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What is social psychology?

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

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Scientific method involves

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systematic observation, description, measurement- scales, surveys, questionaires

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Social context

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emphasis on the social nature of an individual

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"other people"

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Don't have to be real or present, implied or imagined presence of others can have important effects on individuals, when people think they are being watched, they act different

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How to study prejudice?

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Sociology, clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, social psychology

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Sociology

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focus on the group level instead of a individual.

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How do social psych and soc intersect?

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often share the same training, publish in the same journals, and both can help in understanding societal and immediate factors that influence behavior

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Clinical pschologists seek

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to understand, treat people with pysch difficulties and disorders. Deals with not normal behavior

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In comparison to clinical

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social focuses on typical ways individuals think, feel, behave and influence each other

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How do social and clinical intersect?

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both may address how people cope with anxiety or pressure in social situations, how people percieve or act toward others or how bullying or stereotyping can affect health

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Cognitive psych

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study mental processes overall

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In comparison to cognitive psych

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social is interested in mental processes with respect to social info and how these processes influence social behavior

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How do cognitive and social intersect?

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Social cognition is now an important area within social psych, like the study of salient characteristics and how the brain processes prejudices

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Salient characteristics

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very obvious characteristics, gender, race, height, disabilities, weight, age, and attractiveness.

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Personality psych

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interested in differences between individuals

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In comparison to personality psych

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social psych is interested in how social factos affect most individuals and how they are the same

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How personality psych and social psych intersect?

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Both may examine how situational factors intersect with individuals differences. For example, personality psych may have a survey for men to fill out about women, the men must list their characteristics and the psychologist will find the differences

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Social psych puts

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theories to the test

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Common sense seems to

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explain many social findings after the fact. The I-knew-it-all-along effect

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Norman Triplett

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American psychologist, 1861 to 1931,studied peoples performances when alone and with people. He found that people do better when someone is doing it with them. First published study in 1898

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Ringelman

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He does not agree with Triplett. The tuggle war example. The difference is accountability, the more people working together the less accountability they have

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First textbooks of Social psychology (1880s-1920s)

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McDougall (1908), Ross (1908), F. Allport (1924) all established social psychology as a distinct field of study.

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Adolp Hitler (1930s-1950s)

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was the most dramatic impact on social psychology

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Society for the Psychological study of Social Issues

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was founded in 1936

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Sheriff's (1936)

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Groundbreaking experiment on social influence, the Cave study

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Kurt Lewin Interactionist Perspective (1930's-1950s)

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interaction between person and environment, as the person is internal and the environment is external. He instituted the field study approach, he did real world studies.

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World War Two Era

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examined the nature of prejudice, aggression, and conformity.

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Gordan Allport (1953)

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"The Nature of Prejudice"

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Soloman Asch's (WW2)

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research on conformity

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Leon Festinger's (WW2)

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research on social comparison, for example "At least I don't have a D"

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Milgrams Obedience Experiment

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A time of expansion, enthusiasm, crisis and heated debate. Strong reactions against the lab experiment as the dominant research method

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Social Psych in a new century

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-Integrating emotion, motivation, and cognition -Biological and evolutionary perspectives -Cultural perspectives -New technologies

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Integration of emotion, motivation, and cognition

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Integration of "hot" and "cold" variables concerning conflicts of wanting to be right versus wanting to feel good about oneself - growing interest in distinguishing between automatic versus controllable processes and understanding dynamic between them

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Cultural perspectives

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defining "culture", cross-cultural research, multicultural research.

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Self-descriptions across cultures

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homogeneous- we think of Germans for example as the German people "them" Hetergeneous- Us

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Biological and evolutionary perspectives

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-social neuroscience, behavioral genetics, evolutionary psychology

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New Technologies

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Brain imaging tech and procedures- Position Emission Tomography (PET), Event-related potential (ERP), Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) seeing what areas of your brain is working. Internet

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Why should you learn about research methods?

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It will help you do better on tests and in future courses. You can improve you reasoning about real life events. You'll become a better, more sophisticated consumer and researcher in general

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Developing Ideas: beginning the research process, STEP ONE

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Start asking questions

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Developing Ideas: beginning the research process, STEP TWO

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Search the literature

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Developing Ideas: beginning the research process, STEP THREE

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Begin shaping the idea into a hypothesis, which is an explicit, testable prediction about the conditions under which an event will occur

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Theories

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An organized set of principles used to explain observed phenomena

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Theories are usually evaluted in terms of 3 criteria

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-simple -comprehensive - Generativity- does it intrigue others to do research

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Basic research

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Goal is to increase our understand of human behavior, often designed to test a specific hypothesis from a specific theory

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Applied research

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Goal is to enlarge our understanding of naturally occurring events, additional goal is to find solutions to practical problems

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Conceptual variables

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are abstract on general variables

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General variable

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height is not abstract, but abstract could be the definition of intelligence which will vary

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An Operational definition states

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specifically how the conceptual variable will be manipulated or measured Transforms the variable from the abstract (conceptual) to the specific (operational)

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Construct Validity is used to

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evaluate the manipulation and measurement of variables -Refers to the extent to which: The manipulations in a experiment really manipulate the conceptual variable they were designed to manipulate.

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The measures used in a study

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really measure the conceptual variables they were designed to measure

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Self-reports

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participants disclose their thoughts, feelings, desires, and actions. Usually a survey.

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Problems with self-reports

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Not always accurate and possibly misleading. Affected by the way in which the questions are asked. Can be inaccurate because memories and past thoughts or behaviors may be suspect

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Pluralism

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Many methods in addition to the lab experiments Integration of both "hot and cold" perspectives Development of international and multicultural perspectives

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Inter-rater reliability

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degree to which multiple observers agree on their observations

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Advantage of inter-rater reliability

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Avoid our sometimes faulty recollections and distorted interpretations on own behavior

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Disadvantages of inter-rater reliability

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observations risk altering behavior of the observed

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New technologies used in contemporary social psych include

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Computer in experiments Reaction time measurements Physiological measures Brain imaging techniques: fMRI

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Descriptive research

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discovering trends and tendencies, goal to describe people and their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

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Observational studies

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information from just looking

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Archival studies

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data that already exist

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Correlation Research: Looking for associations

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Goal is to learn about the relationship between variables -How similar or distinct are 2 different variables -How well does one variable predict another variable

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Role of correlation coeffient

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Correlation versus Perspective Ex. Reading level and shoe size

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a correlation can range from

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-1.0 -0- +1.0

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Advantages of Correlation research

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can study things you can't manipulate and sometimes unethical, can study things in many studies

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Disadvantages of Correlation research

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correlation is not causation

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Experiments looking for cause and effect

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are used to examine cause and effect relationships

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Two essential characteristics of Cause and Effect relationships

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-Researcher has control over the experimental procedures -Participants are randomly assigned to different treatment conditions

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Laboratory Experiments

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conducted in setting which: The environment is controlled, and the participants can be carefully studied

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Independent Variables

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The factors experimenters manipulate to see if they affect the dependent variable

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Dependent Variables

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The factors experimenters measure to see if they are affected by the independent varibles

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Subject Variables

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variables that characterize pre-existing differences among study participants

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Statistical Significance

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how likely is that results could have occurred by chance? -If 5 or fewer times in 100 possible outccomes, then considered to be "statistically significant" r=.07, p<.05, less than 5% chance of it being a fluke -important to replicate,or repeat results

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Internal Validity

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the experimenter did a good job, had control, it was a good study, well rounded, everything they could have controlled was, and they had others check it out

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External Validity

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can we take the result and apply it to the real world, the degree to which there can be reasonable confidence that the results of the study would be obtained for other people in other situations

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External Validity considerations

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-Representative versus Convenience samples - Increased use of internet based data collection allows for more diverse sets of participants -What is the setting in which the research is conducted?

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Mundane Realism

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the extent to which the research setting resembles the real-world setting of interest

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Experimental Realism

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How real the study is to the participant, the degree to which the experimental setting and procedures are real and involving to the participant

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Deception

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Providing participants with false info about the experimental procedures. -can add realism -studies have shown participants are rarely bothered by use of deception -But use does create ethical concern

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Confederates

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people who act like they are participant but really are working for the experimenter. ex- Milgram's study

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Meta- Analysis

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A set of statistical procedures for examining relevant research that has already been conducted and reviewed.

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Meta-Analysis allows one

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to combine the results of individual studies to measure the overall reliability and strength of particular effects

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Culture and Research methods

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Research findings in 1 culture do not necessarily generalize to another.

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When research does not generalize

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across cultures, it can reveal important differences between those cultures.

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Ethics and Values in Social Psych

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Researchers have a moral and legal responsibility to abide by ethical principles. The use of deception has cause particular concern in social psych -Virtually every study now has to be evaluated for it's ethics by other people before the study can be conducted.

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Current policies and procedures

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-Role of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) - Importance of informed consent - Necessity for debriefing= what are the benefits for participant and society, and when using deception you must debrief

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Values and Science

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Ethical principles are based on moral values.

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Self reflection is necessary for

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self understanding the private inner self

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"Self"is

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influenced by social factors such as public, outer self

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A-B-C's of self

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Affect, Behavior, Cognition

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Affect

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self evaluation, enhancing self image, defending self esteem

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Behavior

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Regulating our actions, presenting ourselves

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Cognition

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Knowing ourselves, developing self concept, maintaining stable identity

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Self concept

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All the beliefs that people have about themselves -Made of self schemas

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Self schema

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Self beliefs that guide processing of self-relevant information

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Self recognition

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Who is that mirror -Great apes and Dolphins also can recognize themselves, elephants too

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Introspection

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self knowledge through looking inward at thoughts and feelings

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Does introspection always lead to accurate self knowledge?

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Apparently not always, we overestimate the strength/duration of emotional reactions

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Durability Bias

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for negative events we don't fully appreciate our psychological coping mechanisms, we focus on the impact of one event and overlook the impact of intervening events

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Perceptions of your own behavior/emotion

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people learn about themselves by watching their own behavior

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Self perception theory

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when internal cues are difficult to interpret, we gain insight by observing our own behavior. In absence of compelling situational pressure

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Facial feedback hypothesis

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changes in facial expression can lead to changes in the subjective experience of emotion. -facial expressions may affect emotion through the process of self perception OR facial movements may revoke physiological changes that produce emotional experience

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Knowing what is motivating your behavior

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Intrinsic versus extrinsic

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What happens to intrinsic motivation once a reward is no longer available?

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Over justification effect

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People tend to describe themselves

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in ways that set them apart from others. The self is relative- we use others as a benchmark

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Social Comparison Theory FESTINGER

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When we are uncertain about our abilities/opinions we compare ourselves to similar others.

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Two factor theory of Emotion SCHACTER

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"Misery only loves miserable company" 2 factors necessary to feel a specific emotion -experience of physiological arousal -cognitively interpret/explain source of arousal -others only influence interpretation when arousal is not overly intense -Others must be present before onset of arousal

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Auto Biographical memories

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Essential for coherent self concept, recent events more than the past. Exception: remembering transitional firsts

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Flashbulb memories

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remembering everything and details, how felt how you thought, can vividly recall like you took a snapshot of that moment

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Individualism

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independence, autonomy

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Collectivism

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cooperation, social harmony, degree of connection, responsibility, interdependence to others

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Self esteem

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Asking am I good enough?

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Positive self image

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happy, healthy, productive, and successful

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Negative self image

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more depressed, pessimistic, and prone to failure

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Individuals vary in self esteem level

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-across time -across domains -Some people compensate in areas while in some areas they have a lower self esteem

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Gender differences in self esteem

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Adolescent and young adult males outscore females on general self esteem

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Self esteem differences

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grow smaller as we age

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Social and Cultural groups also differ

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Blacks have a higher self esteem, this may be because what would put them down is discrimination but it's a external cause that is not their fault. Native Americans are the lowest Asian are lower because they are more group oriented

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Self discrepancy theory

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self esteem: the mismatch/match between how we see ourselves and how we want to see ourselves

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Self esteem can be predicted by

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looking at the discrepancy between ones actual self and one's self guides The bigger the discrepancy the worse the self esteem is

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Self esteem again

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we are not usually self focused some situations draw our attention to ourselves We start to compare- often results in neg discrepancy and reduction in S-E Mirrors bring attention to ourselves

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When self absorbed people are

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more anxious, use alcohol, and have more clinical disorders

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private self consciousness

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the tendency to introspect about inner thoughts and feelings -I'm always trying to figure myself out -I'm constantly examining my motives -I'm alert to changes in my mood

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Public self consciousness

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tendency to focus on public image -I'm concerned about what people think of mean

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Self regulation

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A process of trying to control or alter our thoughts, feelings,and behaviors

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Self control may be a limited resource

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you control yourself then loss control in another area. the more you are denied something the more you want it

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Ironic processes

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Sometimes the harder we try to inhibit a thought, feeling, or behavior, the less likely we are to succeed

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Mechanisms of self enhancement

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We cope with our flaws, and inadequacies by exhibiting egotism, a unconscious tendency to hold ourselves in high regard. We overestimate our abilities

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Self serving cognition (Method of self enhancement)

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Take credit for successes and distance self from failures, and being unrealistically optimistic= remembing GPA higher

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Self handicapping (Method of self enhancement)

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behaviors designed to sabotage ones own performance in order to provide excuse for failure

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Excuses

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protect the self from seeing failure as due to lack of ability

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Sandbagging

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well play down their own ability

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Self handicapping

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ingenious and insulates self from failure while it enhances any success but increases of chance of failure

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Men with self handicapping

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drugs, neglect to practice for job interview

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women with self handicapping

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stress, and physical symptoms

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Basking in the Glory of Others (BIRGing) (Method of self enhancement)

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Associate with others who are successful, we can also cut off reflected failure, distance ourselves from others who fail or of low status

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Downward social comparison (Method of self enhancement)

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when self esteem is threatened, compare self to others who are worse off, make temporal self comparisons between past and present self.

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Tragic life events

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we affiliate with others in the same situation who are doing well and we compare to others who are doing worse than us

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Are positive illusion adaptive?

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more realistic people are more depressed and have lower self esteem. Positive illusions can help ppl cope with adversity but can lead to chronic patterns of self defeating behaviors

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Self presentation

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our efforts shape what others think of us and what we think of ourselves

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Two types of self presentation

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Strategic self presentation= job interview, meeting the parents self verification= desire for others to perceive us as we truly perceive ourselves

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Self monitoring

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the tendency to regulate behavior to meet the demands of the situation

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high self monitors

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sensitive to strategic self presentation concerns, they want to fit in, they get higher performance ratings, more promotions, seem to be leaders but others may think they are fake and opportunistic

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low self monitors

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more concerned with self verification (be true to self), less concerned about the propriety of their behavior, they are who they are and show it. Others may think they are stubborn and insensitive

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self complex

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is an enduring part of personality, sense of self, stable over time- slow to change

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Malleable

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molded by life experiences, varies by situation, we can change

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Social perceptions

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1st impressions are hard to change

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Physiognomy

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needing character from faces

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Influence of scripts

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we see what we expect to see, we use what we know to explain causes of behavior

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Mind perception

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attributing human like mental states to animate and inanimate objects including people

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6 universal expressions

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happiness 90%, Sadness 70%, Surprise 70%, Anger 65%, Fear 58%, Disgust 62%

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Touch can convey status

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higher status can touch lower but that's it

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high consensus (Kelly)

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when everyone likes something

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low consensus (Kelly)

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when only you like something

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Success in hiding lying cues depends on

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face and body which is difficult to control

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How do people explain the causes of behavior?

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Personal and situational

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How do we decide between personal and situational?

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Degree of choice, Expectedness (is this show how they usually are?) and intended effects

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Kelly covariation theory

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Consensus, distinctiveness (is the person's behavior stable over time) Consistancy (does the person react the same/differently to different stimuli

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Cognitive heuristics

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info processing short cuts, usually work but can lead to errors

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availability hueristic

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we tend to estimate the likelihood that an event will occur by how easily examples come to mind.

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We tend to

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overestimate the role of personal factors, overlook the impact of situations, car example

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Actor observer effect

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we tend to make personal attributions for the behaviors of others and situational attributions for ourselves because we know our situations

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Belief in a Just world

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its hard to believe bad things happen to good people

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Information Integration theory:Impressions of others are based on

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personal dispositions of the perciever and a weighted average of traits

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Perciever characteristics

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we differ in kinds of impressions we form of others, our mood can influence impressions,

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Priming effects

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recently used words tend to come to mind easily and influence the interpretation of new info Ex photo survey

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Implicit personality theory

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assumptions we make about what traits go together

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Central Traits

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powerful, influential traits, they influence all aspects of your behavior

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Primacy effect

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tendency for info presented early to have impact on impressions than info presented later

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Primacy effect explanation 1

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once we have formed an impression we pay less attention to later info, we need closure

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Primacy effect explanation 2

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once we have formed an impression, we start to interpret info in light of that impression (change of meaning hypothesis)

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Confirmation Bias

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once we make up our mind about something we tend to seek, interpret, and create info that verifies existing beliefs

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Perseverance of beliefs

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we interpret ambiguous events in ways that confirm our existing beliefs. maintaining beliefs even after being proven wrong

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How accurate are our perceptions>

answer

we often exhibit biases in our social awareness, we have little awareness of our limitations, We are overconfident

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