Intro to Social Psychology

• Scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of others.

Social Psychology Focuses on Individuals

• Personality psychology (stable traits, individual differences)
• Sociology (large-scale social structures, group behaviors)

Hindsight Bias and Social Psychology

• The tendency to believe, after an outcome occurs, that one "knew it all along"

Origins of Social Psychology

• Norman Triplett (1898): First study on social facilitation (people perform better in the presence of others)
• Max Ringelmann (1880s): Social loafing (people exert less effort in groups)

Ethical Principles in Research

• Respect for the dignity of persons
• Informed consent & confidentiality
• Deception only if necessary, with debriefing

Ways of Gathering Information

• Archival data (e.g., government reports, past records)
• Observation (naturalistic, field, lab studies)
• Questionnaires (self-report, potential biases like social desirability)
• Experiments (controlled studies with independent & dependent variables)

Culture & Social Behavior

• Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions: Power Distance, Individualism vs. Collectivism, Masculinity vs. Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance.
• Triandis' Cultural Syndromes: Idiocentrism vs. Allocentrism (self vs. group focus)
• Cohen & Nisbett's Culture of Honor: Southern U.S. culture more aggressive due to herding history

Key Themes of Social Psychology

• Perception influences how people see and interact with the world
• Social intuitions can be powerful but flawed
• Dual-processing involves conscious and unconscious thinking
• Culture, peers, and situations affect actions
• Personality traits and attitudes influence choices
• Social neuroscience links brain activity to social behavior

Values & Social Psychology

• Culture involves shared beliefs and behaviors passed down generations
• Social representations are commonly held ideas shaping how people see the world

Research Methods in Social Psychology

• Correlational Research: Identifies relationships between variables but does not imply causation
• Experimental Research: Uses random assignment to determine cause-and-effect relationships
• Survey Research: Uses random sampling to ensure representativeness but can suffer from response bias

Hindsight Bias & Common Sense

• People overestimate the ability to predict outcomes after they happen
• Research challenges assumptions by testing them scientifically

Ethics in Social Psychology

• Informed consent, confidentiality, debriefing is important
• Minimizing deception & harm is important

Social Cognition

• Involves how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information
• Helps people navigate social situations and understand themselves & others

Components of the Self

• Self-Knowledge (Self-Concept): Who we are, our self-schemas
• Agent Self (Executive Function): Self-control, decision-making
• Interpersonal Self (Public Self): Self-presentation, group roles

Self-Concept & Self-Schemas

• Self-Schemas: Organized mental structures about ourselves
• Types: Actual Self, Ideal Self, Ought Self, Possible Selves
• Independent Self (Western cultures) vs Interdependent Self (Eastern cultures)

Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954)

• Downward Comparison: Comparing to those worse off boosts self-esteem
• Upward Comparison: Comparing to those better off motivation or discouragement

Attribution Theory

• Attribution theory examines how we explain behavior (our own and others')
• Locus of Causality: Internal (person) vs External (situation)
• Stability (Stable vs Unstable)
• Controllability (Controllable vs Uncontrollable)
• Globality (Global vs Specific)
• Intentionality (Intentional vs Unintentional)

Self-Serving Bias & Attribution

• People take credit for success (internal attribution) but blame failures on external factors
• Brain regions (fMRI study): Self-serving attributions activate reward centers

Self-Esteem & Sociometer Theory (Leary, 1999, 2005)

• Self-esteem monitors our social acceptance
• Social rejection lowers self-esteem; acceptance boosts it

How Self-Esteem Affects Failure Reactions

• High self-esteem: Motivated by failure working harder
• Low self-esteem: Generalizes failure and gives up more easily
• Defensive Strategies: Defensive Pessimism expects failure to avoid disappointment
• Self-Handicapping: Creating obstacles to excuse failure

Fragile Self-Esteem & Discrimination

• High explicit but low implicit self-esteem is more defensive & aggressive
• Jordan et al. (2005): When self-view was challenged, participants with fragile self-esteem punished out-group members more harshly

Self-Acceptance Training (Baldwin Lab, McGill)

• Training to focus on positive social feedback improves self-esteem

Cultural Differences in Self-Enhancement

• Western cultures engage in more self-enhancement (highlighting positives)
• Eastern cultures engage in more self-criticism (focus on self-improvement)
• Both cultures engage in self-enhancement & self-criticism but at different levels

Explore the fascinating field of social psychology. Learn about the origins of social psychology. Understand ethical principles in research and methods for gathering information, including archival data, observation, and questionnaires.