1. David Myers 11e Chapter 1 Introducing Social Psychology
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2. Chapter One Introducing Social Psychology
What’s the point about Cinder Ella?
Does her self-perception matter?
A sub-discipline of psychology ψ
What is psychology?
What are some other sub-disciplines?
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3. What Is Social Psychology?
Scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another
B = f (p*e)
Social thinking
Social influence
Social relations
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4. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IS . . .
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5. Social Psychology’s Big Ideas
We Construct Our Social Reality
We react differently because we think differently
1951 Princeton-Dartmouth football game demonstration
Objective reality
Beliefs about others
Beliefs about ourselves
What really happened in Ferguson MO?
Did the grand jury make the right decision?
Perspectives from M. Brown? D. Wilson? Bystanders? Public?
What’s the point here?
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6. Social Psychology’s Big Ideas
Our Social Intuitions Are Often Powerful but Sometimes Perilous
Dual processing (Kahneman “Thinking fast & slow”
Conscious and deliberate
Unconscious and automatic
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7. Social Psychology’s Big Ideas
Social Influences Shape Our Behavior
Locality – give an example
Educational level -give an example
Subscribed media give an example
Culture –same sex marriage ok with you?
Ethnicity
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8. Social Psychology’s Big Ideas
Personal Attitudes and Dispositions
Internal forces
Inner attitudes about specific situations
Personality dispositions (individual differences)
Different people may react differently while facing the same situation
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9. Social Psychology’s Big Ideas
Social Behavior Is Biologically Rooted
Evolutionary psychology
Natural selection predisposes our actions and reactions
Prejudice happens early at the brain level
We prefer the familiar things – why?
Hint: evolution
Social neuroscience
We are bio-psycho-social organisms
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10. Social Psychology’s Big Ideas
Social Psychology’s Principles Are Applicable in Everyday Life
How to know ourselves better
Implications for human health
Implications for judicial procedures
Influencing behaviors
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11. Social Psychology and Human Values
Obvious Ways Values Enter Psychology
“personal convictions” give an example one for a social psychologist…and how it can influence her work.
Research topics
Types of people
Do business students differ from ψ students?
Object of social-psychological analysis
How values form
Why they change
How they influence attitudes and actions
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12. Social Psychology and Human Values
Not-S0-Obvious Ways Values Enter Psychology
Subjective aspects of Science
Culture –which is better, competition or cooperation?
Social representations – shared beliefs taken for granted
Are there any real group differences for race/gender?
Psychological concepts contain hidden values
Defining the good life
Professional advice
Forming concepts
How could high self-esteem be the same as “defensive”?
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13. Labeling – some examples • “terrorist” or a “freedom fighter”
• “welfare” or “aid to the needy”
• nationalism v. patriotism.
• open marriage” or “adultery”
• “Brainwashing”
• “Perversions”
Can you think of others?
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14. Is Social Psychology Simply Common Sense?
What did Cullen Murphy and Arthur Schlesinger have in common?
Paul Lazarsfeld
“Better-educated soldiers suffered more adjustment problems than did less-
educated soldiers.”
Problem with Common Sense
Invoked after we know the facts (post hoc)
Hindsight bias (I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon)
Missed or misinterpreted clues of 9/11
2008 world financial crisis
Caveat: STUDY THE MATERIAL Why?
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15. Research Methods: How We Do Social Psychology
Forming and Testing Hypotheses
Theory (falsifiable)
Integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events: see Kerlinger:
Hypotheses
Testable proposition that describes a relationship that may exist between events
What’s the difference between a “fact” and a “theory?
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16. Research Methods: How We Do Social Psychology
Correlation Research: Detecting Natural Associations
Location
Laboratory
Controlled situation
Field
Everyday situations
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17. Research Methods: How We Do Social Psychology
Correlation Research: Detecting Natural Associations
Method
Correlational
Naturally occurring relationships among variables
Carroll et al (‘94) see p. 19
Experimental
Seeks clues to cause-effect relationships by manipulating one or more variables while controlling others
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18. Research Methods: How We Do Social Psychology
Correlation Research: Detecting Natural Associations
Correlation and causation
Allows us to predict but not tell whether changing one variable will cause changes in another
Self esteem <-> high achievement (which causes which?)
Does IQ and family status play a role?
Bachman & O’Malley, (1977)
What happened in the study with 715 Minnesota kids?
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19. Research Methods: How We Do Social Psychology
Correlation Research: Detecting Natural Associations
Survey research
Random sample (from a population)
Unrepresentative samples
Order of questions
Response options
What % of energy from nuclear power?
One v. three options – “what happened”
Wording of questions
“Welfare” v. “assistance to the poor”
Framing – e.g. “forbid” v. “not allow”
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20. Research Methods: How We Do Social Psychology
Experimental Research: Searching for Cause and Effect
Control: Manipulating variables
Independent variable
Experimental factor that a researcher manipulates
Corr or causation
Prejudice to obese persons (Snyder & Haugen, ‘94)
TV violence (Boyatzis et al. ‘95)
Dependent variable
Variable being measured; depends on manipulations of the independent variable
Can you manipulate or just measure? See: Table 1.1 p 25
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21. Random Assignment
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22. Research Methods: How We Do Social Psychology
Experimental Research: Searching for Cause and Effect
Random assignment: The great equalizer
Process of assigning participants to the conditions of an experiment such that all persons have the same chance of being in a given condition
Eliminates extraneous factors
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23. Research Methods: How We Do Social Psychology
Ethics of Experimentation
Mundane realism
Experimental realism
Deception
Demand characteristics
Informed consent
Debriefing
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24. Generalizing from Laboratory to Life
We can distinguish between the content of people’s thinking and acting and the process by which they think and act
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