Social Psychology

Lecture Notes
2016-2017
Academic

The Scope, Nature and Goals of

Social Psychology

Definition
Social psychology may be defined as
the science that seeks to understand
how people think about, feel about,
relate to, and influence one another.
Social psychology may be defined as
the science that studies the
influences of our situations, with
special attention to how we view and
affect one another.

Definition of Social
psychology

Social psychology can be defined as a

discipline that uses scientific methods to
understand and explain how the
thought,
feeling and
behaviour
of individuals are influenced by the
actual, imagined or implied presence of
others (Allport, 1985, p.3; cited in
Worchel et al., 2000)

The Scope of Social

Psychology
The processes in most social interactions:
thinking and feeling about others
relating to and influencing them
helping behaviour
friendship formation
person perception
interpersonal conflict, etc

are the kinds of processes that comprise

the subject matter of social psychology

The Scope of Social

Psychology
Social psychologists emphasise:
The Situational Power
The Personal Power
The Cognitive Processes
The Application of the fields principles
Every situation involving human interactions
Advertisers; Lawyers; Work Teams in organisations;
etc

Work opportunities exist in a variety of

settings

Nature of Social Psychology

Empirically:
Ideas can be either refuted or supported.
Affords readily evaluations of findings.
Can be replicated by other researchers.
Accuracy: engage in precise, error-free
measurement and collection of information
Objectivity: ensure the minimization of bias
in data collection and proposition testing

Nature of Social
Psychology cont.

Skepticism: Social Psychologists will refuse

to believe findings and conclusions that
were obtained without rigorous verification.
Open-mindedness: Social Psychologists are
ready to accept as valid evidence that may
be inconsistent with their initial, and
perhaps strongly held, beliefs or theories.
Ethics: Social Psychologists accept the
absolute importance of ethical behaviour in
conducting research.

The Goals of Social

Psychology
The GOAL is to seek an
UNDERSTANDING of social psychological
phenomena being observed.
Understanding involves the
accomplishment of four goals:
description,
prediction,
determining causality, and
Explanation.

Goal of Description
The goal of description entails
identifying and reporting the
details and nature of a
phenomenon, often
distinguishing between the
classes or types of the
phenomenon and
recording its frequency of

Goal of Prediction
The prediction form of understanding
requires knowing what factors are
systematically related (i.e.,
correlated) to the phenomenon of
interest.
Any significant relationship found
would represent an important insight
but does not indicate causality.

Goal of Determining
causality
Determining causality between two factors
means determining that changes in one
factor produce (i.e., cause) changes in the
other factor.
Note this: Just because two factors are
related does not necessarily mean that
they are causally related.
Identifying the cause(s) of phenomena is a
very important component of
understanding.

Goal of Explanation
Explanation pertains to establishing why
a phenomenon or relationship occurs.
We may understand that one factor
causes another factor without knowing
exactly why the effect occurs, hence the
need to explain the WHY.
Social psychologists focused on furthering
the understanding of one or more of the
following: how people think about, feel
about, relate to, and influence each other.

Thanks

Research Methods in
Social Psychology

Why Social Psychology as a

Science?
The essence of science involves:
(a) a set of research methods that in
combination make up what is known as the
scientific method and
(b) a foundation of core values.

Social Psychology emphasises the use of

systematic observation to evaluate
propositions and ideas and hypothesis.
The field solely depends on empirical
tests.

Research Methods
Research often uncovers results that could
not have been predicted ahead of time.
Research is employed to test our
explanations about behaviour in a rigorous
manner.
CONCEPTUAL VARIABLES are the
characteristics that we are trying to
measure
AN OPERATIONAL DEFINITION is the
particular method that we use to measure a
variable of interest.

Research Methods
Social psychologists test hypothesis
using:
the observational approach: describes
the correlational approach: explore
linkages
the experimental approach: explore
linkages

A research hypothesis is a statement

about the relationship between the
variables of interest and about the

Observational Research
Observational research involves
making observations of behaviour
and recording those observations in
an objective manner to get a picture
of what is happening at time-t.
The observational approach involves
creating a type of snapshot of the
current state of affairs.

Correlational research
Correlational research test
hypotheses about the relationships
between two or more variables.
The research hypothesis in a
correlational design, is that there is
an association or a correlation
between the variables that are being
measured.

Experimental research
designs
Experimental research designs employ the
manipulation of a given situation or experience
for two or more groups of individuals who are
initially created to be equivalent, followed by a
measurement of the effect of that experience.
Factorial research designs are experimental
designs that have two or more independent
variables.
Ethics and Deception in Social Psychology
Experiments and Interpretation of Results

Thanks

SOCIAL COGNITION

SOCIAL COGNITION
The mental activity that relates to social
activities and helps us meet the goal of
understanding and predicting the
behaviour of ourselves and others.
The process of understanding or making
sense of people.
Social cognition involves learning
defined as the relatively permanent
change in knowledge that is acquired
through experience.

Social Learning in Brief

People have many memories about their
experiences with others stored in schemas.
This information is used to make predictions
about what people will do in the future.
This knowledge is gained through learning.
Developed set of schemas and attitudes are
naturally used as information to help in
judging and responding to others.
Operant, Associational, Observational
learning

COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL
COGNITION
TWO KEY COMPONENTS:
MAKING ATTRIBUTION
BUILDING IMPRESSION

ATTRIBUTION
We make attributions about why people
act as they do.
Attribution Processes
Dispositions
Internal and External Attribution
Discounting, Augmentation and Subtractive
Rule
Covariance Principle:
Consensus, Distinctiveness and Consistency

Attribution Bias
Fundamental Attribution Error, Saliency Bias and
STIs

Dispositions and Individual

differences
Dispositions are the personal qualities or
traits that distinguish one person or group
from another.
Individual differences refer to
characteristics or qualities of an individual
(as opposed to characteristics of a
situation) and include things such as
personality variables, attitudes, values, and
abilities as well as demographic variables
such as gender, ethnicity, religion, and age.

The Power of the

Situation
The behaviour of individuals is strongly
influenced by the social situation or context.
Evidence of the strong influence of the
situations power on peoples behaviour
abounds.
Good behaviour at church/mosques, what
happens when we leave such venues to ...
People are influenced by the situations they
are in, but not in the same way for
everybody.

Attributions
We explain peoples behaviour observed
by making internal attributions, external
attributions, or a combination of the two.
We make Situational (External)
attributions when we explain behaviour
by focusing on factors in the observed
persons social environment.
Explaining behaviour by focusing on
factors within the person who has been
observed is an act of making internal
(dispositional) attributions.

Underestimating the role of

situations.
People have the tendency to underestimate the
role of situational factors in influencing other
peoples behaviour; despite the fact that
behaviour results from both personal and social
influences.
The fundamental attribution error is the tendency
for people to underestimate the influence of
situational factors and focus on individual factors
in explaining other peoples behaviour (Ross,
1977).
Being attentive to the importance of social
influences on behaviour can help avoid this error.

Discounting, Augmentation
and Subtractive Rule
Discounting
EXAMPLES

Discounting, Augmentation
and Subtractive Rule
Augmentation
EXAMPLES

Discounting, Augmentation
and Subtractive Rule
Subtractive Rule
EXAMPLES

Covariance Principle
Consensus

Distinctiveness

Consistency

COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL
COGNITION
We build overall impression on the
basis of what we know or think we
know about them as individuals and
as members of groups.