CHAPTER 1:

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1.1 Explain what social psychology is and what

social psychologists do.
1.2 describe the relation of social psychology to
other fields
1.3 Describe the basic steps in research process
1.4 Explain the major theoretical perspectives in
social psychology.
 DEFINING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Social Psychology - The scientific study of the feelings,

thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social situations

1. Explaining Behavior
• What social psychologists study:
- how people are influenced by others
- how people make decisions
- inferences we make about others’ attitudes and personalities
- influence of situational variables on behavior
- how we make sense of our world
 CORE CONCERNS OF SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY
1. Human social behavior.
i. the activities of individuals in the presence of others,
ii. interaction two or more persons,
iii. and the relationships among individuals and the groups to
which they belong.

2. Addresses the causes of such behavior.

i. causal relations based on theory.

3. Study social behavior in a systematic fashion.

i. research methodologies, including experimentation,
structured observation, and sample surveys.
DEFINING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

2. Comparing Social Psychology to Related

Disciplines
a. Personality psychology - stresses individual
differences that are relatively stable over time.
b. Cognitive psychology - study of how people
think about, perceive, and remember aspects of
the world
c. Sociology - study of behavior of people as a
whole(communities & social systems).
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY VS.
SOCIOLOGY VS. PSYCHOLOGY
Level of Analysis
Macro Micro
(Group) (Individual)

Sociology Psychology

Social Psychology
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES IN
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

◼ Role theory
◼ Reinforcement theory
◼ Cognitive theory
◼ Symbolic interaction theory
◼ Evolutionary
◼ Social Learning
ROLE THEORY

• Based on the premise that people conform to

norms defined by the expectations of others.
• It is most useful in explaining the regular and
recurring patterns apparent in day to day activity.
REINFORCEMENT THEORY

• Reinforcement theory helps to explain not only

how people learn but when social relationships
will change.
• Assumes that social behavior is governed by
external events especially rewards and
punishments.
COGNITIVE THEORY

• Holds that such processes as perception, memory

and judgment are significant determinants of
social behavior.
• The theory treats ideas and beliefs as organized
into structures (schemas) and relies on various
principles to explain changes in attitudes and
beliefs.
• Differences in cognition explain why individual
behave differently from one another in a given
situation.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTION THEORY

• Holds that human nature and social order (event)

are products of communication among people.
• Communication - the exchange of meaning
through language and symbols
• It stresses the importance of self, role taking, and
understanding in social interaction.
EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

• Social behavior is a product of long term

evolutionary adaptation.
• Behavioral tendencies exist in human beings
because these behaviors aided our ancestors in
their attempts to survive and reproduce
EVOLUTIONARY

• What drives social behavior?

• Genetic predispositions inherited from our ancestors that
promoted their survival and reproduction, such as:
• The tendency to automatically recognize an angry
face
• The tendency for mothers to feel protective of their
children
SOCIAL LEARNING

• Learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a

social context and can occur purely through
observing the behaviour of another person (model).
• Acquire new behaviour through imitation.
“IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY JUST
COMMON SENSE?”
THE NEED FOR RESEARCH

• Common sense is inconsistent

• Once we learn about the outcome of a given event (e.g., when we
read about the results of a research project), we frequently believe
that we would have been able to predict the outcome ahead of
time.

• Hindsight bias = The tendency to think that we could have

predicted something that we probably would not have
been able to predict

• Cognitive Errors in Judgment

• Confirmation Bias
THE RESEARCH PROCESS
 EXPERIMENT

• Experiments - Do changes in one variable (X) cause

changes in another variable (Y)?
• Independent Variable (X)
• variable (condition or event) that is manipulated by
experimenter
• Dependent Variable (Y)
• variable that is measured by experimenter
• Extraneous Variable(s)
• any variable other than independent variable that may influence
dependent variable
EXAMPLE

A study was conducted to examine the effects of temperature

on aggression. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of
three conditions (low [70o-72o], moderate [80o-82o], or a high
[90o-92o] temperature room).

While in the room an assistant irritates the subjects.

Subjects were later given a chance to “evaluate” the assistant

and told that low ratings would cause the assistant to be fired.
GRAPHIC RESULTS

Effects of Temperature on Aggression

14 12
Subject Ratings of Helper

12
10
7
8
6
3
4
2
0
Low Moderate High
Temperature
CONFOUNDING OF VARIABLES

• Occurs when independent and extraneous variables

are linked together

• Makes it impossible to tell which variable affected

dependent variable
THE PROCESS OF CONFOUNDING
EXPERIMENT

• Minimize confounding with consistent procedures

• Minimize confounding with random assignment:

• subjects have an equal chance of being assigned to any group

or condition in the study.

• the goal of random assignment is to equally distribute potential

extraneous variables in each group.
 EXPERIMENT

• Advantages of Experimental Research

• Allows conclusions about cause & effect relationships between
variables
• Allows control of extraneous variables

• Disadvantages of Experimental Research

• Experimental conditions are artificial
• Subjects’ responses may not be natural, since they know they are
being observed
• Some questions can’t be tested in an experiment
• very expensive and time consuming
 CORRELATION

• The extent to which one variable can be understood on the

basis of another

• Two properties of correlation coefficient

• direction (positive or negative)
• magnitude (strength of the relationship)
CORRELATION/DESCRIPTIVE
RESEARCH

• Advantages
• Study phenomena that can’t be studied in a lab
• riots
• effects of supervisor behavior on employees
• effects of job loss on couples’ relationship quality
• effects of smoking on physical health
• Very realistic
• Results can be generalized to other settings
CORRELATION/DESCRIPTIVE
RESEARCH
• Disadvantages
• Less control over extraneous variables
• Difficult to measure behavior as precisely (compared to
lab experiments)
• Cannot demonstrate cause and effect relationships
 POSITIVE CORRELATION:

350
300 r = .95
Final Grade Points

250
200
150
100
50
0
0 50 100 150
Exam Points
 NEGATIVE CORRELATION

High

r = -.95
Turnover Intentions

Low
Low Job Satisfaction High
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

• Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

• Potential benefits must outweigh potential harm

• APA ethical guidelines

• Voluntary participation
• Informed consent
• Privacy
• Debriefing
NATURE AND SCOPE OF
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1.1 Describe experimental and applied psychology

1.2 Distinguish between experimental methods and
descriptive methods in studying social behavior.
 EXPERIMENTAL VS APPLIED
PSYCHOLOGY

• Experimental psychology contains very little applied

psychology, because most experimental psychologists spend
virtually all their time conducting research experiments
rather than applying research to real-life situations.
 EXPERIMENTAL VS APPLIED
PSYCHOLOGY
Real-world
Mainly research
application

Experimental Applied
Concerns itself mainly with the Puts the theories and principles of
development of ideas, theories and psychology to practical and
principles. tangible use in the everyday world.

Study behavior and the mind, Offer solutions for problems of the
conducting scientific experiments human experience, including the
and research on both humans and workplace, health, product design, law
animals. and more.

Counseling psychology, clinical

Developmental psychology, cognitive
psychology, sport psychology, I/O
psychology.
psychology.
 EXPERIMENTAL VS APPLIED
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
• study how people’s feelings, thoughts and
behavior are affected by variety of social
situations and conditioning.
Experimental
Social • study how external factors like persuasion,
Psychology propaganda, peer pressure, television,
advertising, interpersonal attraction and
conformity influence our opinions, attitudes
and behavior.

• identification of a specific social problem,

such as teen pregnancy or hate crimes
• consider broad combinations of psychological
Applied
principles when attempting to understand a
Social
social issue.
Psychology
• common to adopt an interdisciplinary approach
to their work, incorporating economic,
sociological, and political perspectives.
THE STUDY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
• Descriptive methods involve attempts to measure or record
behaviors, thoughts or feelings in their natural state.
• Experimental methods involve attempts to manipulate social
processes by varying some aspect of the situation.
DESCRIPTIVE METHODS
• Social psychologists use five major types of descriptive
methods
• Naturalistic Observation
• Case Studies
• Archives
• Surveys
• Psychological Tests
NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION

• This method is very useful in the areas where experiments

cannot be conducted. In this method the observer will
observe and collect the data.
• Useful to study the children, mentally ill, animals and
unconscious patients. At times the observer will go to the
natural settings, situations, etc. in order to get the objective
data.
 NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION

• Example: Observe children on a playground (with a video

camera, perhaps) and record the number and types of
aggressive actions displayed.
• Advantage:
• Allow to study wide range of behaviors.
• Rich of information.

• Disadvantage:
• Chances of subjective report, and prejudices of observer
• Spend more time, energy and money.
 CORRELATION

• Examine the statistical association between two naturally

occurring variables.
• Example: One could correlate the amount of violent
television children watch at home with the number of
violent incidents the children participate in at school.
• Note: This study would not prove that violent TV causes aggression
in children. It is quite possible that aggressive children choose to
watch more violent TV programs.
 CASE STUDIES

• A case study involves the in-depth observation of a single

individual or group.
• Case studies can allow researchers to gain insight into things
that are very rare or even impossible to reproduce in
experimental settings.
• Example: The case study of Genie, a young girl who was
horrifically abused and deprived of learning language during
the critical period.
ARCHIVES

• Examining records kept in official or unofficial archives:

government records, newspaper stories, library circulation
records, and so on.
• Example = tests of the idea that heat increases aggression
could involve examination of official weather records and
crime statistics to determine whether there are more
homicides on hot days.
ARCHIVES

• Advantage:
• Offer objective and complete coverage of a population of interest,
going beyond self-reports to assessments of real and important life
outcomes

• Disadvantage:
• Weak in construct validity if archival measures do not correspond
directly to the psychological construct of interest.
• Low internal validity.
 SURVEYS

• Surveys typically involve:

a) an effort to collect data from a representative sample of the
population of research interest (e.g.. the voters in a particular state)
or from the entire population (e.g.. all the employees of a firm); and
b) the use of self-report data collection methods. Surveys may be
conducted by personal interviews, telephone interviews, or written
self-administered questionnaires.

• Example = Study the effects of intergroup contact on prejudice,

researcher may conduct a survey to question people about the
extent of their contacts with members of other races and also
about their degree of prejudice.
SURVEYS questionnaires

checklist
• Advantages:
• High external validity = generalization from the sample to a specific
target population.
• Low cost.
• Convenient data gathering.
rating scales
• Disadvantages:
• Low construct validity = questions about prejudice may be answered
dishonestly by respondents who believe that prejudice is socially
unacceptable.
• Bias = wording of the question.
 PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS
Psychological
testing may
sound
intimidating, but
it's designed to
help you.

• Psychologists use tests and other assessment tools to

measure and observe a client’s behavior to arrive at a
diagnosis and guide treatment.
• The attitudes, interests, abilities, intelligence, adjustments,
personality and such other factors which influence behavior,
can be studied by administering the suitable tests.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS

• Advantage:
• Accurate, objective information – little chance of distorting the
results.

• Disadvantage:
• Tests are limited in the amount of information they can obtain.
• Administration and interpretation can be done only by qualified or
trained personnel.
EXPERIMENTS

• An experiment is a research method in which the researcher

sets out to systematically manipulate one source of
influence.
• Independent variable –
the variable manipulated by the experimenter
• Dependent variable –
the variable measured by the experimenter
EXPERIMENTS

• Hypothesis = a researcher’s prediction about what he or she

will find.
• Null Hypothesis (Ho) – There is no relationship between
stress and coping strategies.
• Alternative Hypothesis (H1) - There is a relationship
between stress and coping strategies.
UNDERSTANDING EXPERIMENTS
UNDERSTANDING CORRELATIONS
THANK YOU
Any questions?