Week 1 - Intro

Question 1

What is social psych?

Answer 1

scientific investigation of how our thinking, feelings and behav are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others.

Question 2

Characteristics of social psych (3)

Answer 2

1) The individual in the social context as the level of analysis
2) Examines internal psycholog. states as well as overt behav.
3) Uses scientific methods to investigate questions

Question 3

the historical events that inspired interest in social psychology

Answer 3

A Call to Action: 1930s – 1950s
• Who had the most dramatic impact on 
social psychology?
– Quite possibly Adolf Hitler!
• Society for the Psychological Study of 
Social Issues formed in 1936

-1960s Milgram

Question 4

Allport

Answer 4

WWII prompted social psychologists to 
examine the nature of prejudice, 
aggression, and conformity
• In 1953, Gordon Allport published The 
Nature of Prejudice

Question 5

Sherif

Answer 5

• Sherif’s (1936) groundbreaking

experimental research on social influence.

Question 6

Lewin

Answer 6

Interaction between person and environment,
which later became known as interactionist
perspective

Question 7

Applied research

Answer 7

Research whose goals are to enlarge the understanding of naturally occurring events and to find solutions to practical problems.

Question 8

basic research

Answer 8

Research whose goal is to increase the understanding of human behavior, often by testing hypotheses based on a theory.

Question 9

hypothesis

Answer 9

A testable prediction about the conditions under which an event will occur.

Question 10

theory

Answer 10

An organized set of principles used to explain observed phenomena.

Question 11

operational definitions

Answer 11

The specific procedures for manipulating or measuring a conceptual variable.

Question 12

correlational research

Answer 12

Research designed to measure the association between variables that are not manipulated by the researcher.

Question 13

advantages correlational research designs

Answer 13

It can study the associations of naturally occurring variables that cannot be manipulated or induced

It can examine phenomena that would be difficult or unethical to create for research purposes

Question 14

disadvantages of correlational research designs

Answer 14

a correlation cannot demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship

Question 15

Explain the importance of control and random assignment in experimental research

Answer 15

each participant in the experiment has an equal chance of being in any of the conditions.

• being able to control as many of the independent variables as possible so as to reduce confounding variables