introducing

1. The Field of Social
Psychology
Elmakrufi.Blogspot.com

2. 1. Most of us have quite accurate insight into the factors
that influence our moods.
1. Most people rate themselves as worse-than-average in
rating themselves on socially desirable characteristics.
1. Memory is like a storage chest in the brain, into which we
deposit material and from which we can withdraw it later
if needed. Occasionally, something gets lost from the
“chest” and then we say we have forgotten.
1. People’s behavior is best predicted in terms of their
personalities or inner dispositions.
1. To alter the way people act, one needs first to change
their hearts and minds.

3. 1. People who are made self-conscious by looking
into a mirror act more in line with their attitudes.
1. The greater the reward promised for an activity,
the more one will come to enjoy the activity.
1. In overall vocabulary, happiness and
intelligence, males and females are not
noticeably different.
1. In countries everywhere, girls spend more time
helping with housework and child care, while
boys spend more time in unsupervised play.
1. Most people would disobey an authority who
orders them to hurt a stranger.

4. 1. Persuaders will always be more effective if they
acknowledge opposing arguments.
1. In a formal debate, it is always to your
advantage to be the last speaker.
1. People pull harder in a tug-of-war when they are
part of a team than when they are pulling by
themselves.
1. The greater the cohesiveness or “we feeling” in
a group, the more likely the group will make a
good decision.
1. When white and black students are shown faces
of a few white and black individuals and then
asked to pick these individuals out of a
photographic lineup, both white and black
students more accurately recognize the white
faces than the black.

5. 1. In a recent national survey, only a minority of
Americans indicated that they would be willing
to see a homosexual doctor.
1. To be mentally healthy, people need an
opportunity to act out, and thus to vent, their
aggression.
1. The more often we see something—even if we
don’t like it at first—the more we grow to like it.
1. As suggested by the dumb-blonde idea,
physically attractive men and women tend to
be looked on by others as colder, dumber, and
less moral than the plainer people.
1. Opposites attract.

6. 1. One of the best predictors of whether
any two people are friends is their sheer
proximity, or geographical nearness, to
one another.
1. When we feel guilty, we are more likely
to help those around us.
1. If you want to buy a new car at the best
price, it is best to adopt a tough
bargaining stance by opening with a
very low offer rather than with a sincere,
“good faith” offer.
1. Depressed persons tend to be unrealistic
in their perceptions of themselves.

7.  People who favor the death penalty are
also more prone to vote a defendant
guilty.
 Eyewitnesses’ certainty about their own
accuracy in viewing a crime is highly
related to their actual accuracy.
 Research clearly shows a strong positive
relationship between material wealth
and life satisfaction.

8.  “Everyone else is doing it.”
 Solomon Asch
 “The experimenter told me to.”
 Stanley Milgram
 “It’s better than those other groups.”
 Henri Tajfel
 “It’s so much work, it must be
worthwhile.”
 Leon Festinger

9.  Do people with firm handshakes really make a better
first impression?
 Have gender stereotypes changed in recent years?
 What is jealousy? What are its causes?
 Does heat really increase aggressive behavior?
 understanding how and why individuals
behave, think, and feel as they do in social
situations

10.  Def -
› the scientific field that seeks to understand the
nature and causes of individual behavior and
thought in social situations

11.  Science
› Set of values
› Set of methods
 Focus on an individual level

12.  We construct our social reality.
› Desire predictability
› Explanations are based on past experiences.
 Intuitions are powerful.
› e.g., heuristics
 Social influences shape our behavior.
 Personality / genetics shape behavior.

13.  Power of the situation:
› Environmental variables
› Cultural context
› Actions and characteristics
of other people
 Power of the person:
› Biological factor
› Disposition/Attitudes
 Importance of cognition:
› Memories and inferences
› Construals of the
situation

14.  Different perspectives are
complementary!!
 E.G. – poem
 Integration of fields
› e.g. – journals
 Broader understanding of an issue.

15.  Accuracy
› careful, precise, and error-free data collection
 Objectivity
› error-free evaluation of data
 Skepticism
› accept accuracy only after repeated verification
 Open-mindedness
› change one’s views inaccurate

16. 1. F (Chapter 2) 10. F (Chapter 6) 19. F (Chapter 11)
2. F (Chapter 2) 11. F (Chapter 7) 20. F (Chapter 11)
3. F (Chapter 3) 12. F (Chapter 7) 21. T (Chapter 11)
4. F (Chapter 3) 13. F (Chapter 8) 22. T (Chapter 12)
5. F (Chapter 4) 14. F (Chapter 8) 23. T (Chapter 13)
6. T (Chapter 4) 15. F (Chapter 9) 24. F (Chapter 14)
7. F (Chapter 4) 16. T (Chapter 9) 25. T (Chapter 14)
8. T (Chapter 5) 17. F (Chapter 10) 26. F (Chapter 15)
9. T (Chapter 5) 18. T (Chapter 11) 27. F (Chapter 16)

17.  Some common sense is correct.
 BUT, it is correct AFTER THE FACT.

18.  Inconsistencies
 Post Hoc
› Rationalizes rather than explains behavior
› Hindsight bias
 Definitions
› What’s a “soul”?
 Incomplete Explanations

19.  The next slide contains a list of
anagrams along with their solutions.
Please estimate how long it would
have taken to solve each anagram if
the solution was not provided.

20.  WREAT (WATER)
 ETRYN (ENTRY)
 OCHSA (CHAOS)
 GRABE (BARGE)

21.  WREAT (WATER) – 158 seconds (2min:38sec)
 ETRYN (ENTRY) – 182 seconds (3:02)
 OCHSA (CHAOS) – 224 seconds (3:44)
 GRABE (BARGE) – 173 seconds (2:53)
 How do your responses compare with actual
times?
 My guess is that you grossly underestimated
solution times?!

23.  Short Term
› need to understand the text!
 Long Term
› informed consumer of knowledge
 interpretation of news stories
 understanding conclusions

24.  Def –
› a testable proposition that describes a potential
relationship that may exist between variables
 Purpose of Hypotheses
› Suggest how we may falsify a theory
› Gives direction to research

25. Theory
about
some
aspect of
social
behavior
Predictions are
disconfirmed
Cofidence in
theory is
decreased
Theory is
modified
Theory is
rejected
Research is
conducted
Predictions are
confirmed
Confidence in
theory is
increased
Predictions

28.  Naturalistic observation –
 def – count of how often a behavior occurs in an environment
 No manipulation of variables
 Survey method –
 def - large number of people report on their behavior or
attitudes
 ADVANTAGES & POTENTIAL BIASES
 LIMITATION! -
 DESCRIPTIVE ONLY!

29.  Def
› determine whether changes in one variable are
accompanied by changes in the other
 Math
› can range from -1.0 to 1.0
› absolute value indicates strength
› sign indicates direction
 Predictions
› Accuracy of predictions is based on the strength of the
relationship between the two variables

30.  Advantages - External validity
 Limitations - NO CAUSALITY!

32.  Birth control and toasters
› Use of birth control was associated with
number of electrical appliances
› Causal relationship?
› Develop interventions? - hand out toasters
to cause people to use condoms?
 Why use correlational research?
› sometimes it’s the best option

33.  The Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital
Study, 1963
› injected patients with live cancer cells
› got oral consent (patients not told they
would receive cancer cells)
› was not reviewed by research committee or
treating physician

34.  Def
› Systematic manipulation of one variable to determine
if such changes result in changes in another variable
 Requirements for experiments:
› Random Assignment
› Controlled Environment
 The basic dilemma of the social psychologist
(Aronson & Carlsmith, 1968)

36.  Determine the likelihood that study results were
due to chance.
 Social psychological research often presents
conflicting evidence for a hypothesis
› Different methodologies
› Different conceptualizations of study variables

37.  THEORIES ARE NEVER PROVEN!!!
 RESEARCH IS NOT CONDUCTED TO
VERIFY A THEORY!!!

38.  Should social psychologists try to solve
social problems?
› What would the reasons be for change?
› What are the underlying assumptions?
› Is there a point to doing research if it is not
eventually applied?

39.  Values can enter research through:
› choice of topics
› researchers
› subjective aspects of science
› culture

40.  How my interests began?
 How has they developed?
 What are my special interests?
 What are my presuppositions and
commitments, and how do they
influence my teaching and research?