Social Psychology Exam Notes 20XX (PDF)

**EXAM NOTES WEEK 2: RESEARCH AND REPLICATION HISTORY** **History of Social Psychology** - **Aristotle**: Society shapes human development. - **Comte**: People cause and are the consequences of society; individuals are both products and producers of the social environment. **Key Hist...

**EXAM NOTES WEEK 2: RESEARCH AND REPLICATION HISTORY** **History of Social Psychology** - **Aristotle**: Society shapes human development. - **Comte**: People cause and are the consequences of society; individuals are both products and producers of the social environment. **Key Historical Figures and Milestones** - **1879 - Wilhelm Wundt**: - First psychology lab, separated psychology from philosophy and biology. - **1898 - Norman Triplett**: - Founding figure of social psychology. - **Social Facilitation Theory**: Presence of others enhances performance. - **1908 - McDougall & Ross**: - McDougall wrote the first social psychology textbook. - Ross also published a textbook on social psychology. - **1920s-1930s - Floyd Allport**: - Father of experimental social psychology. - Focused on individual dispositions over societal influences. - Studied the protective role of community ties during the Great Depression. - **1930s-1940s - Sumner**: - Criticized racial biases in IQ testing, especially regarding African Americans. - Father of Black Psychology. - **1940s-50s - Festinger**: - Focused on conformity, obedience, and authority studies, particularly during and after WWII. - **World War II**: - Significant impact on social psychology, influencing studies on conformity and obedience to better understand wartime behavior. - **John Dewey**: - Emphasized the role of collectivism in shaping society, focusing on the benefit of collective efforts for the masses. **Important Research and Concepts** - **Skinner (Behaviorism)**: - Argued that mental states are preconditioned through reinforcement and punishment. - **Cognitive Revolution**: - Rejected behaviorism, positing that thoughts and cognition drive behavior. - **Lewin's Interactionalism**: - Behavior results from the interaction between a person and their environment. - Conducted field research on propaganda resistance and social change. - **1960-1970s - Milgram & Zimbardo**: - **Milgram (Obedience Experiment)**: Studied obedience to authority, highlighting how ordinary people could commit harmful acts. - **Zimbardo (Stanford Prison Experiment)**: Studied the power of situational forces on individual behavior, particularly in the context of authority and social roles. - **Ethical Crisis**: - Following controversial experiments like Milgram\'s and Zimbardo's, social psychology faced a period of questioning on research ethics. **Social Facilitation & Inhibition** - **Social Facilitation (Norman Triplett, 1898)**: - **Theory**: Presence of others enhances performance, especially on tasks we are good at. - **Example**: Cyclists raced faster when paced by others. - **Social Facilitation Theories**: - **Suction Theory**: Aerodynamic effect from a leading cyclist. - **Encouragement Theory**: Positive social presence boosts motivation and performance. - **Dynamogenic Theory**: The mere presence of others arouses competitive instincts. - **Social Inhibition**: - **Drive Theory (Robert Zajonc, 1965)**: Arousal from others enhances the performance of dominant responses but inhibits non-dominant ones. - **Examples**: - Experts perform better with an audience (pool players study). - Novices perform worse with an audience (same pool players study). - **Limitations of Drive Theory**: - No clear objective criteria for determining task difficulty. - Dispositional factors (personality, mood) are not considered. - **Uziel's Theory (2007)**: - Personality impacts social facilitation. Extraverted individuals and those with high self-esteem tend to perform better in social situations. **Replication Crisis in Social Psychology** - **John Ioannidis (2005)**: - Argued that many published research findings are likely false due to poor scientific practices. - **Daryl Bem (2011)**: - Published studies claiming evidence of **ESP (extrasensory perception)**; the scientific community was skeptical about the results. - **Open Science Collaboration (2015)**: - Conducted 100 replications, finding only 25% could be replicated successfully. - **Replicability Issues**: - **Problems with replication** include small sample sizes, statistical manipulation (e.g., **P-hacking**), and methodological inconsistencies. - **Exact vs. Conceptual Replications**: - **Exact Replication**: Attempts to repeat the study using the same methods and conditions. - **Conceptual Replication**: Tests the same theoretical idea using different methods or participants. **Improving Research Practices** - **Protecting against cognitive biases**: - Use **blinding** to reduce self-deception and bias in data collection. - **Improve methodological training**: - Researchers must understand concepts like **P-values**, **null hypothesis**, and **effect size** to avoid misinterpretation. - **Independent methodology support**: - Use **multidisciplinary teams** to review research methods and avoid conflicts of interest. - **Collaboration and team science**: - Reduces false positives and increases generalizability by pooling resources and data. - **Study pre-registration**: - Increases transparency in research design and reduces **publication bias**. - **Reproducibility**: - Clear reporting of methods ensures studies can be replicated accurately. - **Addressing incentives**: - Journals often prioritize **novel** or **positive results**, leading to **publication bias**. Replications tend to be under-published. **Priming Theory** - **Priming**: - Exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent, related stimulus, often without conscious awareness. - **Example**: Priming with words related to age can make people walk slower (study by Michael Mosely). - **Criticism of Priming**: - Not always replicable (e.g., **Lynott et al., 2014** found no significant effect of priming on walking speed). **Ethical Considerations in Social Psychology** - **Deception**: - Commonly used in experiments, but must meet ethical guidelines: - Participants must be fully debriefed after the study. - Consent should allow for withdrawal. - Deception should be necessary to achieve the aims of the study. **Key Takeaways for Replication & Research Reliability** - **Replication Crisis** highlights the need for transparency and reliable methodologies in research. - To ensure **reproducibility**, research must be clearly reported, and potential biases (such as **P-hacking**) should be avoided. - **Collaboration**, **pre-registration**, and **improved ethical standards** are necessary to improve the quality of psychological research and ensure findings are robust and generalizable. **Important Concepts to Remember for Exam** - **Social Facilitation** and **Social Inhibition** - **Drive Theory (Zajonc)** and its implications - **Replication** and its importance in improving scientific credibility - **Priming Theory** and related studies - **Research ethics**, particularly around **deception** and **informed consent**