Defining Social Psychology, Research Methods, The Self, and Perceiving Others

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Defining Social Psychology

Social Psychology is the scientific study of how individuals think, feel, and behave in a social context.

How does social psychology differ from other ideas and fields?

• Common Sense
  • “Knew it all along” phenomena
  • Determining fact from myth
  • Social Psychology relies on the scientific method
  • Forming hypotheses – testable predictions
  • Organizing ideas and findings into theories and principles
• History/Philosophy
• Sociology
  • Focus is on the person, rather than the group

• Other Types of Psychology (Abnormal, Cognitive, etc..)

• Social Psychology relies on the scientific method

Proximal Influences: immediate and/or situational influences.

Distal Influences: Not immediately affecting behavior. Ex. Cultural background

Overjustification Effect: Adding a reward to an enjoyable task will cause the person to be unhappy when performing the task without the reward.

Research Methods

There are 4 stages of social psychological research.

1. Develop an Idea
2. Refine the Idea
3. Test the Idea
4. Interpret the Results

For number 1. we want to:

• Ask questions
• Search through literature
• Shape the idea into a hypothesis

Hypothesis: A testable prediction

Theory: An organized set of principles used to define phenomena which is simple, generative, comprehensive, and falsifiable.

Conceptual Variables vs Operational Definitions

• A Conceptual Variable is some abstract general construct.
• An Operational Definition is a measurable definition for a conceptual variable in research.

Construct Validity: The extent to which the experiment measures and manipulates variables in the study actually measure or manipulate what they are meant to.

Interrator Reliability: The degree to which multiple observers agree in observation

Correlational Designs: Examines relationships between multiple variables.

Experimental Designs: The cornerstone of psychological research. It is used to examine cause and effect relationships. All experiments have two essential characteristics

• Researchers have control over the experimental procedure
• There should be random assignment to experimental conditions

Random Sampling Vs Random Assignment:

• Random sampling is when the participants in an experiment are chosen from the population.
• Random Assignment is what we call randomly putting participants into different experimental groups (control, etc.)

Statistical Significance: if the probability of something happening by chance is less than 5% (.05) we usually say a result is statistically significant

Ethics in Social Psychology: All studies must adhere to rules.

• We generally don’t want to deceive participants
• It must be passed by the IRB
• Participants must have informed consent
• The study must debrief participants

The Self

Public self: How others see us. This is heavily influenced by social factors

The ABC’s of the Self

• Cognition: Self-Concept - know thyself, self-concept, identity
• Affect: Self-Esteem - The emotional aspects
• Behavior: Self-Presentation - Regulation & Presentation

Self Concept: The sum total beliefs that one has about him/herself. It is made up of Self-schemas

Self-Schemas: How we perceive ourselves and evaluate others. We like to accept information that is in line with our schemas.

Self-Recognition:

• Babies don’t recognize themselves until 18-24 months old.
• Animals that don’t recognize themselves will tend to reach for their reflection.
• Apes will recognize themselves

Sources of the Self Concept

1. Introspection:

• Our inner thoughts and feelings
• Not always accurate, we can impair our own knowledge - overthinking
• Poor predictor of future behavior
• We usually overestimate emotional impact of a situation
  • We usually just focus on something and forget about it
  • Affective forecasting

2. Know ourselves by viewing our own behavior

• Self-Perception Theory: Internal cues are difficult to interpret. People gain insight into their own behavior.
• Facial Feedback Hypothesis: The changes in facial expressions change emotions

3. Influences of Others

• People describe themselves in traits that set themselves apart from others
• Social Comparison Theory: We compare our performance to others (when the uncertain about our own).

4. Autobiographical Memory

• Essential for a coherent self-concept.
  • Recall events from our recent past
• Good memories of adolescence are usually the most memorable
• Flashbulb Memory: Prominent events that we tend to remember. Not always the most accurate but they feel special
• Autobiographical memories are vital, but also shape our identities

5. Cultural Identity and Influence

• Individualism vs Collectivism
• Individualist: Strive for personal achievement
• Collectivist: Want to advance the group

Self Esteem The Affective Components of the Self

• Belonging = Self Esteem
• Terror Management Theory: Terrified by morality
  • Higher self-esteem protects against a fear of death
• Higher self-esteem tends to make people more happy/healthy/productive
  • Not guaranteed success - low social sensitivity usually comes with a high self-esteem
• Self-Discrepancy Theory: The self-esteem reflects matches and mismatches between how we se ourselves and how we want to see ourselves
  • Discrepancy between the ought-self tends to lead to feelings of shame or guilt

Self Awareness

• People tend to like to be self-aware - mirrors
• Some people are more self-focused than others.
• Private vs Public Self-Conscious
  • Private: Tendency to introspect
  • Public: Tendency to focus on the outer image

Self-Regulation: The process by which we seek to control or alter our thoughts, feelings, behaviors and urges

Ironic Mental Processes: The harder someone tries to inhibit a thought or behavior the less likely we are to succeed in blocking such thoughts or behaviors

Implicit Egotism: Positive traits that are more quickly recognized about ourselves

Mechanisms of Self-Enhancement

• Self-Handicapping: Excuses for poor behavior - we sabotoge our own performance
• BIRG: Basking In Reflected Glory - Associate ourselves with success, distance ourselves from our failures.
• Downward Social Comparison: We don’t always want objective information. We like to compare ourselves to less successful people sometimes.
  • Depressed people tend to have more realistic views

Perceiving Others

Social Perception: The process by which we understand one another.

• Observation, Attribution, Integration

Observation

• Subtly influenced by appearance
• We sometimes pre-judge on facial features
• Baby-facedness: large eyes relative to the size of the head/person
  • Genetically programmed
  • Positive associations with babies
  • Physical appearance

Distorted Perceptions: Sometimes if we expect to see something our brain will actually fill in the gaps.

• We like to infer information from non-verbal behaviors.
• Primary thing we use is facial expressions
• Also: tone of voice
• Gestures
• Body positions/movement
• Use of touch

• Eye Gaze

• It is easiest for us to detect happiness in people using facial expressions

Attribution Theories

• Kelley’s Covariation Theory: Has 3 components which require multiple observations of a person
  • Consensus: How do others react?
  • Consistency: Are their actions consistent over time?
  • Distinctiveness: Is the reaction the same for different types of stimuli?
• Jones’s Correspondent inference theory: inferring from actions, a person’s personality traits. Whether behavior is:
  • Chosen
  • Expected
  • Person knows effects or consequences

Attributional Biases: Do we analyze behavior rationally or logically?

• Availability Heuristic: Tendency to estimate that an event will occur by how available a memory is.
• False consensus effect: We overestimate the extent to which others share beliefs and opinions
• Counterfactual thinking: The tendency to imagine alternative events or outcomes that might have occurred but did not
• Fundamental attribution error: The tendency to focus on the role of personal causes and underestimate the impact of situations on people’s behavior

Information Integration Theory: The theory that impressions are based on (1) the perceiver dispositions and (2) a weighted average of a target person’s traits

• Priming: The tendency for recently used or perceived words or ideas to come to mind easily and influence the interpretation of new information
• and Embodiment
• Central Traits: Traits that exert a powerful influence on overall impressions
• Trait Negativity Bias: The tendency for negative information to weigh more heavily on our impressions than positive information

Primacy Effect: The tendency for information presented early in a sequence to have more impact on impressions than information presented later.

Confirmation Bias: The tendency to seek interpret, and create information that verifies existing beliefs

• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The process by which one’s expectations about a person eventually lead that person to behave in ways that confirm those expectations