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Definitions of Social Psychology

• Social psychology is the scientific study of how individuals think, influence, relate to, and behave in the real or implied presence of others.
• Another definition describes it as the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate with one another.
• Different versions of social psychology exist, including American, European, and Asian versions.

Social Psychology

• Social psychology encompasses social thinking, social influence, and social relations.
• Social thinking includes culture, aggression, judgments, attraction, and prejudice.
• Social influence includes attributions, conformity, and persuasion.
• Social relations looks at self comparison, attitudes, obedience and helping.

Social Thinking

• People construct their social reality and view objective reality through a specific lens, aligning with critical realism or contextualism.
• Social intuitions are powerful and helpful beyond consciousness but can be erroneous in certain situations.
• Attitudes influence and are influenced by behavior, forming a continuous cycle.

Social Influence

• Social influences shape behavior as people respond, almost automatically, to immediate contexts and sometimes even when consciously aware of being incorrect.
• The power of "just going along with it" influences individuals.
• Dispositions shape behavior as some personal aspects are not malleable, contributing to shifts in the behavior cycle.

Social Relations

• Social behavior has a biological basis, moderating shifts in behavior cycles.
• Norms are built around and sometimes wrongfully justify biological roots, studied in social neuroscience.
• Feelings/actions toward others are sometimes negative, sometimes positive
• How we label can effect interpretation
• Some labels can be empowering, even when negative

Influence of Values on Social Psychology

• Values influence science/social psychology in research topics and the selection of research subjects.
• Culture-based biases, definitions of best/worst states, labeling, concept formation, and professional advice are all influenced by values.

Common Misconceptions

• The idea that visual, auditory, or haptic learners learn better through their respective learning styles is not true.
• Catharsis of anger is not a healthy way to empty out emotion.
• Relationships where partners complements personality and preferences are not always better
• Criminals are not criminal because of how empathetic etc they are

Cognitive Biases

• People tend to immediately believe in what seems remotely probable.
• Hindsight bias causes belief that one could have foreseen an outcome after it has occurred.
• Confirmation bias leads to seeking evidence confirming an initial hypothesis.
• These biases serve to shield individuals from the distress of facing the unknown.

Research Methodologies

• The research process starts with theory which leads to testable hypotheses.
• Methodologies can be formulated or applied.
• Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods are used.
• Specific research methods include correlation studies, experimental studies surveys and archival analysis

Correlational Studies

• Correlation doesn't equal causation due to bi-directionality and potential third variables; correlation indicates prediction.
• Random sampling obtains participants from a population, ensuring an equal chance of selection, forming a representative sample for generalizations.

Survey Research

• Survey research considerations include avoiding unrepresentative sampling.
• Aswell as wording and order of questions and response options and the way questions are framed.

Unsound Survey Items

• Examples of unsound survey items include double-barreled questions, leading questions, vague quantifiers, and multiple sources in a question.
• It is important to avoid these so as to keep data accurate

Experimental Studies

• Experimental studies involve independent, dependent, and control variables.
• Random assignment ensures cause-and-effect inference by giving everyone an equal chance to be in the same condition, which differs from random sampling.

Realism in Experimental Studies

• Mundane realism assumes experiments are not necessarily like real life.
• Experimental realism expects experiments to engage participants.
• Demand characteristics, or cues in experiments that give way to expected behavior, and deception, or deliberate misinformation, must be minimized, improving validity and reliability.

Ethical Studies

• Ethical studies require minimizing deception, obtaining informed consent, eliminating unnecessary harm, ensuring confidentiality, and debriefing participants.

Science in Psychology

• Science in psychology involves the removal of biases and management of theories, which explain and predict observed events.
• Good theories encapsulate observations and make clear, testable predictions.
• Predictions confirm/modify the theory, generate new areas of explanation, and suggest practical applications.

Hypothesis Testing & Replication

• Hypothesis testing involves testable propositions describing relationships between variables.
• Replication repeats a study with different participants to reproduce findings.
• Contents of a phenomenon can differ in cultures, but the research process is mostly similar.

Criticisms of American Social Psychology

• Criticisms include being too individualistic, losing the "social" aspect, becoming too specific with theories, and having experimental/methodological fetishism leading to replication crisis.