Introduction to Social Psychology

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Introduction to Social Psychology
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Social Psychology is . . . the scientific field
that seeks to understand the nature and causes of
individual behavior and thought in social
situations.
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Social Psychology is . . . the scientific field
that seeks to understand the nature and causes of
individual behavior and thought in social
situations.
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Social psychologys level of analysis . . .
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• Social Psychology is . . .
• the scientific field that seeks to understand the
  nature and causes of individual behavior and
  thought in social situations.
• Actions and characteristics of others

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Fein et al. (1998) showed participants a tape of
a 1984 presidential debate between Ronald Reagan
and Walter Mondale. Reagan delivered some witty
one-liners that arguably won him the debate.
Participants ratings of Reagans performance
depended on the version that they saw.
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• Social Psychology is . . .
• the scientific field that seeks to understand the
  nature and causes of individual behavior and
  thought in social situations.
• Actions and characteristics of others
• Cognitive processes
• Environmental variables
• Cultural context
• Biological factors

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Social Psychology is . . . the scientific field
that seeks to understand the nature and causes of
individual behavior and thought in social
situations.
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Why use science? Isnt psychology pretty much
common sense?
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Common sense may not provide a very good guide .
. .
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What Does Common Sense or Intuition Tell You
About the Following . . .
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Suppose an authority figure asks college students
to administer near-lethal electric shocks to
another student who has not harmed them in any
way. What percentage of these students will agree
to do it? 65
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• If you give children a reward for doing something
  they already enjoy doing, they will subsequently
  like the activity
• more
• the same
• less

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• Seeing someone you admire do something rather
  clumsy or stupid, such as spilling a cup of
  coffee, will make you like him or her
• more
• the same
• less

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• Repeated exposure to a stimulus, such as a
  person, a song, or a painting, will make you like
  it
• more
• the same
• less

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• You ask an acquaintance to do you a favor--for
  example, to lend you 10--and he or she agrees.
  As a result of doing you this favor, the person
  will probably like you
• more
• the same
• less

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It is most adaptive and beneficial to peoples
mental health to have a realistic view of the
future, an accurate appraisal of their own
abilities and traits, and an accurate view of how
much control they have over their
lives. True False
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• Suppose that a representative of a community
  organization knocks on peoples doors and asks
  them to put a small sign in their window
  promoting auto safety, and that most people agree
  to the request. A couple of weeks later, a
  different person from a different organization
  knocks on their doors and asks a much larger
  favor To erect an unsightly billboard in their
  front yard promoting a clean environment.
  Agreeing to the first, smaller request will
• make people more likely to agree to the second
  request
• make people less likely to agree to the second
  request
• have no effect on peoples agreeing to the
  second request

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• Suppose that two elementary school children, Mary
  and Bob, take an IQ test, and Mary gets a higher
  score than Bob. Which of the following might have
  contributed to Marys higher score?
• On average, girls are smarter than boys.
• IQ tests are biased so that girls do better than
  boys.
• The childrens teacher thought Mary was smarter
  than Bob, even though this is not true.
• The childrens teacher thought Bob was smarter
  than Mary, so Mary tried hard to prove her
  wrong.

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• In public settings,
• women touch men more.
• men touch women more.
• there is no difference--men and women touch
  each other equally.

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The more you pay people to make a speech against
their own beliefs, the more they will change
their minds and agree with the speech they
made. True False
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What is science?
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• What is science?
• a method
• an attitude
• a way to avoid bias

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• What is science?
• a method
• an attitude
• a way to avoid bias
• assists being a good consumer

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Develop a good baloney detector. Know which
scientific claims can be trusted and which are
just baloney.
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Sales of subliminal tapes were estimated at 50
million in 1990 (Newsweek, July 30, 1990), so
quite a few people believe this baloney.
http//www.google.com/search?hlenqsubliminalta
pes
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Science proceeds in several ways . . .
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• The observational method simply documents the
  rate or level of behavior. The accuracy of this
  method depends on
• sampling method (who is observed?)
• If sampling is not done carefully, the
  results can be very misleading . . .

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In 1936, the Literary Digest predicted that
Republican candidate Alfred Landon would defeat
Franklin Roosevelt by 14 percentage points. This
prediction was based on a nonrandom sample of
over 2 million Americans. The outcome of the
election? Landon lost by 24 percentage
points. Although a very large sample, it did not
represent the population of American voters.
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In perhaps the most famous prediction gaffe, the
Chicago
Daily Tribune incorrectly projected Thomas Dewey
as the winner of the 1948 presidential election.
The projection was also based on a nonrandom
sample.
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• The observational method simply documents the
  rate or level of behavior. The accuracy of this
  method depends on
• sampling method (who is observed?)
• measurement method (how is the behavior
  measured?)

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It matters how you ask the question . . .
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It matters what response options are available .
. .
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And people are often swayed by the opinions of
others when giving their own opinions . . .
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• The observational method simply documents the
  rate or level of behavior. The accuracy of this
  method depends on
• sampling method (who is observed?)
• measurement method (how is the behavior
  measured?)
• Is the measure reliable?
• Is the measure valid?

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Documenting the rate or level of behavior is
usually not sufficient. We are usually more
interested in whether one behavior is related to
another. Most important scientific theories pose
hypotheses about the relations among variables.
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One way to test these hypotheses is to conduct a
correlational study--a study in which we observe
two behaviors simultaneously to see if they
correlate (i.e.,vary together or covary).
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A correlation can range from -1.00 to 1.00. The
closer the value is to -1.00 or 1.00, the
stronger the relation between the two variables.
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• The correlational method suffers from two
  important problems
• The directionality problem
• The third variable problem

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The Directionality Problem Hypothesis Marital
satisfaction and depression are negatively
related. Which variable is the causal one?
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The Directionality Problem Which variable is the
causal one? MaritalSatisfaction Depression
or
MaritalDepression
Satisfaction
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Maybe the relation is not causal at all. Perhaps
it is due to a third variable. Example Height
and weight are strongly related. Does one cause
the other?
The Third Variable Problem
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Height Nutrition Weight
The Third Variable Problem
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Urban Crowding ?
Crime Rate
The Third Variable Problem
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Urban Crowding Poverty
Crime Rate
The Third Variable Problem
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Ice Cream Sales ? Crime Rate
The Third Variable Problem
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Ice Cream Sales Temperature Crime
Rate
The Third Variable Problem
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Correlation does not imply causality and is not a
sound basis for establishing public policy.
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How good a baloney detector do you have? Try to
find the alternative explanations in the
following . . .
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Recently a politician extolled the virtues of the
Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts. In his salute to the
Scouts, the politician mentioned that few
teenagers convicted of street crimes had been
members of the Scouts. In other words, he was
positing a negative correlation between activity
in Scouting and frequency of criminal behavior.
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A research study found that having a pet in
childhood is correlated with a reduced likelihood
of becoming a juvenile delinquent in adolescence.
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A recent study of soldiers stationed on army
bases found that the number of tattoos a soldier
had was correlated positively with becoming
involved in a motorcycle accident.
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Officials in the Reagan administration took
credit for a reduction in the crime rate, because
the crime rate went down after Reagan took
office. That is, there was a negative correlation
between the onset of the Reagan administration
and the crime rate.
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Recently, it was reported that a correlation
exists between peoples tendency to eat breakfast
in the morning and how long they live, such that
people who skip breakfast die younger.
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A few years ago, newspaper headlines announced,
Coffee suspected as a cause of heart attacks.
Medical studies had found a correlation between
the amount of coffee people drank and their
likelihood of having a heart attack.
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A positive correlation exists between the
viscosity of asphalt in city playgrounds and the
crime rate.
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A newsmagazine recently reported that the more
time fathers spend with their children, the less
likely the fathers are to sexually abuse these
children.
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According to a recent newspaper report, having
sex at least once a week helps prevent the common
cold. College students reported how often they
had had sex in the previous month, and those who
had made love once a week had higher levels of an
antigen in their immune system that helps ward
off the cold virus.
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A recent survey found that people who watch
public television have more sex than people who
do not. Who would have thought, the researchers
reported, that National Geographic Specials or
Ken Burnss history of baseball could get people
in the mood?
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The only way to rule out the directionality
problem and the third variable problem is to
conduct an experiment. In an experiment, the
hypothesis specifies the causal variable, known
as the independent variable. The variable that
changes in response to the independent variable
is called the dependent variable.
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• An experiment has three key ingredients
• manipulation of the independent variable
• random assignment

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Random assignment and random sampling are not the
same.
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• An experiment has three key ingredients
• manipulation of the independent variable
• random assignment
• control

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By manipulating the independent variable, we can
know which variable is causally prior to the
other.
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Random assignment insures that no pre-existing
differences (third variables) could provide an
alternative explanation for any differences that
we find.
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Control insures that no differences other than
the manipulation arise during the experiment.
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A simple experiment . . . Hypothesis As
temperature increases, aggression
increases. Independent Variable (IV) Room
temperature Dependent Variable (DV) Ratings of
an annoying research assistants performance
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Note that to test the hypothesis the IV and DV
must be narrowly and precisely defined. These are
called operational definitions and are meant to
represent or stand for the larger constructs
being examined.
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The manipulation might have three levels 1.
Normal room temperature (70º F) 2. Moderately
warm temperature (85º F) 3. Very warm temperature
(100º F) Participants would be randomly assigned
to one of these conditions. Why?
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Once assigned to experimental conditions, all
participants must be treated the same way except
for the manipulated variable. Why?
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Another example The bystander effect. Does the
presence of others affect the likelihood that
someone will come to the aid of a victim in need
of help?
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Hypothesis People are more likely to help when
alone than when in the presence of others. What
is the IV? What is the DV? How would you design
the study?
Presence of others
Helping
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Theories often specify more than one causal
variable. More than one can be tested in a single
experiment. This is done with a factorial design.
In a factorial design, all possible combinations
of levels of the independent variables are
created.
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Example A person is more likely to help a
similar than a dissimilar victim. Combining this
hypothesis with the previous one produces a
factorial design
Victim Similarity
Similar
Dissimilar
Alone
With Others
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One distinct advantage to a factorial design is
the ability to identify interactions. In an
interaction, the effect of one independent
variable depends on levels of another independent
variable.
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Research does not exist in a vacuum . . .
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Some general themes . . .
Behavior is a function of the person and the
situation. There is nothing so practical as a
good theory.
Kurt Lewin
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Some general themes . . .
Humans are meaning-seeking creatures. They
habitually ask why? in response to events in
their social and physical worlds.
Fritz Heider
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Some general themes . . .
Humans dislike inconsistency and strive to reduce
it. Humans turn to others to help them define the
social world.
Leon Festinger
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Some general themes . . .
Humans like freedom and control . They respond
strongly when control is threatened.
Jack Brehm
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Social psychological research sometimes requires
elaborate subterfuge to disguise the true purpose
of a study and insure an unbiased, natural
response.
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Be prepared for surprises and challenges to your
common sense and personal experiences.