Chapter 1 The Mission and the Method Learning Objectives 1 What is social psychology How is it different from other sciences Other psy chological fields a Social psychology the scientific study of how people affect and are af fected by others Social psychology can also help you make sense of you social world i Social psychology came into its own field in the 1950s and 1960s Two camps behaviorism VS Freudian psychoanalysis Behaviorism sought to explain all of psychology in terms of learning principles such as rewards and punishment Freudian preferred elaborate interpretations of individual experiences in stead of systematic studies that counted behaviors b Social psychology is related to other social sciences include anthropol ogy economics history political science and sociology i Anthropology is the study of human culture which consists of shade values beliefs and practices of a group of people Social psych cannot understand people fully without understand their cultural context ii Economics is the study of production distribution and consum mation of goods and services Some social psych concepts are based on economic principles social exchange focus on how large social systems affect behavior iii History is the study of past events Social psych debate whether the behaviors we study have changed historically iv Political science is the study of political organizations and insti tutions esp governments Social psych conduct study of politi cal behaviors v Sociology is the study of human societies and the groups that form those societies Similar to social psych differ in their fo cus Social psych focus from inside the individual and work out ward whereas sociologist start with large units c Psychology is the study of human behavior Other psych fields i Biological physiological psych and neuroscience the study of what happens in the brain nervous system and other aspects of the body biological aspects of social behavior ii Clinical psych focuses on behavior disorders and other forms of mental illness and how to treat them Focuses on abnormal be haviors iii Cognitive psych the basic study of thought processes such as how memory works and what events people notice iv Developmental psych study of how people change across their lives from conception and birth to old age and death v Personality psychology focuses on important differences be tween individuals as well as inner processes 2 What is the ABC triad a Social psychology is conceded with the effect of other people on our thoughts feelings and behaviors These three dimensions are known as the building blocks of social psych aka the ABC triad b A Affect noun how people feel inside For example how people feel about themselves self esteem issues attitude others prejudice c B Behavior what people do their actions d C Cognition what people think about What people think about them selves self concept others forming impressions various problems and issues in the social world protecting the environment e Social psych are concerned about the effects of personal and situa tional influences on these ABCs They focus especially on the power of situations 3 What is the scientific method How does it apply to psychology a Social psych embraces the scientific method Most social psych use experiments to carefully and systematically test theories b Ways of learning about people reading watching living talking c Scientific method is the most rigorous way of sorting out the valid lessons from the mistaken ones d the world s common wisdom is filled with social psychological trusts Some end up contradicting one another Human intuition is a poor method for discovering the trust even if we observe and learn about these phenomenons through our senses We cannot rely on intuition common sense we need the scientific method e Science a method for discovering the trust not a disciple f Scientific method i ii the researcher states a problem for study and conduct a review of literature formulates a testable hypothesis as a tentative solution to the problem 1 Hypothesis an idea or explanation for something that is based on known facts by has not yet been proved an ed ucated guess iii designs a study to test the hypothesis and collect data iv a test is made of the hypothesis by confronting it with data run an experiment Statistical methods are used to test whether the data are consistent inconsistent with the hypothe sis analyze results 1 No single study can prove something beyond doubt v communicates the study results Submits a manuscript de scribing exactly what was done and found to a scientific journal 4 What are the three types of explanations people use to acquire knowledge and what are the differences between these explanations Which of these ways is the most common way for researchers to acquire knowledge a Belief based explanations typically getting information from other people authority figure parents religion professor etc Beliefs ac cepted as truth in the absence of evidence or in the presence of con tradictory evidence i Often accepted on the basis of indoctrination ppl tell you this is the way things work and you need to accept it upbringing personal need b Common sense explanations based on someone s intuition gut feel ings Sometimes they are more rational and deduced by logic i Derived from the world around us our experiences observed events etc ii Limitations Seem intuitively true but have NOT been rigorously tested However can be helpful in creating theories for new re search c Scientific explanations usually through observations and the scientific 5 What are seven characteristics that define the scientific method How are these characteristics applied in scientific research a Scientific explanations are are based on objective systematic obser method vations i They are RATIONAL they follow the rules of logic and are con sistent with known facts also known as determinism ii They are TESTABLE they are verified through observation and can be disproved contract w pseudoscience explanations It is possible to prove a hypothesis and it is possible to have an ex periment NOT support your hypothesis iii They are PARSIMONIOUS they provide the simplest explanation using the fewest possible assumptions iv They are GENERAL they apply beyond the original observation on which they are based v They are TENTATIVE they are never accepted as absolutely cor rect New data can debunk a theory vi They are RIGOROUSLY EVALUATED they are constantly evalu ated for
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