Introduction to Social Psychology Flashcards
social psychology
- branch of psychology that looks at how B and social interactions influence each other
IMAGINE HOW ACTUAL, IMAGINED, OR IMPLIED PRESENCE OF OTHERS INFLUENCE US
social psych and common sense
- social psychologists and philosophers address similar questions about human nature
- social psychologists use controlled experiments to do this
- conclusions reached by folk psych and common sense are
1. unreliable
2. oversimplified
3. contradictory
social psych and sociology
- share interest in situational and societal influences on B
- difference in level of analysis (SP = individuals, S = broad societal factors)
- SP wants to identify universal properties of human nature, regardless of social class or culture
social psych and personality psych
- share interest in individuals and reasons for B
- PP focuses on individual differences and aspects of personalities that make them different from others
- SP emphasizes processes shared by most people that make them susceptible to social influence
main conflicts in SP
- need to feel good about ourselves
- need to be accurate about ourselves and our social world
cost of protecting our self-esteem
- gives inaccurate perception of the world
- causes us to justify out actions
self-esteem
evaluation of our self-worth in relation to others
self-worth
- relatively stable
- evaluation of our own traits, characteristics, capabilities
self-esteem approach
- most people need to maintain a + view of themselves
- will often sacrifice need to be accurate to protect our self-esteem
- may modify attitudes about painful situations to justify our participation
social cognition approach
- incorporation of human cognitive abilities into theories of social B
- includes:
1. reasoning abilities
2. decision making
3. judgments about others
4. explanations of B in others
social psych and social problems
much effort to attempt to understand societal issues
main components of social psych
- attraction
- attitudes
- groups
- social influence
- social cognition
hindsight bias
overestimate how well we could have predicted an outcome after it has occurred
basic research
- find out why people behave the way they do
- try to find explanations
- developing theories and concepts
- conducted for intellectual curiosity
applied research
use knowledge and apply to a particular problem
research designs
- observational methods
- correlational methods
- experimental methods
observational methods
- researcher observes people and systematically records measurements of B
- can be analyzed qualitatively or quantitatively
- different types of observational methods
types of observational methods
- case studies
- ethnographies
- archival analyses
- non-conscious research
case study
- detailed investigation of single event, situation, individual
- cannot be recreated
- researcher does not have to live in particular community
methods for case study
- analysis of recorded data
- checklists
- interviews
- questionnaires
- observations
ethnographies
- detailed + systematic study of people and cultures
- observes cultural phenomenon
- intends to uncover tacit knowledge of culture participants
- researcher must spend considerable time inside the community
methods for ethnographies
- interviews
- observations
archival analysis
- analysis of accumulated documents/archives of a culture
- provides unique look at the values of a culture
non-conscious research
examination of subconscious patterns of involuntary thoughts
correlational method
- assess association and relation between variables
- correlation, not causation
correlation coefficient
- relation between variables
- how well one variable predicts another
experimental method
- only way to establish causality
- independent and dependent variable
- almost always a tradeoff between internal and external validity
ethical principles for research
- respect for dignity of persons
- informed consent
- minimizing harm
- freedom to withdraw
- privacy and confidentiality
- use of deception
deception
- participants are misled about the true purpose of study/events that will actually transpire
- confederates may be involved
- debriefing session required
