PSYCH 280 1st Edition Lecture 2Outline of Last Lecture I. Definition of Social PsychologyII. Outline of Syllabusa. Required materialsb. Examsc. Gradingd. Research credit expectationsOutline of Current Lecture I. Primary Theses of social psychologyII. Empirical v. Intuitivea. AphorismsIII. Hindsight Biasa. Genuine illusion or impression management?IV. Introduction to experimental proceduresa. Operational v. Conceptual definitionsCurrent LectureI. Primary Theses of Social PsychologyThere are two main theses when it comes to social psychology. The first is very important and provides the base for the study of human social interaction. The primary thesis of social psychology states that human social thought and human social behavior are directly influenced by the situation surrounding the thoughts and behaviors. Basically, social situations influence how we think and behave. For example, a person is much more likely to sing at the top of their lungs when alone in their own home than with a group of people in a classroom (the social situation influences if the person sings or not).The secondary theses of social psychology are as follows: a. the power of situations is much greater than people assume it is. So, people underestimate the extent to which a social situation influences their behavior and thoughts. The second part of this thesis is: b. social behavior doesn’t always follow “logical” or “rational” theories. So, people do not always act in the ways we predict. The third part of the thesis states: c. people’s subjective perceptions of social situations have more on an impact on their behavior than the objective features of the These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.situation. And finally, the last part of the thesis is: d. social thought and social behavior is both a product of the person and the social situation.II. Empirical v. IntuitiveSomething that is empirical is something that is provable, it can be proven through science (ex. A certain bag of apples weighs 1 pound). On the other hand, something that is intuitive is “common sense” (ex. sayings, or aphorisms, that provide a “general truth,” such as “absence makes the heart grow fonder”).- Intuitive things are “already known” or seem “like common sense”- Intuition/common sense are not substitutes for empirical data!III. Hindsight BiasThe hindsight bias phenomena is also known as the “knew it all along” effect. Hindsight bias is a phenomena where a person often believes, after they know the answer, that they would have “chosen that answer in the first place.” After knowing the answer, people often believe that the answer was predictable.- This phenomena is interesting in social psychology, because social psychologists wanted to know if hindsight bias is a result of a genuine illusion (person actually believes that the outcome could be predicted) or if it is a result of impression management (person attempts to make themselves look smarter by saying “oh! I knew it all along”).o After doing research on this phenomena, social psychologists concluded that hindsight bias is a result from a general illusion. We know this because when asked what others would predict in situation x, subjects think that others will predict the same thing they predicted.IV. Introduction to experimental proceduresExperimental procedures are used in all “types” of science—chemistry, biology, physics, etc, andeven in psychology [more experimental procedures will be discussed in Lecture 3].*Measurement is required in scientific studies!- Operational v. Conceptual definitions: The distinction between these two words is important in the study of any scientific study.o Operational Definition: defines a word in a way where a person can measure it Ex. We want to study the aggression differences (if any) in 8 year old males v. females. What is an operational definition for aggression (how can we measure aggression)? For the study, we can define aggression as the number of bites, kicks, hair pulling, scratching, etc seen on aplayground and note whether the aggressor was male or female. This is an operational definition because it provides the researcher with a way tomeasure the thing of interest.o Conceptual Definition: dictionary definition Ex. The conceptual definition of aggression, from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary is angry or violent behavior or feelings. There is no way to objectively measure “angry or violent behavior or feelings,” so a researcher would need to assign a operational definition to the word in order to measure
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