PSYC 360 1st Edition Exam 1 Study Guide Chapter 1 What is Social Psychology Social Psychology The scientific study of how people think about influence and relate to one another Compared with sociology it focuses more on individuals and on experimentation Compared with personality psychology it focuses less on the individual and more on how individuals affect one another Includes social thinking social influence and social relations Big Ideas in Social Psychology Social Thinking 1 We construct our social reality 2 Our social intuitions are powerful and perilous 3 Attitudes shape and are shaped by behavior Social Influences 4 Social influences shape behavior 5 Dispositions shape behavior Social Relations 6 Social Behavior is also biological behavior 7 Feelings and actions toward people are sometimes negative or positive 1 We construct our own social reality Humans have an urge to explain behavior and attribute it to a cause to make it orderly predictable and controllable There is an objective reality but we view it through our own values How we construe the world and ourselves matters Example Princeton Darmouth football game Students from each school became violent and fights broke out Later a psychologist went to each school and showed students film from the game The Princeton students saw more violations from Darmouth and vice versa 2 Our Social Intuitions and Powerful and Perilous Thinking memory and attitudes all operate consciously and unconsciously Intuitions perilous when We intuitively judge the likeliness of an event by how easily it comes to mind most fear flying over driving when driving is more dangerous We misread our own minds we deny being affected by things We mispredict our own feelings We mispredict our own future When accuracy matters restrain impulsive intuitions 3 Social Influences Shape our Behavior We are social animals We respond to immediate contexts Power of Social Situation May lead us to act contrary to our expressed attitudes good or bad people were generous after 9 11 attacks but people followed Hitler s commands Evident in varying attitudes about the War in 2003 Culture External social forces shape Attitudes and behaviors 4 Personal Attitudes and Dispositions shape Behavior Our inner attitudes on things like politics smoking the poor and much more affect our behavior Facing the same situation different people react differently This is based on personality dispositions 5 Social Behavior is Biologically Rooted Nature and nurture together form who we are Our inherited human nature predisposes us to behave in ways that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce Every thought behavior and emotion we have is a biological event along with a psychological event Social neuroscience An integration of biological and social perspectives that explores the neural and psychological bases of social and emotional behavior Social psychologist principles applicable in everyday life know ourselves better judicial procedures influence behavior Social Psychology and Human Values Obvious Ways Values Enter Psychology Research Topics Values are obvious when a psychologist chooses a research topic Types of people Object of social analysis Not so obvious Ways Values Enter Psychology Subjective Aspects of Science Culture the enduring behaviors ideas and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next Social Representations Socially shared beliefs widely held ideas and values including our assumptions and cultural ideologies These help us make sense of the world Psychological Concepts Contain Hidden Values Defining the Good Life Values influence our idea of the best way of life Abraham Maslow s self actualized people contained values important to him Professional Advice Advice givers have different personal values and may be individualistic or for the good of a group Forming Concepts Individual values of psychologist are shown in concepts One psychologist may say you have High self esteem while the other says you are Defensive Labeling Values lie hidden within our cultural definitions of mental health a child can be labeled as bashful or quiet I Knew it All Along Is Social Psychology Simply Common Sense 2 Criticisms 1 Trivial because it documents the obvious One problem with common sense is that we invoke it after we know the facts Events are more obvious and predictable in hindsight We do not expect something to happen until it does Hindsight bias The tendency to exaggerate after learning an outcome one s ability to have foreseen how something turned out Also known as I knew it all along phenomenon Pervasive Shows up when students take tests and forget material they thought they knew This is conductive to arrogance Hindsight bias is evident in the 9 11 attacks and when doctors learn the cause of death after a patient dies 2 Dangerous because its findings could be used to manipulate people Problem with Common Sense Hindsight bias Pervasive Conductive to arrogance Research Methods How We Do Social Psychology Forming and Testing Hypotheses Theory an integrated set of principles that explain and predict observe event A good theory Effectively summarizes many observations Makes clear predictions that we can use to Confirm or modify the theory Generate new exploration Suggest practical applications Hypothesis a testable proposition that describes a relationship that may exist between events Correlational Research Detecting Natural Associations Field research Research done in natural real life settings outside the laboratory Correlational research The study of the naturally occurring relationships among variables Experimental research Studies that seek clues to cause effect relationships by manipulating one or more factors independent variables while controlling others holding them constant Correlation and Causation Correlational research allows us to predict but it cannot tell us whether changing one variable will cause changes in another Correlations quantify with the coefficient the degree of relationship between 2 factors from 1 through 0 to 1 There may be confounded variables which are variables not being measured that may effect the correlation Survey Research Random sample Survey procedure in which every person in the population being studied has an equal chance of inclusion Biasing Influences 1 Unrepresentative Samples 2 Order of Questions 3 Response Options 4 Wording of Questions Framing The way a question or an issue is posed