Week 1: Introduction to Social Psychology

Definition of Social Psychology

• Social psychology studies social interactions and their effects on individuals, focusing on behaviors and attitudes.
• Gordon Allport's definition describes it as the scientific study of how an individual's thoughts, feelings, and actions are affected by the actual, imagined, or symbolically represented presence of others.

Social Psychology Approach

• Social psychology uses a scientific approach, relying on theory and empirical evidence.
• It explores phenomena for objective understanding, addressing potential biases like WEIRD samples.
• Methods include experimental, qualitative, and quantitative research.

The ABCs of Social Psychology

• Social psychology examines the individual's thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• ABC are affect (feelings), behavior (actions and interactions), and cognition (thoughts and attitudes).
• Each lecture topic relates to these three components.

Influence in Social Psychology

• An individual's ABCs are affected by the actual, imagined, or symbolically represented presence of others.
• Influence can come from real, imagined, or implied sources.

Social Influence

• Social influence refers to the effects that the words, actions, or presence of others have on an individual's affect, behavior, and cognition.
• Subjective experience is critical, involving construals, which are individual perceptions and interpretations of the world.
• Understanding construals helps to understand motivations for perceiving and distorting the social world.
• Construals are driven by the need to maintain positive self-regard and belong, and the need to be accurate and understand the world.

Distinctions from Other Fields

• Sociology examines prejudice between groups, while clinical psychology focuses on treatment.
• Personality psychology focuses on individual attributes, and cognitive psychology on thoughts and concepts.
• Social psychology manipulates interactions between groups to examine the effects.

Brief History of Social Psychology

• Social and political trends influence social psychology research.
• Key themes such as bias, persuasion, and social self-regulation have persisted.
• Understanding the history of social psychology helps researchers study relevant topics and avoid entry biases.
• Awareness of history is essential for conducting successful research.

Classical Roots

• The publication of textbooks by McDougall and Alsworth in 1908 marked a starting point for social psychology.
• Historical codes (e.g., Babylonian Codex) and religious texts (e.g., the Bible, Sanskrit Bhagavad Gita) contain laws on social rules.
• Aristotle believed humans are inherently social.
• The Age of Enlightenment influenced modern social psychology.

Emergence of a Discipline (1850-1930)

• Wilhelm Wundt helped popularize social psychology ideas.
• Triplett conducted the first social-psych lab experiment in 1897, studying group influence on kids winding fishing rods.
• Allport emphasized experimentation and studying group phenomena in individualistic terms.
• McDougall (1908) emphasized individual instincts.
• William James proposed the 'motivated tactician' model of social cognition, suggesting thinking is for doing.

Maturation and Migration (1930-1945)

• By 1930, social psychology was well established.
• Floyd Allport was a dominant figure.
• Henry Murray's personality theory (1938) highlighted the interactive effects of situations and dispositions on behavior.
• Lewin proposed that behavior is a function of the person and the environment and advocated for applied theory.

Post WWII (1946-1969)

• The field expanded rapidly due to the GI Bill and increased research funding.
• A dominant theme was group dynamics.
• Key studies include Asch's experiments on conformity and Stanley Milgram's obedience studies.
• Festinger's social comparison theory and cognitive dissonance (1957) were influential.
• Bem's model of self-perception and Schachter and Singer's two-factor theory of emotion (1962) contributed significantly.
• The Kitty Genovese stabbing in 1964 led to research on bystander effects.
• The Civil Rights Movement spurred research on prejudice and discrimination.
• More women entered social psychology.

Ascent of Social Cognition (1970-1990)

• There were critiques of social psychology regarding methodology, ethics, and the value of findings.
• Gergen argued social psychology should be historical rather than a scientific discipline.
• McGuire suggested social psychology needed to be more elaborate.
• In the 1970s, social cognition emerged, focusing on the influence of cognitive processes on behavior.
• Social cognition led to a more individualistic approach, similar to Floyd Allport's.
• Research covered judgment and decision-making, heuristics, and attitude change.
• Emotion regulation and relationship research became prominent.
• Research ethics boards became standard.
• Computers enabled more complex and efficient data analysis.

1990-2010

• Social psychology became increasingly represented in law, business, economics, family studies, education, and politics.
• Data analysis improved further.
• The Internet facilitated surveys and access to more diverse samples, including social media and virtual worlds.
• Increased self-reporting in studies posed some problems.
• Greater attention was given to biology, leading to evolutionary psychology.
• Social neuroscience grew, incorporating fMRI.

Rise of Big Data and Reproducibility Crisis (2010-Present)

• Large internet-based samples introduced issues such as inattentive participants and lack of knowledge about participant's prior experience in studies.
• False positives in research contributed to a reproducibility crisis, with less than half of reproduced studies yielding significant results.