The Nature of Social Psychology

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The Nature of Social Psychology
Tom Farsides 29/09/03
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The goals of the lecture series

• NOT
• To cover everything in text.
• Chapters 1 through 11 must be read and learnt.
• Any part of Chapters 1 through 11 may be
  examined.
• TO
• Illustrate active engagement with the material.

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Lecture structure

• Why bother to study social psychology?
• What social psychology is.
• Methods in social psychology

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Why bother with social psychology?

• 1. To get better grades.
• 2. To avoid the pitfalls of specialisation.
• 3. Because all human science is social
  psychological, e.g., Ornes (1971) demand
  characteristics.
• 4. Because it will make you a better person and
  will contribute to a better society.

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Creating or studying phenomena?
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Improving you, your grades and your society

• Get in the habit of manipulating the material
  you encounter.
• Start by choosing one or more things you really
  want to change about (i) yourself, and (ii)
  society.
• For everything you encounter on this course, ask
  yourself, what use is this to me in promoting my
  personal and social goals?

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Section 2 What social psychology is

• The scientific study of the reciprocal
  influence of the individual and his or her social
  context
• Manstead Hewstone (1995, p. 588)

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Example topics within social psychology

• Helping behaviour (altruism)
• Aggression
• Attitudes
• Attraction (e.g., friendship, love)
• Interdependence
• Intergroup relations
• Prejudice and discrimination
• Social identity and the self
• Social influence (e.g., conformity, minority
  influence)
• Stereotyping

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Lets take a closer look at what the individual
parts of the definition mean...
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the scientific study of(i.e., Uses the
scientific method)

• Empirical
• Systematic study
• Search for general principles
• Positive criticism (self-testing)
• Social and rational (non-subjective)

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the individual

• Psychology is interested in two ABCs of the
  individual.
• The individual focus distinguishes psychology
  from related empirical disciplines.
• e.g., pharmacology
• e.g., sociology.

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...in their social context

• Distinguishes social psychology as a
  sub-discipline.
• Social context may be actual, perceived, and/or
  conceived.

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Section 3 The scientific method in psychology

• Scientific psychology
• Generates literature-aware, empirically testable,
  and replicable research hypotheses.
• Employs a variety of methods to repeatedly test
  them.
• Communicates and interrogates results.
• Strives for ever-better theoretical precision and
  coverage.

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Key terms and concepts in scientific psychology

• Theories
• Hypotheses
• Conceptual variables and operational variables
• Construct validity
• Manipulation checks
• Convergent and discriminant validity
• Reliability (internal, test-retest, inter-rater)
• Triangulation
• Replicability
• External validity
• Generalisation
• Utility

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Correlational research

• Correlation assesses the linear relationship
  between two variables.

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The correlation coefficient

• Shows the strength and valence of a linear
  relationship between two continuous variables.
• Ranges from -1, through 0, to 1.

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Correlation and causation

• Correlation does not allow us to locate cause
  and effect.

If A correlates with B, there are three causal
possibilities. 1. A (amount of violent TV
watched) causes B (aggressive tendencies), 2. B
(aggressive tendencies) causes A (amount of
violent TV watched), or 3. Some other variable,
C (extent of family troubles) causes both A
(amount of violent TV watched) and B (aggressive
tendencies).
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Experiments

• Experiments allow us to infer cause-and-effect
  relationships because of the two essential
  characteristics of experiments
• control of the experimental procedures, and
• random assignment of participants to conditions

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Independent variables

• An independent variable is one that the
  experimenter manipulates to examine its effect on
  participants.
• They have two or more conditions (or levels).
• An experiment will have one or more independent
  variables.
• A subject variable...
• ...is a preexisting difference among participants
• ...may be used as an independent variable.

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Dependent variables

• A dependent variable is an operationally defined
  measurement employed to see if is affected by the
  different conditions or levels of the independent
  variable.
• There can be one or more dependent variables (DV)
  for each independent variable (IV).

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Control in experiments

• To ensure that any changes in the dependent
  variables are caused by differences in the levels
  of the independent variables.
• Experimental group(s)
• receives treatment.
• Control group
• Otherwise identical, but doesnt receive
  treatment.
• Any differences attributable to controlled
  difference (i.v.).
• Potential extraneous or confounding variables
  controlled for (e.g., held constant).

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Random Sampling compared to Random Allocation
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Societies of psychologists

• The British Psychological Society (BPS)
• Our national organisation
• Low cost student membership (13)
• Many sub-sections, e.g., social psychology,
  student
• Cheap journals, e.g., BJSP for 10.50 (student
  rate)
• Benefits include receiving The Psychologist
  (newsletter)
• See http//www.bps.org/index.cfm
• Society of Personality and Social Psychology
  (SPSP)
• Largest organisation of personality social
  psychologist in world
• Low cost student membership (25)
• Benefits include receiving PSPB, PSPR, and
  Dialogue (newsletter)
• See http//www.spsp.org/

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Important web pages

• Social Psychology Network
• Best social psychology site on the www.
• http//www.wesleyan.edu/spn/
• My site
• Pages of specific interest to Sussex psychology
  students, e.g., social psychology, study skills,
  etc.
• http//www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/ssfd0/home.html
  (Capital U, digit 0)
• Psychabilities
• Supplementary resource to core text of Brehm et
  al. (2002)
• http//college.hmco.com/psychology/brehm/social_ps
  ychology/5e/students/