PSYCH 350 8 25 14 What is social psychology o The scientific study of the way in which people s thoughts feelings and actions are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people Affect behavior cognitions the ABC s of social psychology o It is a study of the real or imagined presence of others Even when we are alone our thoughts and behavior are subject to social influence Culture influences how we perceive and think about the world We evaluate ourselves from others perspectives o It is distinct from folk wisdom because it is empirical o It allows one to decide between two reasonable somethings Regret hindsight bias o you can t trust your perceptions necessarily o perceptions and judgments can be biased something tuned out aka the I knew it all along phenomenon ex o the tendency to exaggerate after learning an outcome one s ability to have foreseen how I should have known that would be covered on the exam I should have known not to trust her that woman should have known that if she walked home by that route she was bound to get assaulted o the hindsight bias arise out of a tendency need to make sense of the world we generate reasons for an outcome o we can t trust our perceptions of the likelihood after learning the outcome of events o don t trust the impressions common sense may mislead us automatic vs controlled processing o we generally do not use all of the available information about a person when forming impressions of him her why not Impractical or impossible too much information Ex Political candidates people often make judgments based on party affiliation about the candidate o We don t have the time or the energy to consider all of the possible facts and variables that 8 27 14 would affect our decisions and that is why we generalize o Social information may be processed two different ways o Automatic processing Automatic involuntary and unconscious Often based on emotional responses o Controlled processing Conscious systematic and deliberate Controlled processing can override automatic responses Unconscious processing o Unconscious influences occur without awareness Muscular feedback more positive judgments are made of pulling the arm toward the self and more negative judgments of pushing het arm away from the self Ex People walk more slowly if mentally primed with thoughts of the elderly Schemas an example of unconscious processing o Definition mental representations structures of knowledge that help organize knowledge about the social world and guide the selection interpretation and recall of information Schemas applied to group people stereotypes Schemas also can be applied to objects specific individuals and to ourselves Schemas don t have to be accurate Ex Stereotypes are a kind of schema and stereotypes are often inaccurate Preconceptions Theories Expectations Evolution and Behavior all human cultures o Evolution may explain why many human behaviors are apparently universal and occur in Marriage incest avoidance gossip etc Facial expressions food sharing social status and fear of snakes are common among all primates They re biologically based so therefore it is an example of evolution Culture and Human Behavior Cultural Differences in Self Definition o Despite many human universals there is cultural variation in how universals are expressed o People in Western cultures tend to have an independent construal or view of the self o People in non Western cultures tend to have an interdependent construal or view of the personal attributes self group membership Independent view Self is stable Goal is to be unique Promote own goals Happiness comes from feeling effective and superior Interdependent view Self is flexible Goal is to belong Promote group goals Happiness comes from feeling connected The Role of Construals o Construal might have happened in the past Everyone has very different perceptions Interpretations are subjective not objective Interpretations may represent the truth o People create their own reality Power of the Situation o Milgram s study of obedience One of the earliest and most power studies regarding learning Experimental set up Interpretation and inferences made about a stimulus or situation o Interpretation is an active process and is based on what we are paying attention or what Experiment described as a study of learning Participants instructed to shock another participant for any wrong answers 8 29 14 Introduction to Research Methods in Social Psychology Hypotheses Ex o Testable beliefs about the relationship between events Attractive people are more successful Violent TV viewing leads to violent behavior Formulating hypotheses o Hypotheses can be based on Personal observations Personal experience current events and literature can provide hypotheses to test e g BIRGing Previous theories and research Science is cumulative generate hypotheses based on prior research e g U shaped function of arousal How psychologists study social behavior o Correlational methods Measuring behaviors thoughts in their natural state Three types of correlational methods Observational research o Observing behavior in its natural setting Pros real behavior real situations seeing what naturally happens Cons researcher can interfere some behaviors are rare cannot determine cause the natural behavior may not necessarily be natural if the subjects notice that they are being watched it can be difficult to observe without interfering with their natural behavior Surveys o Asking people about their beliefs behaviors etc Pros can study difficult to observe behaviors and thoughts Cons participants might be unbiased or untruthful Archival research o Experimental methods Manipulating social processes varying aspect of the situation