Intro to Social Psychology

Unit 1 – Learning Objectives

• Define social psychology
• Describe the ABC triad of social psychology
• Explain how social psychology relates to other fields of study
• Assess the different methods of data collection in social psychology

Introduction

• Social psychology is the study of how people affect and are affected by others
• It aids in understanding the social world
• All options should be considered for every decision
• Coffee shop choices include type of milk, flavoring, sweetener, and bean

A brief history of social psychology

• Late 1800s: two experiments that provided different answers to the same question
• Norman Triplett found that competition enhances performance
• Max Ringelmann observed that individual effort decreases as group size increases
• 1908: social psychology textbooks were published
• William McDougall and Edward Ross published these textbooks in 1908
• Twentieth century: rapid changes and world events led to new ideas
• Gordon Allport emphasized the importance of attitudes
• Kurt Lewin stated that behavior is a function of the person and the situation
• Stanley Milgram examined the role of obedience, especially in light of World War II
• 1950s and 1960s: psychology was divided into two camps
• Behaviourism focussed on learning principles, like rewards and punishments.
• Freudian psychoanalysis emphasized individual experiences
• Social psychology blends different methods
• Scientific methods are used to measure behavior, thoughts, feelings, and inner states
• Recent history in social psychology shows a marked renewed interest in several subject areas
• Studying cognitive processes, including attribution theory
• Biological and evolutionary processes such as social neuroscience, have received increased focus.
• Topics related to the self, like self-concept, self-esteem, and self-presentation are also being studied increasingly
• Studying group conflict issues such as political, racial, and ethnic conflicts

The ABC triad

• Refers to Affect, Behavior and Cognition

Social psychology's place in the world

• Social psychology is involved in the social sciences like:
• Anthropology
• Economics
• History
• Political science
• Sociology

Why people study social psychology

• Curiosity about why people act the way they do is a common reason
• It combines profound questions and the scientific method
• It helps to make the world better
• Social psychology is fun because it is fascinating and enjoyable

How do social psychologists answer their own questions?

• Accumulated common wisdom is often contradictory
• Intuition is not the best way to discover truth
• Common sense can be a starting point for asking questions

Overview of the scientific method

• The scientific method includes the following basic steps:
• State the problem
• Formulate a testable hypothesis
• Design the study and collect data
• Test the hypothesis with data
• Communicate study results

Research concepts

• Chicken soup reduces upper respiratory inflammation
• An experiment involving samples of chicken soup showed a reduction in neutrophil counts
• This research was then published in Chest
• An independent variable is the event that causes a person to do something
• A dependent variable is the behavior produced by the person
• A confederate is a person pretending to be a participant

Scientific theories

• Construct validity of the cause uses an independent variable: theoretical stimulus
• Construct validity of the effect uses a dependent variable: theoretical response
• Scientific theories must be testable and constructs operationally defined
• Research design:
  • Researchers utilize experiments, controlling procedures with randomly assigned participants
  • Quasi-experiments involve no random assignment
  • Internal validity provides confidence that the independent variable caused a change in the dependent variable

Trade-offs

• Trade-offs must consider potential harm and potential benefits to society
• Include getting permission from Institutional Review Board
• Include in research ethical guidelines at universities
• Include getting consent forms from subjects
• Demand characteristics must be considered by researchers
• Debriefing must be conducted after the study

Research design cont'd

• Research design covers both laboratory and field experiments
• Laboratory experiments offer a high level of control
• Field experiments take place in real-world settings
• Experimental realism requires participants to forget they are in an experiment
• Mundane realism involves settings that resemble the real world
• External validity means the findings can apply to other people and situations

Non-experimental studies

• Correlations do not prove causation as the researcher does not control or random assignment of variables
• Correlation describes the relationship between two variables
  • Correlations can be positive, negative, or show no correlation
  • Correlations are computed by calculating the correlation coefficient

Survey research

• Random sample: each person has an equal chance of being selected
• Population: total number of people to chose from
• Reliability: gives consistent results
• Validity: measures what it is meant to measure

How much social psychology is true?

• Social psychology is a self-correcting science
• Replication is used to correct false theories over time
• There are some potential issues:
• Reliance on student samples limit its scope
• Cultural relativity exists since Western cultures dominate research making those views prominant
• Cultural differences may be substantial and important

Summary

• Social psychologist focuses on ways humans affect and are affected by others
• Use the scientific method to design experiments to study Affect , Behavior, and Cognition
• Should be aware of the the limitations and challenges of experimental design, and know how to address these issues

Unit 2 – Learning Objectives

• How nature and culture work together to affect choices and behaviour
• How the two system of the duplex mind differ and work together
• How inner processes serve interpersonal functions

Introduction

• Gender identity:
• Brenda, born a boy, was raised as a girl after a botched circumcision
• The person never fit in; wanted to play rough games like the boys
• Cases show that others born as boys, but raised as girls, did not turn out to be typical adult women
• This information shows that some parts of who you are come from biology

Nature, nurture and social behaviour

• Explaining the psyche, a broad term for mind that includes emotions, desires, and perceptions
• Nature and culture shape the psyche and determine why people are the way they are
• Nature: physical world including laws and processes like trees, animals, and gravity
• Nature helps explain human behaviour
• Geneticists say that behaviour is genetic
• Advocates of nature suggest to understand behavior through evolutionary theory

Nature and social behaviour cont'd

• Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution
• Focuses on how change occurs in nature
• All living things have:
• The drive to prolong life
• Ability to change from one generation to the next
• Natural selection is how some traits disappear and others endure
  • Survival: living long enough to reproduce
  • Reproduction: producing babies that also reproduce
  • Mutation: new gene or combination of genes
• Humans are 'social animals' and are social beings
  • Seek connections to others
• Being social offers evolutionary benefits:
  • Find more food
  • Mate and reproduce easier
  • Alert each other to danger
  • Take care of sick and injured
• Social animals need complex powerful brains

Social Brain Theory

• Animals with bigger brains live in larger, more complex social groups
• Human brain evolved to enable human beings to have rich, complex social lives
• Social animals (including humans) accomplish things by means of social interaction

Social vs Cultural Animals

• Social animals
  • They seek connections to others
  • Prefer to live, work, and play with other people
• Cultural animals
  • Have rich and powerful cultural systems
• Culture is the essence of what makes humans human

Culture defined

• The following are important features of culture:
  • Shared ideas: the brain is strongly oriented toward shared ideas
  • Culture as a social system: network linking many different people
  • Culture as praxis: shared ways of doing things
  • Culture, information, and meaning: all cultures use language to encode & share information

Nature and culture interacting

• Nature and culture interact to influence us
  • Some cultures require boys to go through something to transition to being men; girls grow up to be women
  • Some consider failing to provide for family a loss of manhood
  • Womanhood is regarded as biological achievement
  • Manhood requires cultural achievement
• Nature and culture influence each other
• Nature shapes culture, and culture shapes nature
• Cultural beings are different from being social beings
• Division of labour is unique to culture
• Shared knowledge and communication
• Ability to solve disagreements

Are people the same everywhere?

• Cultural norms vary
• Sleeping arrangements
• People are different, both within & between cultures
• People are far more similar than different
• People love their children and provide food, but still distinguish what is wrong and right

The duplex mind

• Two systems in the mind
• Automatic system
• Operates outside of consciousness
• Simple operations
• Always on
• Deliberate system
• Operates in consciousness
• Turns off during sleep
• What is the purpose of consciousness?
• Increased focus on automatic system
• Can learn, think, choose, and respond
• Has ideas and emotions
• Knows ‘self’ and other people
• Consciousness focuses on complex thought and logical reasoning
• How they work together
• Automatic system makes conscious thought possible
• May also signal to the deliberate system that something is wrong
• Conscious override is an import aspect of morality Deliberate system can suppress automatic urges, which is important to cultural norms, laws, morals etc.

Long Road to Social Acceptance

• Self gain requires social acceptance Humans learn to work within cultural bounds. In a Victorian era, swearing and nose picking were not acceptable. Today, swearing is often accepted, but nose-picking is not

Social constructs cont'd

• Nature says go; culture says stop
  • Nature: impulses, wishes, and automatic responses
  • Culture: teaches self-control and restraint
• Exceptions:
• Nature's disgust reactions stop us from things
• Cultural timetable for meals means cultural says go, but natural says stop

Trade-offs

• Trade-offs: any choice presents with negative consequence(s)
• Time dimension:
  • Time presents benefits now or in the future
• Sacrafice now for future payoff
  • Some trade offs cannot be learned.
• Animals don't do this (e.g., chimps fed once a day; have not learned to store food away)

Putting people first

• Human senses vary from other animals'
• Dogs hear many sounds, humans, the reverse is also true
• Most sense organs (even artificial ones) trade off detection and resolution

Summary

• Human behaviour results from a mix of nature and culture
• Nature and culture interact with each other to influence human behaviour
• Culture is a powerful force on people, even overcoming nature at times