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Chapter 1: PSY 313 1.1 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Definitions and Key Concepts Social psychology
- he scientific study of how we feel about, think about, and behave toward the people around us and how our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are influenced by those people.
- As this definition suggests, the subject matter of social psychology is very broad and can be found in just about everything that we do every day. Social psychologists study why we are often helpful to other people and why we may at other times be unfriendly or aggressive. Social psychologists study both the benefits of having good relationships with other people and the costs of being lonely. Social psychologists study what factors lead people to purchase one product rather than another, how men and women behave differently in social settings, how juries work together to make important group decisions, and what makes some people more likely to recycle and engage in other environmentally friendly behaviors than others. And social psychologists also study more unusual events, such as how someone might choose to risk their life to save that of a complete stranger. History and Evolution The science of social psychology began when scientists first started to systematically and formally measure the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of human beings. The earliest social psychology experiments on group behavior were conducted before 1900 and the first social psychology textbooks were published in 1908. The latter part of the 20th century saw an expansion of social psychology into the field of attitudes, with a particular emphasis on cognitive processes. During this time, social psychologists developed the first formal models of persuasion, with the goal of understanding how advertisers and other people could present their messages to make them most effective. Leon Festinger’s important cognitive dissonance theory was developed during this time and became a model for later research. In the 1970s and 1980s, social psychology became even more cognitive in orientation as social psychologists used advances in cognitive psychology, which were themselves based largely on advances in computer technology, to inform the field. The focus of these researchers, was on social cognition—an understanding of how our knowledge about our social worlds develops through experience and the influence of these knowledge structures on memory, information processing, attitudes, and judgment. In the 21st century, the field of social psychology has been expanding into still other areas. Examples that we consider in this book include an interest in how social situations influence our health and happiness, the important roles of evolutionary experiences and cultures on our behavior, and the field of social neuroscience—the study of how our social behavior both influences and is influenced by the activities of our brain. The Person and the Social Situation Social psychology : the study of the dynamic relationship between individuals and the people around them. But our behavior is also profoundly influenced by the social situation—the people with whom we interact every day. Our social situations create social influence —the process through which other people change our thoughts, feelings, and
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behaviors and through which we change PSY 313 theirs. Kurt Lewin - formalized the joint influence of person variables and situational variables, which is known as the person- situation interaction, in an important equation: Behavior = f (person, social situation) Lewin’s equation indicates that the behavior of a given person at any given time is a function of (depends on) both the characteristics of the person and the influence of the social situation. Evolutionary Adaptation and Human Characteristics The assumption that human nature, including much of our social behavior, is determined largely by our evolutionary past is known as evolutionary adaptation (Buss & Kenrick, 1998; Workman & Reader, 2008). In evolutionary theory, fitness refers to the extent to which having a given characteristic helps the individual organism to survive and to reproduce at a higher rate than do other members of the species who do not have the characteristic Evolutionary adaption has provided us with two fundamental motivations that guide us and help us lead productive and effective lives. One of these motivations relates to the self—the motivation to protect and enhance the self and the people who are psychologically close to us; the other relates to the social situation—the motivation to affiliate with, accept, and be accepted by others. We will refer to these two motivations as self-concern and other concern, respectively Self-concern
- The most basic tendency of all living
organisms, and the focus of the first human motivation, is the desire to protect and enhance our own life and the lives of the people who are close to us.
- Human beings, like other animals,
exhibit kin selection— strategies that favor the reproductive success of one’s relatives, sometimes even at a cost to the individual’s own survival
- In addition to our kin, we desire to
protect, improve, and enhance the well-being of our ingroup— those we view as being similar and important to us and with whom we share close social connections, even if those people do not actually share our genes Other-concern
- Although we are primarily concerned
with the survival of ourselves, our kin, and those who we feel are similar and important to us, we also desire to connect with and be accepted by other people more generally—the goal of other-concern.
- We live together in communities, we
work together in work groups, we may worship together in religious groups, and we may play together on sports teams and through clubs.
- Affiliating with other people—even
strangers—helps us meet a fundamental goal: that of finding a romantic partner with whom we can have children. Our connections with others also provide us with opportunities that we would not have on our own The Social Situation Creates Powerful Social Influence Social Influence Creates Social Norms
- One outcome of social influence is the
development of social norms—the ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that are shared by group members and perceived by them as appropriate.
- Norms include customs, traditions,
standards, and rules, as well as the general values of the group. Through norms, we learn what people actually do and also what we should do and shouldn’t do. There are norms about
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Although affect can be harmful if it is PSY 313 unregulated or unchecked, our affective experiences normally help us to function efficiently and in a way that increases our chances of survival. Mood
- refers to the positive or negative
feelings that are in the background of our everyday experiences
- We experience affect in the form of
mood and emotions
- Most of the time, we are in a relatively
good mood, and positive mood has some positive consequences — it encourages us to do what needs to be done and to make the most of the situations we are in. When we are in a good mood, our thought processes open up and we are more likely to approach others. We are more friendly and helpful to others when we are in a good mood than when we are in a bad mood, and we may think more creatively. On the other hand, when we are in a bad mood, we are more likely to prefer to remain by ourselves rather than interact with others, and our creativity suffers Emotions
- brief, but often intense, mental and
physiological feeling states. Emotions serve an adaptive role in helping us guide our social behaviors
- In comparison with moods, emotions are
shorter lived, stronger, and more specific forms of affect. Emotions are caused by specific events (things that make us, for instance, jealous or angry), and they are accompanied by high levels of arousal. Whereas we experience moods in normal, everyday situations, we experience emotions only when things are out of the ordinary or unusual. Social Behavior: Interacting with Others
- The sharing of goods, services, emotions,
and other social outcomes is known as social exchange. Social rewards (the positive outcomes that we give and receive when we interact with others) include such benefits as attention, praise, affection, love, and financial support. Social costs (the negative outcomes that we give and receive when we interact with others), on the other hand, include, for instance, the frustrations that accrue when disagreements with others develop, the guilt that results if we perceive that we have acted inappropriately, and the effort involved in developing and maintaining harmonious interpersonal relationships
- One of the outcomes of humans living
together in small groups over thousands of years is that people have learned to cooperate by giving benefits to those who are in need, with the expectation of a return of benefits at a future time. This mutual, and generally equitable, exchange of benefits is known as reciprocal altruism 1.3 Conducting Research in Social Psychology Social psychologists are not the only people interested in understanding and predicting social behavior or the only people who study it.
- But the social psychological approach
to understanding social behavior goes beyond the mere observation of human actions.
- Social psychologists believe that a
true understanding of the causes of social behavior can only be obtained through a systematic scientific approach, and that is why they conduct scientific research.
- Social psychologists believe that the
study of social behavior should be empirical—that is, based on the collection and systematic analysis of observable data
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The Importance of Scientific Research PSY 313
- Because social psychology concerns
the relationships among people, and because we can frequently find answers to questions about human behavior by using our own common sense or intuition, many people think that it is not necessary to study it empirically.
- The tendency to think that we could
have predicted something that we probably would not have been able to predict is called the hindsight bias.
- Social psychologists conduct research
because it often uncovers results that could not have been predicted ahead of time
- Social Psychology Journals:
o Journal of Personality and Social Psychology o Journal of Experimental Social Psychology o Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin o Social Psychology and Personality Science o Social Cognition o European Journal of Social Psychology o Social Psychology Quarterly o Basic and Applied Social Psychology o Journal of Applied Social Psychology Measuring Affect, Behavior, and Cognition
- One important aspect of using an
empirical approach to understand social behavior is that the concepts of interest must be measured “The Operational Definition”.
- In scientific terms, the characteristics
that we are trying to measure are known as conceptual variables, and the particular method that we use to measure a variable of interest is called an operational definition. Social Neuroscience: Measuring Social Responses in the Brain One approach, known as electroencephalography (EEG), is a technique that records the electrical activity produced by the brain’s neurons through the use of electrodes that are placed around the research participant’s head. Self-report measures are measures in which individuals are asked to respond to questions posed by an interviewer or on a questionnaire Behavioral measures are measures designed to directly assess what people do. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a neuroimaging technique that uses a magnetic field to create images of brain structure and function. Four Major Research Designs (used by Social Psychologists)
1. Observational Research - The most basic research design,
observational research, is research that involves making observations of behavior and recording those observations in an objective manner.
- In these cases, the observational
approach involves creating a type of “snapshot” of the current state of affairs. One advantage of observational research is that in many cases it is the only possible approach to collecting data about the topic of interest.
- Despite their advantages, observational
research designs also have some limitations. Most importantly, because the data that are collected in observational studies are only a description of the events that are occurring, they do not tell us anything about the relationship between different variables.
- However, it is exactly this question that
correlational research and experimental research are designed to answer.
2. The Research Hypothesis - Because social psychologists are
generally interested in looking at relationships among variables, they begin by stating their predictions in the form of a precise statement known as a research hypothesis.
- A research hypothesis is a specific
prediction about the relationship between the variables of interest and about the specific direction of that relationship
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Deception in Social Psychology PSY 313 Experiments
- In fact, these experiments both used a
cover story—a false statement of what the research was really about.
- In some experiments, the researcher also
makes use of an experimental confederate—a person who is actually part of the experimental team but who pretends to be another participant in the study. Interpreting Research
- External validity refers to the extent to
which relationships can be expected to hold up when they are tested again in different ways and for different people.
- In some cases, researchers may test
their hypotheses, not by conducting their own study, but rather by looking at the results of many existing studies, using a meta-analysis—a statistical procedure in which the results of existing studies are combined to determine what conclusions can be drawn on the basis of all the studies considered together. Chapter 2: THE SELF IN THE SOCIAL WORLD Spotlight Effect : the belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are.
- in an experiment, Timothy Lawson
(2019) explored the spotlight effect by having college students change into a sweatshirt emblazoned with “American Eagle” before meeting a group of peers. Nearly 40% were sure the other students would remember what the shirt said, but only 10% actually did.
- Most observers did not even notice
when the students changed sweatshirts after leaving the room for a few minutes Illusion of Transparency : The illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others.
- What’s true of our dorky clothes and
bad hair is also true of our emotions: our anxiety, irritation, disgust, deceit, or attraction to someone else (Gilovich et al., 1998). Fewer people notice than we presume. Keenly aware of our own emotions, we often suffer an Illusion of Transparency. If we’re happy and we know it, then our face will surely show it. And others, we presume, will notice. Self-Concept (Who am I?)
- understand how, and how accurately,
we know ourselves and what determines our self-concept
- What we know and believe about
ourselves.
- The elements of your self-concept, the
specific beliefs by which you define yourself, are your self-schemas (Marcus & Wurf 1987). At the Center of Our Worlds: Our Sense of Self
- The most important aspect of yourself
is your self.
- To discover where this sense of self
arises, neuroscientists are exploring the brain activity that underlies our constant sense of being oneself. Schema : metal templates by which we organize our worlds.
- Our self-schemas--our perceiving
ourselves as athletic, overweight, smart, or anything else--powerfully affect how we perceive, remember, and evaluate other people and ourselves.
- If athletic is the central of your self-
concept, then you will tend to notice other people’s body and skills. Schemas as Social Knowledge
- The outcome of learning is knowledge,
and this knowledge is stored in the form of schemas, which are knowledge representations that include information about a person, group, or situation.
- In the brain, our schemas reside
primarily in the prefrontal cortex the part of the brain that lies in front of
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the motor areas of the cortex and that PSY 313 helps us remember the characteristics and actions of other people, plan complex social behaviors, and coordinate our behaviors with those of others.
- The prefrontal cortex is the “social” part
of the brain. How Schemas Develop: Accomodation and Assimilation
- Accomodation - when existing schemas
change on the basis of new information
- Assimilation - a process in which our
existing knowledge influences new conflicting information to better fit with our existing knowledge, thus reducing the likelihood of schema change. How Schemas Maintain Themselves: The Power Of Assimilation
- There are many factors that lead us to
assimilate information into our expectations rather than to accommodate our expectations to fit new information. In fact, we can say that in most cases, once a schema is developed, it will be difficult to change it because the expectation leads us to process new information in ways that serve to strengthen it rather than to weaken it. The tendency toward assimilation is so strong that it has substantial effects on our everyday social cognition.
- One outcome ofassimilation is the
confirmation bias, the tendency for people to seek out and favor information that confirms their expectations and beliefs, which in turn can further help to explain the often self-fulfilling nature of our schemas. The Nature And Motivating Power Of Self-Esteem Self-Esteem : A person’s overall self- evaluation or sense of self-worth
- “One person may have self-esteem that
is highly contingent on doing well in school and being physically attractive, whereas another may have self-esteem that is contingent in being loved by God and adhering to moral standards.”
Jennifer Crocker (2001)
- Thus, the first person will feel high
self-esteem when made to feel smart and good-looking, the second person when feel moral. Self-Esteem Motivation
- Most people are extremely motivated
to maintain their self-esteem. In fact, college students prefer a boost to their self-esteem to eating their favorite food, engaging in their favorite sexual activity, seeing a best friend, drinking alcohol, or receiving a paycheck (Bushman et al., 2011).
- So, somewhat incredibly, self-esteem
was more important than sex, pizza, and beer. The Trade-off of Low vs. High Self- Esteem Low Self-Esteem
- People low in self-esteem are more
vulnerable to anxiety, loneliness, and eating disorders. When feeling bad or threatened, those low in self-esteem often take a negative view of everything. They notice and remember others’ worst behaviors and think that their partners don’t love them (Murray et al., 2002; Vorauer & Quesnel, 2013).
- Although people with low self-esteem
did not choose less-desirable partners, they are quick to believe that their partners are criticizing them or rejecting them. Perhaps as a result, those low in self-esteem are less satisfied with their relationships. People low in self-esteem also experience more problems in life - they make less money, abuse drugs, and more likely to bedepressed. (Orth & Robins, 2013; Salmela-Aro & Narumi, 2007) High Self-Esteem
- When good things happen, people with
high self-esteem are more likely to savor and sustain the good feelings (Wood et al., 2003).
- “Believing one has more talents than
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- it enables us to make routine decisions PSY 313 with minimal effort (Shah & Oppenheimer, 2008). Counterfactual Thinking
- imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn’t. Illusory Thinking
- a perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exist.
- it is easy to see a correlation when none exists. when we expect to find significant relationships, we easily associate random events, perceiving illusory thinking. Moods and Judgments
- social judgment involves efficient information processing
- it also involves our feelings: our moods infuse our judgements. unhappy people especially the bereaved or depressed tend to be more self-focused and brooding (myers, 1993, 2000) How do we perceive our social worlds? Perceiving and Interpreting Events
- despite some startling biases and logical flaws in how we perceive and understand one another, we’re mostly accurate (jussim, 2012)
- our first impression about one another are more often right than wrong. Moreover, the better we know people, the more accurately we can read their minds and feelings. Beliefs Perseverance
- persistence of one’s initial conceptions, such as when the basis for one’s belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives.
- this phenomenon shows that beliefs can grow their own legs and survive discrediting. Attributing Causality: To the person or situation
- we endlessly analyze and discuss why things happen as they do, especially when we experience something negative or unexpected. (Weiner, 1985, 2008, 2010).
- Attribution Theory is the theory of how people explain others’ behavior.
- for example, by attributing it either internal dispositions (enduring traits, motives, and attitudes) or external situations Misattributing Arousal
- Arousal becomes emotion only when it is accompanied by a label or by an explanation for the arousal.
- Thus, although emotions are usually considered to be affective in nature, they really represent an excellent example of the joint influence of affect and cognition.
- We can say, then, that emotions have two factors—an arousal factor and a cognitive factor.
- Misattribution of arousal occurs when people incorrectly label the source of the arousal that they are experiencing. Chapter 4: Behavior and Attitudes At the foundation of all human behavior is the self—our sense of personal identity and of who we are as individuals. How well do our attitudes predict our behavior? When attitudes predict behavior
- The reason--now obvious--why our behavior and our expressed attitudes differ is that both are subject to other influences.
- One social psychologist counted 40 factors that complicate the relationship between attitudes and behavior (Triandis, 1982; see also
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Kraus, 1995). PSY 313
- Our attitudes do predict our behavior when these other influences on what we say or do are minimal, when the attitude is specific to the behavior, and when the attitude is potent. When social influences on what we say are minimal
- Unlike a doctor measuring heart rate, social psychologists never get a direct reading on attitudes.
- Rather, we measure Expressed attitudes. Like other behaviors, expressions are subject to outside influences.
- Sometimes, for example, we say what we think others want to hear, much as legislators may vote for a popular war or tax reduction that they privately oppose.
- Today’s social psychologists have some clever means at their disposal for minimizing social influences on people’s attitude reports.
- Some of these are measures of implicit (unconscious) attitudes which is our often unacknowledged inner beliefs that may or may not correspond to our explicit (conscious) attitudes
- Implicit Association Test (IAT) : The most widely used attitude measure which uses reaction most times to measure how quickly people associate concepts (Banaji & Greenwald, 2013) o a computer driven assessment of implicit attitudes. The test uses reaction times to measure people’s automatic associations between attitude objects and evaluate pairings (and faster responses) are taken to indicate stronger unconscious associations. When other influences on behavior are minimal
- On any occasion, it’s not only our inner attitudes that guide us but also the situation we face. As we will see again and again, social influences can be enormous--enormous enough to induce people to violate their deepest conviction. Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen and Fishbein)
- Knowing people’s intended behaviors and their perceived self-efficacy and control
- Moreover, several dozen experimental tests confirm that inducing new intentions induces new behavior (Belanger-Gravel et al., 2013; Webb & Sheeran,
When attitudes are potent
- Much of our behavior is automatic. We act our familiar scripts without reflecting on what we’re doing. It frees our mind to work on other things.
- As the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1911, p.61) argued, “Civilization advances by extending the number of operations which we can perform without thinking about them” When does our behavior affect our attitudes? Role Playing
- The word role is borrowed from the theatre and, as in the theatre, refers to actions expected of those who occupy a particular social position. When enacting new social roles, we may at first feel phony. But our unease seldom lasts.
- The deeper lesson of the role-playing is not that we are powerless machines. Rather, it concerns how what is unreal (an artificial role) can subtly morph into what is real. Saying becomes Believing
- In expressing our thoughts to others, we sometimes tailor our words to what we think the others will want to hear, and then come to believe our own words.
- Tory Higgins and his colleagues illustrated how saying becomes believing. It proves that people tend to adjust their message to listeners, and, having done so, to believe the altered message. Evil and Moral Acts
