Defining Social PsychA scientific studyLooks at social situations between people or people environmentsAn individual approach as opposed to a group levelStudy how an external situation affects an individual’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behaviorsComparing Social Psych to Related DisciplinesSociology: the study of people in the group level (aggregate level) rather than individual level—the society/group is the unit of analysisAnthropology: study of human beings—culture, language, biology, history, and social behavior. Involves more observational and correlation researchSocial Psych includes a lot of experimentationGoals of Social Psych1. Understand how people or environments control and influence other’s behavior2. Understand how people make sense of their world (e.g. make judgments about others)3. Understand the validity behind “folk-theory”—being able to test whats common sense4. Understand how different cultures think, feel, and behaveSocial psychologists explore these goals through empirical studyPick a behavior they want to studyDraw from past work or literature for examples of human behaviorForm a hypothesis and test itHistory of Social PsychKurt Lewin: the father of social psychB=f(P, E)—Behavior is a function of a Person and his or her EnvironmentFundamental attribution error: failure to recognize the importance of situational influencesChannel factors: situational factors that appear unimportant on the surface, but have great consequences for behaviorEither facilitating or blocking a certain behavior from occurringEx. Authority figure in the Milgram experiment made subjects more likely to press the shock buttonThe Gestalt Tradition: The role of subjective interpretation“The experienced percept contains more explicit spatial information than the sensory stimulus on which it is based”Construal: a personal interpretation about situations and other people’s behaviorConstrual matters because we have to study people’s interpretation of the environment to understand their behaviorPrisoner’s dilemma: a situation involving payoffs of two people, who must decide where to “cooperate” pr “defect.” In the end, trust an cooperation lead to higher joint payoffs than mistrust and defectionSchema: a knowledge structure consisting of any organized body of stored informationAutomatic processing: Processes that do not require attention; they can often be performed along with other tasks without interference.As a consequence, people are sometimes in the dark about how they reached a particular conclusion or why the behaved in a particular wayEvolution of Human BehaviorParental Investment: The evolutionary principle that costs and benefits are associated with reproduction and the nurturing of offspring. Because these costs and benefits are different for males and female, one sex will normally value and invest more in each child than will the other sexNaturalistic Fallacy: the claim that the way things are is the way they should beCulture and Human BehaviorIndependent/individualistic cultures: cultures in which people tend to think of themselves as distinct social entities, tied to each other by voluntary bonds of affection and organizational memberships but essentially separate from other people and having attributes that exist in the absence of any connection to othersInterdependent/collectivistic cultures: cultures where people tend to define themselves as part of a collective, inextricably ties to others in their group and placing less importance on individual freedom or personal control over their livesEx. In East Asian cultures success is tied to family prideIntroduction to Social Psych 28/08/2012 17:58:00← Defining Social Psych- A scientific study- Looks at social situations between people or people environments- An individual approach as opposed to a group level- Study how an external situation affects an individual’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behaviors←← Comparing Social Psych to Related Disciplines-Sociology: the study of people in the group level (aggregate level) rather than individual level—the society/group is the unit of analysis-Anthropology: study of human beings—culture, language, biology, history, and social behavior. Involves more observational and correlation research- Social Psych includes a lot of experimentation←← Goals of Social Psych1. Understand how people or environments control and influence other’s behavior2. Understand how people make sense of their world (e.g. make judgments about others)3. Understand the validity behind “folk-theory”—being able to test whats common sense4. Understand how different cultures think, feel, and behave- Social psychologists explore these goals through empirical studyoPick a behavior they want to studyoDraw from past work or literature for examples of human behavioroForm a hypothesis and test it←← History of Social Psych-Kurt Lewin: the father of social psychoB=f(P, E)—Behavior is a function of a Person and his or her Environment-Fundamental attribution error: failure to recognize the importance of situational influences-Channel factors: situational factors that appear unimportant on the surface, but have great consequences for behavioroEither facilitating or blocking a certain behavior from occurringoEx. Authority figure in the Milgram experiment made subjects more likely to press the shock button-The Gestalt Tradition: The role of subjective interpretationo“The experienced percept contains more explicit spatial informationthan the sensory stimulus on which it is based”-Construal: a personal interpretation about situations and other people’s behavioroConstrual matters because we have to study people’s interpretationof the environment to understand their behavior-Prisoner’s dilemma: a situation involving payoffs of two people, who must decide where to “cooperate” pr “defect.” In the end, trust an cooperation lead to higher joint payoffs than mistrust and defection-Schema: a knowledge structure consisting of any organized body of stored information-Automatic processing: Processes that do not require attention; they canoften be performed along with other tasks without interference.oAs a consequence, people are sometimes in the dark about how they reached a particular conclusion or why the behaved in a particular way←← Evolution of Human Behavior-Parental Investment: The evolutionary principle that costs