PSYC 3341

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Intro and Research Methods

• Chapter 1

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What is Social Psychology?

• Scientific study of how people think about,
  influence, and relate to one another
• Power of the situation
• Power of the person
• Importance of cognition

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What is Social Psychology?

• Social Psyc vs. Sociology
• Individual vs. group
• Social Psyc vs. Personality
• Commonalities vs. Differences
• Social Psyc vs. Philosophy
• Research methods vs. Logic

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Major Perspectives

• Sociocultural Perspective
• Emphasis on the larger group
• Norms, culture
• Evolutionary Perspective
• Reproductive benefits
• Natural selection, adaptation
• Social Learning
• Past experiences with rewards and punishments
• Direct learning, observational
• Social Cognitive
• Evaluation of situations
• Attention, interpretation, memory

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Person X Situation

• Person
• Self concept, mood
• Situation
• Norms, temporary external factors
• Person X Situation
• Different people in the same situation
• Same people in different situations

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What is Social Psychology?

• Is it all common sense?
• Different views of common sense
• Hindsight bias
• Naturalistic Fallacy
• Error Defining what is good in terms of what is
  observable
• The way things are is right b/c thats the way
  things are

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Research Methods

• Why do we study this?
• Tool for supporting our positions
• Provides a common language
• How do we do this
• Theory
• Hypothesis

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Research Methods

• Theory
• Integrated set of principles that explain and
  predict
• May contain several hypotheses
• Hypothesis
• Testable prediction about a relationship

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Goals of Research

• Description
• Describe a behavioral phenomenon
• Explanation
• Develop explanations for behavior
• Prediction
• Attempt to predict behavior or performance
• Control
• Psychotherapy or therapeutic interventions

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Research Methods

• Field Research
• Naturally occurring behaviors in their
  environment
• Lab Research
• Correlation vs. Experiment vs. Survey
• Random Sample vs. Random Assignment

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Experimental Research

• Components of Experiments
• Variables
• Operationalize the variables
• Independent Variable (IV)
• Dependent Variable (DV)
• Confounding Variables
• Control
• Control groups
• Avoid bias

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Sources of Research Ideas

• Observations
• Notice events in the world and seek explanations
• Understand what conditions are best for
  performance
• Experts
• Literature Search
• Keep a database or journal of ideas that hit you
  while reading
• Think about conditions/limitations of research
  articles

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Characteristics of Good Research

• Theoretical Framework
• Theory (integration of facts and ideas)
• Thesis ? Antithesis ? Synthesis
• Hypothesis (testable prediction about the
  relationship between 2 or more variables)
• Standardized Procedures
• Generalizability from a Sample
• Objective Measurement

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Bias in Research

• Inadvertent researcher bias
• Researchers are fallible and have own ideas,
  beliefs, politics
• Avoiding bias
• Double-blind studies
• Removing bias in interpretations
• Placebo studies
• Control groups

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Communication Issues

• Definitions
• Is bowling a sport? Figure skating? Skeet
  shooting? Fishing?
• Operational Definitions
• A definition of a concept in terms of the
  operations that must be performed to demonstrate
  the concept
• Like a recipe Judge, scoring system, direct
  competition between two or more persons or teams,
  requires physical skill or prowess, etc.

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Graphed Correlations
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Research Methods

• Surveys
• Question type
• Open ended vs. closed
• Question order
• Question wording

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Research Methods

• Realism
• Mundane (superficial similarity)
• Experimental (task is engaging)
• Ethics

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Research Methods

• Ethics
• Informed consent
• Confidentiality
• No harm/discomfort
• No deception
• Demand characteristics
• Debrief