Lecture notes
Social Psychology Lecture Notes
- Institution
- The University Of Birmingham (UBir)
Complete comprehensive notes for social psychology exams
[Show more]
Seller
Follow
Content preview
Introduction to Social PsychologyLECTURE 1: HISTORY AND METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY (CHAPTER 1)
What is Social Psychology?
• “The scientific study of how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined
or implied presence of other human beings” Allport
• “The scientific study of the effects of social and cognitive processes on the way individuals perceive, influence and
relate to others’ and situations” Smith and Mackie
• Seeks an understanding for the reasons why people act the way they do in social situations
Historical trends
• Before psychology became an empirical science, philosophers speculated about the influence of social psychology
▪ Mob behaviour and Plato – “crowd mind”
• Social psychology becomes an empirical science – as interested in underlying social and cognitive processes as overt
behaviour (late 19th century)
o Experimental study of social influence begins shortly after in North America, England and France
▪ Triplett (1898)
• Investigated social facilitation – swimmers and cyclists rode faster when in a group
competing against another group than when alone
o wondered whether the presence of others has a beneficial effect on performance
(kids with fishing lines)
• Contracted Ringelmann’s 1913 study (he found individual effort decreased in a group)
• Debate still continues today
o the presence of others often facilitates performance when individual contributions
are easily identified, but reduces performance when people are ‘lost in a crowd’
• 20th Century: Social psychology splits from general psychology over what causes behaviour
o Rejection of behaviourism – social psychologists believed in the importance of cognitive processes (thoughts
and feelings)
o Behaviourist perspective was dominant (e.g. Watson and Skinner) – did not account for internal events
▪ social psychologists believed that people’s divergent views on the same issues could only be
explained by their internal feelings and attitudes (Allport, 1924)
• Mid 20th Century: Focus on important societal issues
o social psychology is shaped by rise of Nazism e.g. Milgram
▪ Desire to understand why and help/prevent
▪ Many European social psychologists fled Nazi Europe in the 1930s and 1940s and
offered different perspectives on social psychology
• many not trained in behaviourism but Gestalt theory which focused on
cognitive processes and the role they play in the social world
▪ Adolf Hitler said to have the biggest influence on the development social
psychology in North America (Cartwright, 1979) – growth of social psychology concentrated in North
America for the next few decades
▪ Social psychologists were also called upon to persuade the public into successful rationing etc
• Lewin (1947) found that discussion groups were much more effective for getting women to
change their families eating habits than passive listening to lectures
▪ Stouffer (1949) found that how the soldiers perceived their ability rather than their actual ability
informed their confidence in fighting
▪ Heavy propaganda illustrated how persuasion could be used to change people’s beliefs/actions
• Hovland et al (1953) – persuasion depends on who delivers the message, who receives the
message and how the message is processed
, ▪ Kurt Lewin’s work (a scientist who fled Hitler) embodied this period. He believed that, all behaviour
depends on the individual’s life space, which he defined as a subjective map of the individual’s
current goals and their social environment (1936)
▪ This summed up 2 main psychological disciplines:
• people’s subjective interpretation of reality is the key determinant of their beliefs and
behaviours
• social influences structure your interpretation of reality
Current themes
• Integration of cognitive and social processes
o Tight grip of behaviourism finally broken in North America, gave impetus to a cognitive revolution in the 1960s
o Cognitive themes and theories swiftly gained attention in experimental, developmental, personality and even
clinical psychology
o Concepts such as attitudes, norms and beliefs (already common in social psychology) began to be applied to
new areas of study, like personal relationships, aggression, stereotyping, discrimination and altruism.
o Thus, theoretical concerns and proven experimental methods converged as researchers in many areas of social
psychology focused on the study of cognitive processes (Jones, 1985)
o Scientific understanding of the way social and cognitive processes work to mould social behaviour has
benefited from the increasing integration of North American social psychology and European social psychology
• Integration of basic science and social problems
o Theories designed to provide insight into social problems, have implications for addressing social problems
▪ virtually all social psychological research is relevant to significant social issues
o Many researchers study social-psychological processes in applied settings, related to health, education, law,
the environment and business.
ALL HUMAN BEHAVIOUR CAN BE UNDERSTOOD THROUGH 8 PRINCIPLES = 2 fundamental axioms, 3 motivational principles and
3 processing principles – explains good and bad, thoughts behaviour and actions
Fundamental axioms
• Construction of reality
o each person’s view of reality is a construction shaped by social and cognitive processes
o subjective reality more influential than objective reality
o We tune in to others’ interpretations and we use those interpretations to inform our responses
▪ in this sense, a person’s view of the world is at least in part a reflection of what is seen in the eyes of
others
• Pervasiveness of social influence – group membership becomes part of who we are
o Other people influence all of an individual’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour, regardless of whether they are
physically present
o Social influence is most profound when it is least evident
Motivational principles
• Mastery (=accuracy)
o Understanding and predicting events in the social world in order to obtain rewards
o This is an important incentive in our attempt to form and hold accurate opinions and beliefs about the world
▪ accurate beliefs guide us to effective and satisfying actions
o In many everyday decisions individuals and groups choose to act in ways that appear likely to lead to the most
rewarding results
• Connectedness (=belonging)
o People seek support, liking and acceptance from individuals and groups that they care about – aids survival
o Conforming to group standards, even those which have destructive consequences for people outside the
group, fulfils a need for belonging and connectedness.
, • Identity and ownership (=self-esteem) – valuing ‘me and mine’
o Seeing oneself and one’s groups in a positive light
o can explain why members of different groups see the same events in different ways
Processing principles
• Conservatism
o Established views are slow to change and prone to perpetuate themselves
▪ first impressions you make of people
▪ enormous amount of effort needed to change them
• Accessibility
o Readily available information has the strongest impact on thoughts, beliefs and behaviour
▪ due to the richness of information every social situation provides, we cannot consider all the details.
So, we are likely to consider, remember and use only a tiny fraction of the information presented to
us
▪ Our decisions our based on this small information available
• Superficially versus depth
o People can process information superficially or in depth (and tend to prefer superficial processing)
o Processing in depth usually occurs when things contradict your current thoughts/beliefs
▪ this is because the unknown information can be considered threatening and can trigger anxiety
o cognitive miser -> motivated tactician (being motivated means you will process more deeply)
Key terms
• Reciprocity – the urge to respond to positive action with another positive action
• Group norms - unspoken and often unwritten set of informal rules that govern individual behaviours in a group
• Motivated cognition - influence of motives on various types of thought processes such as memory, information
processing, reasoning, judgment, and decision making.
• Cognitive miser – to reduce the cognitive load we make quick decisions that we don’t make effort to change until we
need to
• Social facilitation – you perform better at a task when in a group - best with an easy task
Common sense observers and social psychologists
• Both have the same goals, but their methods are different
o both wish to understand, predict and influence people’s thoughts and behaviour
• However common-sense observers usually reach conclusions about behaviour based on their own or others’
experiences.
o common-sense knowledge is therefore sometimes inconsistent or even contradictory
• Social psychologists study behaviour systematically
o they seek to avoid the misconceptions and distortions that afflict our common-sense knowledge
• Even science is not infallible as shown in history, many conclusions proposed as scientific truths are overturned by new
observations or insights
, Social and cognitive processes
• The presence of other people, the knowledge and opinions they pass on to us and our feelings about the groups to
which we belong, all deeply influence us through SOCIAL processes
o affect us when others are not physically present
o whether they affect us when others are physically present, depends on how we interpret others and their
actions
• Our perceptions, memories, emotions and motives also exert a pervasive influence on us through COGNITIVE processes
• Effects of social and cognitive processes are not separate, they are inextricably linked
o cognitive processes affect every aspect of our lives because the content of our thoughts, the goals towards
which we strive, and the feelings we have about people and activities- how we act and react in the social
world- comes from our beliefs about the world.
ASKING AND ANSWERING RESEARCH QUESTIONS (CHAPTER 2) USE A LEVEL RESEARCH METHODS NOTES
ETHICS
• Research questions develop from curiosity about why people act the way they do – this often reflects a concern about
social problems
What is a scientific theory?
• A statement about the causal relationship among abstract constructs
• There are three requirements for a theory
o Theories are statements about constructs: construct validity
o Theories describe causal relations: internal validity
o Theories are general in scope: external validity
Key terms
• Constructs – abstract and general concepts that are used in
theories and that are not directly observable
• Social comparison theory – Our knowledge of other people’s
outcomes, performances or opinions causes changes in how we
evaluate our own outcomes, performances or opinions
• Realistic conflict theory – hostility between social groups is caused
by direct competition for limited resources
Testing theories
• To ensure a theory is valid, it must have:
o Construct validity – where the specific observations
researchers make in their studies are in fact relevant to the constructs they are studying
o Internal validity – when establishing a causal relation, researchers must be sure that their IV causes the
changes in the DV – they measure what they think they are measuring
o External validity – to have a broad scope, researchers must be able to apply their research to large groups of
people not just a few individuals – it must be true in the outside world
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller lucystansfield. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for £8.49. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
52510 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy revision notes and other study material for 14 years now