Topic 1__Intro to Social Psychology_Full_SV.pptx

Introduction to Social Psychology Topic 1 Overview  Social Psychology Defined  Construals  Social Psychology as a Science Related Disciplines The Power of the Situation Where Construals Come From Social Psychology and Social Problems Social Psychology Defined Social Psychology o The sci...

Introduction to Social Psychology Topic 1 Overview  Social Psychology Defined  Construals  Social Psychology as a Science Related Disciplines The Power of the Situation Where Construals Come From Social Psychology and Social Problems Social Psychology Defined Social Psychology o The scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people. Key points: o Scientific: systematic and empirical o Social Influence: affects thoughts, feelings, and behaviours Social Interpretation Objective Features of the social situation matter, but so do interpretations. Construal o The way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world • E.g., Length of touch Are construals obvious? o Behaviorism was anti-mentalistic (response to overly subjective methods) o Focused exclusively on environmental factors and reinforcement principles The Construal Principle Wilson (2022): The Construal Principle o “To understand a predict human behaviour, we must focus on people’s proximate (current) construals of themselves and their environment” Related terms: mindset, appraisal, attribution, interpretation, narrative, story, meaning making The world and interactions with others contain too much information to process completely The Construal Principle Wilson (2022) Continued o Construal accounts for the power of the situation • Attuned to social norms o Construals can be experimentally manipulated o Construals are levers for behaviour change Construal: Examples Where’s my text? o Your romantic partner usually texts you every couple of hours. They are at a party on Friday night and you don’t get a text before you go to bed, despite sending multiple messages. o How would you construe this situation? Construal in the court of law o E.g., Murder trial of Mark Edward Grant • Found guilty based on DNA evidence • Later overturned: jury persuaded to see the evidence as faulty Activity #1 On a sheet of paper or on your computer, complete the following activity. o You can write in the submission link, upload files or copy and paste the information into the text box. Emailed responses are not permitted. Briefly describe a social situation you were in (or saw) recently where the construal of the situation was important. o Describe some of the objective details of the situation - the “facts” that were interpreted one way or another. o What did you construe, or interpret? Was another interpretation possible? o Did the construal cause any problems (that you’re willing to mention)? Social Psychology as a Science Systematic and empirical o Research methods = predefined plans o Experimentation All humans are biased – even researchers Confirmation Bias: o The tendency to seek out evidence that supports our beliefs and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them Common Sense and Scientific Thinking  We often understand the world using common sense. o A judgment based on perception of the apparent facts Journalists, social critics, and novelists produce important information – but it is not systematically collected. Be Careful with Common Sense Naïve Realism: the belief that we see the world precisely as it is (Lilienfeld et al., 2008) o “Seeing is believing” Problematic in ambiguous or complex situations o E.g., Politics How Do We Know?  We have many ways of knowing about the world How do we know? o o o o o Tenacity Authority Reason Empiricism Systematic Empiricism (science) Scientific Thinking Scientific Skepticism: o The approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind, but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them as true o Refrain from accepting inadequately supported claims Skepticism is not cynicism o How do you know? Show me your evidence! Includes a willingness to change one’s mind when confronted with evidence that challenges existing beliefs Avoid accepting claims on the basis of authority alone Scientific Thinking: Principles Ruling out rival hypotheses o Requires that we consider alternative explanations o Experimentation is key in science Correlation is not causation o Just because two things are associated – or correlated – does not mean that one causes the other Operational definitions o Scientific Thinking: Principles Testability and Falsifiability o Can we measure the construct or phenomenon of interest? o Can we demonstrate an assertion or prediction is false? Replication o Have findings been reproduced? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence Occam’s Razor o When several explanations account for a phenomenon, the simplest explanation is often the best Social Psychology & Sociology What is the difference between social psychology and sociology? o Share a focus on social behaviour  Level of Analysis: o Social Psychology: focuses on the individual in the context of a social situation o Sociology: focuses on broad societal factors that influence events in a society Social and Personality Psychology What is the difference between social psychology and personality psychology? o Share a focus on the individual o Personality psychologists are interested in individual differences Individual Differences o These are the aspects of people’s personalities that make them different from other people The Power of the Situation  How do people assess situations? o Dispositional attributions Fundamental Attribution Error: o The tendency to overestimate the extent to which people’s behaviour stems from personality traits and to underestimate the role of situational factors. o Can create a false sense of security The Power of the Situation Liberman et al. (2004) Social Dilemma Game: Choose a strategy o Play competitively – maximize winnings ($) o Play cooperatively – share the winnings (but get less) Ps were either competitive or cooperative Community Game vs. Wall Street Game The Power of Social Interpretation Objective properties of the situation are not as important as people’s interpretation of the situation o Construal Matters Behaviorism focused on objective properties (and reward schedules). Gestalt Theory: A school of psychology stressing the importance of studying the subjective way in which an object appears in people’s minds, rather than the objective physical attributes of the object. Kurt Lewin: “Founding Father” of Experimental Social Psychology o One of the first psychologists to focus on construal of social situations Basic Motives & Construals Where do construals come from? o The need to feel good o The need to be accurate o The need to belong (Wilson, 2022) These motives can conflict and pull us in opposite directions Accuracy is always important, at least to some extent Human Motives: SelfEsteem We need to maintain self-esteem o Good, competent, and decent Justifying Past Behaviour o E.g., Littering (Hansmann, 2017) o Personal vs. others littering Suffering and Self-Justification o Example: hockey hazing Human Motives: Accuracy Humans have a need to be accurate Social Cognition: o How people think about themselves and the social world o How they select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions Example: why is the cashier so rude? Construals (Wilson, 2022)  Construals are unconscious o The process is not known to us o Example: meeting someone new Construals are shaped by culture o But the act of construing is universal Social Psychology and Social Problems Social Psychology can contribute to the solution of social problems by understanding: o Social influence o The power of the situation o Construal Important Topics: o Aggression/violence o Prejudice o Pro-environmental behaviour Specific Issues: o E.g., Smoking The End