Midterm Exam Study Guide - Social Psychology | PSYC 304, Study notes of Social Psychology

Download Midterm Exam Study Guide - Social Psychology | PSYC 304 and more Study notes Social Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Chapter One Nature of Reality: -dynamic, unfinished, and always in the making. -Dewey asserted reality has multiple natures and possibilities and is open to many interpretations. -an object may possess a variety of possible meanings. Its meaning becomes shaped and reshaped in the course of its interaction with other things particulary with “human knowers”. (beer can example: given to you full at a party means fun. Empty on the floor left over means sloppy roommate.) Nature of the Human Knower: -saw the worlds of mind and matter as vitally linked through human action. -knowing is a process of “doing and making” according to Peirce and Dewey that we engage in when we need to transform objects into objects of knowledge. -we process the meaning of objects through our practical skills,symbolic abilities, and manipulative powers. Basically, we give meanings to things based on how we respond to them. Why does Mead think significant symbols are important? 1. Allow us to exchange shared meanings with others and communicate effectively with them. 2. Enable us to anticipate how others are likely to act in a situation and to coordinate our actions with theirs. (pg. 5) Significant Symbols: A word or gesture that has a shared meaning to an individual and others; that is, it calls forth the same response in the person using it as it does in others. What are the eight implicit assumptions of symbolic interactionism (starting p 9): 1. Human beings are unique creatures because of their ability to use symbols. 2. People become distinctively human through interaction 3. People are conscious, self-reflective beings who shape their own behavior 4. People are purposive creatures who act in and towad situations 5. Society consists of people engaging in symbolic interaction 6. Emotions are central in meaning,behavior, and the self 7. The “social act” should be the fundamental unit of social psychological analysis 8. Sociological methods should enable researchers to grasp people’s meaning Symbolic Interactionism: A theoretical perspective that emphasizes how people interpret, act toward, and thereby give meaning to objects, events, and situations around them. This perspective highlights how human meanings and actions arise out of the social processes of interpretation, communication, and role taking. Chapter Two Naturalistic Inquiry: -focuses on people's behavior in natural social settings and advocates the use of informal and unobtrusive techniques to acquire a first-hand understanding of this behavior. -2 key phases: exploration-reseracher familiarizes themselves with a topic of concern by becoming immersed in a specific social world (ex-gangs. Researcher would follow around gang members and take notes) Inspection- close evaluation of whatever concepts or elements are used for analysis. Examining the empirical instances covered by a given concept in a number of different ways observing them from multiple angles. Grounded Theory: A methodological approach commonly used by interactionist researchers to collect, inspect, and analyze data. When guided by this approach, researchers engage in the process of collecting and analyzing data simultaneously, working back and forth between these processes to develop theoretical explanations of the data they are gathering. In doing so, researchers take part in open and focused coding, memo writing, theoretical sampling, and creating and linking theoretical categories. Autoethnography: An emerging research method used b some symbolic interactionists. It consists of an “introspective” form of ethnography that makes study of the “self” central to sociological understanding. Those who practice autoethnography believe that deeper social psychological understanding can emerge from a self-reflexive and sociologically informed reading of one’s own life. Dramaturgical Theory: A social psychological perspective that studies human behavior and social interaction in terms of the analogy of the theater. This perspective is closely related to reflected self awareness stage- when you lose at something you have to reevaluate yourself to be more effective. Rites of Passage: rituals and ceremonies that accompany and help us to handle the changes in status we experience over the course of our lives. “the real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes”- Marcel Proust. – look for what you don’t see. Notice what most don’t notice. New perspective and asking questions. Bonus of understanding by combining things, use previous experiences into connecting into a larger pattern. Look at the case and apply it to the bigger picture- social psychology. Observation and analysis. Major Overarching Themes in Social Psychology: 1- contextualism: the study and recognition that individuals and groups of people are embedded in an active surrounding including culture, society, family, and environment. (look not only in foreground, but also in the background) 2- Interactionism: the study and recognition that individuals, groups of people, and the environment take part in; (a) mutual influence (relationships) (b) a natural transaction (exchanging words) of participation and consequence (learn, cry, happy) (c) bidirectional control (how you choose to dress) and counter-control, and/or (d) non-obvious joint influences that result in potentially profound effects (protesting wars/mixed gov’t)... (what you’ve done before, affects current mood/thoughts) 3- Cosistencyism: the working theoretical assumption that people and individuals prefer a consistent, predictable, familiar world, that this world includes their physical and mental worlds. (like the predictable, things the same & constant) Contextualists: Kurt Lewins’s Field Theory: larger pattern connects. Ex: farmer should care about health of consumer and not just plants. Are they out for just $ or do they care about us? Fritz Heider’s Thing and Medium: placement of thing in context. Ex: architects: placement of a window. Taking responsibility, looking into the filed and connecting pattern (not building school in the medium) Methodology: Induction: gathering facts, seeing clues to puzzle, noticing details about human being- analysis. Theory: synthesize facts and form an understanding Deduce: what they expect in the future. If theory is true than prediction happened. Ex: meeting person for first time. Gather info about them, ask questions, etc. from facts think they’d be a good friend. Expect a good friendship. If bad friend ends up- relook at theory and what happened and shift theory. Method Goals: Inductive Goals: (1) describe an event or phenomenon (2) discover relationships Deductive Goals: (3) prediction (4) control (once theory is very predictable) quality an reliability. Schema- organized system of beliefs about some object, person, event or thing which is what you’ve built up from experiences and which selectively guides the processing of new information. Why we make attributions: 1. To gain control 2. To gain understanding 3. Develop new categories 4. Reduce uncertainty Self Monitoring: High: using cues from others about behaviors and believes so as to adject ones won self- presentations. Wants to fit in. Low: does not change based on people they are currently surrounded by. Very strongly principled. Interested in facts and not afraid to stand out or be different.