Social Psychology: The Science of the Social Side of Life

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Chapter

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Social Psychology: What it is and What it Does

1. 2. 3. 4.

A working definition Its cutting edge Research methods Quest for knowledge and rights of individuals

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Social Psychology is Scientific in Nature

The scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behavior and thought in social situations
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Science involves
Accuracy, objectivity, skepticism, open-mindedness NOT just personal experience, intuition, common sense

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Social Psychology Focuses on the Behavior of Individuals

We cannot hope to understand how and why people behave in certain ways in social situations without considering their thoughts, memories, intentions, emotions, attitudes, and beliefs The fields major interest lies in understanding the factors that shape the actions and thoughts of individual in social settings
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Social Psychology Seeks to Understand the Causes of Social Behavior and Thought

Social Interactions Cognitive Processes Environmental Variables: Impact of the

Physical World Cultural Context Biological factors

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Figure 1.5

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Social Psychology: Its Cutting Edge

Cognition and Behavior: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Social Psychologist used to be divided into two groups those who were primarily interested in social behaviorhow people act in social situations and those who were primarily interested in social thoughthow people attempt to make sense out of the social world and to understand themselves and others
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Social Neuroscience: Where Social

Psychology and Brain Research Meet

An area of research in social psychology that seeks knowledge about the neural and biological bases of social processes.

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Figure 1.7

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The Role of Implicit (Nonconscious) Processes

Often take place in an automatic manner, without any conscious thought or intentions on our part Distrust of common sense Research by Pelham, Mirenberg, and Jones (2002)
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Figure 1.8

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Taking Full Account of Social Diversity

Multicultural Perspective:
A focus on understanding the cultural and ethnic factors that influence social behavior

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A Brief Look At History: The Origins and Early Development of Social Psychology

The Early Years: Social Psychology

Emerges Social Psychologys Youth: The 1940s, 1950s and 1960s

The theory of cognitive dissonance

The 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s: A Maturing

Field

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How Social Psychologists Answer the Fascinating Questions They Raise: Research as the Route to Increased Knowledge

Systematic Observation: Describing the World around Us

A method of research in which behavior is systematically observed and recorded.

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Naturalistic observation
Systematically observing behavior in natural settings

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Survey method
Large numbers of people answer questions about their attitudes or behavior

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Correlation: The Search for Relationships correlation refers to a tendency for one

event to change as the other changes Variables are changeable aspects of the natural world Correlational Method: the systematic observation of two or more variables to determine whether changes in one are accompanied by changes in the other
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Correlational Method
Allows predictions to be made

A hypothesis is an as yet unverified prediction concerning some aspect of social behavior or social thought. A stronger correlation yields a more accurate prediction

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Correlational Method
Correlations range from -1.00 to +1.00 Correlations can be either positive or negative

A positive correlation means that the two variables

move in the same direction, either both increasing or decreasing A negative correlation means that as one variable increases, the other decreasesthe two variables move in opposite directions

The farther away from 0, the stronger the

correlation

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Figure 1.11

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The Experimental Method: Knowledge through Systematic Intervention

Experimentation (experimental method) A
method of research in which one or more factors (the independent variables) are systematically changed to determine whether such variations affect one or more other factors (dependent variables).
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Experimentation: Its Basic Nature

Independent variable is the variable that is
systematically changed (i.e. varied) in an experiment. Dependent variable is the variable that is measured in an experiment.

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Experimentation: Two Key Requirements for Its Success

1. Random assignment Each research

participant must have an equal chance of being exposed to each level of the independent variable
all factors that might also affect participants behavior must be constant.

2. Other than the independent variable,

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Further Thoughts on Causality: The Role of Mediating Variables affected by an independent variable, and then influences a dependent variable helps explain why or how specific variables influence social behavior or thought in certain ways.

Mediating variable is a variable that is

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The Role of Theory in Social Psychology

Theories are efforts by scientists in any

field to answer the question Why?
involve attempts to understand why certain events or processes occur as they do

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Figure 1.13

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The Quest for Knowledge and the Rights of Individuals:

Seeking an Appropriate Balance

Rights of individuals
1. No harm or distress

2. Informed consent
Participants must have as much information as possible about a research project before they decide whether to participate in it
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Rights of individuals cont

3. Debriefing Full information about the experiments goals and the reasons why temporary deception was used

4.Deception

Technique whereby researchers withhold information about the purposes or procedures of a study from their participants
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