Introduction to Social Psychology

1
Introduction to Social Psychology

• What is Social Psychology?

2
Outline

• Definition
• Social psychology and related disciplines
• Social Psychology and Sociology
• Social Psychology and Personality Psychology
• Levels of Explanation
• Social Psychology and Human Values
• I knew it all along Is social psychology simply
  common sense?
• How social psychology is done
• Forming and Testing
• Correlational Research Detecting Natural
  Associations
• Experimental Research Searching for Cause and
  Effect
• Generalizing from Laboratory to Life

3
Definition

• Social psychology is the scientific study of how
  people think about, influence, and relate to one
  another.
• How the individual mind works in the actual
  presence of others, implied presence of others,
  and the imagined presence of others.
• Studies attitude formation, self-concept, forming
  relationships, social influence, social thinking,
  motivations for helping and harming others.

4
(No Transcript)
5
Personality Psychology and Social Psychology

• What they have in common
• both focus on the individual
• Differences
• How social character is explained
• Personality emphasis is on private, internal
  attributes and differences between individuals
• Social Psychology emphasis is on what people
  have in common and general rules of how people
  view and affect one another

6
Levels of explanation

• Various perspectives that explain one event are
  not necessarily contradictory. They are often
  complimentary.
• There is no one level of explanation that is the
  real explanation.
• Different levels of explanation often fit
  together to form a fuller picture.
• Not very useful to think in terms of either/or.

7
(No Transcript)
8
The impact of human values

• Values Personal convictions about what is
  desirable and how people ought to behave.
• Researchers values can impact their work in
  obvious and subtle ways.
• Obvious impact historical trends
• Subtle ways of impact our preconceptions
  penetrate our interpretations
• Much of these preconceptions are culturally
  patterned (socially shared beliefs, ideas,
  values, and assumptions)

9
(No Transcript)
10
Three Worlds of Social Psychology

• North America First World
• Much attention on individual level explanation
• Primary method is laboratory experiments
• Other industrialized nations Second World
• More attention to intergroup and societal levels
  of explanation
• Method laboratory experiments as well as natural
  observation and social discourse (social order)
• Developing countries Third World
• Concerned with poverty, conflict, and making use
  of limited resources.

11
Is social psychology simply common sense?

• Many conclusions drawn from social psychological
  research seem obvious.
• Problem with common sense.
• Tends to be activated after the fact.
• Hindsight bias I knew it all along
  phenomenon.
• Therefore, must be cautious about relying only on
  common sense, especially in understanding human
  behavior..

12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
Correlational research

• Positive same direction
• Negative opposite direction
• The positive or negative relationship between two
  variables is called a correlation (poistive or
  negative).
• Correlation is represented by the coefficient r
• Conveys magnitude (value of r) and direction (-
  or ) Ex correlation between hours of sleep and
  energy level is r.60 (0 lt r lt 1)
• Correlations do not imply a causal relationship

15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
Definition of concepts

• Hypothesis A tentative statement, subject to
  empirical test, about the expected relationship
  between variables.
• Independent variable The variable that is
  manipulated in an experiment. The independent
  variable is believed to have an impact on the
  dependent variable. (multiple levels)
• Dependent variable The variable measured in a
  study.

19
Experimental Research Design

• Experimental design Research in which
  independent variables are manipulated and
  behavior is measured while all other variables
  (extraneous variables) are controlled for.
• Random sampling Drawing from the population in a
  way that ensures equal opportunity for every
  member to be included in one or more conditions
  of the experiment.

20
Experimental Research Design (cont).

• Control Group A group of subjects in an
  experiment that does not receive the experimental
  treatment. The data from the control group are
  used as a baseline against which data from the
  experimental group are compared.

21
(No Transcript)
22
Validity

• Internal Validity
• Does the Design lend itself to testing the
  hypotheses?
• External Validity
• Are the results only applicable in the controlled
  seting or can they be generalized to the real
  world?
• One compromises the other.

23
(No Transcript)