PS374 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cognitive Dissonance, Cultivation Theory, Attachment Theory
Document Summary
Social psychological theory: core values of science, accuracy, objectivity, skepticism, open-mindedness, ethics. What is theory: a set of interrelated hypotheses or propositions concerning a phenomenon or set of phenomena (shaw & constanzo, 1982) In its simplest form a theory specifics a relationship between two or more variables. Scientific process: theory development specific hypotheses hypotheses testing observations (cycles back) Psychology: 12% of the world, 80% of psychology participants, weird participants are: more individualistic, analytic, fairness-focused, higher existential anxiety, less conforming, external validity/ generalizability issues, weird participants most susceptible to muller-lyer illusion. External validity: ben karney: marriage interventions, data collected from educated, higher-income couples, what qualities predict marital satisfaction & stability? (communication, intimacy, trust) Interventions developed for low couples: child care, finances, job training. Attribution theory: a set of related theories dealing with the way in which individuals perceive/explain the causes of a behaviour (their own and others") In this context, how students answer why they did poorly on a task.
