MODUAL 1 Chapter 1 What is social psychology

Social Psychology Defined

• Social psychology employs scientific methods to study individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors within a social context
• It shares similarities with other sciences, such as relying on systematic approaches and the scientific method
• It emphasizes individuals within social contexts and studies a variety of social conditions and behaviors

Research Questions and Applications

• Social psychologists investigate numerous questions about individuals and their social worlds
• The scope and relevance of these questions makes social psychology an asset in many different fields and careers

Social Psychology and Related Fields

• Social psychology connects to several fields of study including sociology, clinical psychology, cognitive psychology and personality psychology
• Social psychology emphasizes individuals, while sociology tends to focus on groups

Social Psychology Versus Common Sense

• Many social psychological theories and findings can be considered common sense
• Common sense can be flawed offering conflicting explanations, lacks testing, and can be too simplistic

History of Social Psychology, 1880s-1920s

• Early research by Triplett and Ringelmann looked at effects of the presence of others on an individuals performance
• The first social psychology textbooks were published in 1908 and 1924, that helped shape the emergent field

Social Psychology: 1930s-1950s

• Social psychology grew in prominence as the world sought to understand and address violence
• Research efforts from scientists, like Sherif and Lewin, helped strengthen its standing as a major social science

Social Psychology: 1960s-Mid-1970s

• Stanley Milgram's experiments showed the destructive ability of authority
• Ethical issues, research validity, and the generalizability of conclusions were debated

Social Psychology: Mid-1970s-1990s

• Social psychology broadened its research methods embracing pluralism
• Perspectives such as more cultural inclusivity and social cognition

Social Psychology Today

• Several themes that have shaped the beginning of social psychologys second century
• Focus on how motivation, emotion and cognition influence an individuals thoughts, feelings and behaviors
• Consideration of circumstances faced faced with wanting to be correct and wanting to feel good

New Biological Perspectives

• Implementation of evolutionary principles, genetics and neuroscience that analyze issues like relationships, gender, emotions, and aggression
• Research evaluating general universality by examining similarities and differences amongst cultures
• Relations to economic decision making are studied in the subfield of behavioral economics

Research on Embodied Cognition

• Research connects the mind and body like body gestures and movements that influence thoughts and feelings
• Social psychology intersects with political science to present valuable insights into various contemporary Issues
• Improved brain-imaging capabilities and advances in technology have given rise to groundbreaking research

Methodology in Social Psychology

• Virtual reality can answer questions previously considered impossible or unethical
• Communication amongst collaborators was fostered by, and enabled researchers to study participants across the world

Research Methods

• Study of psychology improves reasoning and helps in media interpretation
• Understanding enables better comprehension with facts and more in depth learning

Research Ideas Development

• Research ideas derived through personal experiences and observations, news events, and other related research
• Thorough research to find out what related ideas have been produced

Forming Hypothesis

• Hypothesis formulation is crucial to planning and directing research
• Theories attempt to understand and predict social phenomena, which allows more research for tests

Type of Rsearch

• Basic research aims to explain the human thoughts and behavior
• Applied research aims to understand real-world events and provide answers to social problems, is important for researchers to test their research with quantitative methods

Defining variables

• Researchers convert theoretical variable into concrete operational definitions
• Conceptual manipulation is the extent to which operational concepts correspond

Methods to Measure Social Psychology

• Self-Report (indicate their thoughts, feelings, desires, or actions)
• Observations

Observational Studies

• It is important that different observers agree when measuring by observation; this agreement is called interrater reliability
• Developments in technology have allowed researchers to quantify more human physiological behavior

Types of Research Designs

• Scientists utilize quantitive methods
• It is important to collect and analyze data to form a solid theoretical basis for results in research, important to distinguish between descriptive, correlational and experimental research

Ethics Review

• Human research ethics committees or review boards were designed to review research and were created to protect any participants
• Moral and legal guidelines should be followed

Important Ideas

• Important that consent to experiments are voluntarily given and all information are given to make an informed decision
• In the online world, it is important to ensure ethical conduct as well as that of research studies