PSY 223 1nd Edition Final Exam SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Social psychology attempts to understand and explain how thoughts feelings and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual imagined and implied presence of others How scientific social psychologists use scientific method Include systematic observation description and measurement Experimental studies HUGE in soc psych but can t always be used bc sometimes elements can t be manipulated Central phenomenon of soc psych social context social context how people are influenced by the situations in which they are in and how they influence each other the second part of the definition Walton and Cohen study study to illustrate social context minorities stress and freshman year Those who got information about stress being normal regardless of demographics had better GPAs 4 years down the road No effect on white students if had info or not pg 8 9 Community Game Wall Street Game RA at Stanford chose a group of students who were either cooperative or especially competitive they were invited to play game in study Game was called either Community Game or Wall Street Game In either game their personalities did not influence how they played the game what made it more competitive was the name of the game Reveals the power of social influence SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY VS COMMON SENSE OTHER DISCIPLINES Soc psych not like common sense because soc psych uses scientific method to put theories to test Common sense leaves things too simple usually no simple answer because answer depends on variety of different factors Soc Psych Related to Personality Psych personality psych seeks to understand differences between individuals but soc psych looks at how social factors influence people regardless of different personalities Cognitive Psych soc psych wants to look and how people think learn remember and reason with respect to social information and how processes are relevant to social behavior Clinical Psych soc psych not interested in disorders instead how individuals think feel behave and influence each other Sociology interested in similar issues violence prejudice marriage but sociology focuses on group level whereas soc psych focuses on individual ex Sociology tracks racial attitudes of middle class Soc pscyh examine specific factors that make individuals behave in racist way Soc psych also more likely to conduct experiments with manipulated variables HISTORY OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY First Experiments in soc psych Triplett s Experiment Bicyclists bicycled faster and children in lab wound fishing reels faster in the presence of others o Referred to this phenomenon as social facilitation occurs when in presence of other people and doing tasks o Found easier tasks performed better when in front of others but more difficult tasks performed better when alone Ringelmann s experient found people performed worse on simple tasks like pulling rope when pulling with others than when pulling alone o Eventually became known as social loafing First Textbooks William McDougall 1908 Edward Ross 1908 Floyd Allport 1924 most influential because focused on interaction of individuals and their social context and emphasized use of experimentation and scientific method helped establish soc psych as discipline it is today 1880s 1920s First social psychology experiments done Triplett 1887 and Ringlemann 1880s published 1913 First textbooks with social psych on them 1908 1908 1924 1930s 1950s Soc psychs interested in Hitler violence prejudice obedience etc Big flee from Europe to US so lots of soc psychs around Social pscyh society club began formed by Gordan Allport Kurt Lewin considered founding father of modern experimental soc psych o Established interactionist perspective behavior is function of interaction between the person and their environment Emphasized interplay between internal motives and behaviorism which focuses on external rewards and punishments o Advocated for soc psych theories to be applied to important practical issues Muzafer Sherif examined influences of groups on members showed possible to study complex social processes such as conformity and social influence in scientific manner 1960s 1970s Time of expansion productivity and enthusiasm New topics emerged self perceptions helping behavior aggression attraction Time of criticism and debate lab experiments questioned if valuable or ethical i e Milgram Studies Zimbardo s Stanford Prison Studies 1970s 1990s More rigorous ethical standards for research implemented more strict procedures against biased adopted and more attention paid to cross cultural differences in behavior Began using multiple methods experiments surveys etc pluralistic approach Both hot and cold experiences o Hot emotion and motivation in our thoughts and actions o Cold cognition Started looking internationally and at cultural perspectives Social cognition study how we perceive remember and interpret info about ourselves others Recent Trends in soc psych Cold perspective emphasize role of cognition and de emphasized the role of emotion in explaining soc psych issues Hot perspective focus on emotion and motivation as determinants of our thoughts and actions Social neuroscience study of the relationship between neural and social processes Cross cultural research examine similarities and differences across a variety of cultures Multicultural research examine racial and ethnic groups within cultures Behavioral economics focuses on how psychology particularly social and cognitive psychology relates to economic decision making ex Buy an item of high status when self esteem lowered Embodied cognition examines the close links between our minds and the positioning experinces and actions of our bodies ex Think someone looks friendlier when arms are out New techonology o Brain imaging technology o Use of internet o Virtual reality technology RESEARCH METHODS All research begins with a research questions Questions can come from Own experiences and observations of life Reading about research already done Theory Hypothesis testable proposition that describes a relationship that may exist between events or variables Stages of research process Generating a research question or hypothesis Finding a relevant past research study Select research method Collect data Analyze data Report results Basic research seeks to increase our understanding of human behavior and is often designed to test a specific hypothesis from a specific theory Applied research solve real