INTRODUCTION OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

What is Social Psychology?

 Social psychology studies how situations influence our thoughts,
behaviors, and interactions with others.
 It is the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate
to one another.
 Social psychology is closely related to sociology but focuses more on
individuals and uses experimentation.
 Unlike personality psychology, which emphasizes individual
differences, social psychology examines general patterns in how
people view and affect each other. - Social psychology is a relatively
young science, with its first experiments conducted in 1898 and its
formal development in the 1930s.
 Key questions in social psychology include:
o How does perception of situations affect social behavior?
(e.g., self-fulfilling beliefs in relationships).
o Would people commit cruel acts if ordered to? (e.g., insights
from Milgram’s obedience experiments).
o What motivates people to help or act selfishly? (e.g., behavior
observed during incidents involving scattered cash).
 The core focus of social psychology is on how people view and affect
each other, studying concepts such as attitudes, beliefs, conformity,
love, and hate.
Social Psychology’s Big Ideas
 Central ideas in social psychology, like other academic fields, can be
distilled from numerous studies, theories, and insights.
 Just as biology centers on natural selection and adaptation, and
sociology focuses on social structure and organization, social
psychology has its big ideas.
 These big ideas or overarching themes are the fundamental
principles of social psychology.
 These themes are crucial and worth remembering long after the
details are forgotten.
 The key concepts or principles in social psychology will be explored
further in later chapters.
We Construct Our Social Reality
 Humans have a strong urge to explain behavior, attributing it to
specific causes to make it seem orderly, predictable, and controllable.
  Reactions to similar situations can differ because people think
differently.
 Attribution plays a key role in how we interpret actions; for example,
a friend's insult may be seen as hostility or simply a result of a bad day.
 The 1951 Princeton-Dartmouth football game highlighted how we
construct reality based on our beliefs and biases.
o Students from each school, when watching the same game
footage, saw violations differently based on their loyalties,
illustrating that our perceptions are influenced by our
beliefs and values.
 We are intuitive scientists, often explaining behavior quickly and
accurately enough for daily life.
 Consistent behavior leads us to attribute it to personality, such as
inferring a nasty disposition from repeated snide comments.
 Self-beliefs are crucial; our outlook (optimistic vs. pessimistic), sense
of control, and self-view (superior vs. inferior) significantly influence
our emotions and actions.
 How we construe the world and ourselves matters in shaping our
behavior and interactions.
Our Social Intuitions Are Often Powerful but Sometimes Perilous
 Instant intuitions shape our fears, impressions, and relationships,
influencing decisions in various situations, such as crises, gambling,
and hiring.
 Psychological science reveals an unconscious mind that operates
intuitively and automatically, a concept Freud did not fully explore.
 Dual processing theory explains that thinking, memory, and attitudes
operate on two levels: conscious and deliberate, and unconscious and
automatic.
 While intuition is powerful, it can also be perilous. For example,
people fear flying more than driving, even though flying is statistically
much safer.
 We often misjudge our minds and emotions, overestimating the
accuracy of our memories and our ability to predict our future feelings
and behaviors.
 Social intuitions* are both beneficial and risky, and social
psychologists aim to enhance critical thinking to balance the use of
intuition with rational decision-making.
 "Fast and frugal" snap judgments often suffice, but in situations
where accuracy is crucial, critical thinking should temper impulsive
intuitions.
Social Influences Shape Our Behavior
  Humans are inherently social animals, as observed by Aristotle,
and we learn to speak and think through interactions with others.
 We have a deep desire to connect, belong, and be valued by
others, as shown by studies where students spent a significant portion
of their time in conversation.
 Relationships are a key part of being human, and we often
respond to our immediate social contexts.
 Social situations can be powerful, sometimes leading us to act
against our expressed attitudes or moral beliefs.
o Evil situations, like those under Nazi influence, can compel
people to commit acts of cruelty.
o Positive situations, such as after 9/11, can inspire great
generosity and compassion.
 Our attitudes and behaviors are influenced by our
environment:
o Opinions on the 2003 Iraq invasion varied significantly based on
geography, education, and media consumption.
 Culture shapes our social norms and standards, influencing
preferences for body types, definitions of social justice, expressiveness,
and individualism vs. collectivism.
 People are highly adaptable, as summarized by Hazel Markus,
meaning our attitudes and behaviors are shaped by external social
forces.
Personal Attitudes and Dispositions Also Shape Behavior
 Internal forces play a significant role in shaping behavior; we are not
merely passive to external influences.
 Inner attitudes directly affect our actions:
o Political attitudes influence voting behavior.
o Attitudes toward smoking affect susceptibility to peer pressure.
o Attitudes toward the poor influence willingness to help.
 Attitudes can also follow behavior, leading us to strongly believe in
things we've committed to or suffered for.
 Personality dispositions impact how individuals react to the same
situation differently.
o Example: After political imprisonment, some may seek revenge,
while others, like Nelson Mandela, may seek reconciliation and
unity.
 Both attitudes and personality significantly influence behavior.
Social Behavior Is Biologically Rooted
  Social psychology in the 21st century offers growing insights into
the biological foundations of our behavior.
 Our social behaviors often reflect deep biological wisdom.
 Nature and nurture together shape who we are, similar to how the
area of a rectangle depends on both length and width.
 Evolutionary psychology explores how our inherited human nature
predisposes behaviors that aided our ancestors' survival and
reproduction.
 Natural selection influences behaviors related to dating, mating,
aggression, and cooperation.
 Humans possess a significant capacity to learn and adapt to
various environments, remaining sensitive and responsive to social
contexts.
 Social neuroscience examines the neurobiology underlying
social behavior, exploring how the brain, mind, and behavior
function as one coordinated system.
 Complex social behaviors are not reduced to simple neural
mechanisms; instead, both biological (under-the-skin) and social
(between-skins) influences must be considered.
 Mind and body function as a unified system, where biological,
psychological, and social influences interact.
 Examples of this interaction include how stress hormones affect
behavior, social ostracism elevates blood pressure, and social
support strengthens the immune system.
 Today's psychologists study behavior from multiple levels of analysis,
recognizing that we are bio-psycho-social organisms.
Social Psychology’s Principles Are Applicable in Everyday Life
 Social psychology can illuminate your life by revealing the subtle
influences that shape your thoughts and actions.
 It offers ideas on how to know yourself better, win friends, and
influence people.
 Social psychological insights are applied in areas like human health
and well-being, judicial procedures, and environmentally
sustainable behavior.
 While psychological science doesn't tackle life's ultimate questions, it
provides methods to explore and answer important questions about
human behavior.
 Social psychology is deeply connected to your life, influencing your
beliefs, attitudes, and relationships.
  The chapter explores how social psychologists' values influence
their work and how they search for explanations of social thinking,
influence, and relations.
 The chapter aims to help you use social psychology's analytical tools
to think smarter.
Summing Up: Social Psychology’s Big Ideas
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people think about, influence,
and relate to one another. Its central themes include the following:
 How we construe our social worlds
 How our social intuitions guide and sometimes deceive us
 How our social behavior is shaped by other people, by our attitudes
and personalities, and by our biology
 How social psychology’s principles apply to our everyday lives and
various other fields of study
Social Psychology and Human Values
 Social psychologists' values influence their work in both obvious
and subtle ways.
 Social psychology is more about strategies for answering
questions than just a collection of findings.
 In science, like in law, personal opinions are inadmissible;
evidence determines the outcome.
 Despite striving for objectivity, social psychologists' human values
and personal convictions may seep into their work.
 Raises the question: Can social psychology truly be scientific if
personal values influence the research?
Obvious Ways Values Enter Psychology
 Values influence research topics in social psychology, reflecting
social history (e.g., studies on prejudice during WWII, conformity in the
1950s, aggression in the 1960s).
 Social psychology research aligns with cultural and historical
contexts (e.g., gender research in the 1970s, diversity in the 1990s
and early 2000s).
 Values differ across cultures and periods, affecting research focus:
o European social psychologists emphasize social identity.
o American social psychologists focus more on *individual
interactions.
o Australian psychologists integrate theories from both Europe and
North America.
  Values attract different types of people to various disciplines,
such as social psychology and sociology, which may attract those
eager to challenge tradition.
 Social psychologists study how values form, change, and influence
attitudes and actions, but do not determine which values are
“right.”
Not-So-Obvious Ways Values Enter Psychology
 We less often recognize the subtler ways in which value commitments
masquerade as objective truth. Consider three not-so-obvious ways
values enter psychology.

THE SUBJECTIVE ASPECTS OF SCIENCE

 Science is not purely objective; scientists interpret nature using
their mental categories and preconceptions.
 Our perceptions are influenced by preexisting expectations; for
example, identifying a Dalmatian in a picture depends on recognizing
the concept.
 We often prejudge reality based on expectations, blocking out
details that do not align with our preconceptions.
 Scholars within a field may share unexamined assumptions or
social representations that go unchallenged.
 External critics, such as feminists and Marxists, have highlighted
unexamined assumptions in social psychology:
o Feminists pointed out biases like political conservatism in
interpretations of gender differences.
o Marxists criticized biases towards individualism and negative
views on conformity.
 Critics, including those of academic "political correctness", also
have their assumptions, such as the denial of group differences or
attributing stereotypes solely to racism.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS CONTAIN HIDDEN VALUES
 Influence of Values: Psychologists’ values impact their work,
including the theories they support and their judgments about
behavior.
 Defining the Good Life: Values shape our understanding of the "good
life." For example, Maslow's description of self-actualized people
reflected his values, which could differ significantly based on his choice
of subjects.
  Professional Advice: Psychological advice often reflects the values of
the advisor, such as individualistic versus collectivistic perspectives.
Psychologists' guidance can be influenced by their values, affecting
recommendations on personal and social issues.
 Forming Concepts: Values can seep into research-based concepts
and labeling. For instance, similar responses can be interpreted
differently depending on the label used (e.g., self-esteem vs.
defensiveness).
 Labeling and Language: Labels and terminology in psychology (e.g.,
"bashful" vs. "cautious," "terrorist" vs. "freedom fighter") reflect
underlying value judgments and can influence perceptions and
acceptance.
 Hidden Values: Values are embedded in cultural definitions of mental
health, psychological advice, concepts, and labels. Recognizing these
hidden values is important for understanding and interpreting social
psychology.
 Scientific Integrity: Despite the influence of values, scientific
analysis requires acknowledgment of these biases. Diverse
perspectives and systematic observation help minimize personal
biases and ensure more objective findings.

Summing Up: Social Psychology and Human Values

• Social psychologists’ values penetrate their work in obvious ways, such as
their choice of research topics and the types of people who are attracted to
various fields of study.
• They also do this in subtler ways, such as their hidden assumptions when
forming concepts, choosing labels, and giving advice.
• This penetration of values into science is not a reason to fault social
psychology or any other science. That human thinking is seldom
dispassionate is precisely why we need systematic observation and
experimentation if we are to check our cherished ideas against reality.

I Knew It All Along: Is Social Psychology Simply Common Sense?

 Value of Social Psychology: Social psychology provides insights
beyond common sense by formally analyzing and understanding social
phenomena.
  Criticisms: Social psychology faces two main criticisms: being trivial
because it describes what seems obvious and being dangerous due to
its potential for manipulation.
 *Common Sense vs. Science: Common sense often aligns with
hindsight bias, making outcomes seem obvious after they occur. Social
psychology aims to uncover insights that are not immediately
apparent.
 Hindsight Bias: The phenomenon where past events seem
predictable after they happen. This bias affects our judgment of
historical events and personal decisions.
 Historical Examples: Examples like the misjudged impact of
education on soldiers' adjustment or post-9/11 intelligence failures
illustrate how hindsight can mislead our understanding of past events.
 Psychological Findings: Experimental results can seem unsurprising
once known. Hindsight bias affects how we perceive and remember
outcomes, leading to overconfidence in our predictive abilities.
 Need for Science: Despite its subjective side, science helps filter out
biases and offers a more accurate understanding of social behaviors
and phenomena.
Research Methods: How We Do Social Psychology
 Scientific Approach: Social psychology uses scientific methods to
explore theories, propose hypotheses, and make practical predictions.
 Research Methods: Social psychologists use correlational studies in
natural settings to predict behavior and experiments to explain
behavior under controlled conditions.
 Application of Findings: Research findings are applied to improve
everyday life.
 Comparison with Amateur Psychology: While everyone engages in
casual people-watching, professional social psychologists use
systematic theories and controlled experiments.
 Extensive Research: Social psychologists have conducted numerous
studies, including 25,000 studies involving 8 million people.
Forming and Testing Hypotheses
 Social psychologists find human existence highly fascinating and use
theories to explain and predict observed events.
 A theory is an integrated set of principles that offers scientific
shorthand for understanding and predicting events.
 The term "theory" often implies "less than fact" in everyday
language, but scientific theories, like Darwin’s theory of evolution
and gravity, are explanations for observed facts.
  Facts are agreed-upon observations, while theories are ideas that
summarize and explain these facts.
 Theories also imply testable predictions, called hypotheses, which
serve to test, direct, and apply the theory.
 A good theory effectively summarizes observations, makes clear
predictions, confirms or modifies itself, generates new
exploration, and suggests practical applications.
 Theories are replaced not because they are proved false, but because
newer, better models emerge.
Correlational Research: Detecting Natural Associations
 Social-psychological research methods vary by location (laboratory vs.
field) and method (correlational vs. experimental).
 Correlational research examines natural associations between
factors but can lead to ambiguous interpretations of cause and
effect.
 Experimental research involves manipulating variables to observe
their effects.
 Understanding the difference between correlational and
experimental research is crucial for critically evaluating
psychological research.
 Correlational research example: Researchers studied grave
markers in Glasgow to link socioeconomic status with health. Taller
markers (indicating higher status) were associated with longer
lifespans.
 Status-longevity correlation: Confirmed by other studies, such as
Scottish postal-code regions and U.S. income levels, which show that
higher status is linked with greater longevity.
 A British civil service study: Found that lower occupational status
was associated with higher mortality rates, indicating a status-health
correlation across different contexts.
CORRELATION AND CAUSATION
 Status-longevity question illustrates the error of assuming
a causal relationship from correlation alone.
 Correlations indicate relationships but do not confirm cause
and effect. For example, higher status might lead to better
health, but health could also lead to higher status or other
factors might be involved.
 An example of correlation-causation confusion is the 2008
presidential campaign survey linking dog ownership to
 candidate preference, influenced by confounding variables
like race and marital status.
 Self-esteem and academic achievement often correlate,
but it's unclear whether high self-esteem causes high
achievement or vice versa. Self-esteem might reflect
achievement or be influenced by underlying factors like
intelligence and family social status.
 Advanced correlational techniques can suggest cause-
effect relationships, such as time-lagged correlations and
statistical controls for confounding variables.
 The strength of correlational research lies in its real-world
settings, while its disadvantage is the ambiguity in
interpreting causality.

SURVEY RESEARCH
 Measuring variables like status and health often involves
surveying representative samples using random
sampling, ensuring each person has an equal chance of
inclusion.
 A sample of 1,200 randomly selected participants can
provide a 95 percent confidence level with an error
margin of 3 percentage points or less for describing a
population.
 Polls describe public opinion at the moment but do not
predict future behavior or voting outcomes.
 Survey biases can arise from:
o Unrepresentative samples: Example of Ann
Landers' poll not being fully representative.
o Question order: Influence on responses, such as
increased support for civil unions after questions
about gay marriage.
o Response options: Variations in preferences based
on how options are presented.
o Question wording: Subtle differences in wording
affect responses, such as attitudes toward
"assistance to the poor" versus "welfare."
 Framing effects influence decisions and opinions:
 Opt-in vs. opt-out default options significantly
affect organ donation and retirement savings
enrollment.
  Framing research* shows that how questions are
phrased can dramatically impact responses and decisions,
highlighting the importance of question formulation in
surveys.

Experimental Research: Searching for Cause and Effect

 Discerning cause and effect among naturally correlated
events can be challenging.
 Social psychologists often use laboratory simulations
to study everyday processes when feasible and ethical.
 These simulations are comparable to aeronautical wind
tunnels, where complex real-world variables are controlled
to study effects in a controlled environment.
 By using simulated realities, psychologists can
manipulate specific variables to isolate and understand
causal relationships.

CONTROL: MANIPULATING VARIABLES

 Social psychologists create simulated social situations to study
daily life’s features.
 They manipulate independent variables to determine their influence
on social thinking, social influence, and social relations.
 Historically, about three-fourths of social psychology research uses
the experimental method, with two-thirds conducted in
laboratory settings.
 Example 1: Prejudice Against the Obese
o Steven Gortmaker studied obese women and found they had
lower income and status.
o Mark Snyder and Julie Haugen conducted an experiment
showing that men’s prejudiced perceptions affected how women
behaved, demonstrating the impact of prejudice and
discrimination.
 Example 2: TV Violence and Aggression
o Chris Boyatzis and colleagues found that children exposed to
violent TV (e.g., Power Rangers) exhibited more aggression
compared to non-viewers.
o This experimental finding suggests television violence can be
a cause of aggressive behavior.
 Key Experiment Elements:
 o Control: Manipulating independent variables while keeping other
factors constant.
o Random Assignment: Ensuring participants are randomly
assigned to different conditions to avoid bias.

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT: THE GREAT EQUALIZER

 Correlation Limitations: Correlations alone do not establish
causation due to the possibility of unmeasured confounding factors
(e.g., differences in education, culture, or intelligence).
 Random Assignment: This method ensures that participants have an
equal chance of being placed in either the violent or nonviolent
group, thus creating equivalent groups.
 By using random assignment, researchers can control for extraneous
factors and more reliably attribute differences in outcomes (e.g.,
aggression) to the manipulated variable (e.g., exposure to violence).
THE ETHICS OF EXPERIMENTATION
 Ethical Concerns: Social psychologists sometimes face ethical
dilemmas when conducting experiments, particularly those involving
intense thoughts and emotions.
 Experimental Realism: Experiments need not have mundane realism
(real-life similarity) but should have experimental realism, meaning
they should engage in real psychological processes (e.g., simulating
aggression realistically).
 Deception: Deception is sometimes used to maintain experimental
realism, though it is now less common. About one-third of studies
historically involved deception.
 Demand Characteristics: To avoid participants behaving in ways
they think are expected, researchers may use standardized
instructions or automated presentations.
 Ethical Guidelines: Ethical standards include:
o Informed Consent: Participants should be adequately informed
about the experiment.
o Truthfulness: Deception should be minimal and justified.
o Protection from Harm: Participants should be protected from
significant harm or discomfort.
o Confidentiality: Participants' information must be kept
confidential.
o Debriefing: Participants must be fully debriefed unless
debriefing would cause distress.
  Ethics Committees: University ethics committees review studies to
ensure humane treatment and justify any temporary discomfort or
deception.
Generalizing from Laboratory to Life
 Interplay of Research: Social psychology integrates everyday
experiences with laboratory research, using real-life observations to
inspire and deepen experimental studies.
 Example: Research on television and violence shows how correlational
findings in everyday life led to experimental research, influencing
policymakers and demonstrating consistent effects.
 Generalization Caution: Lab findings, though insightful, are based on
simplified, controlled conditions. Real-life variables and participant
diversity (often college students) may affect generalizability.
 Content vs. Process: The content of people's attitudes and behaviors
may vary across cultures, but the processes (how attitudes affect
actions) are more consistent. For example:
o Loneliness factors are similar across Puerto Rican and U.S.
college students.
o Ethnic differences in school achievement and delinquency are
influenced by common factors like family structure and peer
influences.
 Underlying Similarities: Despite behavioral differences, underlying
social influences are similar across cultures, highlighting more
commonalities than differences.

Summing Up: Research Methods: How We Do Social Psychology

• Social psychologists organize their ideas and findings into theories. A good
theory will distill an array of facts into a much shorter list of predictive
principles. We can use those predictions to confirm or modify the theory,
generate new research, and suggest practical applications.
• Most social-psychological research is either correlational or experimental.
Correlational studies, sometimes conducted with systematic survey methods,
discern the relationship between variables, such as between the amount of
education and the amount of income. Knowing two things are naturally
related is valuable information, but it is not a reliable indicator of what is
causing what—or whether a third variable is involved.
• When possible, social psychologists prefer to conduct experiments that
explore cause and effect. By constructing a miniature reality that is under
their control, experimenters can vary one thing and then another and
discover how those things, separately or in combination, affect behavior. We
randomly assign participants to an experimental condition, which receives
the experimental treatment, or to a control condition, which does not. We
can then attribute any resulting difference between the two conditions to the
independent variable.
• In creating experiments, social psychologists sometimes stage situations
that engage people’s emotions. In doing so, they are obliged to follow
professional ethical guidelines, such as obtaining people’s informed consent,
protecting them from harm, and fully disclosing afterward any temporary
deceptions. Laboratory experiments enable social psychologists to test ideas
gleaned from life experience and then apply the principles and findings to
the real world.