Social Psychology Final Exam Study Guide Lecture Notes Basic Methods What is social psychology the scientific study of how people think about influence and relate to one another Social psychology s relatives sociology neuroscience biology clinical psychology cognitive psychology developmental psychology personality psychology Divorce peaked in 1980 and started to diminish again correlation to recession Is psychology a science Day after day social scientists go out into the world Day after day they discover that people s behavior is pretty much what you d expect Cullen Murphy Hindsight bias the tendency to exaggerate one s ability to have foreseen an outcome after learning about it Social psychologists use the scientific method to answer questions about human nature Through carefully designed experiments social psychologists are able to distinguish between common sense and truth Theories integrated principles that explain and predict observed events Hypotheses testable predictions Allow theories to be tested Testing theories Theory clothing color influences people s aggressive tendencies Hypothesis people who wear black are more aggressive than people who don t wear black Correlation approach tests for relationships between variables Strength of relationships between two variables Ask people how often they wore black and ask how aggressive they felt Positive correlation Ask people how often they wear black and how kind they feel The more they wear black the less kind they feel Ask people how often they wear black and how much they like pina coladas No correlation Correlation does NOT equal causation Everyday observations and inferences are not always right Experimental Research has two key features control manipulation of independent variable all other variables are kept constant and random assignment representative sample of participants Experimental approach conduct a lab study where participants were randomly assigned to wear either a black or white t shirt then measure their aggression The black t shirt was the experimental condition and the white t shirt was the control condition Measuring aggression how many times and with what force does the participant hit the punching bag Independent variables are often controlled or manipulated Color of T shirt participants wore Dependent variables are measured Aggression Benefit of random assignment The participants who wore black t shirts and white t shirts were equal on all other factors except the color they were wearing People who are naturally aggressive have an equal chance of being in each group Operational definitions are important Some constructs are easier to define than others What does it mean to wear black clothes What do we mean by aggression Validity Measure of construct number of hits Construct aggression Dating study Kind or Rude vs Hot or Average Hot and kind 50 50 likelihood to date Hot and rude 20 50 likelihood to date Average and kind 20 50 likelihood to date Average and rude 15 50 likelihood to date Ethics of Experimental Research institutional review boards informed consent use deception only if essential protect people from harm information about participants should remain confidential debrief participants at end Methods summary Independent Variable IV is something manipulated Dependant Variable DV is something measured Correlational studies can determine variables that are related but cannot determine that one variable causes another Experimental lab studies can determine causation The Self Concept The Triad social psychologists are interested in three main aspects of human experience Affect feelings emotions mood Behavior observable actions Cognition thoughts or mental processes The Triad examples A researcher interested in aggression might A measure heart rate while people watch a violent movie B measure how many times someone hit a punching bag after being insulted C ask someone to report their thoughts after performing an aggressive activity The Self Concept who are you Self Concept is also known as self knowledge Constructing the self concept four methods Introspection The looking glass self Self perception Vicarious self perception Bargh Chen Burrows Condition 1 the agreed folded is paper shirt table his orange was Condition 2 the agreed wrinkled is paper shirt table his old was A quick word on priming Stimuli encountered in the world activates related concepts in the mind Seeing snow activates information about snow in the mind Activation spreads to all related concepts Seeing snow ALSO activates concepts like ice Christmas hockey winter etc This phenomenon is referred to as spreading activation Slow walking Condition 1 neutral words Condition 2 elderly related words gray wrinkled senior old etc Condition 2 walked slower P s behaved consistently with elderly stereotype Polite Behavior Condition 1 neutral words Condition 2 polite words Condition 3 rude words Interruptions by condition Polite 13 Neutral 35 Rude 64 Studies 1 and 2 behaviors affected by environmental cues Completely unaware Study 3 Maier 2 strings how did they figure it out Behavior affected by environmental cues problem solving Study 4 Nisbett Wilson stocking preference A was lower than B B was lower than C etc consumer choice All studies were done without people s awareness People have limited introspective access Introspection we usually know what we feel or think but not often why Duplex Mind Through others eyes The looking glass self learn about ourselves from others feedback Or by imagining how others see us Positive reaction increased behavior preference Negative reaction decreased behavior preference Discrepancies associated with the looking glass self People s opinions of themselves do not perfectly match those of others People don t always accept the opinions of others Others don t always have complete insight Self perception observing our behavior and actions as we would observe others The interpret action Particularly when we re unsure or in a new situation Participants performed a boring knob turning task asked to lie and were paid either 1 or 20 Then filled out a questionnaire evaluating the task Who liked the task more 1 P s reported liking the task more In novel situations we look to our behavior to make up our minds P s remembered they convinced someone to do the task Dollar is insignificant justification They need some justification for convincing the other person It must have been fun Vicarious self perception people have
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