Social Psychology

1
Social Psychology

• an attempt to understand and explain how the
  thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals
  are influenced by the actual, imagined, or
  implied presence of others (Allport, 1954)

2
Journals

• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
  (JPSP)
• Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSPB)
• Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (JESP)
• Psych Bull, Psych Review, PSPR, AESP

3
Societies

• Society for Personality and Social Psychology
  (SPSP)
• Society of Experimental Social Psychologists
  (SESP)
• www.socialpsychology.org

4
Brief history of Social Psychology

• Greek philosophers
• Psychology begins in 1800s
• 1864 Cattaneo uses social psych for group
  emergence
• 1871 mentioned in Linders textbook
• 1876 Ringlemann study
• 1898 Triplett study

5

• First textbooks1908 (McDougall, Ross)
• Floyd Allports text in 1924
• Experiments are kingThe psychology of groups is
  the psychology of the individuals
• Journal of Abnormal Psych becomes J of Ab Psych
  and Social Psych in 1921

6
More history

• vs. behaviorism and psychoanalysis
• WW2 and Nazis
• Gestalt psych
• Practical applications
• Kurt Lewin
• GI Bill, boom time for social psychologists
• First handbook 1954
• Leon Festingerexperimental revolution

7

• 1947 SPSP starts, 1965JPSP and JESP
• 70s cognitive revolution
• Paper and pencil are king!
• 70s crisis of confidence
• Gergen, social psych as history
• McGuireneed more diverse methods
• IRBs, better data analysis techniques
• 80s new topics like love and relationships,
  evolutionary psychology
• 90s decade of the brain

8

• 80s new topics like love and relationships,
  evolutionary psychology
• 90s decade of the brain
• Evolutionary psych
• Social neuroscience
• 00s influence of culture
• Multidisciplinary
• Nonconscious approaches
• internet

9
00s and beyond

• Broadening 5 ways
• You can never have too many social
  psychologists.

10
Broadening topics

• Positive psychology
• Evil, terrorism
• Motivated social cognition
• Emotion
• Unconscious, automaticity
• Construals, socially shared cognition
• Religion
• Intergroup relations, prejudice
• Funding issues

11
Broadening the discipline

• Social neuroscience
• Emphasis on culture and how it evolves
• Spatial analyses
• Links to other areas (business, law, health)
• More multidisciplinary research

12
Broadening perspectives

• Evolutionary psychology
• Social identity theory
• Terror management theory
• Dynamical systems

13
Broadening methods

• Advanced statistics, going beyond ANOVA
• Computer simulation
• Internet data collection

14
Broadening globally

• Influencing and being influenced by other social
  psychologies (European more sociological)
• Growth! 2800 to gt7000 members of SPSP in less
  than 20 yrs from all over world

15
Controversies and resolutions

• Social psych continues to respond to zeitgeist
• Construal vs. behaviorism
• Basic vs. applied
• Person vs. situation
• Evolution vs. culture
• Still going on IAT, free will, how to give psych
  away

16
McGuires (1973) koan

• We put too much emphasis on testing hypos, not
  enough on generating them
• We need to get away from simple, linear models
• We need to remember that data come from people
• We need to put together more data archives and do
  more longitudinal studies
• We should use ANOVAs less and other techniques
  that let us deal with messier data more.
• See the advantages of decreased funding (get more
  personal with your research, think about it more)
• Its okay that some of these recommendations
  conflict with each other.

17
Analysis from leaders in the field

• Dont build enough
• Shouldnt only build
• Need more activism
• Too narrow
• Need more links to other fields/ cultures
• Blame it on social cognition
• Need bigger theories (cog, evo, soc ident)
• Too negative and problem-focused
• Not enough emphasis on time

18
Other criticisms

• Ellsworth
• Henrich et al.
• Sears
• Why are things this way?

19
Theories

• What makes a good theory?
• What do theories do for us?
• At what level should we theorize?
• Theory-driven research vs. HARKing

20
Public Skepticism

• Is it a problem? If so, why is it?
• 6 myths
• Psych is common sense
• Psych doesnt use scientific methods
• Cant generalize b/c everyone is unique
• Psych doesnt yield replicable results
• Psych cant make precise predictions
• Psych not useful to society
•  

21
Why are people skeptical?

• We do some bad stuff.
• Our public face isnt necessarily scientific
• See psych as another helping profession
• Hindsight bias in findings
• Think they are experts too
• Look for biological explanations
• Explain results they dont like as nonscientific
• Dont see value in basic research

22
What should we do differently?

• Communicate better w/ the public
• Dont look down on popularizers
• Explain why its not just obvious
• Use evidence-based practice
• Organizations should promote more, show what
  against

23
Climate change

• How can (social) psych contribute to this area?
• Do we have an ethical obligation to do so?
• What are some particular problems with getting
  into applied areas such as this?

24
B/F persons

• Consistency seeker
• Self-esteem maximizer
• Terror manager
• Info seeker
• Foolish mistake maker
• Nondifferent individual
• Impression manager
• Naturally selected animal
• Cultural animal
• Group member
• Benighted layperson