Social Psychology Exam 1 A Brief History of Social Psychology o Social psychology is a branch of psychology that seeks an understanding of how people affect and are affected by others o When social psychology began to come into its own as a field in the 1950s and 1960s the field of psychology was divided into two camps Behaviorism sought to explain all of psychology in terms of learning principles Opposed to talking about the mind thoughts emotions or other inner processes Favored experiments and the scientific method Freudian Psychoanalysis Preferred elaborate interpretations of individual experiences instead of systematic studies that counted behaviors Social psychology was not compatible with either Uses scientific approaches to measure behavior but also tries to study thoughts feelings and other inner states scientifically What do Social Psychologists Do o Social psychology aims for a broad understanding of the social factors that influences how human beings think act and feel o Social psychology is concerned with the effect of other people real or imagined on our thoughts feelings and behaviors o 3 Dimensions ABC Triad Affect how people feel inside Interested in how people feel about themselves how they feel about others and how they feel about various issues Behavior what people do their actions Interested in all the various behaviors people engage in such as joining groups helping others hurting others working playing relaxing Cognition what people think about Interest in what people think about themselves what they think about others and what they think about various problems and issues in the social world o Concerned about the effects of personal and situations influences on the ABCs the power of situations o Study about how people use words in various flexible ways Participants were asked to unscramble words By the flip of a coin they received either words associated with the elderly old gray wrinkled or words not associated with the elderly thirsty clean private After participant completed the task the researchers timed with stopwatch how long it took them to walk to the elevator Those who had unscrambled the elderly words took longer to walk to the elevator o Social psychology embraces the scientific method the most rigorous way of sorting out the valid lessons from the mistaken ones How do Social Psychologists Answer Their Own Questions o Common wisdom or common sense allows us to happily and effortlessly judge adages as being true and at the same times judge their opposites as being true Birds of a feather flock together vs opposites attract absence makes the heart grow fonder vs out of sight out of mind o Human intuition is a poor method for discovering truth must use scientific method o Scientific method 5 steps 1 The researcher states a problem for study 2 The researcher formulates a testable hypothesis as a tentative solution to the problem 3 Hypothesis is an idea or explanation for something that is based on known facts but has not yet been proved 4 The researcher designs a study to test the hypothesis and collects data Anyone observing the data collection should be able to replicate or repeat it 5 A test is made of the hypothesis by confronting it with the data Statistical methods are used to test whether the data is consistent with the hypothesis 6 The researcher communicates the study results usually in a scientific journal o Scientific Theories Theories are composed of constructs abstract ideas or concepts that are linked together in some logical way Constructs cannot be observed directly researcher connects them with concrete observable definitions Independent variable any observable event that causes the person to do something Dependent variable any observable behavior produced by the person Its values are assumed to depend on the values of the independent variable o Research Design Experimental Studies Operational definition classifies theoretical constructs in terms of observable operations procedures and measurements Confederate somebody who is secretly working for the researcher If the operational definitions of the constructs are valid the study is said to have construct validity Construct validity of the cause the independent variable is a valid representation of the theoretical response Construct validity of the effect the dependent variable is a valid representation of the theoretical response Experiments have two essential features The researcher has control over the procedures The researcher manipulates the independent variable and holds all other variables constant The participants are randomly assigned to the levels of the independent variable A study is said to have internal validity if the researcher can be confident that changed in the independent variable caused changed in the dependent variable Variable are confounded when the effects of two variables cannot be separated Factorial Designs If an experiment includes more than one independent variable or factor it is called a factorial design Analysis of factorial designs allows researchers to examine two effects Main effect is the effect of a single independent variable by itself ignoring the effects of the other independent variables Interaction refers to the joint effects of more than one independent variable The independent variables act together in a manner that differs from that of either variable acting alone An experiment conducted in a real world setting is called a field experiment The primary strength in a laboratory experiment is control over other variables that might influence the results the primary weakness is that the setting is less realistic Experimental realism refers to whether participants get so caught up in the procedures that they forget they are in an experiment Laboratory and Field Experiments Nonexperimental Studies Mundane realism refers to whether the setting physically resembles the real world A study is said to have external validity if the findings are likely to generalize to other people and other settings Experimental realism is more important than mundane realism in determining whether the results of a study will generalize to the real world Field experiments are generally high in experimental and mundane realism but lack the control that laboratory experiments have More difficult to make causal statements Correlational approach is a non experimental method in which the researcher merely observes whether variables are associated or related Researcher
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