Chapter 1: Intro to Social Psychology

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Chapter 1 Intro to Social Psychology

• January 19, 2006
• Dr. Kim Schneider
• (Basic Outline only)

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What is Social Psychology?

• The scientific study of how individuals think
  about, influence, and relate to others.
• 4 emphases this semester what are they?
• Relatively young field. Took hold in the 30s
• Today, emphasis in social psy is on what?

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Social Psych and Other Fields

• Sociology - different level of analysis
• How do levels of analyses for sociology and
  social psych differ?
• How do research methods for sociology and social
  psych differ?
• Personality psy main difference from social psy

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Social Psychology and Values

• Our values influence our research.
• Our choice of research topics
• Our observations of people
• Examples?
• Most social psych research comes from Western,
  industrialized cultures.
• How does that influence our theories?

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Is this different from common sense?

• Common sense relied on explanations after the
  fact hindsight
• Some social psych findings appear
  counterintuitive (examples?)
• Social psych uses theories to make predictions
  (hypotheses)
• What are theories?
• Hypothesis state what you expect to find
• Example of a hypothesis?

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Types of Research Designs

• 1) The Correlational Method determines if two
  variables are related
• Should attempt to gather a random sample
• What is a random sample?
• ButCannot make cause-effect conclusions.
• Often a third variable can explain relations
  between 2 variables under study
• Example?
• Need experiments to determine cause-effect

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2) Experimental Research

• About 3/4ths of Social Psych research.
• Most is done in lab settings.
• Vary factors to examine cause effect
• Distinction between independent dependent
  variables
• Independent variable (IV) what is it?
• Dependent variable (DV) what is it?
• Example of an experiment Schneider, Tomaka,
  Palacios (2001).
• What was the main point of this study? What were
  the IV and DV?

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Advantages of Correlational vs. Experimental
Research

• Adv of Corr Research
• 1)
• 2)
• Adv of Exp Research
• 1)
• 2)

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Ethics and Research

• How much should we manipulate?
• About 1/3rd of social psych studies include some
  form of deception
• Provides experimental realism
• What is that?
• Consider benefit/risk ratio
• Must tell participants after experiment