Social Psychology PDF

What is social psychology Humans are social species Social brain hypothesis: our brains evolved larger to promote social connection, which was adaptive Belief that Neanderthals died out because they weren't very good in a social aspect Social connections bring benefits...

What is social psychology Humans are social species Social brain hypothesis: our brains evolved larger to promote social connection, which was adaptive Belief that Neanderthals died out because they weren't very good in a social aspect Social connections bring benefits to us for our mental and physical health ○ Gives us meaning in our lives Social psychology is the scientific study of how individuals think, feel, and behave in a social context scientific study → scientific method vs folk wisdom Individuals → person-level, not society think, feel, behave → wide scope, not narrow social context → influence by/on others; real or imagined Is it all common sense? “I knew it all along” phenomenon Findings seem like common sense but end up being the opposite Cultural psychology All social psych research has a cultural context In the 90s, psychologists recognized different cultures or cultural thinking differ Culture: system of enduring meanings, beliefs, values, assumptions, institutions, and practies shared by a large group of people Research methods Learning it will make you a better consumer of information You will develop a false information/mistake detector Start with a hypothetical question or idea Basic research seeks to increase our understanding of human behaviour and is often designed to test a specific hypothesis from a theory Applied research focuses more specifically on making applications to the world and contributing to the solution of social problems 1. Start with a question Ideas come from observing world events  2. Gather info and plan Figure out whats already been done Go to the library, search engines Find existing research and see whats been missing Theory: an organized set of principles used to explain observer phenomena Hypothesis: explicit, testable, falsifiable prediction about what you will observe (based on theory) 3. Design your study Conceptual variables: the general topic, concept, idea (e.g., mood) Operationalization: making the general specific – how are you defining and measuring the variable? Construct validity: degree to which you are actually measuring (or manipulating) what you intend to Self-report: ask people to report their feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and actions. ○ Pros: convenience, consistency ○ Cons: social desirability, sensitive to changes in wording and scales, subject to memory distortion, dishonesty Observational research: watch actual behaviour. ○ Pros: avoids social desirability and memory errors ○ Cons: people may change beh if know they are observed Inter-rater reliability: level of agreement between multiple people on the same behaviour or measure. Archival research: Study existing documents or records to find patterns related to your variables of interest ○ e.g., crime reports, charitable giving, public surveys ○ pros: good external validity, generalizability ○ cons: no control over data collection, observer bias, random sampling Correlational studies: Correlational research measures the association between variables that the researcher does not manipulate Correlation coefficient (r )– number that represents how strongly related Two variables are; ranges from -1.0 to + 1.0 ○ Pros: can study topics ethically, view trends ○ Cons: directionality, 3rd variable problem, correlation is not causation Experimentation Gold standard for finding cause and effect 1) Random assignment to condition 2) Independent variables – what is manipulated 3) Dependent variables – what is measured What makes us feel confident in our results? Internal reliability: degree to which the study is designed to make a cause-effect conclusion Confound: some unintended factor that influenced the results, varies with the independent variable Double blind: neither participant nor experimenter knows condition; avoids experimenter expectancy effects External reliability: would these results be found in different circumstances? Experimental realism – was the study real and engaging for the participant? Mundane realism – does the study resemble the real world? Meta analyses and lit reviews Replication crisis and open science Research ethics Research Ethics Boards Informed consent/Debriefing Deception & Confederates Funding and Conflicts