WEEK 1

Question 1

What is social psychology?

Answer 1

The scientific study of how individuals think, feel and behave in a social context

Question 2

What did Triplett find in his observatins

Answer 2

Participants performed better on a task when they worked side by side vs. alone

Question 3

What did Ringelmann find in his observations

Answer 3

Participants performed worse on a task when they were working together vs.
alone

Question 4

What were the main themes of social psychology in the 1930s-1950s

Answer 4

Need to understand the causes of violence, prejudice, genocide,
conformity, obedience
* European scientists fled to the US, established critical mass of
social psychologists

Question 5

What were the main studies/psychologists in 1930s-1950s

Answer 5

Sherif: social influence
* Lewin: person & environment, apply theory to solve problems
* Asch: conformity
* Allport: prejudice
* Festinger: social comparison theory and cognitive dissonance theory

Question 6

What were the meain themes/studies of 1960s – mid 1970s

Answer 6

Milgram: obedience

Expansion of topics
- perceptions of self & others
- groups
- helping
- aggression
- physical attractiveness
- stress

Some questioning of the experimental approach
* ethics, bias

Question 7

Main themes of social psychology in 1970s - 1990s

Answer 7

Better ethics
* Continued emphasis on experiments
* Although other methods used as well
* Social cognition
* How individuals perceive, remember, and interpret information about the self and
others
* Cultural differences

Question 8

Main themes of Social Psychology Today

Answer 8

*Field continues to grow
* Integration of emotion, motivation, and cognition
* Genetic and evolutionary perspectives
* Cultural perspectives
* Interdisciplinary approaches
* Brain and body
* New technologies and the online world
* Replicability of findings and open science practices

Question 9

What is the Scientific Method in psychology

Answer 9

Systematic observation, description, and measurement

Question 10

What are the two aims of research

Answer 10

• Basic: understand human behaviour
• Applied: understand naturally occurring events and find solutions to practical
  problems

Question 11

What are self reports

Answer 11

Participants disclose their thoughts, feelings, desires and actions

Question 12

What is a observation

Answer 12

• Observe and record the behaviour of interest
• If there is room for interpretation, be sure to establish a high level of interrater
  reliabilit

Question 13

What is technology (as an option for measuring variables)

Answer 13

• Record physiological variables or reaction times
• e.g., heart rate, hormones, eye tracking, brain imaging, reaction time

Question 14

What are the different research designs

Answer 14

• descriptive
• correlational
• experimental

Question 15

What is descriptive research?

Answer 15

• Goal is to describe people and their thoughts, feelings and behaviours
• e.g., how often do people feel ostracised?

Question 16

What is correlational research

Answer 16

• Goal is to learn about the relationship between variables
• e.g., is ostracism related to depression?

Question 17

What is experimental research

Answer 17

Goal is to establish cause and effect
* e.g., does ostracism have a negative impact on need satisfaction?
Different research designs

Question 18

What are the key aspects of descriptive Research

Answer 18

• Measure the variable of interest
• Could use self-report, observation, archival data
• Can take a quantitative or qualitative approach
• Evaluate the results
• When generalizing back to the population of interest, think about how well your
  sample represents the population
• Random sampling: everyone in the population of interest has an equal chance of
  being in the study

Question 19

What are the key aspects of correlation research

Answer 19

PYB202 Social Psychology Lecture
Semester 1, 2023
* Measure the two variables of interest
* e.g., frequency of ostracism and levels of depression
* Evaluate the results
* display the association with a scatterplot
* quantify the association with a correlation coefficient
* ranges from -1 to +1
* tells us the direction and strength of the association between the two variables
* can’t draw causal conclusions – why not?

Question 20

What are the key aspects of experimental research

Answer 20

• You have a hypothesis that the IV (eye gaze) causes a change in the DV (need satisfaction)
• To test this hypothesis, you need to manipulate the IV and see if the DV changes in the
  predicted direction
• Manipulate independent variable (IV)
• An IV has two or more levels (conditions)
• Use random assignment to conditions
• Each participant in the experiment has an equal chance of being assigned to any of the
  conditions
• Helps to ensure that any differences in the DV between conditions are due to the IV
  and not some other variable
• After exposure to the IV, measure the dependent variable (DV)
  Experimental research

Question 21

What is internal validity

Answer 21

degree to which there can be reasonable certainty that the IVs in an experiment
caused the effects obtained on the DVs

Question 22

What are Threats to internal validity

Answer 22

• Confound: factor other than the IV that varies systematically between conditions
• Experimenter expectancy effects: experimenter’s behaviour is creating the effect,
  not the IV

Question 23

what is External validity

Answer 23

degree to which there can be reasonable confidence that the results of the study would be
obtained for other people and in other situations.

Question 24

what is Informed Consent

Answer 24

Participant’s voluntary decision to participate in a study, based on an adequate
understanding of what will be involved

Question 25

What is Deception

Answer 25

Sometimes researchers withhold information or deceive participants in order to get
their natural reactions
* Cover stories, confederates, false feedback