David Myers

11e
Chapter 1 Introducing Social Psychology

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Chapter One
Introducing Social Psychology
Whats the point about Cinder Ella?
Does her self-perception matter?

A sub-discipline of psychology
What is psychology?
What are some other sub-disciplines?

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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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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IS . . .

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Social Psychologys 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?

Whats the point here?

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Social Psychologys Big Ideas

Our Social Intuitions Are Often Powerful but

Sometimes Perilous
Dual processing (Kahneman Thinking fast & slow)
Conscious and deliberate system II
Unconscious and automatic system I

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Social Psychologys 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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Personal Attitudes and Dispositions
Internal forces
Inner attitudes about specific situations
Personality dispositions (individual differences)
Different people may react differently while facing the same
p
situation B = f ( *e)

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Social Psychologys 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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Social Psychologys Big Ideas

Social Psychologys 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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Social Psychology and Human
Values
Obvious Ways Values Enter Psychology
personal convictions give an example of one for a
social psychologistand how it can influence her work.
Research topics
Types of people
Do business students differ from students?
Object of social-psychological analysis
How values form
Why they change

How they influence attitudes and actions

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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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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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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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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:
h
ttp://home.ubalt.edu/tmitch/632/kerlinder%20definitions.h
tm
Hypotheses
Testable proposition that describes a relationship that may
exist between events
Whats the difference between a fact and a theory?

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Research Methods: How We Do
Social Psychology
Correlation Research: Detecting Natural Associations
Location
Laboratory
Controlled situation

Field
Everyday situations

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Research Methods: How We Do
Social Psychology
Correlation Research: Detecting Natural Associations
Method
Correlational
Naturally occurring relationships among variables

Experimental
Seeks clues to cause-effect relationships by manipulating one

or more variables while controlling others

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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 & OMalley, (1977)

What happened in the study with 715 Minnesota kids?

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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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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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Random Assignment

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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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Research Methods: How We Do
Social Psychology
Ethics of Experimentation
Mundane realism
Experimental realism
Deception
Demand characteristics
Informed consent
Debriefing

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Generalizing from Laboratory
to Life
We can distinguish between the content of peoples
thinking and acting and the process by which they
think and act

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