a variety of ways we make a difference in the world around us. Its the perception that you make a difference that matters. Consists of: Awareness- people acknowledge you, what you see, and the meaning you get from things around you that tell if that you matter shunning-like in the amish. if return after leave, get shunned. completely ignored Importance-the question of whether others invest in you ex. teacher that tutors the student after school gets out Reliance-when people come to you when you have needs out of all the people, I was chosen do people use these to convince themselves that they matter if they don?t feel it? essentially being the outside observer? what about doing things that we don?t like, but feel that we have to? when learning a new thing, is it like being a child again? the greatest authority figure will have the most influence? or are we like ducks, and follow the first one that introduces the topic? do we trust the first one the most b/c he/she ingrained certain ways of thinking into us? not saying no hidden fees as a bank means they you have hidden fees. what about those who need validation from others that they are good and those who are so confident that they are comfortable with themselves? we jump to an answer based on our biases, and skip over the thinking detailedly about it. is the way society acts as a whole the best way to act? is there a best way? something not happening is a good sign in so many cases like antional security, illnesses. 9/24 PAPER to show if understand paradigms understand issue using paradigm better than just using common sense would connect abstaract concepts and process to concrete social issue presented make this connection clear and rigorous understand this issue better by using sociological paradigm focus on tools(concepts and processes) i have for analysis don?t focus on the story (class on analytical writing) need to come up with examples in service of the analysis dont tell 2 page story then analyze it must show that uderstand concepts must show link between abstract and concrete clearly and rigorously examples illustrate concept don?t use all the concepts (can?t) 12 pages show that can identify MOST IMPORTANT concepts for this prompt (intelleectial triage) MUST BE THOROUGH like if someone had no sociological background have bibliography (cite lecture w/ date, books) NOT MLA FORMAT JUST MAKE IT CLEAR STYLE DOESNT MATTER Self Esteem-individual?s positive or negative evaluation of the self AS A WHOLE very powerful force w/in self concept Low self esteem: Consider themselves inadequate, don?t respect themselves, don?t accept who they are, develop chronic tendency to put themselves down, refuse to accept the positives of themselves (b/c need to have consistent view of themself) (It?s a Wonderful Life) (also deals with mattering) HIgh Self Esteem: reasonably satisfied with who they are their perceived real self is not a threat to them do recognize imperfections feel that they are good enough where they see need for mprovement, feel that they are capable of doing it do not think of themselves as perfect Low self esteem linked to anxiety, depression, bad aceademics (self-fulfilling prophecy), low aspirations, alienation, suicide ideation Self CONcept formation Reflected Appraisals (sullivan 1947) way others react to us. people in our life are continually communicationg to us how they see us. we internalsise the appraisals that we get Social Comparisons (festinger 1957) we look at others who are like us and compare ourselves gives some reference Self Attribution (Bem 1967) find out what we are by watching what we do through these processes, we build an idea of ourself Self Concept Disturbance between ages 12-14, kids start to change: physiologically (puberty), hormones are going out of control, menstruation cognitively: can deal with abstractions, no more describing of selves in solely concrete way thought knew who u were, now have to figure this out socially: begin to realize that other people are starting to scrutinize us Social structure changes: lots of different people giving diff reflective appraisals self esteem is lowest, self-concept stability is blown away, much more self concious, greatest levels of depression 9/27 self concept=perceived real self we use what we do to help us understand who we are does either paradigm beleive that there are some things that everyone perceives in the same way from birth? or do we learn them all in the same way Symbolic Interactionism similarity between SI and CSP is that both paradigms, human beings are distinctive b/c of their unique ability to respond to the environment humans are active elements in our environment. we can be proactive. that proactivity is b/c we respond to things according to the meanings that those things have for us CANNOT BLEND THEM BEYOND THIS b/c differences in MEANING where does the meaning come from? CSP say meaning?s integrated in the object, and its our job to perceive the meaning correctly. people see things in diff. ways SI say nothing has automatic meaning. no objective meaning to a thing. meaning must be socially created and socially attached to things. only when theres a consensus about meaning can people interact with each other people collectively create a shared meaning for something in the environment so they can attain their goals Way organisms respond to stimmuli in environment: Direct Response- Immediately (reflexes), don?t think about it Conditioned Response- organism learns an association between two stimuli, and respond to those ex. on golf course, see huge dark cloud, know what to do. conditioned to respond to a stimulus involves the learning of a sign-an indication that events or situations are upcoming making the connection depends on the coincidence of the original stimulsu and the sign itself (thunder means rain) Symbolic Behavior- behavior that uses symbols symbol-an ARBITRARY (not automatic, connection has to be created by someone, has to be a consensus about that connection) sign of an object or event that stands in place of that object or event the organism itself creates the association of the symbol and what it means meaning must be shared by everyone (symbols must be shared) can give meaning to things that are not here physically (my brother) can talk about feelings Language is the most important symbol system we have. it?s an open symbol system (we change the meaning of things) symbols are modifiable