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What is Science Social Psychology Study Guide Science is the study of something in the world Something based on facts and research It is what we use to explain the world about us Systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through ovservation and experimentation One of several different techniques people use to gain information about the world Also gain information from culture and experiences Common Knowledge Can be wrong or contradictory Ex The more the merrier Two is a party Three s a crowd Never too old to learn Can t teach an old dog new tricks Popular Media Can only tell part of the story There is too much space and time limitations Must simplify for a broad audience May misrepresent scientific findings intentional or unintentional Types of explanations Belief based explanations Authority telling you what is true and not Accepted as truth in the absence of evidence or in the presence of contradictory evidence Often accepted on the basis of Indoctination accepting group s idea 1 2 Upbringing 3 Personal need ex When down think of karma and how everything will work out Common sense explanations Gut feelings intuitions Deduction using logic and ration to come up with an answer Based on own sense of what is true about the world around us gut feelings Derived from observed events previous experiences these are the things that seem intuitively true or logical not things we have rigorously tested Ex friends may easily get jobs straight out of college we tend to ignore regression and unemployment and believe we will too Or if our friends don t get jobs easily we ignore our qualifications and believe we will also have trouble finding a job after graduation Limitations to common sense Based on very few observations Based off of what has been seen or hear Not rigourosly tested and can sometimes be wrong Is common sense useless Not it often provides good general guidelines suggestions for research However it is best to back it up with data and research especially when consequenses are high Scientific Explanation Based on Scientific method 1 State problem observe phenomonom 2 Conduct literature review see what has already been done on subject 4 Design run experiment after ethics approval 3 State Hypothesis 5 Analyze the data 6 If data doesn t support hypothesis reject it and try again change the variables 7 Once it supports hypothesis share results publish present What is Social psychology What is the goal of social psychologists Scientific study of thoughts feelings and behavior especially in relation to other people Have a broad understanding of how human beings think act and feel Focus on normal day to day behavior ABC Triad Affect how people feel Ex Feeling anger Behavior What people do Ex driving aggresively Cognition What people think Ex Tallahassee drivers are the worst Personal Influences on ABC How internal personal changes lead to behavioral changes Ex How do people act when they are feeling Situation influences How environmental changes lead to behavioral changes Ex How people act when they are around Other people compared to alone Older people compared to younger Same sex compared to opposite sex Powerful stand up styraight stern you are the shit mentality cocky and assertive Lonely cry eat drink socialize put selves out there humans are social animals with the desire to socialize and interact and belong What do Social Psychologists do Use scientific method All questions they look into are empirical questions Answered through systematic observation experimentation techniques Best way to objectively assess reality What are characteristics of the scientific explanation Scientific explanations are empirical Best on objective systematic observations Rational follow the rules of logic and are consistent with known facts also known as determinism Testble verifiable through observation and can be disproved Contrast with psuedoscience Parsimonious simplest explanation is what we end up turning to use Fewest assumptions and fewest variables General apply beyond original observation and onto a wider base of people Tentative Not given with absolute certainty Rigorously evaluated constantly evaluating able to be replicable Theories use abstract concepts that are logically linked Sexual arousal affects behavior is difficult to observe directly Hypothesis IF sexually aroused THEN more likely to participate in risk taking activities Concepts myst be grounded in reality Must be observable Variables are operationally defined o Ex Sexual arousal when writing about a sexually arousing event the same parts of your brain are aroused as the time you were aroused and you become sexually aroused again o During the study they considered the risk taking event to be choosing hit during a game of blackjack Researchers had some people write a random story and some write about a sexually arousing experience in their life and observed who was more likely to participate in the risk taking behavior such as choosing hit during their game of blackjack Experiment o Researcher controls the procedures o Participants are randomly assigned to a condition o Independent variable causes change in the dependent variable Quasi Experiments Non experimental studies another o Infer cause and effect but not conclusively Ex men take more risks than female can t conclusively say o Correlational approach how two different concepts are related to one Not interested in controlling oither variables Just look at the relation between two variables Weakness cannot prove causation However good first step to determine if it has an existing relationship 3 kinds of Correlation studies Case study study one or a very small number of individuals Naturalistic observation studying people in their environments to see how they behave Survey questionairres then calculate statistics The easier to draw a line on a scatter plot the stronger the correlation relationship is Reading Social Psychology Articles Peer Review Process innaccuracy What if researchers mee up or lie o Top journals have it o Experts review methods and theory assess validity Will look for mistakes and o There is a self correcting nature in science Emphasis on replication Top journals require multiple studies at the least two to prove validity and replicable results before publishing o If others cannot replicate data than that line of research dies out Five major sections to a Psych Article o Abstract intro method results discussion Before the abstract you


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FSU SOP 3004 - Social Psychology

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