Comm 102 Test 1 Review
01/30/2010
COMM 102
Review Sheet for Exam 1 Key Terms
I. Lecture 1: Media Effects Pseudo Reality
o Perception is more important than reality in understanding human thought, emotion, and behavior
How much media do people consume? o Children
45 hours per week “screen time” o Recommend
2 hours per day/14 hours per week o Adult
3700 hours per year
2/3 of waking hours
ABC’s of Media Effects: Affect, Behavior, Cognitive o Affect: How you feel
Emotions, mood, attitude (dislike, like) o Behavior: What you do
o Cognition: What you think
Beliefs – information about something (factual or opinions)
Intentions – what we want to do (desires, plans, and goals)
Values – positive/negative views towards object or abstract concept
The black box
o What goes on inside an organism o Caused by stimulus
o Creates a response The third person effect
o The idea that other people are affected by the media but you yourself are not
Media effects myths
o Media exists to entertain, not to persuade
o Mass media provides an accurate reflection of the real world o Fantasy in no way shapes our reality
The reflection myth
o We believe that media reflects the real world
o What if the media provides a distorted image of reality?
Lecture 2: Methods Hindsight Bias
Overestimate the ability to have foreseen an outcome after the event has occurred
o Problems for students
Material seems easy
Ex- “I thought I knew the material” but their level of understanding was shallow
Revelation or Inspiration
o Act of revealing or communicating the devine truth o Something that is revealed by g-d to humans
o “sudden” good idea Authority
o Truth established through a trusted source (g-d), government, tradition, or public sanction
o Problems
May not always have the “expertise” that they are credited with Rationalism
o
Logic and Reason
o Logic – ability to draw inferences from a premise (basis of reason)
Premise – assertion that is held to be true
Ex- “what comes up must come down o Problems
Inference may not follow premise or premise could be wrong
The Monty Hall Problem (with the doors) Steps of Research:
o 1) Select a problem and form a hypothesis as a tentative solution to the problem.
o 2) Design an experiment or study o 3) Conduct experiment and collect data
o 4) Confront the hypothesis with data using statistical tests o 5) Communicate research results
Hypothesis
o “an idea of explanation for something that is based on known facts but has not yet been proved”
o Based on Greek work hypotithenai meaning “to suppose” o An “educated guess”
Goals of Science: Explanation, Prediction, Control o Explanation
Looking for comprehensive explanations
Looking at previously established explanations o Prediction
o Control
Prevention and intervention
Greater power of a phenomenon Theoretical stimulus
Theoretical response
o The conceptual variable that is affected by the theoretical stimulus Independent variable
o Controlled by the researches o Has at least two levels or groups o “independent” of the subjects control Dependent variable
o Value it presumed to “depend” upon the independent variable Operational definition
o Theoretical concept that is stated in terms of observable operations, procedures, and measurements
o Links unobservable variables to observable variables Moderator variable
o Influence the strength and/or direction of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Moderators interact with the independent variable to influence the dependent variable
Mediator (intervening) variable
o The generative mechanism through which the independent variable influences the dependent variable. Independent variables produce changes in mediators which, in turn, produce changes in dependent variables
What makes a theory good?
o Predictive accuracy – can reliably predict behavior
o Internal consistency – no logical inconsistencies among the constructs o Economy – contains needed constructs
o Fertility – spawns other research
o Theory
General
Single theory o Hypothesis
Derived from a theory
Multiple hypotheses
Either accepted or rejected Random assignment
o
Random selection Correlation
o Random assignment is not possible
o Researcher cannot manipulate independent variable
o Researcher measures strength of relationship between the two variables of interest
What are the conditions needed to infer causation? o Presumed cause and effect are correlated
o Presumed cause precedes the presumed effect in time
“cause” comes before “effect” o Alternative explanations are eliminated What are the essential features of an experiment?
o subjects are randomly assigned to the levels of the independent variable Quasi-experiment
o Researcher must take people “as they are”
o No way of knowing that the two groups are equivalent o Random assignment is not possible
Longitudinal study
o Individuals are followed over time Cross-lagged panel design
o
Margin of error
o 1200 sample has 3% margin of error regardless of the size population which the sample was drawn
o the “true” percent is somewhere in the 3 plus or 3 minus range Content analysis
o Describes in a systematic manner the content of communication Correlation coefficient
o Value of correlation coefficient indicates the strength of the relation o Perfect positive: +1.0
o Perfect negative: -1.0
o Value of zero indicates that the two variables are not linearly related What does a negative correlation? What does a positive correlation mean?
What is a small, medium, and large correlation (for the purposes of this class)? o Small: +/- .1
o Medium: +/- .3 o Large: +/- .5 Replication
o Same result is observed over and over again by different researchers Triangulation
o Employing different methodologies in order to examine a given phenomenon
Meta-Analysis
o Literature review that combines statistical results from different studies conducted on the same topic
Lecture 3: Learning Learning
o Relatively permanent change in behavior or mental process as a result of practice or experience
Conditioning
o Learning associations (linking of 2 events)
Ex – lightning is often paired with thunder Classical Conditioning
o Associative learning that was first demonstrated by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
o
Stimulus discrimination Operant conditioning
Reinforcement – strengthens a response and makes it more likely to occur Negative Reinforcement – taking away a stimulus that strengthens a response
and makes it more likely to recur
o Ex – headache removed after taking an aspirin
Positive Reinforcement – adding a stimulus that strengthens a response and make it more likely to occur
Ex - praise Punishment
o Weakens a response and makes it more likely to occur Primary reinforces
o Normally satisfy unlearned biological need
Ex - food Secondary reinforces
o Also known as conditioned reinforcers o Learned value
Ex - money Shaping
o Reinforcement is delivered for successive approximations of the desired response
Positive punishment
o Adding a stimulus that weakens a response and makes it less likely to recur
Negative punishment
o Taking away a stimulus that weakens a response and makes it less likely to recur
Ex - restriction
Observational (Social) Learning Theory Attention
o To learn through observation, you must pay attention to another person’s behavior and its consequences
Retention
o In order for an observed behavior to be used again, you must be store it in memory (through rehearsal)
Reproduction
o To imitate a model, you must have physical abilities and skills to reproduce the observed actions
Motivation
o You are unlikely to reproduce an observed response unless you are motivated to do so
o Depends on whether you get benefits from responding to that action
Lecture 4: Social Cognitive Theory Self-Efficacy
Symbolizing capacity
o Are the vehicle of though
o Words and letters can be used to represent specific objects, thoughts, or ideas
o Allow people to store, process, and transform experiences for mental processes
o People make sense of their experiences, explore own cognitions and beliefs, and alter their thinking accordingly
o People perform a self0check to make sure their thinking is correct Self-regulatory capacity
o Refers to the self’s capacity to alter its own responses o Similar to everyday term “self-control”
o Allows people to be flexible to adapt to many different circumstances, rules, and demands
Vicarious capacity
o People learn by observing others (without directly experiencing it) o Explains how people learn a novel behavior without undergoing the trial
and error process of performing it
Triadic reciprocal causation: Behavior, Person, Environment
Each one affects the other: Person behavior environment person Inhibition effects
o Cause people to refrain from antisocial behaviors Disinhibition effects
o Lift restraints on antisocial behaviors Disinhibitory devices – forms of self - exoneration
o Moral justification
People believe their otherwise deplorable actions are justifiable because they serve a “higher purpose”
Ex: “I stole to provide for my family” o Advantageous comparison
Ex: cheaters say: “I don’t cheat nearly as much as her” o Euphemistic labeling
By calling a deplorable act something other than what it really is, the act is trivialized and one can engage in it without
self-contempt
Ex: “I borrowed it” instead of “I stole it” o Displacement of responsibility
Mechanism by which the person lessens the responsibility of the self in causing harm
Acknowledges they may have caused harm, but denies it was intended or denies responsibility
Ex: In Nazi Germany commandments and officers of death camps said they were only following orders
o Diffusion of responsibility
Tendency for each group member to dilute personal responsibility by spreading it among all other group members
Ex: “I just went along with the crowd” o Denial of consequences
After people engage in deplorable acts, they can ease their conscience by ignoring or distorting the harm caused by their conduct
Ex: “Hey, what I did was not all that bad” o Dehumanization
Victims are made out to be subhuman and therefore not worthy of humane treatment
Ex: Hitler called the Jews “vermin” and “rats” o Attribution of blame
Blaming the victim or the situation
Ex: “If you hadn’t been such a jerk, I wouldn’t have hit you.” o Belief in a just world
The belief that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get
