Social Psychology
David Myers, Jackie Abell & Fabio Sani
Index
Chapter 1: Introducing Social Psychology........................................................................................ 2
Chapter 2: Research Methods in Social Psychology ......................................................................... 4
Chapter 3: The Self........................................................................................................................ 6
Chapter 4: Social Beliefs and Judgements ....................................................................................... 9
Chapter 5: Attitudes and Behaviour ..............................................................................................14
Chapter 6: Persuasion ..................................................................................................................18
Chapter 7: Conformity and obedience ...........................................................................................23
Chapter 8: Aggression ..................................................................................................................27
Chapter 9: Attraction and Intimacy ...............................................................................................30
Chapter 10: Helping .....................................................................................................................35
Chapter 11: Small Group Processes ...............................................................................................39
Chapter 12: Social Categorization and Social Identity .....................................................................43
Chapter 13: Prejudice, intergroup relations and conflict .................................................................49
Chapter 14: Genes, culture and gender .........................................................................................54
,Chapter 1: Introducing Social Psychology
This chapter: What is social psychology?
What is social psychology?
Social psychology: The scientific study of how people think about, relate to, and influence one
another, either interpersonally or within groups.
Social psychology deals with both ‘within skins’ issues (thinking, emotions, attitudes) and ‘between
skins’ issues (interaction, communication). Social psychologists investigate how and why behaviour
has occurred.
This book is structured as follows:
1. Social thinking: The self, social beliefs and judgements, attitudes and behaviours.
2. Social influence: Persuasion, conformity and identity.
3. Social relations: Aggression, attraction and intimacy, helping.
4. Groups and identities: Small group processes, social categorization and social identity,
prejudice, intergroup relations and conflict.
A brief history of social psychology
This scheme gives a brief overview of social psychologists and their ideas.
18th Hume Trait explanations for behaviour
Smith The self
Kant Gestalt psychology: Mind and brain structure our perceptions and impressions.
Herbart* The link between individual and society → völkerspsychologie.
Comte Positivism: Social sciences can be studied by general, empirical science laws.
19th Wundt** Völkerspsychologie: People in the same social groups think the same way.
20th
Le Bon Modern-day psychology of the crowd, intergroup relations and aggression.
James*** Social psychology becomes a discipline.
Durkheim Distinguishes individual and collective thought.
Mead The self and darwinism.
Ross Textbook on social psychology.
McDougall Evolutionary psychology: Natural selection in shaping cognition and behaviour.
Lewin First social psychology experiments, taking on an gestaltic approach to social
interaction (action research).
Allport Textbook on social psychology focussing on the individual.
* Founder of social psychology.
** Founder of experimental psychology.
*** Founder of American psychology
Over the years, individual psychology became more important than social psychology. Social
psychologists came together to emphasize the study of human behaviour in terms of the individual
but also the relationship with others. To understand human beings, we need different levels of
explanation.
,➔ Critical social psychology: A movement promoting a social psychology, embracing the influence
of social constructionism (all cognitive functions originate in social interaction) and including
forms of discursive psychology (language as social action) and phenomenological psychology
(subjective conscious experience is essential in understanding human behaviour).
Social psychology and human values
Social psychology reflects contemporary society. Values are the object of social psychology, they
differ across time and cultures. Social psychologists investigate how they form, why they change and
how they influence attitudes and actions.
Culture: Enduring behaviours, ideas, attitudes and traditions shared by a large group of people and
transmitted from one generation to the next.
Social representations: Socially shared beliefs, ideas and values. The help us make sense of the
world.
➔ Psychology is not objective, value judgements are being made. This is why we need researchers
with systematic observation, empirical data and experimentation.
Social psychology’s key ideas
Shortlist of key ideas that are applicable to everyday life:
Social thinking Social influence Social relations
- We construct our social - There are social - Social behaviour is also
reality influences on biological behaviour
- Our social intuitions are behaviour - Feelings and actions towards
powerful/perilous - Dispositions shape people are sometimes negative
- Attitudes shape and are behaviour and sometimes positive
shaped by behaviour - Behaviour is influenced - Behaviour is shaped by our
by social group intragroup and intergroup
memberships relations
In short, these key ideas will describe the following statements in this book:
We explain behaviour to make it seem orderly, predictable and controllable. The same event can
therefore be evaluated very differently by two people. Our instant intuitions shape our fears,
impressions and relationships. We misread our own minds and feelings.
Membership of a social group shapes our behaviour, thinking and our sense of self.
Behaviourism: The effects of learning and situational factors on behaviour. Psychology should
observe behaviour, since thoughts and feelings are unavailable for research.
Our genetic heritage and individual dispositions affect and create our individual psychological
functions and behaviour. Facing the same situation, different people may react differently.
In many contexts the ‘self’ is defined in terms of group membership (being French). The groups we
belong to define who we are and are at the basis of our behaviours.
Every psychological event is simultaneously a biological event, we can examine the neurobiology that
underlies social behaviour. Social neuroscience seeks to understand how the brain influences
behaviour.
,Chapter 2: Research Methods in Social Psychology
This chapter: How should we collect evidence of behaviour?
Is social psychology common sense?
Experiments reveal that when people learn the outcome of an experiment, that outcome suddenly
seems unsurprising. Even when research finds the opposite of common sense. After events have
happened, we suddenly see the forces that brought about the event.
Hindsight bias: The tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one’s ability to have foreseen
how something turned out.
Approaches to doing research
1. Quantitative research: Studying the relationships between variables (that are expressed
numerically, and their relationships are explored via statistical analyses.
E.g. Students who perform well have greater self-esteem, Does heat make more aggressive etc.
2. Qualitative research: Research based on the interpretation of qualitative data. Methods are used
that capture the richness and complexity of human psychology (interviews, transcripts).
E.g. Living with a chronical illness.
Data: Notes, information, registered observations, statistical measurements or responses collected
together for scientific analysis or interpretation, and then to inform knowledge.
Quantitative research
Research question: Guides the focus of current research.
→ Theory: Interrelated set of principles that guid what should be studied, and explain and predict
the observed relationship between variables.
→ Hypotheses: Testable proposition that describes a relationship that may exist between variables.
Following, the relationship between the variables has to be investigated. Associations are explored
by designing questionnaires (survey study). When designing a questionnaire, 5 important aspects
have to be taken into consideration:
1. The nature of the sample (random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified sampling, cluster
sampling, opportunity/convenience sampling, snowball sampling, purposive sampling).
2. Order of the questions
3. Response options
4. Wording of questions
5. Validity and reliability of measures
Correlational research: The study of naturally occurring relationships among variables. Correlations
can be quantified by using Pearson’s r that can range from -1.0 to +1.0.
- Negative correlation: When variable 1 decreases, variable 1 increases.
- Positive correlation: When two variables both increase or both decrease.
Searching for cause and effect by experimental research: Because discerning causality is very
difficult, social psychologist create laboratory simulations. These include an independent variable, a
dependent variable and random assignment. When this is not possible, researchers can adopt
,natural experiments (the IV is not directly influenced) or field experiments (the researcher can
influence the IV ‘in the field). Both experiments have high ecological validity (findings reflect natural
setting) but also uncontrollable variables (confounding variables) that can affect the outcome of the
research.
Experimental research is a simplified, controlled reality. It tells us what effect to expect of variable X,
all other things being equal. Nevertheless, the content (attitudes) and the process (how attitudes
affect actions) of people’s thinking can be distinguished. The process varies less from culture to
culture than does the content.
Qualitative research
Research question: Framed in a way that allows a free exploration of the issue at stake, with no
specific expectations about what is to be found.
E.g. ‘How do Western people define happiness?’.
→ Purposive sampling, selection with principled reasons.
Researchers have to reflect on their role and make this clear in the analysis.
Collecting data: interviewing (with minimal structure), group discussions in focus groups, participant
observation.
Data analysis: Capture ‘meaning’ by coding data and discern themes and patterns.
- Method of constant comparison: Researcher compares categories of responses to establish
similarities and differences in meaning.
- Discourse analysis: Studies language obtained from interviews and forms of text.
- Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Obtain as much description and knowledge of the
participant’s lifeworld as possible.
Research ethics
Social psychologists have to be extra careful, because research usually involves human beings. People
have to be treated humanely:
1. Informed consent: Research participants should be told enough to choose whether they
want to participate.
2. Deception: Only if essential and justified.
3. Protect participants from harm and discomfort.
4. Treat information confidentially.
5. Debriefing: The post-experimental explanation to the participants.
, Chapter 3: The Self
This chapter: The self is a complex web of psychological entities (cognitions, emotions) and processes
concerning one’s on person, consisting of self-concept, self-esteem, self-knowledge and social self.
Spotlight and illusions
Spotlight effect: The belief that others are paying more attention to one’s appearance and behaviour
than they really are. People overestimate the extent to which people pay attention to themselves.
Illusion of transparancy: The illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by
others.
There are more examples about the interplay between our sense of self and our social world:
- Social surroundings affect our self-awareness (E.g. ‘feeling’ white when being in Afrika = self-
consciousness).
- Self-concern motivates our social behaviour (E.g. Hoping to make a positive impression).
- Social relationships help define our self (E.g. Varying selves around family vs around teachers).
Self-concept: Who am I?
Self-concept: A person’s answer to the question ‘Who am I?’ The self-concept consists of self-
schemas, beliefs about self that organize the processing of self-relevant information. The self-
concept has implications for information processing and memory. When information is relevant to
our self-concepts, we process it quickly and remember it well (self-reference effect). This is less
common in collectivistic cultures than in individualistic cultures.
Possible selves: Images of what we dream of becoming in the future, or fear becoming in the future.
This can motivate us with a vision of the life we long for.
Self-discrepancy theory (Higgins): There are 3 types of self-representation → the actual self, the
ideal self (how you want to be) and the ought self (how you think you should be). A discrepancy
between the actual and the ideal self leads to dejection-related emotions (disappointment, sadness),
a discrepancy between the actual and the ought self generates agitation-related emotions (fear,
threat). This is most common in Western cultures, in some other cultures differences between
aspirations and actuality is accepted more easily.
The social construction of the self: The self is not localized inside people’s own heads. It is
distributed between own thoughts and feelings, social relations, the stories you tell other people,
ideas formed by other people etc.
Our self-concepts are determined by:
- The roles we play
- Social identities: One’s sense of self based on membership in social groups.
- Social comparisons: Evaluating abilities and opinions by comparing to others (schadenfreude).
- Our successes and failures
- How other people judge us
- Our surrounding culture.
