Social Psychology PDF Notes

Social Psychology Jade Gomez|PSY3A|MWF|7:00pm-9:00pm|Prelims Introduction Key Points: Comparison to Related Fields The purpose of social psychology is to Sociology focuses on groups and societies. The understand social interactions in r...

Social Psychology Jade Gomez|PSY3A|MWF|7:00pm-9:00pm|Prelims Introduction Key Points: Comparison to Related Fields The purpose of social psychology is to Sociology focuses on groups and societies. The understand social interactions in relation to psychology of personality focuses on individual human behavior. differences; that is “under the same situations, different people behave differently”. Chapter 1: What is Social Psychology? Sociologists study the “big picture” of It is the scientific study of how people think behavior, while social psychologists focus on about, influence, and relate to one another. individual behavior in social contexts. B = f (p*e) Social Psychology’s Big Ideas - Kurt Lewin’s behavior equation - Behavior is the function of the person (history, personality, and motivation) and their environment (physical and social surroundings) 1. Social Thinking – how we perceive ourselves and others; what we believe; judgments we make; our attitudes 2. Social Influence – culture; pressures to conform; persuasion; groups of people 3. Social Relations – prejudice; aggression; attraction and intimacy; helping  We Construct Our Social Reality Our inner attitudes towards certain situations affect our behavior. We react differently to similar situations Ex: political attitudes influence voting because we think differently. behavior, smoking attitudes influence susceptibility to peer pressures to smoke. There is an objective reality out there, but we always view it through the lens of our beliefs and Personal dispositions affect behavior. values. Facing the same situation, different We explain people’s behavior, usually with people may act differently. enough speed and accuracy to suit our daily needs. Social Behavior is Biologically Rooted When someone’s behavior is consistent Evolutionary psychology reminds us that our and distinctive, we attribute that behavior inherited human nature predisposes us to behave to his or her personality. in ways that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce. We carry the genes of those whose Our beliefs about ourselves also matter. traits enabled them and their children to survive and reproduce. Our answers influence our emotions and actions. Natural selection (Charles Darwin) might predispose our actions and reactions How we construe the world, and ourselves, when dating and mating, hating and matters. hurting, caring and sharing. Nature also endows us with an enormous Our Social Intuitions Are Often Powerful capacity to learn and to adapt to varied But Sometimes Perilous environments. Dual Processing - includes conscious and Social neuroscience does not reduce complex deliberate processing, and unconscious and social behaviors to simple neural or molecular automatic processing. mechanisms. We intuitively judge the likelihood that things We are bio-psycho-social organisms. We will occur by how easily various examples come to reflect the interplay of our biological, mind. psychological, and social influences. Most people fear flying more than driving Social Psychology’s Principles Are because plane crashes are more vivid in Applicable in Everyday Life our memory. Includes how to know ourselves better, Even our intuition about ourselves are often implications for human health, implications for in error. judicial procedures, and influencing behaviors. We intuitively trust our memories more Psychology and Human Values than we should. We misread our own minds. We deny being affected by things Obvious Ways Values Enter Psychology that do influence us. We mispredict our own feelings. We often mispredict our Personal Convictions own future. Research topics Social Influences Shape Our Behavior Social psychology reflects personal history These include locality, educational level, subscribed media, and culture Types of people We adapt to our social context. Our attitudes Values influence the types of people who and behavior are shaped by external social forces. are attracted to various disciplines. Ex: students majoring in humanities and Aristotle observed that we are social social sciences are more inclined to help animals. We speak and think in words we others compared to math majors. learned from others. Our cultures help define our situations. Object of social-psychological analysis For example, our standards regarding promptness, frankness, and clothing vary Social psychology investigates how values with our culture. form, why they change, and how they influence attitudes and actions. None of Personal Attitudes and Dispositions Also that, however, tells us which values are Shape Behavior “right”. Internal forces matter.  Not-So-Obvious Ways Values Enter prepared for battle stresses than street- Psychology smart people); every one of these statement is the direct opposite of what Subjective Aspects of Science was actually found. Culture - scholars at work in any given Problem With Common Sense: area often share a common viewpoint from the same culture, hence their Invoked after we know the facts (post hoc) assumptions may go unchallenged`. Social Representations - are often our Experiments reveal that when people most important yet mot unexamined learn the outcome of an experiment, that convictions; share beliefs taken for outcome suddenly seems unsurprising. granted. Certainly less surprising than it is to people who are simply told about the Psychological Concepts Contain Hidden experimental procedure and the possible Values outcomes. Defining The Good Life - Values influence Hindsight Bias (I-knew-it-all-along our idea of the best way to live our lives. phenomenon) Professional Advice - Psychological advice reflect the advice giver’s personal values. Often makes people overconfident about Forming Concepts - Hidden values even the validity of their judgments and seep into psychology’s research-based predictions. concepts. Research Methods: How We Do Social Labeling - value judgments are often Psychology hidden within our social-psychological language: that is also true of everyday Research Methods: How We Do Social language. Psychology o Child: “bashful” vs “cautious”; “holding back” vs “observer” o Guerilla warfare: “terrorist” vs “freedom fighter” o Wartime civilian deaths: “the loss of innocent lives” vs “collateral damage” o Public assistance: “welfare” vs “aid to the needy” o When “they” exalt their country, Forming and Testing Hypotheses its nationalism; when “we” do it, it’s patriotism. Theory is the integrated set of principles that o Extramarital affair: “open explain and predict observed events marriage” vs “adultery” o “Brainwashing” is social Hypothesis is a testable proposition that influence we do not approve of describes a relationship that may exist between o “Perversions” are sex acts we do events not practice o “Ambitious men” vs “aggressive Hypothesis is an assumption before research: women” falsifiable and testable. Whereas theory is a well- substantiated, unifying explanation based on Is Social Psychology Simply Common verified, proven factors: always backed by Sense? evidence. What did Cullen Murphy (writer, 1990) Correlational Research: Detesting Natural and Arthur Schlesigner, Jr. (1949) have in Association common? Locations: Cullen Murphy: “Day after day social scientist go out into the world. Day after laboratory (controlled), day they discover that people’s behavior field (everyday situations) is pretty much what you’d expect.” Arthur Schlesigner: reacted with similar Methods: scorn to social scientists’ study of American WWII soldiers. correlational (asking whether 2 or more factors are associated), Paul Lazarsfield (Sociologist, 1949) experimental (manipulating some factors to see its effect on another) Better-educated soldiers suffered more adjustment problems than did less- educated soldiers. (Intellectuals were less Correlation and causation Deception - an effect by which participants are misinformed or misled about the study’s Allows us to predict but not tell whether methods and purposes changing one variable will cause changes in another. Demand Characteristics - “cues” in an Self-esteem high achievements experiment that tell the participants what (which causes which?) behavior is expected Survey Research Informed Consent - an ethical principle requiring that research participants be told Random Sample - one is which every enough to enable them to choose whether they person in the population being studied wish to participate has an equal chance of inclusion Unrepresentative Samples Debriefing - the post experimental Order of questions - We must contend explanation of a study to its participants; usually with other sources of bias such as this discloses any deception and often queries one. participants regarding their understanding and Response options - Consider the dramatic feelings effects of the response options. Wording of Questions - Subtle changes in Generalizing from Laboratory to Life the tone of a question can have marked effects. We can distinguish between the content of o Framing - ex: forbid vs not allow people’s thinking and acting and the process by which they think and act. Experimental Research: Searching for Cause and Effect Control: Manipulating variables Independent variable - experimental factor that a researcher manipulates Dependent variable - variable being measured, depends on the manipulated on the IV Random Assignment - the process of assigning participants to the conditions of an experiment such that all persons have the same chance of being in a given situation; eliminates extraneous factors Ethics of Experimentation Mundane Realism - laboratory behavior need not be literally the same as everyday behavior; degree to which an experiment is superficially similar to everyday situations Experimental Realism - the experiment should engage participants for their behavior to reflect everyday behavior; degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves the participants