Social Psychology: Definition and Scope

• Social psychology is the study of cognition, affect, and behavior in a social context.
• Gordon Allport defined social psychology as the investigation of how individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the presence of others.
• The course of social psychology includes the study of the self, social cognition, attitudes, social influence, groups, prejudice, antisocial behavior, and attraction.

Organisational Psychology

• Organisational psychology studies cognition, affect, and behavior in organisational settings.
• Social psychological principles are applicable to organisational settings.
• Social psychologists aim to describe, explain, predict, and change behaviors.
• Common sense explanations of social psychological findings can be overly simple, contradictory, incorrect, and vary based on the individual.

The Scientific Method

• Social psychology uses the scientific method.
• Hypotheses are constructed from theory and tested empirically.
• Methodologies include experiments, quasi-experiments, correlational designs, and qualitative methods.

Experiments

• Experiments test the effect of an independent variable (IV) on a dependent variable (DV).
• The IV is manipulated, and participants are randomly assigned to groups.
• The DV is measured to test if the IV causes changes.
• Experiments allow conclusions about causal relationships.
• Experiments are not always used due to ethical considerations or impossibility of manipulation.

Pain as Social Glue Experiment

• Hypothesis: Shared pain increases social bonding.
• IV: Shared pain (no pain vs. pain).
• DV: Social bonding.
• Results: Social bonding scores were higher when shared pain was present.

Quasi-Experiment/Natural Groups Design

• Natural tests examine the relationship between a grouped variable (X) and another variable (Y).
• Groups occur naturally on X, and Y is measured.
• It determines whether groups vary on Y, but cannot draw causal conclusions.
• Confounding variables may co-vary with X and Y, providing alternate explanations.

Social Cognition in Autism Example

• Hypothesis: Children on the autism spectrum have more difficulty with facial recognition.
• X: Autism Spectrum Disorder (typically developing vs. children on the autism spectrum).
• Y: Facial Recognition (Face-n-Food task).
• Results: Participants with Autism Spectrum Disorder needed more exposure to recognize faces compared to the control group.

Correlational Design

• It tests the relationship between two continuous variables (X and Y).
• Both variables are measured and correlated.
• It determines the presence, magnitude, and direction of association between variables.
• Causal conclusions cannot be drawn due to direction of causation and confounding variables.
• Higher negative contact with Black Americans correlates positively with racism intensity.
• Higher positive contact with Black Americans correlates negatively with racism intensity.

Quantitative Methods

• Experiments, quasi-experiments, and correlational designs produce numerical data.
• Statistical analyses are run to test hypotheses.
• Quantitative methods are good for testing theories and exploring relationships.
• These methods reduce experiences to numbers and are limited by the questions asked.
• They cannot capture the complexity of individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Qualitative Methods

• It collects non-numerical data to understand subjective opinions.
• Data collection: interviews, focus groups, participant observation, archival research, and case studies.
• Qualitative methods produce rich descriptions of lived experiences.
• It provides more nuanced data than quantitative methods.
• Useful for theory building and informing quantitative research.
• Limitations: difficulty in testing theories, generalizing findings, and replicating results.