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Chapter 1
The Field of Social Psychology:
How We Think about and Interact
with Others
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Copyright 2006, Allyn and Bacon
The Field of Social Psychology
• Social Psychology
– A Working Definition
– Its Cutting Edge
– Research Methods
– Quest for Knowledge and Rights of
Individuals: Seeking a Balance
Copyright 2006, Allyn and Bacon
A Working Definition
• Social Psychology: The scientific field that
seeks to understand the nature and causes of
individual behavior and thought in social
situations
– Scientific in nature and follows core values:
• Accuracy, Objectivity, Skepticism, Open-Mindedness
• Does not rely on personal experience, intuition, and
“common sense” notions
– Focuses on the behavior of individuals
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A Working Definition
– Seeks to understand the causes of social
behavior and thought, which includes:
•
•
•
•
•
Actions and characteristics of others
Cognitive processes: Memories, inferences
Environmental variables
Cultural context
Biological factors
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A Working Definition
Evolutionary
Psychology: A new
branch of psychology
that seeks
to investigate the
potential role of genetic
factors in various
aspects of human
behavior
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A Working Definition
• What are your thoughts?
– Are the findings of social psychologists simply
common sense?
• Why or why not?
– What are examples of behaviors or situations that
would be more likely studied by a social
psychologist than by a sociologist?
– What environmental, cultural, and biological
factors may be of interest to social psychologists?
• Why?
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Its Cutting Edge
• Recognizes that cognition and behavior are
two sides of the same coin
• Examines Social Neuroscience: research
area that seeks knowledge about the neural
and biological bases of social processes
• Studies role of implicit (nonconscious)
processes
• Adopts a Multicultural Perspective: A focus
on understanding the cultural and ethnic
factors that influence social behavior
Copyright 2006, Allyn and Bacon
Research Methods
• Systematic Observation—behavior is
systematically observed and recorded
– Naturalistic observation—systematically
observe behavior in natural settings
– Survey Method—large number of people
answers questions about their attitudes or
behavior
• Has many advantages
• Must meet certain requirements
– Issues of sampling and wording of items
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Research Methods
• Correlational Method—a scientist
systematically observes two or more variables
to determine whether changes in one are
accompanied by changes in the other
– Allows predictions to be made
• A stronger correlation yields a more accurate prediction.
– Correlations range from -1.00 to +1.00.
» The farther away from 0, the stronger the correlation.
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Research Methods
– Correlations can be either positive or negative.
• A positive correlation means that as one variable
increases the other increases or as one variable decreases
the other decreases—the two variables move in the same
direction.
• A negative correlation means that as one variable
increases, the other decreases—the two variables move in
opposite directions.
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Research Methods
– A correlation
between
variables does
not mean that
one variable
causes changes
in the other
variable.
• Correlation
does not equal
causation.
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Research Methods
• What are your thoughts?
– What social psychological topic would be good to
study using the systematic observation method?
– What social psychological topic would be good to
study using the survey method?
– What are examples of a positive correlation and a
negative correlation?
– Why doesn’t a correlation between two variables
mean that they are causally related?
Copyright 2006, Allyn and Bacon
Research Methods
• Experimentation (Experimental Method)—
one or more factors (the independent
variables) are systematically changed to
determine whether such variations affect
one or more factors (dependent variables)
– Used to attain the goal of explanation
– Can determine causal relationships
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Research Methods
– Involves two key aspects
• Independent Variable—variable that is systematically
changed in an experiment
• Dependent Variable—variable that is measured in an
experiment
– Has two requirements to be valid and successful
• Random Assignment of Participants to Groups—
research participants must have an equal chance of
being exposed to each level of the independent variable
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Research Methods
• And, all factors that might affect behavior other than
the independent variable must be held constant.
– If not, the independent variable may be confounded with
another variable, which results in meaningless findings.
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Research Methods
– Because experiments are often conducted in
laboratory settings, the issue of external validity—
the extent to which the findings can be
generalized to real-life social situations and to
people different from those who participated in
the experiment—often is raised.
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Research Methods
• Interpreting Research Results
– Inferential Statistics—special form of
mathematics that allows the evaluation of the
likelihood that a given pattern of research
results occurred by chance alone
• If the likelihood that the results were due to chance is
low (less than five times in a hundred), the results are
described as significant.
– Results are viewed as tentative until replicated.
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Research Methods
– Interpreting diverse results
• Involves a statistical technique called meta-analysis
– Data are combined from independent studies in order to
determine whether specific variables (or interactions between
variables) have significant effects across these studies.
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Research Methods
• The Role of Theory in Social Psychology
– Procedure involved in building theories:
• Theories are proposed on the basis of existing evidence.
• Theories help to organize information and make
predictions about observable conditions.
• Hypotheses based on a theory are tested by research.
• If results support theory, confidence in theory is
increased. If not, theory is modified and further research
is conducted.
• In the end, the theory is accepted or rejected, but always
remains open to further testing and refinement.
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Research Methods
The
Role
of
Theory
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Research Methods
• What are your thoughts?
– What are advantages and disadvantages of each
type of research method that social psychologists
use?
– If a researcher was conducting an experiment to
see whether the attractiveness of a job candidate
affected people’s likelihood to hire the candidate,
what would be the independent variable in this
study?
• What would be the dependent variable in this study?
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Seeking an Appropriate Balance
• The Use of Deception—a technique whereby
researchers withhold information about the
purposes or procedures of a study from their
participants.
– Some kinds of research may require it.
– However, its use raises ethical issues:
• Participant could be harmed (experience distress,
anxiety).
• Participant could develop negative attitudes toward
psychological research.
Copyright 2006, Allyn and Bacon
Seeking an Appropriate Balance
– Safeguards that must be followed:
• Informed consent—provide research participants with
as much information as possible about a research
project before they decide whether to participate in it.
• Debriefing—at the conclusion of the study, provide
participants with full information about the nature of
the research and the hypotheses under investigation.
• Deception should be used only when absolutely
necessary and care must be taken to protect rights,
safety, and well-being of participants.
Copyright 2006, Allyn and Bacon
Seeking an Appropriate Balance
• What are your thoughts?
– Is deception sometimes warranted in social
psychological research?
• Why or why not?
– What are examples of social psychological topics
that may need to be studied using some sort of
deception?
– Are the safeguards taken by social psychologists
when deception is used sufficient?
• Why or why not?
Copyright 2006, Allyn and Bacon