Soc psych exam

• Social Psychology


  The scientific study of how an individual's thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by other people
• Four Key Aspects of Social Psychology


  • Influenced by other people
  • Thoughts, feelings and behavior
  • Individual's perspective
  • Scientific Study
• Influenced by other people


  As long as someone is being affected in any way by other people, including their imagined presence, the situation is relevant to social psychology
• Thoughts, feelings and behavior


  • Thoughts (cognition)
  • Feelings (affect)
  • Behavior
• Individual's perspective


  Take the perspective of individuals in a social setting, rather than focusing only on objective features of the situation
• Scientific Study


  Rely on direct tests of their ideas; Scientific evidence is necessary before a proposal will be taken seriously
• Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads
• Social Psychology aims


  • How much of our social world is just in our heads?
  • Would you be cruel if ordered?
  • To help, or to help oneself?
• Other People Affects us by

  • The Power of Situation
  • The Power of the Person
  • The Importance of Cognition
  • The Applicability of Social Psychological Principles
• The Power of Situation


  We are creatures of our culture and contexts. Evil situations sometimes overwhelm good intentions, inducing people to follow falsehoods or comply with cruelty
• The Power of the Person


  We are also creators of our social worlds. If a group is evil, its members contribute to (or resist) its being so. Facing the same situation, different people may react differently
• The Importance of Cognition


  People react differently partly because they think differently. Social reality is something we construct subjectively; our beliefs about ourselves also matter
• The Applicability of Social Psychological Principles


  Applying their concepts and methods to current social concerns, such as emotional well-being, health, courtroom decision making quest for peace etc.
• Plato, the father of Western Philosophy, believed people experience the world in 3 distinct ways: thoughts, emotions, and action
• Plato warned that "even the wisest individuals when assembled into a crowd might be transformed into an irrational mob"
• Aristotle


  The connection with others forms an essential part of who we are. This idea has been consistent and has shown that our social relationships are an important component of how we define ourselves. He also introduced the idea of a Social Contract
• The field of Psychology separated from Philosophy and became a discipline in the middle of the 19th century
• Norman Triplett


  Conducted the first empirical study that could be classified as social psychology in nature, on the topic of bicycle racing, which became known as "Social Facilitation"
• William McDougall & Edward Ross


  Published the first two textbooks in Social Psychology, and are considered pioneers of the field
• The view on Behaviorism strengthened in the early decades of the 20th century
• The Great Depression in the United States and World War II in the 1930s and 1940s had a significant impact on the development of Social Psychology
• Kurt Lewin


  Considered the "Father of Modern Social Psychology" for his research on group dynamics
• Social Psychology flourished as a field of study in the 1950s and 1960s, and reached scientific maturity in the 1970s
• From the 1970s to the present, there has been growing recognition of gender, racial bias, and cultural influences in social psychology
• 4 Different Perspectives of Social Psychology

  • Socio-Cultural Perspective
  • Evolutionary Perspective
  • Social Learning Perspective
  • Social Cognitive Perspective
• Socio-Cultural Perspective


  Social behaviors reside in the social group that we find ourselves going along "social currents". This includes phenomena like crazes, social norms, and culture
• Evolutionary Perspective


  Human social behaviors are rooted in physical and psychological predispositions that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce, such as natural selection
• Social Learning Perspective


  Social behavior is driven by each individual's past learning experiences with reward and punishment
• Social Cognitive Perspective


  Social Behavior is driven by each person's subjective interpretations of events in the social world. It emphasizes the role of problem solving, decision making, and understanding how social influence shapes individual behavior and attitude
• Kurt Lewin believed a person's interpretation of a situation is related to his goal at that time, and emphasized the interaction between inner experience and the outside world
• The Scientific Method

  • Question
  • Hypothesis
  • Procedure
  • Experiment
  • Data Analysis
  • Conclusion
  • Abstract
  • Present
• Laboratory Research


  Use of complex experimental designs with multiple independent and/or dependent variables
• Mundane Realism


  The degree to which an experiment is superficially similar to everyday Situation
• Experimental Realism


  The degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves its participants
• Field Experiment/ Field Research


  Research conducted outside of the Laboratory and in a real world situation, where participants must not know they are participating so they act more naturally
• Researchers must provide informed consent, be truthful (using deception only if essential), protect participants from harm, ensure confidentiality, and debrief participants after experiments
• Research Method IV

  • Quasi-Experimental Method/ Naturalistic/ Observational
  • Conducted in a natural environment
  • The Independent Variable is not manipulated by researchers; it occurs naturally.
• Strengths of Quasi-Experimental Method

  • Low chance of demand characteristics and bias
  • High ecological validity
  • Useful situations where it would be unethical.
• Weaknesses of Quasi-Experimental Method

  • The experiment has no control over any variables
  • Difficult to replicate & check
  • Very time consuming
• Correlational Method


  Two or more variables are associated or related to each other<|>Variables are measure after which a correlational analysis is conducted to determine the relationship.