what is social psychology? Flashcards
what is social psychology
the scientific study of how individuals think, feel and behave in a social context
study of the nature and causes of human social behaviour
behaviour
bridging sociology and psychology
for example:
where do stereotypes come from?
what factors lead people to help each other?
why do we sometimes find ourselves buying things we don’t really want or need?
social thinking
how we perceive ourselves and others
what we believe
judgements we make
our attitudes
social influence
culture and biology
pressure to conform
persuasion
groups of people
social relations
helping
aggression
attraction and intimacy
prejudice
sociology
study of human society, social institutions, stratification within social, basic social processes, structure of social units
we construct our social reality
humans like to explain behaviour
- make it orderly, predictable, controllable
beliefs about ourselves and how we construe the world also matter
out social intuitions are often powerful but sometimes perilous
intuitions shape fears
intuition influence all of us
intuitions are often wrong
- we often trust our memory more than we should
- we are poor at predicting our emotional reactions
social influences shape our behaviour
humans are social creatures - respond to immediate contexts
people are heavily influenced by culture
Personal attitudes and dispositions also shape behaviour
Attitudes influence behaviour
Personality dispositions also affect behaviour
Social behavior is biologically rooted
Our psychologies are the result of the interaction between biology and experience
We are a bio-psycho-social organism
Relating to others is a basic need
Relationships can be a source of stress or comfort
Being excluded can be a source of pain
Relationships with others may be the foundation of self-esteem
Ways in which values enter social psychology
Values influence research topics
Values vary by time and culture:
E.g. European social psychologists study social identity, North American social psychologists study individuals
Values influence the analysis of data
Is social psychology merely common sense?
Hindsight bias:
The tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one’s ability to have foreseen it
aka the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon
Research methods in social psychology
Ask questions
Search the literature
Develop hypotheses and theories
Theory
To test existing theories and develop new ones
An integrated set of principles that
explain and predict observed events
Hypothesis
Statement of the relation between two or more variables
Researchers ask what observations are to be expected if it is true
A testable proposition that describes the relationship that may exist between
events
Conceptual variables
For example:
Obedience
Conformity
Love
Social anxiety
Operational definitions
The specific procedures for manipulating or measuring a conceptual variable
Reliability and validity
Imagine that the speedometer in your car always measures your speed as 5 km/hr faster than you are actually going
Is your speedometer reliable?
Is your speedometer valid?
Internal reliability and validity
Free from extraneous variables
External reliability and validity
Extent of casual relationship can be generalized to other populations, settings and time periods
Descriptive research
Observational studies
Archival studies
Surveys
Correctional research:
Detecting natural associations
Detecting natural associations
Study of naturally occurring relationships among variables
Correctional versus causation:
Allows prediction; does NOT infer causation
Detecting natural associations
Ask members of the population a set of questions and record their responses
Good for identifying average answers- how people responses differ
Conducted to get opinions about one’s own attributes(attitudes, behaviours and experiences)
Detecting natural associations
Survey research
Random samples help obtain a representative group
Concerns include:
Unrepresentative samples
Order of questions
Response bias and social desirability
Wording of questions
Searching for cause and effect
The only way to determine causality
Contains:
Random assignment
Dependent variable
Independent variable
Experimenters manipulate the independent variable and measure the dependent variable
Random sampling
Who is selected to be in the study
Random assignment
The great equalizer
Each person has an equal likelihood of being put in each condition of the experiment
Creates equivalent groups
Can conclude that observed effects are not due to extraneous factors
When manipulation is not possible researchers use observational research methods instead
Which condition of the independent
variable a participant is in
Assigns participants to experimental conditions on basis of chance
Generalizing from laboratory to life
The laboratory is a simple controlled reality- Same effect may not be observed in a complex real world scenario
Participants in most studies are university students-May limit the generalizability of the results in some cases
Free & Informed Consent
voluntary consent by an individual to participate in a research project based on info received about what his or her part
Minimal Risk
Risk no greater that what we encounter in daily life
