SOCIAL

 PSYCHOLOGY    
 
Chapter  1  –  What  is  Social  Psychology?  
 
Social  psychology:  scientific  study  of  how  individuals  think,  feel,  and  behave  in  a  social  context.    
 
• Scientific:  applies  the  scientific  method(observation,  description,  measurement)  to  the  
study  of  the  human  condition  
• Think,  feel  and  behave:  broad  scope  –  investigates  a  wide  variety  of  attitudes  and  
contexts,  striving  to  establish  general  principles  of  attitude  formation  and  change  that  apply  
in  a  variety  of  situations,  rather  than  to  particular  domains  (like  in  economics,  for  example)  
• Social  context:  emphasis  on  social  nature  of  individuals,  which  distinguishing  it  from  other  
branches  of  psychology  
o Studies  can  still  involve  non-­‐social  things,  like  attitudes  about  shoes  for  example,  as  
long  as  the  thoughts,  feelings  or  behaviour  involved  concern  other  people  or  are  
influenced  by  other  people  
o Even  the  imagined  presence  of  others  can  have  important  effects  and  might  be  
studied  by  social  psychologists  (e.g.,  people  imagining  receiving  positive  reactions  
from  others  can  affect  self-­‐esteem)  
 
 Social  Psychological  Questions  and  Applications  
 
• The  number  and  importance  of  applications  continues  to  grow  –  social  psychology  is  used  
by  judges  and  lawyers,  health  care  professionals  in  the  prevention  of  disease,  government  
agencies,  and  in  marketing,  advertising,  social  networking  etc.    
 
Example  of  a  Social  Psychology  Experiment:  
 
Erin  Strahan(2008):  explored  impact  of  media  images  on  body  satisfaction  ratings  of  female  
undergrad  students.  They  wanted  to  see  if  they  could  change  whether  a  participant  felt  good  or  bad  
about  her  body  by  manipulating  how  aware  she  was  of  cultural  norms(i.e.,  ‘thin  is  in’)  
• Wanted  to  understand  WHY  and  UNDER  WHAT  CONDITIONS  unrealistic  images  in  media  
made  people  feel  bad  about  themselves  
• Hypothesis:  by  viewing  images,  women  are  reminded  that  other  people  are  judging  them  
so  their  own  self-­‐worth  suffers  when  they  determine  that  they  cannot  live  up  to  
expectations  
• Method:    asked  ½  women  to  watch  commercials  with  very  thin  models  and  the  other  ½  to  
watch  more  neutral  images(e.g.,  an  ad  for  cellphone)  
o Asked  women  to  rate  self-­‐esteem  and  self-­‐worth  and  to  indicate  now  concerned  
they  were  with  the  opinions  of  others  
• Results:  those  who  viewed  the  thin  images  reported  being  less  satisfied  with  their  bodies  
and  more  concerned  with  opinions  of  others.    
• Conclusion:  by  watching  the  commercials  women  were  reminded  of  what  was  considered  
attractive,  based  on  cultural  norms,  which  led  to  greater  awareness  of  how  people  might  
judge  them  and  decreased  feelings  of  self-­‐worth(reacted  to  how  they  imagined  others  would  
judge  them-­‐activation  of  norms)  
• Later,  same  researchers  created  an  intervention  to  challenge  cultural  norms  around  ideal  
body  size  –  provided  a  toolbox  of  techniques  for  countering  unrealistic  norms  that  resulted  
in  women  people  being  less  likely  to  base  their  self-­‐worth  on  their  appearance  
  
Social  Psychology  vs.  Sociology:    
• Sociologists  focus  on  group  level,  whereas  social  psychologists  focus  on  individual  level.      
o E.g.,  sociologists  might  study  political  attitudes  of  middle  class  in  Canada,  social  
psychologists  might  study  specific  factors  that  make  individuals  prefer  a  candidate.    
• Social  psychologists  also  more  likely  to  conduct  experiments  and  manipulate  variables,  and  
measure  effects  using  quantitative  methods  
• Intersection  of  two  fields  leads  to  more  complete  understanding  of  issues  
 
Social  Psychology  vs.  Clinical  Psychology:  
• Clinical  psychologists  seek  to  understand  and  treat  people  with  psychological  difficulties  or  
disorders  whereas  social  psychologists  focus  on  ways  individuals  think,  feel  behave  and  
influence  each  other  
 
Social  Psychology  vs.  Personality  Psychology:    
• both  concerned  with  thoughts,  feelings  and  behaviours  
• Personality  psychology  seeks  to  understand  differences  between  individuals  that  remain  
stable  across  a  variety  of  situations(Cross-­‐situational  consistencies),  whereas  social  
psychologists  week  to  understand  how  social  factors  affect  individuals  regardless  of  their  
personalities  (people  in  general)  
 
Social  Psychology  vs.  Cognitive  Psychology:  
• Cognitive  psychologists  study  mental  processes(thinking,  learning,  remembering  and  
reasoning),  and  social  psychologists  are  interested  in  the  same  things  but  in  respect  to  
social  information  and  how  these  processes  are  relevant  to  social  behaviour  
 
Social  Psychology  vs  Common  Sense:  
• Social  psych  uses  scientific  method  to  put  theories  to  test  
• Common  sense  is  sometimes  wildly  inaccurate  and  can  be  misleading  in  it’s  simplicity  
 
 
HISTORY  OF  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  
 
Ø Birth:  1880s-­‐1920s  
o First  study  published  -­‐Normal  Triplett  –  after  observing  that  bicyclists  tended  to  
race  faster  when  in  the  presence  of  others,  he  designed  an  experiment  to  study  the  
phenomenon  (scientific  approach)      
o Ringlemann(1913):  also  studied  effects  of  others  on  performance  –  noted  tha  
individuals  performed  worse  on  simple  tasks(e.g.,  pulling  on  rope)  when  they  did  it  
with  other  people  
o First  three  textbooks:  McDougall(1908),  Ross(1908)  and  Floyd  Allport(1924)  –  
emphasized  experimentation  and  scientific  method  and  announced  the  arrival  of  
new  approach  to  social  aspects  of  human  behaviour  
o McGill  offered  a  course  in  social  psychology  in  1913  
 
Ø Call  to  Action:  1930s-­‐1950s  
o Adolf  Hitler:    rise  to  power  and  the  ensuing  turmoil  caused  the  world  to  become  
desperate  for  answers  to  social  psychological  questions  about  what  causes  violence,  
 prejudice  and  genocide,  conformity  and  obedience  and  other  social  problems  and  
behaviours  
§ Years  around  WWII  –  explosion  of  interest  in  social  psychology  
o Gordon  Allport(1936)  +  other  social  psychologists  formed  Society  for  the  
Psychological  Study  of  Social  Issues(SPSSI)  –wanted  to  make  practical  contributions  
to  society  
§ (1954)  –  The  Nature  of  Prejudice(book)  
o Muzafer  Sherif:    seeing  a  soldier  killing  his  friends  led  him  to  conduct  research  on  
the  powerful  influences  groups  can  exert  on  individual  members(saw  soldier  killing  
his  friends)  
o Kurt  Lewin:  established  these  fundamental  principles  of  social  psych:      
§ Behaviour  is  a  function  of  the  interaction  between  the  person  and  environment  
(interactionist  perspective)  –  both  personality  and  environmental  
characteristics  influence  behaviour  
§ Social  psychological  theories  should  be  applied  to  important,  practical  issues  –  
how  social  psych  can  enlarge  our  understaning  of  social  problems  and  
contribute  to  their  solution  
• Call  to  action:  “no  research  without  action,  no  action  without  
research”  
o Solomon  Asch(1951):  demonstrated  how  willing  people  are  to  conform  to  an  
obviously  wrong  majority  
o No  women  scholars  noted  –  women’s  accomplishments  were  not  always  duly  noted,  
and  they  were  not  elected  to  leadership  roles,  or  if  they  did  get  any  credit  it  was  only  
because  of  well  known  husbands(e.g.,  Caroline  Marie  Jahoda,  Muzafer’s  wife)  
 
Ø Confidence  and  Crisis,  1960s  –  1970s:  
o Stanley  Milgram:  research  inspired  by  destructive  obedience  demonstrated  by  
Nazi  officers  and  citizens  in  WWII  –  also  looked  ahead  at  civil  disobedience  (study  
on  peoples’  vulnerability  to  destructive  commands  of  authority  became  most  
famous  research  in  social  psych)  
o 1970s  –  lots  of  funding,  field  expanded  
o Critiques  of  laboratory  experiments  –  unethical,  historically  and  culturally  limited,  
and  invalid  due  to  experimenters  expectations  influencing  participants  behaviour  –
social  psychologists  split  in  two  
 
Ø Era  of  Pluralism:  1970s  -­‐  1990s  
o More  rigorous  ethical  standards  of  research,  more  stringent  procedures  to  guard  
against  bias  and  more  attention  to  cross  cultural  differences  
o Pluralistic  approach:  different  topics  require  different  kinds  of  investigations  and  
different  techniques  
§ Variations  in  what  aspects  of  human  behaviour  are  emphasized  
§ Some  research  takes  ‘hot’  perspective:  emotion  and  motivation  as  
determinants  of  thought  and  action  
§ Other  research  takes  ‘cold’  perspective:  cognition,  how  thoughts  affect  
feelings  and  behaviour  
§ International  and  multicultural  perspectives-­‐  most  social  psychologists  from  
Canada  or  US  –  was  “culture-­‐bound/monocultural”  pre-­‐1990s  
 
 
 
Themes  and  Perspectives  of  Current  Research  
 
Social  cognition:    the  study  of  how  we  perceive,  remember  and  interpret  information  about  
ourselves  and  others    
o dominated  in  social  psych  during  final  quarter  of  last  century  -­‐-­‐‘hotter’  influences  of  
emotions  and  motivation  took  the  back  seat  
o Now  there  is  a  push  to  integrate  ‘hot’(emotions  and  motivations)  with  ‘cold’(cognitive)  
o E.g.,  research  on  the  conflict  between  wanting  to  be  right  and  wanting  to  feel  good  
about  oneself  (we  don’t  want  to  be  accurate  if  it  means  we  will  learn  something  bad  
about  ourselves)  
o New  studies  that  distinguish  between  automatic  and  controllable  processes  
o E.g.,  study  on  whether  stereotypes  can  be  activated  without  intention  and  maybe  
against  one’s  will  
 
Biological  and  evolutionary  perspectives  
o effects  of  social  psychology  on  our  biology  and  vice  versa  
o Social  neuroscience:  the  study  of  the  relationship  between  neural  and  social  processes  
o Behavioural  genetics:  examines  the  effects  of  genes  on  behaviour(aggression  as  a  genetic  
trait?  Genes  and  sexual  orientation)  
o Evolutionary  psychology:  uses  evolution  to  understand  human  behaviour.  Looks  at  
natural  selection  pressures  on  our  ancestors.  
 
Cultural  Perspectives  
 
o More  research  on  role  of  culture  in  all  aspects  of  social  psychology  –  universal  generality  
or  cultural  specificity  of  theories?  
o Culture:  a  system  of  enduring  meanings,  beliefs,  values,  assumptions  institutions  and  
practices  shared  by  a  group  of  people  and  transmitted  from  one  generation  to  the  next  
o Cross-­‐cultural  research:  examines  similarities  and  differences  across  a  variety  of  cultures  
o Multicultural  research:  examines  racial  and  ethnic  groups  within  cultures.  
o E.g.,  important  distinctions  between  individualistic  and  collectivist  cultures  
o People  from  individualistic  cultures(North  America)  are  more  likely  to  seek  out  or  
focus  on  information  that  makes  them  feel  good  about  themselves  rather  than  point  
to  the  need  for  improvement  
o Euro-­‐Canadian  and  Japanese  people  asked  to  pick  traits  that  characterized  
themselves  
§ Euro-­‐Canadian:  mostly  undesirable  traits,  Japanese:  mix  of  desirable  &  
undesirable  
o People  treated  differently  as  a  function  of  social  categories  (gender,  race,  appearance  etc)  
o As  a  result  people  may  develop  distinct  subcultures    
 
New  Technologies  
o Social  psychologists  use  brain  imaging  techniques  such  as  position  emission  tomography  
(PET),  event  related  potential(ERP),  transcranial  magnetic  stimulation(TMS)  and  functional  
magnetic  resonance  imaging(fMRI)  to  study  interplay  of  brain  and  thoughts,  feelings  and  
behaviours  
o Just  beginning  to  use  virtual  reality  technology  
o The  internet  has  led  to  increased  collaboration  and  internationalization  of  the  field  
o Internet  as  a  topic  of  study  in  social  psych  –  are  various  social  psychological  phenomena  
similar  or  different  online  versus  offline