Introduction to Social Psychology PDF

Today’s Goals Introduce social psychology Understand levels of analysis (ways to address why questions) Explore the four perspectives in your textbook Introducing social psychology What it is: Scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by other people Wha...

Today’s Goals Introduce social psychology Understand levels of analysis (ways to address why questions) Explore the four perspectives in your textbook Introducing social psychology What it is: Scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by other people What it does: Describes and explains human social cognition and behavior 1. Describe the phenomenon à The What 2. Explain the phenomenon à The Why Multiple Whys: Levels of Explanation Niko Tinbergen: When you ask “Why do humans do X?” you are really asking four questions Four questions: ◦ Mechanism ◦ Ontogeny ◦ Function ◦ Phylogeny Mechanism How does it work? “What are the immediate causal processes that make this behavior happen?” Can be psychological answers: ◦ “Meat tastes good” ◦ “People get hungry and meat satisfies hunger” Mechanism How does it work? “What are the immediate causal processes that make this behavior happen?” Can be physiological answers: ◦ “Eating meat activates the nucleus accumbens” ◦ “The firing of neurons associated with hunger increases activation of muscle tissue, leading to meat acquisition and chewing” Ontogeny How does it develop? “How does this behavior develop over the course of an individual’s lifetime?” Can be psychological in nature: ◦ “People learn to eat meat because their parents feed it to them as children” ◦ “People learn to eat meat because their culture tells them it is good to do” Ontogeny How does it develop? “How does this behavior develop over the course of an individual’s lifetime?” Can be physiological in nature: ◦ “Brain areas associated with finding meat rewarding increase in size over the lifespan” ◦ “Incisor and molar teeth necessary to chew meat grow in during infancy” Function “Why did this behavior evolve (in this species)?” Another phrasing: “What if any function does this behavior serve?” For example: ◦ “A desire to eat meat motivated ancestral humans to consume vital proteins, which helped them survive and reproduce.” Phylogeny “What is the exact evolutionary history of this behavior?” That is: ◦ When did it originate? ◦ How did it spread from there? Typically involves cross-species comparisons Levels of Explanation Four questions: ◦ Mechanism: how does it work? ◦ Ontogeny: how does it develop? ◦ Function: why did it evolve? ◦ Phylogeny: what is its evolutionary history? Ideally, all four questions should be answered to fully explain a behavior What Are Four Perspectives in Social Psychology? AND HOW DO THEY EACH ANSWER WHY QUESTIONS? Four Perspectives from KNCK 1. Sociocultural – locates causes of social cognition and behavior in group-level factors (e.g., culture, nationality, social class, religion) How? People learn local norms ◦ Norms = rules about appropriate behavior Example Sociocultural (x Evolutionary) Background: ◦ The physical environment affects the social one ◦ In environments where helminths are present, people might do things to guard against them ◦ Even if people don’t “know” this behavior guards against helminths ◦ Cannabis contains anthelminthic compounds ◦ The Aka hunter-gathers in CAR have high cannabis use Research Question: Is their cannabis use perhaps protective against helminth infection? Roulette et al., 2016 Example Sociocultural (x Evolutionary) Background: … Research Question: Is their cannabis use perhaps protective against helminth infection? Method: ◦ Self- + peer-reported cannabis use from adults (n=379) ◦ Urinary tests of a subset (n=62) to verify usage (use via THCA biomarker) ◦ Collect stool samples to assess helminth infection Roulette et al., 2016 Example Sociocultural (x Evolutionary) Background: Research Question: Is cannabis use perhaps protective against helminth infection? Method: Results: Significant negative relationship between cannabis use and helminth infection, including reinfection 1 year later Roulette et al., 2016 Four Perspectives from KNCK 2. Evolutionary – locates causes of social cognition and behavior in predispositions that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce How? Natural selection… Four Perspectives from KNCK 3. Social learning – locates causes of social cognition and behavior in the individual’s past experiences of reward and punishment How? Learning ◦ Direct (e.g., I get rewarded/punished for X) ◦ Indirect (e.g., I see people—like those on TV—get rewarded/punished for X) Four Perspectives from KNCK 4. Social cognitive - locates causes of social cognition and behavior in people’s subjective interpretations of the social world Emphasizes attention, interpretation, judgement, and memory Four Perspectives from KNCK 4. Social cognitive - locates causes of social cognition and behavior in people’s subjective interpretations of the social world Emphasizes attention, interpretation, judgement, and memory Mack & Rock (1998) Inattentional blindness: when one fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus in plain sight, purely due to a lack of attention rather than any vision defects or deficits