Social Psychology

1
Social Psychology

• The scientific field that seeks to understand
  the nature and causes of individual behavior and
  thought in social situations. (Baron and Byrne,
  1999)
• The scientific study of how people think
  about, influence, and relate to one another.

2
Course Themes

• Social Thinking
• Social Influences
• Social Relations
• Applications
• Clinic
• Courts
• Organizations

3
Chapter One

• Definition of social psychology
• Where social psychology is, and where it is
  headed
• Research methodology for social psychology

4
Factors effecting social behavior and thought

• The actions of other people
• Cognitive Processes
• Environmental Variables Physical World
• Cultural Context
• Biological Factors

5
Values of Social Psychology

• Accuracy
• Objectivity
• Skepticism
• Open-mindedness

6
Subjective Aspects of Science

• Science is not purely objective
• Psychological concepts contain hidden values
• There is not a bridge from is to ought
• Should we scrap it then?

7
Problems With Common Sense

• Hindsight Bias
• Confirmation Bias
• The Availability Heuristic
• Mood Effects

8
So, how do we STUDY social psychology?

• Forming
• Testing
• Systematic Observation
• Correlational Research
• Experimental Research

9
Forming

• Theory is an integrated set of principals that
  explain and predict observed events
• Hypotheses
• Allow us to test our theories
• Give direction to our research
• Make our theories practical
• Kurt Lewin There is nothing so practical as a
  good theory

10
Testing

• Systematic Observation
• Correlational Method
• Experimental Method

11
Systematic Observation

• Naturalistic Observation
• Survey Method
• Advantages
• What you need for a good survey

12
Correlational Research

• Correlation Tendency for one aspect of the world
  to change as the other changes
• Variables The changeable aspects.
• Prediction
• Strength of correlation
• Positive vs Negative correlation
• Correlational Method
• Is correlation causation?

13
Experimental Research

• Causation
• Important factors for experimental research
• Control
• Random Assignment