Social Psychology - Introduction PDF

PART INTRODUCTION ONE CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? The dimension of time: Socio-historical context Part 1: Introduction...

PART INTRODUCTION ONE CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? The dimension of time: Socio-historical context Part 1: Introduction Chapter 1: What is social psychology? Attitudes and ideologies of culture The environment Interpersonal networks The individual In this section we introduce you to the study of social psychology. We begin by identifying how it is distinct from but related to some other areas of study, both outside and within psychology. Next, we review the history of the field and consider the important themes and perspectives propelling social psychology into a new century. But, of course, no introduction would be complete without a discussion of the way that social psychologists conduct research, so we step you through the process of developing, refining and testing ideas. Finally, we turn our attention to some important questions about ethics and values in social psychology. Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated 1 CHAPTER What is social psychology? Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, you should be able to: 1 define social psychology, identify the kinds of questions that social psychologists try to answer, and differentiate social psychology from other related fields 2 describe the trajectory of the field of social psychology from the 1880s to the end of the twentieth century and identify key areas that are trending in social psychology in current times 3 explain the use of research methods in the field of social psychology 4 describe the process of generating research ideas in social psychology, searching the relevant literature and developing hypotheses 5 explain how social psychologists go about conceptualising, operationalising and measuring variables 6 compare and contrast the process for testing ideas for the different research approaches adopted by social psychologists 7 discuss the function of ethics in social psychological research, including the use of deception and confederates and scientific integrity. Looking back and moving forward How many times in the last 24 hours have you stopped to you learn interesting Source: Fairfax Syndication/Rohan Thomson wonder why a person reacted to a situation the way they and relevant details did, or considered your own reactions in an attempt to of research findings understand your thoughts, feelings and behaviours? Ask throughout the book, the people around you the same questions and you will see but you also will learn a common trend. As social beings living in a social world, how social psychologists we cannot escape the complexities of our interactions with have discovered this evidence. It is an exciting process and others or, sometimes, our isolation from them. The history one that we are enthusiastic about sharing with you. of social psychology is paved with questions regarding The purpose of this first chapter is to provide you with social behaviours, with questions and ideas from inquiring a broad overview of the field of social psychology and to minds just like yours providing the paving stones. Hundreds introduce you to some of the methodologies we use to carry of thousands of studies and experiments have formed the out scientific investigations in this field. By the time you finish cement that holds the pavers together, and the questions that the chapter, you should be ready and, we hope, eager for what those studies have generated have provided the complexity lies ahead. in the direction of the paths they have created. Not only will 2 Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated  WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION WE ARE CERTAINLY NOT ONE OF THE LARGEST ANIMALS. But compared to the rest of the animal world, the size of the human brain relative to the size of the human body is massive. Why is this? The most obvious explanation is that we are smarter, and that we have mastered our environments to a degree no other animal has. But recent evidence suggests that the relatively huge size of the human brain, and particularly of the neocortex at its outermost layer, may be due to something more specific and rather surprising – we have such large brains in order to socialise (Dunbar, 2014; Noonan, Mars, Sallet, Dunbar, & Fellows, 2018). The remarkable success of the human species can be traced to humans having the ability to work together in groups, to infer others’ intentions and to coordinate with extended networks of people. The human brain needed to be able to handle the incredibly complex challenges associated with these tasks. Long ago Aristotle famously observed, ‘Man is by nature a social animal’; but even Aristotle could not have imagined the degree to which that is true, that the social nature of humans seems to be written into our very DNA. Indeed, recent studies of brain activity have found that when the brain is at rest, not engaging in any active task, its default pattern of activity seems to involve social thinking, such as thinking about other people’s thoughts and goals (Spunt, Meyer, & Lieberman, 2015). The social nature of the human animal is what this book and the field of social psychology is all about. The ways in which humans are social animals are countless and can be obvious or incredibly subtle. We work, play and live together. We hurt and help each other. We define happiness and success for each other. We forge our individual identities not alone but in the context of other people. We visit family, make friends, have parties, build networks, go on dates, pledge an enduring commitment, decide to have children. We watch others, speculate about them and predict who will wind up with whom, whether in real life or in popular culture as we keep up with the Kardashians or watch The Bachelorette. Many of us text or tweet each other about what we are up to, or spend lots of time on social networking sites, interacting with countless peers from around the world, adding hundreds or even thousands of ‘friends’ to our social networks. Our moods can fluctuate with the number of virtual friends who ‘like’ our latest posted photo. Even being ignored by a stranger we do not really care about can be as painful as the experience of real physical pain (Eisenberger, 2015). Precisely because we need and care so much about social interactions and relationships, the social contexts in which we find ourselves can influence us profoundly. You can find many examples of this kind of influence in your own life. Have you ever laughed at a joke you did not understand just because those around you were laughing? Do you present yourself in one way with one group of people and in quite a different way with another group? The power of the situation can also be much subtler and yet more powerful than in these examples, such as when another’s unspoken expectations of you cause you to become a different person. The relevance of social psychology is evident in everyday life, such as when two people become attracted to each other FIGURE 1.1 Social media and social protest or when a group coordinates its efforts on a project. Dramatic events can heighten its significance even more, as is evident in Egyptian youth post video to Facebook and Twitter of footage shot earlier that day of revolutionary protests in Tahrir Square people’s behaviour during and after natural disasters or war. In during the Arab Spring of 2011. Social psychologists study, these traumatic times a spotlight shines on how people help or among other things, the expanding role of online social exploit each other, and some of the worst and best that human networks and technology in our lives, as well as how people relations have to offer can be seen. These events invariably call deal with conflict. attention to the kinds of questions that social psychologists Source: Ed Ou/The New York Times/Redux study – questions about hatred and violence, about intergroup conflict and suspicion, and about heroism, cooperation and the capacity for understanding across cultural, ethnic, racial, religious and geographic divides. We are reminded of the need for a better understanding of social psychological issues as we see footage of protests in the Middle East or Africa (see Figure 1.1) or are confronted with the reality of an all-too-violent world in our own neighbourhoods and university campuses. We also appreciate the majesty and power of social connections as we recognise the courage of a firefighter, read about the charity of a donor or see the glow of pride in the eyes of a new parent. These are all part of the fascinating landscape of social psychology – the bad and the good, the mundane and the Source: Reuters/Samar Abo Elouf extraordinary. Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or 3 duplicated PART INTRODUCTION ONE This chapter introduces you to the study of social psychology and examines how social psychologists do their research. We begin by defining social psychology and identifying how it is distinct from but related to other areas of study. Next, we review the history of the field, and then look forward with a discussion of the important themes and perspectives that are propelling social psychology in the twenty-first century. Then we turn to methodology, research question development and design, and finally important questions about ethics and values in social psychology. WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? We begin by defining social psychology and mapping out its relationship to sociology and other disciplines within the field of psychology. Defining social psychology Social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how individuals think, feel and behave in a social context. Let us The scientific study of look at each part of this definition. how individuals think, feel and behave in a Scientific study social context. There are many approaches to understanding how people think, feel and behave. We can learn about human behaviour from novels, films, history and philosophy, to name just a few possibilities. What makes social psychology different from these artistic and humanistic endeavours is that social psychology is a science. It applies the scientific method of systematic observation, description and measurement to the study of the human condition. How and why social psychologists do this is explained later in this chapter. How individuals think, feel and behave Social psychology concerns an amazingly diverse set of topics. People’s private and even non-conscious beliefs and attitudes; their most passionate emotions; their heroic, cowardly or merely mundane public behaviours, all fall within the broad scope of social psychology. In this way, social psychology differs from other social sciences such as economics and political science. Research on attitudes offers a good illustration. Whereas economists and political scientists may be interested in people’s economic and political attitudes, respectively, social psychologists investigate a wide variety of attitudes and contexts, such as individuals’ attitudes towards particular groups of people or how their attitudes are affected by their peers or their mood. In so doing, social psychologists strive to establish general principles of attitude formation and change that apply in a variety of situations rather than exclusively to particular domains. Note the word individuals in our definition of social psychology. This word points to another important way in FIGURE 1.2 The social nature of the human animal which social psychology differs from some other social sciences. Our social relationships and interactions are extremely important Sociology, for example, typically classifies people in terms of to us. Most people seek out and are profoundly affected by other their nationality, race, socioeconomic class and other group people. This social nature of the human animal is what social factors. By contrast, social psychology typically focuses on the psychology is all about. psychology of the individual. Even when social psychologists study groups of people, they usually emphasise the behaviour of the individual in the group context. Social context Here is where the ‘social’ in social psychology comes into play and how social psychology is distinguished from other branches of psychology. As a whole, the discipline of psychology is an immense, sprawling enterprise – the 800-pound gorilla of the social sciences concerned with everything from the actions of neurotransmitters in the brain to the actions of music fans in a crowded club. What makes social psychology unique is its emphasis on the social nature of individuals, as highlighted in Figure 1.2. However, the ‘socialness’ of social psychology varies. In attempting to establish general principles of human behaviour, social psychologists sometimes examine non-social factors Source: IT Stock/Jupiter Images that affect people’s thoughts, emotions, motives and actions. 4 Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated  WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? CHAPTER ONE For example, they may study whether hot weather causes people to behave more aggressively (Rinderu, Bushman, & Van Lange, 2018). The social element of this is the behaviour; that is, people hurting each other. In addition, social psychologists sometimes study people’s thoughts or feelings about non-social things; for example, people’s attitudes towards Nike products. This may be of interest to social psychologists if these attitudes are influenced by something social, such as whether the endorsement of Nike by tennis stars Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer makes people prefer that brand. Both examples – determining whether heat causes an increase in aggression or whether tennis stars cause an increase in sales of Nike shoes – are social psychological pursuits because the thoughts, feelings or behaviours either (1) concern other people or (2) are influenced by other people. The ‘social context’ referred to in the definition of social psychology does not have to be real or present. Even the implied or imagined presence of others can have important effects on individuals (Allport, 1985). For example, if people imagine receiving positive or negative reactions from others, their self-esteem can be affected substantially (Libby, Valenti, Pfent, & Eibach, 2011; Smart Richman & Leary, 2009). If students imagine having contact with a stranger from another country, their attitudes towards people from that country and their experiences visiting that country can become more positive (Vezzali, Crisp, Stathi, & Giovannini, 2015). And if university students imagine living a day in the life of a professor, they are then likely to perform better on an analytic test (Galinsky, Wang, & Ku, 2008)! Social psychological questions and applications For those of us fascinated by social behaviour, social psychology is a dream come true. Just look at Table 1.1 and consider a small sample of the questions you will explore in this textbook. As you can see, the social nature of the human animal is what social psychology is all about. Learning about social psychology is learning about ourselves and our social worlds. And because social psychology is scientific rather than anecdotal, it provides insights that would be impossible to gain through intuition or experience alone. TABLE 1.1 Examples of social psychological questions Social perception Why do people sometimes sabotage their own performance, making it more likely that they will fail? (Chapter 2) What affects the How do we form impressions of others – sometimes in the blink of an eye? (Chapter 3) way we perceive ourselves and Where do stereotypes come from, and why are they so resistant to change? (Chapter 4) others? What is the nature of gender identity and how does it relate to gender roles and stereotypes? (Chapter 5) Social influence Why do we often like what we suffer for? (Chapter 6) How do we How do salespeople sometimes trick us into buying things we never really wanted in the first place? (Chapter 7) influence each other? Why do people often perform worse in groups than they would have alone? (Chapter 8) Social relations How similar or different are the sexes in what they look for in an intimate relationship? (Chapter 9) What causes us to When is a bystander more or less likely to help you in an emergency? (Chapter 10) like, love, help and hurt others? Does exposure to television violence or to pornography trigger aggressive behaviour? (Chapter 11) Applying social What can psychology contribute to the climate change debate? (Chapter 12) psychology How can being part of a community help in the aftermath of a disaster? (Chapter 13) How does social psychology help How does stress affect an individual’s health, and what are the most effective ways of coping with stressful us understand experiences? (Chapter 14) other domains of Can interrogators really get people to confess to serious crimes they did not commit? (Chapter 15) life? How can business leaders most effectively motivate their employees? (Chapter 16) The value of social psychology’s perspective on human behaviour is widely recognised. Courses in social psychology are often required or encouraged for students interested in careers in business, education, medicine, law and journalism, as well as in psychology and sociology. Although many advanced graduates with a doctorate in social psychology hold faculty appointments in universities, others work in medical centres, law firms, government agencies, the military and a variety of business settings, including investment banking, marketing, advertising, human resources, negotiating and social networking. The number and importance of these applications continue to grow. Climate scientists and governments utilise social psychological findings to determine the best ways to assess and, sometimes, change attitudes Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or 5 duplicated PART INTRODUCTION ONE and shape behaviour. Community groups and local governments draw from the knowledge gained in the social psychological study of group processes and prosocial behaviour. Judges draw from social psychological research to render landmark decisions, and lawyers depend on it to select juries and to support or refute evidence. Businesses use cross-cultural social psychological research to operate in the global marketplace, and consult research on group dynamics to foster the best conditions for their work forces. Healthcare professionals are increasingly aware of the role of social psychological factors in the prevention and treatment of disease. We consider these applied contexts further in the final five chapters of this book. Indeed, we can think of no other field of study that offers expertise that is more clearly relevant to so many different career paths. Social psychology and related fields Social psychology is sometimes confused with certain other fields of study. Before we go on, it is important to clarify how social psychology is distinct from these other fields, and to also show how interesting and significant questions can be addressed through interactions between them (see Table 1.2). TABLE 1.2 Distinctions between social psychology and related fields: the case of research on prejudice To see the differences between social psychology and related fields, consider each example of how researchers in each field might conduct a study of prejudice. Field of study Example of how a researcher in the field might study prejudice Sociology Measure how prejudice varies as a function of social or economic class. Clinical psychology Test various therapies for people with antisocial personalities who exhibit great degrees of prejudice. Personality psychology Develop a questionnaire to identify men who are very high or low in degree of prejudice towards women. Cognitive psychology Manipulate exposure to a member of some category of people and measure the thoughts and concepts that are automatically activated. (Note that a study of prejudice in this field would, by definition, be at the intersection of cognitive and social psychology.) Social psychology Manipulate various kinds of contact between individuals of different groups and examine the effect of these manipulations on the degree of prejudice exhibited. Social psychology and sociology Sociologists and social psychologists share an interest in many issues, such as violence, prejudice, cultural differences and marriage. As noted, however, sociology tends to focus on the group level, whereas social psychology tends to focus on the individual level. For example, sociologists might track a society’s racial attitudes over time, whereas social psychologists might examine some of the specific factors that make individuals more or less likely to behave in a racist way towards members of a group. In addition, although there are many exceptions, social psychologists are more likely than sociologists to conduct experiments in which they manipulate some variable and determine the effects of this manipulation using precise, quantifiable measures. Despite these differences, sociology and social psychology are clearly related. Indeed, many sociologists and social psychologists share the same training and publish in the same journals. When these two fields intersect, the result can be a more complete understanding of important issues. For example, interdisciplinary research on stereotyping and prejudice has examined the dynamic roles of both societal and immediate factors, such as how particular social systems or institutional norms and beliefs affect individuals’ attitudes and behaviours (Crawford, Brandt, Inbar, Chambers, & Motyl, 2018; Koenig & Eagly, 2014; Rosenthal & Levy, 2013). Social psychology and related areas of psychology If you tell people not very familiar with psychology that you are taking a social psychology class, they may say things like, ‘Oh, great, now you’re going to start psychoanalysing me’, or ‘Finally, maybe you can tell me why everyone in my family is so messed up’. The assumption underlying these reactions, of course, is that you are studying clinical, or abnormal, psychology. If you base your impressions of psychology primarily on how it is portrayed in popular culture, you are likely to miss how incredibly broad and diverse the field is. Although social psychology is related to other areas of psychology, each has a very different focus. 6 Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated  WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? CHAPTER ONE Clinical psychologists, for example, seek to understand and treat people with psychological difficulties or disorders. Social psychologists do not focus on disorders; rather, they focus on the more typical ways in which individuals think, feel, behave and influence each other. Personality psychology is another area that is often confused with social psychology. However, personality psychology seeks to understand stable differences between individuals, whereas social psychology seeks to understand how social factors affect most individuals regardless of their different personalities. In other words, a personality psychologist may ask, ‘Is this person outgoing and friendly almost all the time, in just about any setting?’, while a social psychologist may ask, ‘Are people in general more likely to seek out friends when they are made anxious by a situation than when they are made to feel relaxed?’ Cognitive psychologists study mental processes such as thinking, learning, remembering and reasoning. Social psychologists are often interested in these same processes, but they are concerned with these processes more specifically in a social context. These examples show the contrast between the fields; however, social psychological theory and research often intersect with these other areas quite a bit. For example, social psychologists and clinical psychologists are working on methods to identify symptoms of depression, mental illness and mental wellbeing on social media (Guntuku, Yaden, Kern, Ungar, & Eichstaedt, 2017; Seabrook, Kern, Fulcher, & Rickard, 2018; Yaden, Eichstaedt, & Medaglia, 2018). Personality and social psychology are especially closely linked because they complement each other so well. For example, some social psychologists examine how receiving negative feedback (a social factor) varies as a function of their self-esteem (a personality factor) (Hoplock, Stinson, Marigold, & Fisher, 2018). Cognitive and social psychology are also closely connected, and the last few decades have seen an explosion of interest in their intersection. The study of social cognition is discussed in more detail later in this chapter, and it is a focus throughout this text, especially in Part 2. Social psychology and other fields of study Social psychologists today more than ever are conducting research that spans traditional boundaries between fields. The intersections of social psychology with disciplines such as neuroscience, biology, economics, political science, public health, environmental studies, law and medicine are increasingly important to contemporary social psychology. We discuss some of these intersections later in this chapter, but these connections also emerge throughout this book, especially in Part 5. Social psychology and common sense After reading about a theory or finding of social psychology, you may sometimes think, ‘Of course. I knew that all along. Anyone could have told me that’. This ‘knew-it-all-along’ phenomenon often causes people to question how social psychology is different from common sense or traditional folk wisdom. After all, why would any of the following social psychological findings be surprising? Beauty and brains do not mix. Physically attractive people tend to be seen as less smart than physically unattractive people. People will like an activity more if you offer them a large reward for doing it, causing them to associate the activity with the positive reinforcement. People think that they are more distinctive than they really are. They tend to underestimate the extent to which others share the same opinions or interests. Playing contact sport or violent video games releases aggression and makes people less likely to vent their anger in violent ways. Common sense may seem to explain many social psychological findings after the fact. The problem is distinguishing common-sense fact from common-sense myth; after all, for many common-sense notions, there is an equally sensible-sounding notion that says the opposite. Is it ‘Birds of a feather flock together’ or ‘Opposites attract’? Is it ‘Two heads are better than one’ or ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’? Which of these contradictory notions are correct? We have no reliable way to answer such questions using common sense or intuition alone. Social psychology, unlike common sense, uses the scientific method to put its theories to the test. How it does so is discussed in greater detail in the next chapter. But before we leave this section, one word of caution: those four ‘findings’ we listed previously? They are all false. Although there may be sensible reasons to believe each of the statements, research indicates otherwise. Therein lies another problem with relying on common sense – despite offering very compelling predictions and explanations, it is sometimes wildly Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or7 duplicated PART INTRODUCTION ONE inaccurate. And even when it is not completely wrong, common sense can be misleading in its simplicity. Often there is no simple answer to a question such as, ‘Does absence make the heart grow fonder?’ In reality the answer is more complex than common sense would suggest, and social psychological research reveals how such an answer depends on a variety of factors. To emphasise these points and to encourage you to think critically about social psychological issues before as well as after learning about them, this textbook contains a feature called ‘Putting common sense to the test’. Beginning with Chapter 2, each chapter opens with a few statements about social psychological issues that are covered in that chapter. Some of the statements are true and some are false. As you read each statement, make a prediction about whether it is true or false and think about why this is your prediction. Margin notes throughout the chapter will tell you whether the statements are true or false. We revisit these statements again in the review section at the end of each chapter, with a brief explanation to help you understand why the answer is correct. In reading the chapter, check not only whether your prediction was correct but also whether your reasons for the prediction were appropriate. If your intuition was not quite on the mark, think about what the right answer is and how the evidence supports that answer. There are few better ways of learning and remembering than through this kind of critical thinking. A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY People have probably been asking social psychological questions for as long as humans could think about each other. Certainly, early philosophers such as Plato offered keen insights into many social psychological issues. But no systematic and scientific study of social psychological issues developed until the end of the nineteenth century. The field of social psychology is therefore a relatively young one. Recent years have marked a tremendous interest in social psychology and an injection of many new scholars into the field. As social psychology is now in its second century, it is instructive to look back to see how the field today has been shaped by the people and events of its first century. Specific histories of Australian social psychology (Feather, 2009; Taft, 1989) and the Society for Australasian Social Psychologists (Innes, 2008) have been written. In this chapter, we focus broadly on the history of the field as it unfolded around the world. In each of the other chapters, we highlight a local social psychologist or researcher who handles themes of social psychology in Australia and New Zealand. Keep your eye out – you may spot academics from your university or even some of your own lecturers! 1880s to 1920s: the birth and infancy of social psychology FIGURE 1.3 Social influence on sport performance Like most such honours, the title ‘founder of social psychology’ Racers from around the world compete in a stage of the Tour de has many potential recipients, and not everyone agrees on France. Would these cyclists have raced faster or slower if they who should prevail. Over the years, most have pointed to the were racing individually against the clock rather than racing simultaneously with their competitors? More generally, how American psychologist Norman Triplett, who is credited with does the presence of others affect an individual’s performance? having published the first research article in social psychology The earliest social psychology experiments ever done sought to at the end of the nineteenth century (1897–1898). Triplett’s work answer questions such as these. was noteworthy because after observing that cyclists tended to race faster when racing in the presence of others rather than when simply racing against a clock, he designed an experiment to study this phenomenon in a carefully controlled and precise way. This scientific approach to studying the effects of the social context on individuals’ behaviour can be seen as marking the birth of social psychology. A case can also be made for the French agricultural engineer Max Ringelmann. Ringelmann’s research was conducted in the 1880s but was not published until 1913. In an interesting coincidence, Ringelmann also studied the effects of the presence of others on the performance of individuals. In contrast to Triplett, however, Ringelmann noted that individuals often performed worse on simple tasks such as tug-of-war when they performed the tasks with other people. The issues addressed by these two early researchers continue to be of vital interest, as is highlighted in Figure 1.3 and will be seen later in Chapter 8 Source: iStock.com/Razvan where group processes are discussed. 8 Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated  WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? CHAPTER ONE Some scholars (Haines & Vaughan, 1979; Stroebe, 2012) suggest a handful of other possible examples of the first social psychology studies, including research that Triplett himself cited. These studies also were conducted in the 1880s and 1890s, which seems to have been a particularly fertile time for social psychology to begin to set its foundation. Despite their place in the history of social psychology, these late-nineteenth-century studies did not truly establish social psychology as a distinct field of study. Credit for this creation goes to the writers of the first three textbooks in social psychology: the English psychologist William McDougall (1908) and two Americans, Edward Ross (1908) and Floyd Allport (1924). Allport’s book, in particular, with its focus on the interaction of individuals and their social context and its emphasis on the use of experimentation and the scientific method, helped to establish social psychology as the discipline it is today. These authors announced the arrival of a new approach to the social aspects of human behaviour. Social psychology was born. 1930s to 1950s: a call to action What one person would you guess has had the strongest influence on the field of social psychology? Various social psychologists, as well as psychologists outside of social psychology, might be mentioned in response to this question. But someone who was not a psychologist at all may have had the most dramatic impact on the field – dictator of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler. Hitler’s rise to power and the horrendous events that followed caused people around the world to become desperate for answers to social psychological questions about what causes violence, prejudice, genocide, conformity and obedience, and a host of other social problems and behaviours. In addition, many social psychologists living in Europe in the 1930s fled to the US and helped to establish a critical mass of social psychologists who would give shape to the rapidly maturing field. The years just before, during and soon after World War II marked an explosion of interest in social psychology. In 1936, Gordon Allport (younger brother of Floyd, author of the 1924 textbook) and a number of other social psychologists formed the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. The name of the society illustrates these psychologists’ concern for making important, practical contributions to society. Also in 1936, a social psychologist named Muzafer Sherif published groundbreaking experimental research on social influence. As a youth in Turkey, Sherif had witnessed groups of Greek soldiers brutally killing his friends. After migrating to the US, Sherif drew on this experience and began to conduct research on the powerful influences that groups can exert on their individual members. Sherif’s research was crucial for the development of social psychology because it demonstrated that it is possible to study complex social processes such as conformity and social influence in a rigorous, scientific manner. Another great contributor to social psychology, Kurt Lewin, fled the Nazi onslaught in Germany and migrated to the US in the early 1930s. Lewin was a bold and creative theorist whose concepts have had lasting effects on the field (see, for example, Lewin, 1935, 1947). One of the fundamental principles of social psychology that Lewin helped establish was that behaviour is a function of the interaction between the person and the environment. This position, which later became known as the interactionist perspective Interactionist (Blass, 1991; Snyder, 2013), emphasised the dynamic interplay of internal and external factors, and marked perspective a sharp contrast from other major psychological paradigms during Lewin’s lifetime; namely, psychoanalysis, An emphasis on how both an individual’s with its emphasis on internal motives and fantasies; and behaviourism, with its focus on external rewards personality and and punishments. environmental Lewin also profoundly influenced the field by advocating for social psychological theories to be characteristics influence applied to important, practical issues. Lewin researched a number of practical issues, such as how to behaviour. persuade Americans at home during the war to conserve materials to help the war effort, how to promote more economical and nutritious eating habits, and what kinds of leaders elicit the best work from group members. Built on Lewin’s legacy, applied social psychology flourishes today in areas such as advertising, business, education, environmental protection (see also Figure 1.4), health, law, politics, public policy, religion and sport. Throughout this text, we draw on the findings of applied social psychology to illustrate the implications of social psychological principles for our daily lives. In Part 5, five prominent areas of applied social psychology are discussed in detail, including environment and conservation, community processes, health, law and business. One of Lewin’s statements can be seen as a call to action for the entire field – ‘No research without action, no action without research’. Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or9 duplicated PART INTRODUCTION ONE During World War II, many social psychologists answered FIGURE 1.4 Applying social psychology Lewin’s call as they worked for their government to investigate What determines whether people are likely to act to conserve how to protect soldiers from the propaganda of the enemy, how their environment, as these individuals have by volunteering on to persuade citizens to support the war effort, how to select Clean Up Australia Day? Built on the legacy of Kurt Lewin, applied officers for various positions, and other practical issues. During social psychology contributes to the solution of numerous social problems, including environmental degradation. and after the war, social psychologists sought to understand the prejudice, aggression and conformity the war had brought to light. The 1950s saw many major contributions to the field of social psychology. For example, Gordon Allport (1954) published The Nature of Prejudice, a book that continues to inspire research on stereotyping and prejudice more than a half century later. Solomon Asch’s (1951) demonstration of how willing people are to conform to an obviously wrong majority amazes students even today. Leon Festinger (1954, 1957) introduced two important theories that remain among the most influential theories in the field – one concerning how people try to learn about themselves by comparing themselves to other people, and one about how people’s attitudes can be changed by their own behaviour. These are just a sample of a long list of landmark contributions made during the 1950s. With this remarkable burst of activity Source: AAP Images/PR Handout Image/James Morgan and impact, social psychology was clearly and irrevocably on the map. 1960s to mid-1970s: confidence and crisis In spectacular fashion, Stanley Milgram’s research in the early and middle 1960s linked the post-World War II era with the coming era of social revolution. Milgram’s research was inspired by the destructive obedience demonstrated by Nazi officers and ordinary citizens in World War II, but it also looked ahead to the civil disobedience that was beginning to challenge institutions in many parts of the world. Milgram’s experiments, which demonstrated individuals’ vulnerability to the destructive commands of authority, became the most famous research in the history of social psychology. This research is discussed in detail in Chapter 7. With its foundation firmly in place, social psychology entered a period of expansion and enthusiasm. The sheer range of its investigations was staggering. Social psychologists considered how people thought and felt about themselves and others. They studied interactions in groups and social problems, such as why people fail to help others in distress. They also examined aggression, physical attractiveness and stress. For the field as a whole, it was a time of great productivity. Ironically, it was also a time of crisis and heated debate. Many of the strong disagreements during this period can be understood as a reaction to the dominant research method of the day – the laboratory experiment. Critics of this method asserted that certain practices were unethical, that experimenters’ expectations influenced their participants’ behaviour and that the theories being tested in the laboratory were historically and culturally limited (Gergen, 1973; Kelman, 1967; Rosenthal, 1976). Those who favoured laboratory experimentation, on the other hand, contended that their procedures were ethical, their results were valid and their theoretical principles were widely applicable (McGuire, 1967). For a while during this period, social psychology seemed split in two. Mid-1970s to 1990s: an era of pluralism Fortunately, both sides won. As we will see later in this chapter, more rigorous ethical standards for research were instituted, more stringent procedures to guard against bias were adopted and more attention was paid to possible cross-cultural differences in behaviour. Laboratory experiments continued to dominate, but often with more precise methods. However, a pluralistic approach emerged as a wider range of research Social cognition techniques and questions became established. The study of how people Pluralism in social psychology extends far beyond its methods. There are also important variations perceive, remember and in what aspects of human behaviour are emphasised. For example, social psychologists became more interpret information about themselves and and more interested in processes relevant to cognitive psychology and adapting methods from this field. others. A new subfield was born called social cognition, the study of how we perceive, remember and interpret 10 Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated  WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? CHAPTER ONE information about ourselves and others. Social cognition research continues to thrive today and examines issues FIGURE 1.5 Cross-cultural social psychology important to virtually every major area in social psychology Social psychologists are becoming increasingly interested in (Greifeneder, Bless, & Fiedler, 2017). cross-cultural research, which helps us break out of our culture- Another source of pluralism in social psychology is its bound perspective. Many of our behaviours differ across cultures. In some cultures, for example, people are expected to negotiate development of international and multicultural perspectives. the price of the products they buy, as in this market in Tunisia. Although individuals from many countries helped establish In other cultures, such bargaining would be highly unusual and the field, social psychology was most prominent in the US and cause confusion and distress. Canada. At one point, it was estimated that 75–90% of social psychologists lived in North America (Smith & Bond, 1993; Triandis, 1994). However, this aspect of social psychology began to change rapidly in the 1990s, reflecting not only the different geographic and cultural backgrounds of its researchers and participants but also the recognition that many social psychological phenomena once assumed to be universal may actually vary dramatically as a function of culture (see Figure 1.5). You can find evidence of this new appreciation of the role of culture in every chapter of this book – look for content on cultural perspectives and considerations set apart in feature boxes throughout each chapter. Social psychology today Source: Getty Images/The Image Bank/Lorne Resnick At the beginning of the twenty-first century, social psychology began its second hundred years. The field today continues to grow in the number and diversity of researchers and research topics, areas of the world in which research is conducted, and industries that hire social psychologists and apply their work. Throughout this text, we emphasise the most current, cutting-edge research in the field, along with the classic findings of the past. First, we focus on a few of the exciting themes and perspectives emerging from current research. Integration of emotion, motivation and cognition In the earlier days of social cognition research in the 1970s and 1980s, the dominant perspective was described as ‘cold’ because it emphasised the role of cognition and de-emphasised the role of emotion and motivation in explaining social psychological issues. This was contrasted with a ‘hot’ perspective that focused on emotion and motivation as determinants of individuals' thoughts and actions. Today there is growing interest in integrating both ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ perspectives, as researchers study how individuals’ emotions and motivations influence their thoughts and actions, and vice versa. For example, researchers today examine how motivations we are not even consciously aware of (i.e., being motivated to treat others fairly or to feel superior to others) can bias how we interact with or interpret information about another person (Kawakami, Amodio, & Hugenberg, 2017; Plaks, 2017). Another theme running through many chapters of this book is the growing interest in distinguishing between automatic and controllable processes and understanding the relationship between them (Rand, 2016; Sherman, Gawronski, & Trope, 2014). How much do individuals have control over their thoughts and actions, and how vulnerable are they to influences beyond their awareness or control? Are individuals sometimes influenced by stereotypes even if they do not want to believe them? Can they train themselves to regulate against automatic impulses? Behavioural genetics A subfield of psychology Genetics and evolutionary perspectives that examines the role Recent advances in behavioural genetics – a subfield of psychology that examines the effects of genes on of genetic factors in behaviour – has triggered new research to investigate such matters as the extent to which political attitudes behaviour. and personality are at least partially inherited (Abdellaoui et al., 2018; Bell & Kandler, 2015). The role of genes in an ever-growing array of social behaviours is being better understood as breakthroughs continue to Evolutionary drive interdisciplinary research involving genetics. psychology A subfield of psychology Evolutionary psychology, which uses the principles of evolution to understand human behaviour, is that uses the principles of another growing area that is sparking new research in social psychology. According to this perspective, evolution to understand to understand a social psychological topic such as jealousy, we should ask how tendencies and reactions human social behaviour. 11duplicated Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or PART INTRODUCTION ONE underlying jealousy today may have evolved from the natural selection pressures our ancestors faced. Evolutionary psychological theories can then be used to explain and predict gender differences in jealousy, the situational factors most likely to trigger jealousy, and so on (Brase, Adair, & Monk, 2014; Buss, 2018; Edlund & Sagarin, 2017). This perspective is discussed in many places throughout the textbook, especially in Part 4. Cultural perspectives Because of the fantastic advancements in communication technologies and the globalisation of the world’s economies, it is faster, easier and more necessary than ever for people from vastly different cultures to interact with one another. Thus, our need and desire to understand how we are similar to and different from one another are greater than ever as well. Social psychology is currently experiencing tremendous growth in research designed to give a better understanding and appreciation of the role of culture in all aspects of social psychology. What is meant by ‘culture’ is not easy to pin down because many researchers think of culture in very Culture different ways. Broadly speaking, culture is the system of enduring meanings, beliefs, values, assumptions, A system of enduring institutions and practices shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the meanings, beliefs, values, next. Whatever the specific definition, it is clear that how individuals perceive and derive meaning from their assumptions, institutions and practices shared by world is influenced profoundly by the beliefs, norms and practices of the people and institutions around a large group of people them. and transmitted from Increasingly, social psychologists are evaluating the universal generality or cultural specificity of one generation to the their theories and findings by conducting cross-cultural research, whereby they examine similarities next. and differences across a variety of cultures. More and more social psychologists are also conducting Cross-cultural multicultural research, in which they examine racial and ethnic groups within cultures. research These developments are already profoundly influencing our view of human behaviour. For example, Research designed to cross-cultural research has revealed important distinctions between the collectivist cultures (which compare and contrast value interdependence and social harmony) typically found in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the people of different cultures. individualistic cultures (which value independence and self-reliance) typically found in Australia, New Zealand and much of North America and Europe. Even within Australia and New Zealand, variations in Multicultural cultural orientations emerge. For example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Māori cultures are research relatively collectivistic in nature compared to non-Indigenous and New Zealand Pākehā (i.e., those not of Research designed to Māori descent) cultures, which are relatively more individualistic. The implications of these differences can examine racial and ethnic be seen throughout this textbook. Consider, for example, our earlier discussion of the integration of ‘hot’ groups within cultures. and ‘cold’ variables in contemporary social psychology, in which we mentioned the conflict people have between wanting to be right and wanting to feel good about themselves. Cross-cultural research has shown that how people try to juggle these two goals can differ dramatically across cultures. CRITICAL THINKING ACTIVITY How would you describe your cultural background? Is it the Throughout this textbook, you will see that many social same as the culture in which you currently find yourself? Reflect psychological processes are impacted by culture. It is important on how your own personal cultural orientation might shape for you to understand how your own culture might fit into your the way you interact with and respond to others, and even how social psychological experience. others respond to you. For instance, as will be discussed in more depth in Chapter 3, social psychological research has shown that individuals from Asian cultures are more likely than those from Australia, New Zealand and North America to have an interdependent model of self, one in which motivation and action stem in large part from the influences of close others. Although Australians, New Zealanders and North Americans are also certainly influenced by close others, they tend to have a relatively independent model of self, one emphasising personal preferences and goals. In this text, we describe studies conducted in dozens of countries, representing every populated continent on Earth. As our knowledge expands, we should be able to see much more clearly both the behavioural differences among cultures and the similarities we all share. But it is important to note that even within a particular society, people are often treated differently as a function of social categories such as gender, race, physical appearance and economic class. They may be raised differently by their parents, confronted with different expectations by teachers, exposed to different types of advertising and marketing, 12 Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated  WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? CHAPTER ONE and offered different kinds of jobs. Even people within the same town or region may develop and live in distinct subcultures, and these differences can have profound effects on people’s lives. Some social psychology textbooks devote a separate chapter to culture. We have chosen not to do so because we believe that cultural influences are inherent in all aspects of social psychology. We have chosen instead to integrate discussions of the role of culture in every chapter of this textbook. Further, we include features that highlight cross-cultural or multicultural research. Behavioural economics, political and moral issues, and other interdisciplinary approaches A rapidly growing number of social psychologists today are asking questions and using methodologies that cross traditional academic boundaries. We have already discussed intersections that social psychology has with neuroscience, evolutionary theory and cultural psychology. Other topics are beginning to trend in increasing numbers. For example, one relatively new area of study that has received a great deal of attention is behavioural Behavioural economics. This subfield focuses on how psychology, and particularly social and cognitive psychology, economics relates to economic decision-making (Thaler, 2016). Behavioural economics research has revealed that the An interdisciplinary subfield that focuses traditional economic models were inadequate because they failed to account for the powerful, and often on how psychology – seemingly irrational, role that psychological factors have on people’s economic behaviour. For example, particularly social and Jiang and colleagues (2015) conducted a series of experiments with high-school students in China in cognitive psychology – which some students were made to either experience a rejection by a peer while playing a simple game relates to economic or to recall a time when they were rejected by peers. This group, compared to other students in the study decision-making. who were not made to experience or recall a peer rejection, became more materialistic. For example, they were more likely to answer the question, ‘What makes me happy?’ by emphasising material things like new clothes and money. This is but one example of how subtle social psychological factors seemingly unrelated to an economic-related judgement can exert significant influence in ways that would not be predicted by economic analyses alone. The rise of behavioural economics has seen an increase in the number of social psychologists hired by business schools and within the business world more generally. Social psychologists are also increasingly involved in research intersecting other areas such as politics and moral philosophy. Might political inclinations, social attitudes and moral decisions have their roots in fundamental processes regarding social relations and identity (Bliuc, McGarty, Thomas, Berndsen, & Misajon, 2015; Smith, Alford, Hibbing, Martin, & Hatemi, 2017; Uhlmann, Pizarro, & Diermeier, 2015)? The surge of interest in questions like this has brought together an exciting and productive mix of social psychology, political science, philosophy and neuroscience. Similarly, social psychologists are collaborating in greater numbers with researchers in environmental studies, public health and related areas to address a wide variety of issues, such as how to get people to access HIV-prevention counselling (Wilson & Albarracín, 2015), or how simple alterations to the physical surroundings around primary schools, such as providing some green space, can improve students’ education (Dadvand et al., 2015). The social brain and body We are, of course, biological organisms, and it is clear that our brains and bodies influence, and are influenced by, our social experiences. This interaction between the physical and the social is the focus of more social psychological research than ever before. Examples can be found throughout the textbook; for example, in studies demonstrating how being the target of racial discrimination can affect individuals’ physical health, and research that examines the role of hormones and neurotransmitters in human Social neuroscience aggression (Bedrosian & Nelson, 2018; de Almeida, Cabral, & Narvaes, 2015; Fuller-Rowell, Curtis, Chae, & The study of the Ryff, 2018; Paradies et al., 2015). relationship between A particularly exciting development is the emergence of the subfield of social neuroscience – the neural and social processes. study of the relationship between neural and social processes. This intersection of social psychology and neuroscience is addressing a rapidly growing number of fascinating issues, such as how playing violent Embodied cognition video games can affect brain activity and subsequent acts of aggression, or how different patterns of An interdisciplinary activity in parts of the brain relate to how people perceive members of a different racial group (Gentile, subfield that examines Swing, Anderson, Rinker, & Thomas, 2016; Szycik Mohammadi, Münte, & Te Wildt, 2017; Zhou, Liu, Xiao, Wu, the close links between our minds and the Li, & Lee, 2018). positioning, experiences Another interdisciplinary area of research attracting increasing interest among social psychologists is and actions of our embodied cognition, which focuses on the close links between our minds and the positioning, experiences bodies. 13duplicated Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or PART INTRODUCTION ONE and actions of our bodies. According to this perspective, people’s perceptions and judgements reflect and can influence their bodily experiences. For example, studies have found that participants who were touching something rough (i.e., sandpaper) judged an interaction between two people as more rough and unfriendly than if they were touching something smooth, and that participants made to sit in an upright position experienced higher self-esteem and lower fear in response to a stressful situation than did those sitting in a more slumped position (Nair, Sagar, Sollers, Consedine, & Broadbent, 2015; Schaefer, Denke, Heinze, & Rotte, 2014; Veenstra, Schneider, & Koole, 2017). We began this chapter discussing how the evolution of the human brain seems to have been linked closely to the social nature of our species. Research continues to find new evidence of how deeply rooted and basic this social nature is. Consider just a few examples from very recent studies: Having close friends and staying in contact with family members is associated with health benefits such as protecting against heart disease, infection, diabetes and cancer, and with living longer and more actively (Cacioppo, Grippo, London, Goossens, & Cacioppo, 2015). Among minority group members, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, stronger attachment to traditional culture is associated with better life outcomes (Zubrick et al., 2014). Experiencing a social rejection or loss is so painful that it produces activity in the same parts of the brain as when we feel physical pain. Being treated well and fairly by other people, on the other hand, activates parts of the brain associated with physical rewards such as desirable food and drink (Eisenberger, 2015). There is something medically very real about a ‘broken heart’. For example, a person is more than 20 times more likely than usual to suffer a heart attack within one day of the death of a loved one, and the effects of ‘broken heart syndrome’ can endure for months (Cohen, Murphy, & Prather, 2018; Mostofsky et al., 2012; Neil et al., 2015). New technologies and the online world Advances in technologies that allow researchers to see images of the brain at work through non-invasive procedures have had a profound effect on several areas of psychology, including social psychology. A growing number of social psychologists are using techniques such as event-related potential (ERP), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the interplay of the brain and discrete thoughts, feelings and behaviours (see Figure 1.6). Social psychological research today benefits from other technological advances as well, such as new and better FIGURE 1.6 Measuring brain activity techniques to measure hormone levels, code people’s everyday dialogue into quantifiable units, and present visual stimuli Advances in technology enable social psychologists to extend their research in exciting new directions, such as by to research participants at fractions of a second and then using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and record the number of milliseconds it takes the participants to magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study activity in the brain in respond to these stimuli. Some researchers are using virtual response to various thoughts or stimuli. reality technology to examine a number of social psychological questions. James Blascovich and others created the Research Center for Virtual Environments and Behavior at the University of California and are conducting fascinating research on issues such as conformity, group dynamics, aggression and altruism, social support and eyewitness testimony (Bailey & Bailenson, 2015; Blascovich, 2014). Because participants in these experiments are immersed in a virtual reality that the experimenters create for them, the researchers can test questions that would be impractical, impossible or unethical without this technology. ‘Awesome’ is an overused word, but it surely describes the Source: Shutterstock.com/Gorodenkoff revolution that is taking place in how we access information and communicate with each other. The waves of this revolution have carried social psychological research along with it. Social psychologists around the world can now not only communicate and collaborate much more easily but can also gain access to research participants from populations that would otherwise never have been available. These developments have sparked the field’s internationalisation, perhaps its most exciting course in its second century. 14 Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated  WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? CHAPTER ONE Online communication not only facilitates research but is also becoming a provocative topic of study. As more people FIGURE 1.7 Social media influences on social interaction interact with each other through social networking sites, Together, and apart. Even when interacting in a group, many of us online dating services and communications services such as today are also pulled away by our individual phones, electronic Skype or WhatsApp, there is growing interest in studying how games, laptops, tablets, and so on. How new technologies and living so much of our lives online affect human interaction is attraction, prejudice, group dynamics and a host of other social becoming increasingly important to social psychology. psychological phenomena unfold online versus offline. Other important and potentially troubling questions raised by our increasingly online lives are the subject of new research, such as: What factors contribute to or protect against cyberbullying? Can too much time on social networking sites lead to depression or loneliness (see Figure 1.7)? Does the habit of frequent texting or checking to see who has commented on one’s most recent shared photo lead to attentional and social problems offline? We would be presumptuous and probably naive to try to predict how new communication and new technologies will influence the ways that people will interact in the coming years, but it probably is safe to predict that their influence will be great. As more and more people fall in love online, fall into social isolation or react with anxiety or violence to the loss of individual Source: Getty Images/Getty Images News/Joe Raedle/ privacy, social psychology will explore these issues. We expect that some of the students reading this textbook today will be among those explorers in the years to come. RESEARCH METHODS Because we all are interested in predicting and explaining people’s behaviours and their thoughts and feelings about each other, we all have our own opinions and intuitions about social psychological matters. If the discipline of social psychology were built on the personal experiences, observations and intuitions of everyone who is interested in social psychological questions, it would be full of interesting theories and ideas, but it would also be a morass of contradictions, ambiguities and relativism. Instead, social psychology is built on the scientific method. Of course, it is easy to see how a field such as chemistry is scientific. When you mix two specific compounds in the laboratory, you can predict exactly what will happen. The compounds will act the same way every time you mix them if the general conditions in the laboratory are the same. But what happens when you mix together two chemists, or any two people, in a social context? Sometimes you get great synergy between them; at other times you get apathy or even repulsion. How, then, can social behaviour, which seems so variable, be studied scientifically? To many of us in the field of social psychology, that is the great excitement and challenge – the fact that it is so dynamic and diverse. Furthermore, in spite of these characteristics, social psychology can, and should, be studied according to scientific principles. Social psychologists develop specific, quantifiable hypotheses that can be tested empirically. If these hypotheses are wrong, they can be proven wrong. In addition, social scientists report the details of how they conduct their tests so that others can try to replicate their findings. They integrate evidence from across time and place. And slowly but steadily they build a consistent and ever more precise understanding of human nature. How social psychologists investigate social psychological questions scientifically is the focus of this section of this chapter. Before we explain the methodology they use, we first explain why it is important and interesting for you to learn about research methods. One important benefit for learning about research methods is that it can make you a better, more sophisticated consumer of information. Training in research methods in psychology can improve your reasoning about real-life events and problems (Bensley, Crowe, Bernhardt, Buckner, & Allman, 2010; Daniel & Braasch, 2013; Lehman, Lempert, & Nisbett, 1988; VanderStoep & Shaughnessy, 1997). We are constantly bombarded with ‘facts’ from the media, sales pitches and other people. Much of this information turns out to be wrong or, at best, oversimplified and misleading. We are told about the health benefits of eating certain kinds of food, the drawbacks of being digitally dependent, or the social status benefits of driving a certain kind of car or wearing a certain kind of shoe. To each of these pronouncements, we should say: ‘Prove it! What is the evidence? What alternative explanations are there?’ For example, a commercial tells us that most doctors prefer a particular brand of paracetamol. So, should we buy this brand? Think about 15duplicated Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or PART INTRODUCTION ONE what it was compared with. Perhaps the doctors did not prefer that brand of paracetamol more than other (and cheaper) brands of paracetamol, but rather were asked to compare that brand of paracetamol with several non-paracetamol products for a particular problem. In that event, the doctors may have preferred any brand of paracetamol more than non-paracetamol products for that need. Thinking like a scientist while reading this textbook will foster a healthy sense of doubt about claims such as these. You will be in a better position to critically evaluate the information to which you are exposed and be better able to separate fact from fiction. More immediately, learning about research methods should help you better understand the research findings reported in the rest of this textbook, which will in turn help you on tests and in subsequent courses. If you read a list of social psychological findings without knowing and understanding the supporting evidence, you may later find it difficult to remember which the actual findings were and which merely sound plausible. Being able to understand and remember the research evidence on which social psychological principles are based should provide you with a deeper comprehension of the material. DEVELOPING IDEAS The research process involves coming up with ideas, refining them, testing them and interpreting the meaning of the results obtained. This section describes the first stage of research – coming up with ideas. It also discusses the role of hypotheses and theories and of basic and applied research. Getting ideas and finding out what has been done Every social psychology study begins with a question; and these questions come from everywhere. As discussed earlier in this chapter, one of the first social psychology experiments published was triggered by the question: ‘Why do bicyclists race faster in the presence of other bicyclists?’ (Triplett, 1897–1898). Or consider a much more recent example; social psychologist Dylan Selterman has conducted fascinating studies examining the connection between people’s dreams about romantic partners and their actual patterns of emotions and behaviours in personal relationships (Selterman, Apetroaia, & Waters, 2012; Selterman, Apetroaia, Riela, & Aron, 2014). Where did this idea come from? It was inspired in part by the dreams some of his ex-girlfriends told him about! Questions can come from a variety of sources – from something tragic, such as the elevated mortality risk of chronic loneliness; to something perplexing, such as the underrepresentation of women in maths and science; to something light-hearted, such as the impact of emoji and emoticon use on social communication (Holt-Lunstad, Smith, Baker, Harris, & Stephenson, 2015; Rattan et al., 2018; Wall, Kaye, & Malone 2016). For research with disadvantaged groups who may distrust researchers, the best practice for designing research questions involves collaboration between participants and researchers. Consultation with community leaders determines what research questions are their priority (Goulding, Steels, & McGarty, 2016). Ideas also come from reading about research that has already been done. The most important research not only answers some pressing questions but also raises new questions, inspiring additional research. The most reliable way to get ideas for new research, therefore, is to read about research already published. Even if you already have an idea, you will need to search the social psychological literature to find out what has been researched already. How do you find these published studies? Textbooks such as this one offer a good starting point. You also can find information about many research findings by searching the internet, of course, but general searches on the internet can be wildly variable in the relevance, quality and accuracy of the information presented (a notable exception is Google Scholar, which limits the search to academic outlets and books). Instead, scholars in the field rely on electronic databases of published research, typically available via university library systems. Some of these databases, such as PsycINFO, are specific to psychology literature; others are more general. These databases allow an instant search of hundreds of thousands of published articles and books. Hypotheses and theories An initial idea for research may be so vague that it amounts to little more than a hunch or an educated Hypothesis guess. Some ideas vanish with the break of day, but others can be shaped into a hypothesis – an explicit, An explicit, testable testable prediction about the conditions under which an event will occur. Based on observations, existing prediction about the theories or previous research findings, one might test a hypothesis such as ‘Teenage boys are more likely conditions under which an event will occur. to be aggressive towards others if they have just played a violent video game for an hour than if they played a non-violent video game for an hour’. This is a specific prediction, and it can be tested empirically. 16 Copyright 2020 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated  WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? CHAPTER ONE Formulating a hypothesis is a critical step towards planning and conducting research. It allows us to move from the realm of common sense to the rigours of the scientific method. As hypotheses proliferate and data are collected to test them, a more advanced step in the research process may take place – the proposal of a theory – an organised set of principles used to explain observed Theory phenomena. Social psychologists aspire to do more than collect a list of findings. The goal is to explain An organised set of these findings, to articulate the connections between the variables that are studied, and to thereby predict principles used to explain observed phenomena. and more completely understand our social worlds. All else being equal, the best theories are efficient and precise; they encompass all of the relevant information and lead to new hypotheses, further research and better understanding. Good social psychological theories inspire subsequent research designed to test various aspects of the theories and the specific hypotheses that are derived from them. Whether it truly is accurate or not, a theory has little worth if it cannot be tested. One of the chief criticisms of many of Sigmund Freud’s theories of personality in the early twentieth century, for example, was that they could not be tested sufficiently. Basic research A theory may make an important contribution to the field even if it turns out to be wrong. The research Research in which the it inspires may prove more valuable than the theory itself, as the results shed light on new truths that might goal is to increase the not have been discovered without the directions suggested by the theory. Indeed, the best theorists want understanding of human their ideas to be debated and even doubted, in order to inspire others in the field to put their ideas to the behaviour, often by testing a hypothesis test. The goal is for these theories to evolve – to become more and more accurate and complete. based on a theory. Basic and applied research Applied research Is testing a theory the purpose of research in social psychology? For some researchers, yes. Basic research Research in which the seeks to increase our understanding of human behaviour and is often designed to test a specific hypothesis goals are to enlarge the understanding of from a specific theory. Applied research has a different purpose – to enlarge our understanding of naturally naturally occurring occurring events and to contribute to the solution of social problems. events and to find Despite their differences, basic and applied research are closely connected in social psychology; and solutions to practical some researchers switch back and forth between the two. Some studies test a theory and examine a problems. real-world phenomenon simult