Chapter 1 - The Mission and the Method

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Chapter 1 - The Mission and the Method

• A Brief History of Social Psychology
• What Do Social Psychologists Do?
• Social Psychologys Place in the World
• Why People Study Social Psychology
• How Do Social Psychologists Answer Their Own
  Questions?
• How Much of Social Psychology is True?

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A Brief History of Social Psychology

• Earliest Social Psychology Experiments
• Norman Triplett, 1897-1898
• Max Ringelmann, 1880s
• Introduction of Textbooks -1908
• Edward Ross (sociologist)
• William McDougall (psychologist)

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A Brief History of Social Psychology

• Influences in Early 20th Century
• Gordon Allport
• Kurt Lewin
• Influences in 1950s and 1960s
• Behaviorism
• Freudian psychoanalysis
• Social Psychology as a Science

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What Do Social Psychologists Do?

• Broad understanding of how human beings think,
  act, and feel and the interactions between
  thinking, acting and feeling
• ABC Triad
• Personal and Situational Influences on ABC
• Use of the Scientific Method

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Social Psychologys Place in the World

• Within the Social Sciences
• Anthropology
• Economics
• History
• Political Science
• Sociology
• Psychology

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Social Psychologys Place in the World

• Within Psychology
• Biological Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Personality Psychology
• Social Psychology

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Important Lessons of Social Psy

• Power of Situation
• Construct Social Reality
• Social Intuitions
• Outside our Awareness
• Attitudes and Dispositions
• Application

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Research vs. Common Sense

• Common Sense
• Adages are often contradictory
• Poor method of discovering the truth
• May be a starting point for questions

Birds of a feather flock together. Opposites attract Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Better safe than sorry. Curiosity killed the cat. What you don't know can't hurt you. Seek and ye shall find. Don't judge a book by its cover. The clothes make the man. The early bird gets the worm. Better late than never.
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Scientific Method

• State problem Theory
• Formulate testable hypothesis
• Design study and collect data
• Test the hypothesis with the data
• Communicate study results

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Experimental Research Designs

• Experiment
• Researcher controls procedures
• Participants are randomly assigned into
  Experimental and Control Groups
• Allows for statements of cause and effect
• Quasi-experiment
• No random assignment

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Variables Independent and Dependent

• Independent variable
• The cause
• Manipulated by the experimenter
• Dependent variable
• The effect
• Measure as an outcome

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Variables

• Operational Definition
• Does our measure represent the variable?
• Construct validity of the Variables
• A construct is a abstract, theoretical concept
• Does it represent the real variable?

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Research Concerns

• Extraneous Variables
• Other variables that can influence outcome
• Confounded effects of variables cannot be
  separated.
• Internal Validity
• Did Independent Variable cause change?
• External Validity
• Are these results applicable/generalizable?

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Experimental Research Designs

• Quasi-experiment
• No random assignment
• Other characteristics of study are similar

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Laboratory and Field Experiments

• Laboratory Experiments
• Experimental realism
• Mundane realism
• Field Experiments
• External validity is
• Findings can be generalized

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Nonexperimental Studies

• Correlational Approach
• Variables are not controlled
• No random assignment
• Correlation
• Relationship between two variables
• Correlation coefficient
• Weakness does not prove causation