History of Social Psychology

History of Social Psychology

• Aristotle: Society shapes human development.
• Comte: People are the product and producer of the social environment.
• Wilhelm Wundt (1879): Established the first psychology lab, separating psychology from philosophy and biology.
• Norman Triplett (1898): Founded the field of social psychology and created the social facilitation theory.
• John Dewey: Collective work benefits society.
• McDougal (1908): Published the first social psychology textbook
• Ross: Published a social psychology textbook.
• Floyd Allport (1920-1930): Considered the father of social psychology and experimental psychology. He focused on individual dispositions rather than societal forces.
• Sumner: Criticized the treatment of African Americans and the western bias in IQ tests.
• Festinger (1930-1950s): Studied conformity, obedience, and authority during World War II using controlled laboratory experiments and deception.
• Skinner: A behaviorist who believed mental states were preconditioned.
• Cognitive Revolution: Challenged behaviorism, arguing that our thoughts influence our actions.
• Lewin: Developed the interactionalism perspective, emphasizing the interaction between a person's personality and the social environment. He conducted research outside the lab (field studies). He studied resistance to propaganda and the influence of subjective experiences.
• Milgram and Zimbardo (1960-1970s): Conducted controversial experiments on obedience (Milgram) and social roles (Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment). This period raised concerns about the ethics of research.
• 1970-2000s: A period of pluralism in social psychology, integrating lab and correlational research. This allowed for the inclusion of diverse participants and cultures.
• Ethical Standards: Emphasis on informed consent, ethical treatment of participants, and a focus on oppressed groups.

Social Facilitation

• Enhanced performance in the presence of others.
• Norman Triplett: Observed cyclists performing better in groups than alone.
• Aerodynamic Theories: Explained cyclists' performance based on suction, shelter, and physical force.
• Psychological Theories: Suggested factors like hypnotism, encouragement, worry, and competitive instincts (dynamogenic theory) as contributing factors.
• Fishing Line Kids Test: Demonstrated children pulling in fish faster in groups than alone.
• Floyd Allport (1924): Coined the term "social facilitation" to refer to the positive impact of others’ presence on performance.
• Bayer (1929): Found that chickens ate more food in groups.
• Chen (1937): Observed that ants excavated more dirt when other ants were present.

Social Inhibition and Drive Theory

• Reduced performance in the presence of others.
• Robert Zajonc (1965): Drive theory: Arousal facilitates dominant responses but inhibits non-dominant ones. Performance is better with others for easy tasks but worse for difficult ones.
• Michaels et al. (1982): Found novice pool players performed worse, while expert players performed better with an audience.

Criticisms and Limitations of Drive Theory

• Lacks objective criteria for determining task difficulty.
• Limited meta-analytic support for the theory.
• Presence of others accounts for only 3% of performance variance for difficult vs. easy tasks.
• Inconsistent and contradictory findings.

Individual and Dispositional Factors in Social Facilitation

• Personality impacts performance.
• Uziel (2007):
  • Self- assured individuals perform better around others.
  • Individuals with social inhibition perform worse around others.