2/27-2/29: Social Psychology- Biases and Heuristics (chapter 3 Myers)

Social Cognition

• Social Cognition- applying cognitive psychology  to social world
• how we process info on the social world; involves other people
• what factors of the situation affect an average person's behavior

Assumptions about Social Cognition

• Motivated to Make Sense
• via seeing patterns in the social world
• World loaded with Info
• far more info than you can process; everything = info
• accustomed to process info in specific way
• Limited Capacity
• brains have limits that incoming info cannot be fully processed
• Cognitive Miser
• greatly oversimplify info and process as much as needed
• assumption and empirically based

3 types of Simplification Strategies

• Dispositional Inference Biases
• Confirmatory Biases
• Cognitive Heuristics

Dispositional inference biases

• Dispositional inference- behavior seen as caused by persons' personality
• one instance of a person leads you to define that behavior by their personality
• person's sad but you don't know that they failed an exam but you think that that's their personality
• first pass
• Fundamental attribution error- bias toward person-based inferences

Jones and Harris (1967)

• Had to write pro/anti Castro essays
• Received free/forced choice manipulation
• free to write pro- group A
• free to write anti- group B
• forced to write pro- group C
• forced to write anti- group D
• Rated debater's actual attitude toward Castro
• Results: Anti  0-100  Pro
• Group A  = 58
• Group B = 22
• Group C = 42
• Group D = 22
• Take-home lesson
• Actor- observer bias

• Actor-observer bias: behavior of others due to personality; my behavior due to situation
• situation affects your behavior but everyone else's behavior is their personality
• represented in language
• Confirmatory Bias: interpret, seek, and create info that verifies existing beliefs
• Interpret
• Seek
• Create

• Darley and Gross (1983)
• Experiment associated with Confirmatory bias
• girl from background (told rich/ told poor) does task on video
• Results: 
• high expectation/no watch =  grade 4.2
• low expectation/no watch = 3.9
• high expectation/ watch = 4.8
• low expectation/ watch = 3.5
• Take home lesson
• Expectation drives people's perception
• Synder and Swan (1978) 
• interviewer/interviewee roles
• select list of possible questions
• before selection, subjects told the other was extrovert/introvert
• Results:
• Extravert: chose extravert-oriented questions ( how do you liven up party?)
• Intravert condition: chose introvert- oriented questions (have you felt left out?)
• Self-fulfilling prophesy: inaccurate expectation leads to expectation-consistent behavior
• you think person's going to act in specific way, you behave in a way that would make them respond that way
• Synder, Tanke, and Bersheid (1977) [self-fulfilling prophesy]
• phone conversation with woman
• shown pic of attractive/unattractive partner
• pics not of subjects
• Females' responses coded for openness and warmth
• Result
• 'attractive' - more open and warm response 

Cognitive Heuristic

• Cognitive heuristic - mental shortcut
• makes impressions and judgments
• Outline
• Anchoring and adjustment heuristic
• Representativeness heuristic
• Availability heuristic
• Straightness heuristic
• Anchoring and Adjustment heuristic- anchor/begin from rough estimate, then adjust
• setting the bar = anchor; working up or down from bar = adjustment
• anchor = often ourselves
• ex: roommate offers blind date with girl who looks like jessica alba
• anchor = jessica alba adjustment = girl's looks
• disappointment with her not comparing then leads to self-fulfilling prophecy
• ex: roommate says ellen is smart
• anchor = my own intelligence  adjustment = her actual intelligence
• Representative heuristic- likelihood judgments are based on matching a stereotype
• Conjunction error- combo of two events are thought to be more likely than two independent events
• in reality it is the same probability
• ex: outgoing extravert with love of books
• probability of wanting to become engineering major
• probability of wanting to become engineering major then switching to journalism
• this one seems to have bigger chance even though it really does not
• Gambler's Fallacy- thinking that something is due after not being there when in reality the same probability for the same hand exists every time
• Hot Hand phenomena- "on a roll" basket after basket ; doesn't exist
• ex: HH not present on stats of NBA players
• Availability heuristic- likelihood estimates based on how quickly instances come to mind
• pops to mind quicker = more common
• instance thought about more, perceived to be prevalent
• False Consensus effect- overestimate others' agreeing to our opinions
• Straightness heuristic- tendency to "tidy up" untidy realities to achieve "prettier picture"
• want to make world simpler/more straightforward than is
• Unconscious bias
• people are generally unaware of their biases

Review Session: Exam One

• Criticisms of the Big 5
• merely descriptive
• doesn't explain behaviors
• Traits/Types
• HOW are people different
• Type
• either one or the other
• friendly or not
• Trait
• varying dimensions
• little/extremely/just friendly
• Needs/Motives
• WHY people are different
• Nomothetic Approach (Cattell)
• set of traits that apply to everyone in same way
• Idiographic Approach (Allport)
• look at individual in depth and applies to just you uniquely
• uses
• Cardinal traits
• Central traits
• Secondary traits
• BIS/BAS Distinction
• BIS
• anxiety and impulsivity proneness
• avoidance approach
• brake
• BAS
• gas pedal
• reward approach
• dopamine plays important part in behavior
• Aggregation
• look at behavior in variety of situations
• Galen's 4 Temperament Humors
• Choleric
• Sanguine
• Melancholic
• Phlegmatic
• Implicit motive
• unconscious
• measure
• TAT projection
• Murray
• Self-attributed motive
• aware of it conscious of it
• Personology
• idiographic method of studying people
• Dynamic Interactionism
• Proactive
• choose situation
• Evocative
• presence unintentionally alters situation
• people just act differently when you're there
• Manipulation
• intentionally change situation
• act certain way
• Cattell
• bottom-up
• starts with evidence and work material and work to theory
• criticism
• overuse of factor analysis
• published too much
• Eysenck
• top-down
• start with theory and work forward
• Gray
• eysenck's introversion, extroversion
• Introversion = High BIS Low BAS
• Extroversion = High BAS Low BIS
• eysenck's stability, instability
• Instability = High BIS and BAS
• Stability = Low BIS and BAS
• Objective/Subjective Reality
• objective- how things really are = Alpha Press
• subjective- how you perceive them to be = Beta Press
• Neuroticism
• Amgydala = emotion center of brain
• Body Consciousness
• motive theory
• high = correlation between implicit and self attributed motives
• 3 Camps response to Mischel
• Defend Traits
• Situationism
• Dynamic Interactionism
• Aggregation
• used by Defend Traits group
• multiple choice exam
• one wrong question doesn't reflect your understanding of the material
• Factor Analysis
• statistical method of taking traits and condensing them into smaller groups
• used by
• Cattell
• Family Method vs Twin Method
• family- looked at family tree
• genetic link
• twins- MZ twins compared to DZ twins

Study Guide Exam 1

• Type Theorists
• Hippocrates
• Galen
• Sheldon
• Trait Theorists
• Allport
• Cattell
• Eysenck
• Need/Motive Theorists
• Murray
• Zuckerman
• McClellan
• Gray
• Mischel  
• Theories, Approaches, and Needs
• Hippocrates' four humors

• Galen's humor theory of temperament 

• Sheldon's Somatotypes

• 3 Kinds of Traits- Allport
• Cardinal
• Central
• Secondary

• Nomothetic approach
• applies to everyone
• same dimensions for everyone

• Idiographic approach
• applies to you uniquely
• dimensions can overlap

• 16 Dimensions aka 16PF- Cattell

• Big 2: Extraversion and Stability - Eysenck

• The Big Five Trait theory (O.C.E.A.N.)
• Criticisms and Limitations of the Big 5 model

•  Personology- idiographic Murray

• Viscerogenic needs- Murray
• biological

• Psychogenic Needs- Murray
• psychological

• Press
• Alpha
• Beta

• Motive
• Implicit
• Self-Attributed

• Biological theories
• Phrenology

• Eyesenck's  argument:
• consistency over time
• same pattern-different culture
• genetics

• I-E: (ARAS)
• Optimal Cortical Arousal
• stimulus difference between intro/extroverts

• S-I: visceral brain
• Emotion Generator
• comprised of hippocampus, amygdala , and other sections
• I- low threshold of activation in visceral brain
• S- high threshold

• S-I results magnifies I-E

• Gray's two dimensions of personality- BIS and BAS
• Anxiety Proneness 
• BIS
• Impulsivity
• BAS

• Eyesenk's dimensions stated in terms of BIS and BAS
• Extrovert- high BAS/ low BIS
• Introvert- high BIS/ low BAS
• Unstable- high BAS/BIS
• Stable- low BAS/ BIS

• Gray on psychopathology
• strong BIS/weak BAS- phobias
• strong BAS/ weak BIS- antisocial behavior

• Behavioral Genetics methods
• Family method
• Twin method
• Combo of Twin and Adoption method
• Environment Sharing method

• Mischel's Critique

• Response Groups to Mischel's Critique
• Defend Traits
• Situationism
• Dynamic Interactionism

• Hippocrates
• laid groundwork for 1st theory of personality
• Hippocrates' four humors
• Blood
• Black bile
• Yellow bile
• Phlegm
• Believed an excess of one of these humors would elicit a specific disease

• Galen
• Galen's humor theory of temperament
• Sanguine (excess blood): forceful, direct, courageous
• Melancholic (excess black bile): brooding, moody, withdrawn
• Choleric (excess yellow bile): irritable, bitter, resentful
• Phlegmatic  (excess phlegm): weak, fragile, indecisive
• temperament theory tends to have a ring of truth but oversimplistic

• Sheldon
• Sheldon's Somatotypes
• Endomorphy: plumb; 7,1,1 (max); relaxed, easygoing, lovers of creature comfort
• Mesomorhpy: muscular; 1,7,1(max); bold, assertive, action-oriented
• Ectomorphy: frail; 1,1,7(max); inhibited, restrained, apprehensive 
• low-high scale of 1-7 for all three types
• Gordon Allport

• his definition of Trait
• a neuropsychic structure having the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide equivalent (meaningfully consistent) forms of adaptive and expressive behavior

• 3 Kinds of Traits
• Cardinal
• single disposition that dominates everything a person does including personality
•  single descriptive adjective for person
• uncommon
• Central
• best descriptor of personality
• sample of 3-10 traits for one person
• 18,000 characteristics in all
• multiple adjectives for person
• would show up in letter of recommendation
• Secondary
• influences behavior only in certain limited settings
• situation specific tendencies
• ex: concert preference, conference behavior
• would probably not show up in letter of recommendation
• Rayman Cattell 

• Trait as "building block"
• Search for basic traits
• Sought "periodic table"
• Used factor analysis
• Disposition favored
• Cattell = Mr. Nomothetic 
• Multiple Data Sources 
• L data, Q- data, T- data
• 16 Dimensions 
• • Reserved vs Outgoing
  • Less Intelligent vs More Intelligent
  • Emotional vs Stable
  • Humble vs Assertive
  • Sober vs Happy-go-lucky
  • Expedient vs Conscientious
  • Shy vs Venturesome
  • Tough-minded vs Tender-minded
  • Trusting vs Suspicious
  • Practical vs Imaginative
  • Forthright vs Shrewd
  • Placid vs Apprehensive
  • Conservative vs Experimenting
  • Group-tied vs Self-sufficient
  • Casual vs Controlled
  • Relaxed vs Tense

• Eysenck's two basic dimensions
• Introversion- Extroversion
• Stability- Instability

• Meta Trait level
• 5 categories
• Sociability
• Impulsiveness
• Activity
• Liveliness
• Excitability

• Eysenck versus Cattell
• What are the foundational elements of personality?
• Eysenck: "top-down"
• started with Galen's idea and worked his way down with the data
• Cattell: "bottom-up"

• Basic Traits
• Eysenck: two
• wanted simplest possible model, went for meta-traits
• narrowed Cattell's model
• Cattell: sixteen

• The Big Five(and facets) - Trait theory (O.C.E.A.N.)
• Extraversion
• Sociable- Retiring
• Fun loving- Sober
• Affectionate- Reserved
• Friendly- Aloof
• Spontaneous- Inhibited
• Talkative - Quiet
• Neuroticism
• Worrying- Calm
• Nervous- At ease
• High-strung - Relaxed
• Insecure- Secure
• Self-Pitying - Self-satisfied
• Vulnerable- Hardy
• Openness to Experience
• Original- Conventional
• Imaginative- Down to earth
• Creative- Uncreative
• Broad interests- Narrow interests
• Complex- Simple
• Curious - Incurious
• Agreeableness
• Good natured- Irritable
• Soft hearted- Ruthless
• Courteous - Rude
• Forgiving - Vengeful
• Sympathetic - Callous
• Agreeable - Disagreeable
• Conscientiousness
• Conscientious - Negligent
• Careful- Careless
• Reliable- Undependable
• Well-organized - Disorganized
• Self-disciplined - Weak-willed
• Persevering - Quitting 
• Sources of Evidence for the Big 5
• Factor analyses of trait terms in language
• Factor analyses of self-report data
• created questionnaires result in the Big 5
• Factor analyses of observer judgments
• Are the Big 5 linked to behavior?
• Yes, based on:
• Agreement between self ratings and observers(e.g. informant) ratings
• 1 = high +,+  0= no correlation -1= low +,-
• Studies of "behavioral residue"
• check organization of office, bedroom, dorm room etc.
• Criticisms and Limitations of the Big 5 model
• "The Big Five, plus or minus two"
• 5 traits is the norm but people are shown to have less or more
• Openness
• what exactly is it, the source?
• Over reliance on factor analysis
• Focus on traits or meta traits?
• Henry Murray 
• • Introduced Personology
  • definition- scientific study of a whole person from an idiographic perspective
  • psychodynamic 
• Introduced elaborate new set of terms 
• Need

• Components
• Grounded in the brain
• organizes the way you think, feel
• Causal
• causes you to act in a certain way
• Tension-reduction
• influences you to rid/meet some tension until it's satisfied
• Two Types of Needs
• Viscerogenic needs
• biological needs
• involve physical satisfactions
• list; see BB for highlighted ones
• Psychogenic Needs
• Psychological desires
• involve mental or emotional satisfactions
• most important
• largely unconscious
• no access to them; you just feel them when they arise
• all possess all 27, but some stronger 

• Press
• definition- tendency in the environment to facilitate or obstruct the expression of a need
• ex: presence of friends in the library = press for affiliation
• Two types
• Alpha Press- objective reality
• what's happened
• Beta Press- subjective interpretation

• Rationale behind the TAT- by Murray 
• McClelland
• Driving Motives
• picked the following three driving emotions
• Achievement, Affiliation, Power
• Personology- study of total personality of individuals
• Motive
• Implicit
• unconscious
• measured with TAT
• Self-Attributed
• conscious

• Eyesenck:  argument for relation between biology and individual differences
• Consistency over time
• has to be something stable in a person to maintain personality
• biology is the only stable thing
• Same Pattern - Different Cultures
• same pattern of traits keeps showing up across cultures
• cross-culture similarities would not be possible unless there was some biological catalyst
• Genetics
• some personality differences and similarities, ex/introvert, are genetically grounded
• Eyesenck's estimate of bio-portion of personality: 2/3

• Stimulus
• Introverts- stimulus shy
• already have a high level of arousal; too much stimulation shoots them over the Optimal
• Extroverts- stimulus hungry
• already have low level of arousal; needs much stimulation to reach optimal level

• I-E: ascending reticular activating system (ARAS)
• connects the spinal cord to the area of brain which regulates general arousal

• Typical Level
• Higher for Introverts than Extroverts
• Optimal Cortical Arousal
• everyone craves this set point

• Gray's two dimensions of personality
• Anxiety Proneness and Impulsivity
• grounded in Brain
• Anxiety Proneness
• Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)
• septo-hippocampal system
• activated by
• punishment stimuli
• absence of desired reward
• fear stimuli
• novel stimuli
• BIS activation
• Behavioral effects
• don't engage quickly in novel situations
• Cognitive effects
• looking for ,to avoid, problems in environment
• Affective effects
• feels fear 
• Impulsivity: BAS
• dopaminergic pathways
• dopamine
• activated by
• reward stimuli
• escape
• BAS activation
• Behavioral effects
• looking forward to approach something/someone to obtain rewards
• Affecive effects
• feel hope
• combination of Anxiety proneness and Impulsivity leads to real variable
• score on one does not affect score on the other

• Eyesenk's dimensions stated in terms of BIS and BAS (*bold= high score)
• I-E
• Extrovert- high BAS/ low BIS
• high to approach and low to avoid
• Introvert- high BIS/ low BAS
• high to avoid and low to approach
• S-I
• Unstable- high BAS/low BIS
• high in approach and avoidance
• Stable- low BAS/ low BIS
• low in approach and avoidance

• Gray on psychopathology
• strong BIS/weak BAS- phobias
• strong BAS/ weak BIS- antisocial behavior

• Behavioral Genetics methods

• Family Method
• Weakness
• does not take nurture into account at all, making it unreliable
• Twin Method
• Weakness
• environment is not the same for identical and nonidentical twins
• Combination of Twin and Adoption Methods
• (weakness)- De-identification: when you are really similar to another, you try to differentiate yourself

• 40% differences = Genetics

• Environmental Variation (siblings primarily)
• Shared Environment
• House, Class, etc.
• increasing similarities
• personality variance 5%

• Nonshared Environment
• An Accident, Birth Order, Different Relationships etc.
• increasing differences
• personality variance 35%

• MZ Twins
• NOT AFFECTED EITHER WAY
• Correlation between nonshared and shared is 0

• Mischel's Critique (1968)
• Proposals on Personality
• Traits do NOT exist
•  more apparent than real
• comprised of Nature and Nurture
• Wrote book Personality and Assessment

• If traits-----consistency

• situation wouldn't matter

• anxious people would be anxious everywhere, all the time

• Little Consistency
• More apparent than real

• Biases create consistency
• Perceptual Bias- expectations of what we think we'll see from others' behavior creates 'consistency' in their behavior
• person tells you a girl is quiet, you talk a lot and she doesn't

• Sampling Bias - people are constricted by societal setting
• ex: librarian = quiet introvert

• 3 Camps in Response to Mischel
• Defend Traits
• Situationism
• Dynamic Interactionism

• Defend Traits
• +.30 still important
• predictions in which small correlations matter e.g. medicine,elections
• experimental drug example ( higher chance of living but may cause death)

• Aggregation- needed for high correlations between traits and behaviors
• diary study
• people reported on own behavior for two weeks
• good predictor
• multiple choice exams
• number of choices allows aggregating to bring whole answer together

• Phenotype/Genotype Distinction -outward behavior different, underlying purpose same
• phenotype= outward behavior
• genotype = inward behavior, underlying purpose
• Brownie example: politeness = genotype accept/decline= phenotype scenario one: full but want to show you like it scenario two: hungry but last one left so decline

• Some People are Consistent, Others are Not
• High-self Monitors- conform to situation

• Low-self Monitors- be true to self

• Situationism
• situation = primary cause of behavior
• situation produces behavior not anything internal
• Dynamic Interactionism
• change/select/manipulate environment in consistent way
• situations have effect because personality affected situation
• 3 types
• Proactive- select self into situation intentionally for best comfort
• choose environment: job to work in, party to go to 

• Evocative- change situation by presence unintentionally 
• evoke trait-relevant behavior from people in environment by mere presence

• Manipulation- self manipulates situation intentionally
• ex: walk into quiet roommate's apartment and turn up music and lights manipulating situation

• • The Big Five(and facets) - Trait theory (O.C.E.A.N.)
  • Extraversion
  • Sociable- Retiring
  • Fun loving- Sober
  • Affectionate- Reserved
  • Friendly- Aloof
  • Spontaneous- Inhibited
  • Talkative - Quiet
  • Neuroticism
  • Worrying- Calm
  • Nervous- At ease
  • High-strung - Relaxed
  • Insecure- Secure
  • Self-Pitying - Self-satisfied
  • Vulnerable- Hardy
  • Openness to Experience
  • Original- Conventional
  • Imaginative- Down to earth
  • Creative- Uncreative
  • Broad interests- Narrow interests
  • Complex- Simple
  • Curious - Incurious
  • Agreeableness
  • Good natured- Irritable
  • Soft hearted- Ruthless
  • Courteous - Rude
  • Forgiving - Vengeful
  • Sympathetic - Callous
  • Agreeable - Disagreeable
  • Conscientiousness
  • Conscientious - Negligent
  • Careful- Careless
  • Reliable- Undependable
  • Well-organized - Disorganized
  • Self-disciplined - Weak-willed
  • Persevering - Quitting 
• Big 2
• Introversion- Extroversion
• Stability- Instability
• Implicit motive
• unconscious need
• more stable and consistent
• Self-attributed motive
• conscious need
• immediate responses to socially constructed situations

• Body Consciousness
• High score
• indicates correlation between knowing implicit and self-attributed motives
• you can self-report the implicit, non-conscious, motives accurately
• 
  

• Need/Motive: Strength and Weakness
• Strength
• addresses WHY
• deeper explanations
• Weakness
• not very comprehensive
• much room for additional research
• Exam notes
• 20/21 MC 3 points
• 10/11 Fill in the Blanks 2 points
• 8/9 Short Answers 2.5 points
• Lectures
• ANYTHING GOES
• Textbook
• Definitions at end of chapter AND Context it's used in
• Names are Important
• NOT ON EXAM
• Dates
• Freud material in Chapter 8
• Location
• @Classroom @ class time