Social Psychology Lecture Notes PDF - PSYC2700 Winter 2025

WELCOME TO SOCIAL PSYC2700 Lecture 1 PSYCHOLOGY! Winter 2025 TODAY’S AGENDA Course Overview  Getting to know me  Syllabus information Introduction to Social Psychology  What is social psychology, and why study it? The Power of the Situation Basic Human Motives...

WELCOME TO SOCIAL PSYC2700 Lecture 1 PSYCHOLOGY! Winter 2025 TODAY’S AGENDA Course Overview  Getting to know me  Syllabus information Introduction to Social Psychology  What is social psychology, and why study it? The Power of the Situation Basic Human Motives Wrap-Up TODAY’S LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this class, you should be able to:  Understand what is expected of you in this course  Explain what social psychology is and how it differs from other disciplines  Recognize that social events involve a situation and not just someone’s personality  Identify a number of basic human motives that underlie our interpretation of the social world COURSE OVERVIEW YOUR INSTRUCTOR Dr. Taylor Kohut  E-mail: Health [email protected]  Office: LHS C128  Office hours: Wednesdays 10am - noon (appointment Close only) relationshi Sexuality ps YOUR INSTRUCTOR Dr. Taylor Kohut  E-mail: [email protected]  Office: LHS C128  Office hours: Wednesdays 10am - noon (appointment only) “I get paid to study porn.” WHERE DO I GO FOR HELP (WITH THIS CLASS)? If you have question, request or concern, please email your respective TA first and they will do their best to respond within 48 hours Please include “PSYC 2700” in the subject line of all e-mails! Only email me if: Your TA has tried to help you but has been unable to do so You have a concern about your TA YOUR TEACHING ASSISTANTS “I have 2 dogs: Roman and Copper” “I worked at a cemetery over the summer” Kaelen Hepworth Cassandra Clinch  E-mail: [email protected]  E-mail:  Office hours: by appointment [email protected]  W01, W03, W09, W10  Office hours: by appointment  W02, W04, W05 COURSE WEBSITE Blackboard  Please check it regularly for announcements  Lecture slides will be made available shortly before each class  Will be used for submission of the “annotated review” written assignment!  Some seminar materials may be distributed this way COURSE TEXTBOOK Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., Fehr, B., & Sommers, S. (2022). Social Psychology, Seventh Canadian Edition. Toronto: Pearson. OTHER RECOMMENDED READING  American Psychological Association (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.  Trent University Integrity weblink: https://www.trentu.ca/vpacademic/academic-integrity  The course syllabus!  You will find many answers to questions there! COURSE GOALS By the end of this course, you should be able to:  Identify several ways in which social psychological processes occur in daily life  Differentiate between an empirically-based, scholarly perspective of social psychology and a speculative perspective informed by personal experience  Apply concepts and theories in social psychology to novel examples of behaviours and situations  Interpret social psychological situations to make predictions about behaviour  Locate, understand, and synthesize peer-reviewed social psychological research COURSE COMPONENTS Academic Integrity Module: Monday January 27 All students are required to complete an online module on academic integrity, which can be found on Blackboard Provides training in academic integrity  MC quiz at the end of each section  You must earn 100% on each quiz / may retake quizzes 0% of final grade  Required to submit other assignments in this course COURSE COMPONENTS Seminar participation: Begin next week (check schedule!)  4 seminars; alternating weeks  Starts Jan 13 for W01 / W03 / W05 / W07 / W09  Starts Jan 20 for W02 / W04 / W06 / W08 / W10  Seminars will be used for small-group activities, discussions, and exercises  Attending a seminar (0.5% of grade)  Participate actively in a seminar (2% of grade)  10% of final grade COURSE COMPONENTS Major / Origin Top Hat: Starts Monday Jan 13+  For active in-class participation  Use your computer or cell phone to respond to questions To Register You’ll need:  A credit card  Your student number  The join code: 049248  Register @ www.tophat.com 10% of your final grade COURSE COMPONENTS Every class we will have between 3 – 6 Top Hat components Starting in Lecture 2, participate in at least 1 component per class to earn 1% (of 10%) of your grade.  Attendance does not count!  Ignore the “Grade” reported by Top Hat E-mail TA’s by midnight if something goes wrong!  Send them the Q and your A ATTEND CLASS! WHY? 69% VS. Attendance 77% ON THE FINAL EXAM! 90 80 Percent Attended (%) 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Lecture Lecture Lecture Lecture Lecture Lecture Lecture Lecture 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 COURSE COMPONENTS Midterm exam: Monday, February 10th from 5:30PM- 7:30PM (location same as lecture)  100 multiple choice questions  2 hours (120 minutes)  Covers Chapters 1- 6 and associated lecture material  EVERYTHING IS TESTABLE MATERIAL!!!  25% of final grade COURSE COMPONENTS Annotated Review: Monday March 10 (before class!!!)  4-5 double-spaced pages (including title page)  Pick a topic article from a list on Blackboard  Find a published study on the same topic (not a theoretical paper or review!)  Summarize both studies like an annotated bibliography (1 page each)  Describe a critical synthesis of the two articles (1-2 pages)  Submit through Blackboard  Late papers will be penalized 5% per day; not graded after 1 week  25% of final grade COURSE COMPONENTS Noncumulative Final exam: April 7-23 (details TBA)  120 multiple choice questions  2 hours (120 minutes)  Covers chapters 7-12 and associated lecture material  EVERYTHING IS TESTABLE MATERIAL!!!  30% of final grade CLASS EXPECTATIONS Class begins on time Listen to each other with respect and support one another in class and during seminars Extensions will only be granted to students who have a personal or medical emergency just fprior to the due date.  Contact your TA if you need an extension! Use of generative AI is forbidden (corrective AI for spelling / grammar is fine). Invest and participate actively in your own learning! LECTURE SCHEDULE WEEK 01: Course Introduction & Administration (Jan 6)  Syllabus  Chapter 1  Academic Integrity Module WEEK 02: Methodology (Jan 13)  Chapter 2  Seminar 1: F01 / F03 / F05 / F07 / F09 WEEK 03: Social Cognition and Perception (Jan 20)  Chapters 3 and 4  Seminar 1: F02 / F04 / F06 / F08 / F10 LECTURE SCHEDULE WEEK 04: The Self (Jan 27)  Chapter 5  Seminar 2: F01 / F03 / F05 / F07 / F09  Academic Integrity Module DUE! WEEK 05: Attitudes and Attitude Change (Feb 3)  Chapter 6  Seminar 2: F02 / F04 / F06 / F08 / F10 WEEK 06: Midterm (Feb 10) WEEK 07: Reading Week (Feb 17) LECTURE SCHEDULE WEEK 08: Conformity (Feb 24)  Chapter 7  Seminar 3: F01 / F03 / F05 / F07 / F09 WEEK 09: Group Processes (Mar 3)  Chapter 8  Seminar 3: F02 / F04 / F06 / F08 / F10 WEEK 10: Interpersonal Attraction (Mar 10)  Chapter 9  Seminar 4: F01 / F03 / F05 / F07 / F09  Research paper!!! LECTURE SCHEDULE WEEK 11: Prosocial Behaviour (Mar 17)  Chapter 10  Seminar 4: F02 / F04 / F06 / F08 / F10 WEEK 12: Aggression (Mar 24)  Chapters 11 WEEK 13: Prejudice (Mar 31)  Chapters 12 SAS NOTETAKER REQUEST Student Accessibility Services has requested a student to volunteer to share their lecture notes to support Peer Notetaking Supports for this course. If you are willing to share your notes, your volunteerism will be documented with a certificate at the end of the course and will appear on your Co-Curricular Record. Students willing to share their lecture notes can register to become a volunteer notetaker by signing up online through the SAS Portal on MyTrent>Academic Support>Support>SAS Portal>Volunteer Notetaker sign-up, login & upload. INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY? The scientific study of behavior and the mind WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? The scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people (Allport, 1985) WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY? It also includes, the scientific study of how individuals:  Think about each other  Feel about each other  Relate to each other WHY STUDY IT? Curiosity  People are fascinating!  Desire to understand the self and others Some of the most important problems are social problems, and we can help solve them  Environmental issues  Health issues  Political issues  Relationship issues UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL WORLD WITH FOLK WISDOM & PHILOSOPHY Folk wisdom is founded in anecdotal experience and reasoning. In many ways, philosophy is better in that it can involve critical, systematic, and rational thinking, but philosophy still has limits. There are a few problems with relying entirely on folk wisdom or philosophy when trying to explain social behavior:  Problem #1: Explanations are speculative; how do you determine if they are correct?  Problem #2: Explanations for the same process can contradict each other SCIENTIFIC SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Social psychology addresses some of the limitations of folk wisdom and philosophy. Why? Social psychology is an experimentally-based science  Theories and ideas are based on real-world observations (empiricism)  Researchers design studies to systematically test interesting their theories and ideas  Experiments are gold-standard research SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY’S FOCUS Social psychologists believe it is most important to understand individuals’ construals of the social environment A construal is the way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world (Lewin, 1943)  We are less concerned with understanding the objective properties of the social environment itself  People can have different construals of the same CONSTRUALS IN ACTION: People generally fail to recognize that their peers interpret situations differently than they do:  When faced with the same objective opportunity, people’s beliefs about the popularity of a decision are biased towards (construed by) their own decisions  i.e. people believe that their own choices are more popular than they actually are  Ross et al. (1977): participants believed that 64% vs. 23% of other people would CONSTRUALS IN ACTION: The same judicial / police procedures can be interpreted (construed) differently, resulting in different behaviours. Procedural justice: perception that procedures used to determine guilt or innocence are fair  People who are high in procedural justice are more likely to obey laws than people who are low in procedural justice  Major implications for minorities who have been systematically mistreated by CONSTRUALS IN ACTION: When dealing with stressful events, people are more likely to cope well if they perceive (construe):  Setbacks as challenges rather than threats  Their surrounding social relationships as supportive and positive SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY VS. SOCIOLOGY Both of these disciplines are interested in how behavior is influenced by the social environment SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY VS. SOCIOLOGY Difference #1: Level of analysis Sociology Social psychology SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY VS. SOCIOLOGY Difference #1: Level of analysis Sociology Social psychology SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY VS. SOCIOLOGY Difference #2: What they try to explain  Sociology: General principals concerning how societies operate  Social psychology: Who individuals tend to operate, regardless of social class, culture etc. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY VS. PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY Both are branches of psychology and mostly focus on individuals as the level of analysis SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY VS. PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY Difference #1: General variables of interest  Personality psychology: Aspects of the person that make people unique and different − Individual differences  Social psychology: Psychological processes people have in common that can be influenced by the social world SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY VS. PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY Difference #2: What matters for predicting behavior  Personality psychology: Stable, internal personality traits  Social psychology: Social situations (internal or external) THE POWER OF THE SITUATION Attributio EXPLAINING SOCIAL BEHAVIOR People often explain the behavior of others in terms of dispositional (personality) factors But! This fails to take into account situational factors that may actually be guiding behavior  Fundamental Attribution Error (also called the Correspondence Bias) POWER OF THE SITUATION Liberman, Samuels, & Ross (2004) 80 "Cooperative" People 70 People Who Chose "Competitive" People The Cooperative 60 Percentage of 50 Strategy 40 30 20 10 0 Community Game Wall Street Game POWER OF THE SITUATION People with high attachment avoidance behave differently depending on the quality of their relationship (Campbell et al., 2001; Slotter & Luchies, 2014)  Low quality relationships => typical avoidance of closeness  High quality relationships => less avoidance for closeness HOW SHOULD WE DEFINE SOCIAL SITUATIONS? You could specify the objective or physical properties (e.g., behaviorism: rewards or punishments)  But! These seemingly “objective” properties can be influenced by an individual’s perspective (i.e. their construal)  E.g., A person laughing at something you say. Are they laughing with you or laughing at you? Social situations are subjective THE NEXT LOGICAL QUESTION How are construals determined? BASIC HUMAN MOTIVES BASIC HUMAN MOTIVES What basic motives underlie human thought feeling and behavior?  The need to be accurate*  The need to feel good about ourselves*  The need to belong (affiliate)  Other motives and needs WHAT MAKES THESE BASIC MOTIVES? Baumeister & Leary (1995) argue that motives and needs are considered fundamental when they:  Have affective qualities and direct cognitive processing  Yield bad outcomes when thwarted (e.g., poor health/adjustment)  Influence a broad variety of behaviors  Apply to all people (though it does not need to apply to all people equally!) THE NEED TO BE ACCURATE One of the hallmarks of humanity is the ability to reason People are generally motivated to see the world as it is, but some of us are more motivated in this way than others, and sometimes:  Limitation #1: we lack information (or are misinformed)  Limitation #2: we lack time and energy Construals of a situation can be influenced greatly by misinformation, and/or the lack of time, energy, or ability to seek accurate information. THE NEED TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT OURSELVES People are motivated to maintain high feelings of self- worth  Self-esteem concerns evaluations of people’s own self-worth People often bend the facts a bit to cast themselves in a favorable light  E.g., justifying past behaviour The need to maintain self-esteem can sometimes explain why people do seemingly odd or surprising things  E.g., justifying participation in hazing rituals THE NEED TO BELONG The social world exists because people need to feel connected to others  Frequent, non-aversive interactions with others  Explains why we form enduring, close relationships  Influences our construal and memory of social events OTHER MOTIVES AND NEEDS Biological needs (e.g., hunger, thirst, sleep) can be very motivating, especially when people are in a state of deprivation. Fundamentally, people are motivated by the need to survive to reproduce  Natural selection CONFLICTING MOTIVES When fundamental motives pull us in different directions, things get especially interesting WRAP-UP SUMMARY Social psychology is the study of how other people influence our thoughts, feelings, and behavior  Implications for important aspects of life and relevant social issues Social psychologists believe subjective situational factors are often key determinants of behavior Several basic human motives can help explain how people construe their social world NEXT TOPIC Monday, January 13th  Topic: Methodology  Reading(s): Chapter 2