Table of Contents
Week Lecture Lecture Topic Reading
1 1 Introduction to Social and Cross-Cultural Psychology 1
2 2 Social Cognition and Attribution 2+3
3 3 Attitudes and Attitude Change 5+6
4 Social Influence and Language 7 + 15
4
5 Self and Interpersonal Attraction 4 + 14
6 People in Groups and Leadership 8+9
5
7 Prejudice and Intergroup Relations 10 + 11
8 Aggression and Prosocial Behavior 12 + 13
6
9 Culture 16
, Introduction to Social and Cross-Cultural Psychology
Week Objectives
→ defining social psychology, its relation to neighboring disciplines, basic methodology, and
theoretical underpinnings
→ defining culture and cross-cultural psychology
What is Social Psychology?
social psychology → the scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
of individuals are influenced by the (actual, imagined, or implied)
presence of others’
behavior → what people actually do (actions) that can be objectively measured
↳ from obvious motor movements (walking) to subtle actions (a smirk, how we dress)
and speech and writing
- social psychologists:
→ are interested in explaining human behavior and generally do not study animals
→ are not only interested in behavior, but also in feelings, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes,
intentions, and goals
↳ not directly observable but can be inferred from behavior and may influence
and determine behavior
→ always map psychological aspects of behavior onto fundamental cognitive
processes and structures in the mind and neurochemical processes in the brain
→ conduct research to test and modify theories, improve understanding of societal
issues and inform relevant stakeholders (people making big decisions)
- the “social” aspect of social psychology is given by the fact that it studies how people are
affected by other people who are physically present, who are imagined to be present, or whose
presence is implied
thought → an internalized and private activity that can occur when we are alone and is based
on implied presence
- social psychology is a science because:
↳ it uses the scientific method to construct and test theories
↳ the validity of a theory is based on its correspondence with a fact
↳ theories are constructed based on data and/or previous theories leading to empirical
research, in which data are collected to test the theory
related disciplines
- social psychology is a sub-discipline of general psychology
- social psychology is concerned with:
→ explaining behavior in terms of processes that occur within the mind
→ face-to-face interaction between individuals or among members of groups
- general psychology focuses on people’s reactions to stimuli that do not have to be social
- close scientific neighbors of social psychology:
→ environmental psychology
→ cognitive psychology
→ economics
→ individual psychology
2
, → social anthropology
→ sociology, sociolinguistics, language, and communications
- psychodynamic (Freudian) notions left a mark on social psychology
- social psychology has been influenced by cognitive psychology since the 1970s
↳ adopted its concepts and methods to explain a wide range of social behaviors
↳ social cognition → the dominant approach in social psychology
sociology → how groups, organizations, social categories, and societies are organized, function
and change
↳ social anthropology → sociology focused on “exotic” societies
- sociology and social anthropology are social sciences, whereas social psychology is a
behavioral science (different approaches of studying and explaining human behavior)
Research Methods
scientific method
- social psychology uses the scientific method to study behavior
science → involves the formulation of hypotheses based on prior knowledge, speculation and
casual or systematic observation
- hypotheses must be formally stated and empirically tested
↳ empirically testable predictions about what co-occurs with what or what causes what
- empirical tests can falsify hypotheses, but can’t prove them
- 2 broad types of scientific method:
→ experimental
→ non-experimental
confirmation bias → the tendency to seek, interpret and create information that verifies existing
explanations for the cause of the event
↳ sometimes researchers become so personally involved in their own theories that they
lose objectivity in interpreting data
experiments
experiment → a hypothesis test to see the effect of one thing on another
- casual experimentation is one of the most common and important ways people can learn
about the world → allows us to identify the causes of events → more control over our destiny
- experimentation involves the manipulation of one or more independent variables and the
measuring of its effects on one or more dependent variables
laboratory experiments
- it is important for experiments to avoid confounding variables by controlling for as many
confounds as possible
- experiments allow us to establish cause-effect relationships (causality)
- laboratory experiments are usually intentionally low on external validity (generalizability) but
must be high in internal validity (good manipulations of variables)
↳ they are susceptible to biases
subject effects → effects that are not spontaneous, owing to demand characteristics and/or
participants trying to please the experimenter
demand characteristics → features of an experiment that seem to demand a certain response
experimenter effects → effects produced or influenced by clues to the hypotheses under
examination, accidentally communicated by the experimenter
3
, ↳ can be reduced by using a double-blind experimental design
↓
procedure to reduce experimenter effects in
which both the researcher and the participants
are unaware of the experimental condition
field experiments
- field experiments conducted outside the laboratory have high external validity because the
participants don’t know they are being studied, but lower internal validity due to less control
over confounding variables and less accurate measurements
non-experimental methods
- in some circumstances, it is impossible to conduct an experiment to test a hypothesis
because of ethical issues or impossibility to manipulate certain variables (ex: biological sex)
- these experiments do not involve manipulation of an independent variable → can’t draw
reliable conclusions
correlation → where changes in one variable reliably map on to changes in another variable,
but it cannot be determined which of the two variables caused the change
archival research → non-experimental method involving the assembly of data, or reports of
data, collected by others
case study → in-depth analysis of a single case (event, individual etc.)
↳ well suited for unusual, rare phenomena or exceptional cases
discourse → communicative events located in situational and socio-historical contexts
discourse analysis → a set of methods used to analyze text (in particular naturally occurring
language) to understand its meaning and significance
↳ treating all data as “text” → more than just a method, but also a systematic critique of
conventional social psychological methods and theories
surveys → can be used to obtain large amount of data from large samples
field studies → just like field experiments but without any intervention - just observation
Research Ethics
- researchers must respect some ethical guidelines → APA guidelines (2002)
- in the case of social psychology, the largely team-based nature of research helps prevent
scientists from fake data or take “scientific shortcuts”
- some of the most important ethical guidelines: protection from harm, right to privacy,
deception, informed consent and debriefing
physical welfare of participants
- participants must not be exposed to physical or psychological harm
respect for privacy
- collected data must be anonymous, and any personal information must be confidential or
deleted
use of deception
- some level of deception is necessary in any study, so the participants are blind to the
research question
4
