PSY 328 Module 1 Lecture Notes In the perspective portion of this module, you were introduced to just one aspect of social psychology, impression formation. In Module 1, we will define social psychology, examine how social psychologists research behavior, and look at the relationship between the person and the situation. What is Social Psychology? Social psychology is the scientific study of how people s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by other people. What does this mean? Social psychology examines context not necessarily individual differences. Hence, the social psychologists look at how the situation influences our behavior. Social behavior is goal directed. For example, establishing social ties is important. We may also seek to understand ourselves as well as others. We may have the goal of gaining and maintaining status. If in trouble, our goal is to defend ourselves. Also, many individuals seek to attract and retain mates. Social psychology is the interaction between the person and the situation. What does this mean? Perhaps you are a very extravert person. You are outgoing and love being around others. However, can you think of a situation in which you were more introverted? If so, this is one example of how the person and the situation may interact. We will discuss this further in a little while. Three primary areas of research in social psychology include social thinking, or social cognition, social influence, and social relations. Social cognition includes topics such as automatic versus controlled processing, goals, motivation, decision-making, etc. Social influence includes topics such as obedience, conformity, and compliance. Finally, social relations include topics such as helping, aggression, prejudices, and the study of close relationships. Let s examine how social psychology differences from other fields of research. Sociology, another area of social science, involves studies of people in groups and societies. Personality psychology examines individual differences such as personality traits and often includes correlational research. Finally, social psychology is primarily interested in the context or how the person and context interact. Although correlational research is used for social psychology, experimental methodology is primarily used. Think about how these three areas would explain aggressive behavior? Personality psychologists might state that temperament or impulsivity causes aggression. Social psychologists might state that bad mood or frustration causes aggression. Finally, sociologists might believe that cultural norms or poor economic conditions lead to aggressive behavior. Did you think of other possible explanations? 1
Research Now let s take a look at the research methods used in social psychology. Since you have already completed PSY 205, some of this should be a review! First, let s review correlations. Recall that correlations are used to study relationships. The correlation coefficient ranges from negative 1.00 to positive 1.00. A positive relationship is one in which the value on one variable increases as the value on the other increases. A negative relationship is one which one variable increases while the other decreases. Recall that an experiment involves manipulation of an independent variable (IV). An experiment is designed to examine cause and effect relationships. The experimenter manipulates the IV and measures change in the dependent variable (DV). Experiments require control in order to determine causation. Practice Exercises What are the IV and DV in the following scenario? Researchers want to see if paying artists for their work causes them to lose motivation to work on their art. They ask artists to rate how motivated they are to paint. Then half of the artists are paid to paint and half are not. At the end of the study, the artists are again asked to rate how motivated they are to paint. IV: paid or not DV: motivation What are the IV and DV in the following scenario? Researchers want to see if college students are more committed to their fraternity after going through a hazardous hazing ritual. Half of the pledges are put through a hazardous ritual and the other half are put through a nonhazardous ritual. After the ritual, all pledges are asked to rate how committed they are to the fraternity. IV: type of ritual DV: commitment Folk Wisdom and Research Think about a wife s tale or superstition with you. Why is this folk wisdom true or false? How could you design a study to test the idea? For example: How would you test birds of a feather flock together? What is your IV, DV, who will participate? Will you use deception? What design will you use? 2
A woman s heartbeat races and she is trembling. A man leaves town and starts a new life. A child shoots and kills his father. A teen robs a grocery store. Why are these individuals behaving this way? There are a variety of reasons why these individuals are behaving a certain way. Some of you may have attributed their behavior to internal factors such as personality traits. Did any of you come up with situational reasons for the behaviors? For example, perhaps the teen robbed the grocery store because his family is poor and hungry. The Person The person is made up of motivation, knowledge, feelings. Motivation is what drives us or the goals we set. Knowledge is our view of the world. Finally, feelings include our attitudes, emotions, and moods. Motivation is the force that moves people toward their desired outcomes while a goal is a desired outcome or something one wishes to achieve or accomplish. What are your goals? What goals do you have for today? What goals do you have for this semester? What goals do you have for your career? What goals do you have for your life? Another important term is automaticity. Automaticity is the ability of a behavior or cognitive process to operate without conscious guidance once it s put into motion. This is in contrast to controlled processes which require conscious guidance. Think about driving a car. How many of you actually take the time to think, The key goes here, now I turn it. Ok, now let me put the car into reverse, let me back down the driveway, let me put the car in drive. Now that you have driven for a while, driving is more automatic. Can you think of other things that you do automatically? What about feelings? Our feelings are obviously very important as well and may be influenced by the situation. Which brings us to an interesting question: Who is happier following Olympic performances Silver medalists or Bronze medalists? Researchers analyzed films from the 1992 Olympics, and found athletes who won 3rd place Bronze medals were happier than those who placed ahead of them, with 2nd place Silver. Why? Silver medalists talked about how close they had come to a Gold. 3
Bronze medalists imagined winning no medal at all. Thus, silver metalists engaged in counterfactual thinking which is the process of imagining alternative versions of actual events. Have you ever engaged in counterfactual thinking? Chances are that you have! When things do not go the way that we want, it is easy to think of alternative events that could have happened! So, why are feelings so important? Feelings alert us when something isn t normal. Feelings also enable quick avoidance/approach judgments. Finally, positive emotions reduce stress of negative life events The Situation What about the situation? That is the really important part, right? Imagine you are at the company picnic, and you spot your new boss sitting by himself. This could be a good chance to advance your career. What would you do? Affordance is the opportunity or threat provided by a situation. When in a new situation, we evaluate whether or not we should approach the situation or avoid it. In the scenario with a new boss, what you do is likely based on how you view the situation, although certain personality traits might make one decision more likely than other! The Person and Situation Interaction Finally, there are six ways that the person and situation can interact to influence behavior. First, Different Persons Respond Differently to the Same Situation. For example, two people may work for the same employer in the exact same job. One person may be happy in the job while the other is unhappy. Although the situation is the same, there may be personality traits possessed by each person that causes them to react differently to that same job. Second, some situations choose the person. People with certain characteristics may be encouraged or discouraged from entering particular situations. For example, athletic teams have slots for only so many players, so not everyone gets the experience of playing on the team. Persons may also choose their situations. We choose situations that provide opportunities that fit with our personal characteristics. For example, if you are an introvert, a quiet evening at home might be more appealing than a crowded rock concert. Also, Different Situations Prime Different Parts of the Person. Inside each one of us, there are different motives, memories, and feelings. Each of these is likely to be triggered by some situations more than others. 4
For Example, After watching a comedy that primes memories of innocent accidents, an ambiguous collision with a stranger may draw one reaction: ( Oops. How clumsy of me! ) But a blow-em-up action thriller may trigger your inner Rambo: ( Hey! How dare you bump into me! ) Sometimes the person changes the situation. Sometimes people change situations to better achieve their goals. For example, a teacher will set up her class so that her students get along. Other times people change situations inadvertently. For example, depressed college students may depress their roommates. Finally, situations may change the person. You may be a different person after spending time in a situation. For example, two similar high school students may be very different after one spends four years in the military while the other is in a liberal arts college. Socialization is another way that situations change a person. Socialization is process through which a culture teaches its members about its beliefs, customs, habits, and language Take a moment to think of your own examples of each of these six ways that the person and the situation interact. 5