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MODULE 1, INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

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WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?

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DEFINITION OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY,  Providing a definition to social psychology is difficult because of, , two reasons : the field’s broad scope and its rapid rate of change,  Social psychologists have a wide range of interests.,  Yet most of them focus mainly on “understanding how and why, , individuals behave, think, and feel as they do in social situationsone’s involving the actual presence of other people or their, symbolic presence

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DEFINITION OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY,  Social psychology is the scientific field that seeks to understand the, , nature and causes of individual behavior, feelings, and thought in, social situations,  Social psychology investigates the ways in which our thoughts,, , feelings, and actions are influenced by the social environments in, which we live – by other people or our thoughts about them ( we, imagine how they would react to actions we might perform)

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE,  How can a field that seeks to study the nature of love, the causes, , of aggression and everything in between be scientific in the same, sense as chemistry, physics or maths,  In reality, the term “science” does not refer to a special group of, , highly advanced fields. Rather, it refers to two things:,  (1)A set of values and (2) several methods that can be used to study, , a wide range of topics

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE,  The set of values that all fields must adopt to be considered scientific are:,  Accuracy : a commitment to gathering and evaluating information about, , the world in a careful, precise and error-free manner as possible,  Objectivity: a commitment to obtaining and evaluating such information, in a manner that is as free from bias as humanly possible,  Skepticism : a commitment to accepting findings as accurate only to the, extent they have been verified over and over again,  Open- mindedness : a commitment to changing one’s views ( even views, that are strongly held) if existing evidence suggests that these views are, inaccurate

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE,  Isn't’ social psychology just common sense? Can we rely on our own, , experience and intuition as a basis for understanding the social side, of life?,  Common sense often provides inconsistent and contradictory ideas, , about various aspects of social life,  “ Absence make the heart grow fonder”,  “ Out of sight, out of mind”

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE,  Besides the contradicting and confusing picture suggested by, , common sense, our thinking is subject to several types of biases,  Planning fallacy: a strong tendency to believe that projects will take, , less time than they actually do or alternatively, that we can, accomplish more in a given period of time than is really true,  The tendency to think about the future when we are estimating how, , long a job will take prevents us from remembering how long similar, tasks took in the past

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FOCUS OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY,  Societies differ greatly in terms of their views regarding romantic, , relationship and marriage, yet it is still individuals who fall in love,  Societies vary greatly in terms of their overall levels of violence, yet, , it is still individuals who perform aggressive actions or refrain from, doing so,  The actions are performed by and the thoughts occur in, the minds, , of individuals although they may, of course, be strongly influenced by, other people

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FOCUS OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, ,  Because of this basic fact, the focus of social psychology in strongly, , on individuals,  The field’s major interest lies in understanding the factors that shape, , the actions and thoughts of individuals in social settings

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THE ACTIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF OTHER PEOPLE,  You are at a party when you notice that a very attractive person is, , looking at you and smiling. He is looking at you in a “let’s get to, know each other better” kind of way.,  Will these actions by other people have any effect on your behavior, , and thoughts?,  These incident indicates that other people’s behavior often has a, , powerful impact upon us,  We are also influenced by other’s appearance

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COGNITIVE PROCESSES,  Your friend became late and says “sorry, I forgot all about meeting, , you until a few minutes ago” . How will you react?,  If your friend is late and says “ Oh sorry, there was an accident on, , the way and it was heavy traffic”,  What if your friend often gets late and says the same reason? And, , what if he/she is late for the first time?

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COGNITIVE PROCESSES,  Your reaction here will strongly depends on your memories of your, , friend’s past behavior and your inferences about whether her or his, explanation is really true,  This indicates that cognitive processes play a crucial role in social, , behavior and social thought,  We try to make sense of the social world and this leads us to, , engage in lots of social cognition – to think long and hard about, what they are like, why they do so, how they react to our actions

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ENVIRONMENT/ PHYSICAL WORLD,  Do we become more irritable and aggressive when the weather is, , hot and steamy than when it is cool and comfortable,  Does exposure to a pleasant smell in the air make people more, , helpful to others,  Research findings indicate that the physical environment does indeed, , influence our feelings, thoughts and behavior.

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BIOLOGICAL FACTORS,  Now, social psychologists have come to believe that our attitudes, , and behavior in a social situation is affected, to some extent, by our, biological inheritance,  The view that biological factors play an important role in social, , behavior comes from the field of evolutionary psychology,  According to evolutionary perspective, we find some people, , attractive since symmetrical facial features, shapely bodies, clear skin,, etc. are associated with “good genes”

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BIOLOGICAL FACTORS,  People who possess these characteristics are likely to be healthy and, , strong, and therefore good mates.,  A preference for characteristics associated with good health and, , vigor among ancestors increased the chances that they would, reproduce successfully. This contributed to our preference for, people who possess these aspects of appearance,  These tendencies can be overridden by cognitive factors and the, , effects of experience

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RESEARCH METHODS IN SOCIAL, PSYCHOLOGY

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SYSTEMATIC OBSERVATION,  It involves carefully observing behavior as it occurs.,  Or,  Systematic observation is a method of research in which behavior is, , systematically observed and recorded,  Example: if a psychologist wants to find out how frequently people touch, , each other in different settings, she can study this topic by going to, shopping malls, restaurants, college campus, etc. she can observe who, touches whom, how they touch, and with what frequency.

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SYSTEMATIC OBSERVATION,  This kind of observation in natural setting is called naturalistic, , observation,  Here, the researcher would record what is happening in each, , context, she or he would make no attempt to change the behavior, of people being observed.,  In naturalistic observation, the researcher take great pains to avoid, , influencing the people observed in any way. So they try to hide, behind natural barriers such as walls, bushes, telephone poles etc.

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SURVEY METHOD,  A method of research in which a large number of people answer, , questions about their attitudes or behavior,  Surveys are one form of an observation study, since the researchers, , do not influence the outcomes,  Social psychologists often use this method to assess attitudes, , toward a variety of social issues- national health care, covid, restrictions by govt, online class, rape etc.

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SURVEY METHOD,  Surveys have several advantages. Information can be gathered about, , thousands or even hundreds of thousand people with relative ease,  Now, most of the surveys are conducted online, ,  In survey, the people who participate must be representative of the, , larger population about which conclusions are to be drawn,  Another issue with survey is that the wordings should be carefully, , addressed

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SURVEY METHOD,  EG “ how happy are you in your life right now?”,  1- very unhappy , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,, , 7 – very happy, ,  “compared to the happiest you have ever been, how happy are you, , right now?”,  1- much less happy, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,, , 7- just as happy, ,  Comparing the results from these two questions could be, , misleading, if the difference between them is ignored

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CORRELATION,  The term “correlation’’ refers to a tendency for one event to be, , associated with the changes in the other,  Such changeable aspects of social world is referred to as variables by, , social psychologists,  When a correlation exists, it is possible to predict one variable from, , information about one or more variables.,  The ability to make such predictions is one important goal of all, , branches of science, including social psychology.

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CORRELATION,  Suppose a that a correlation is observed between the level of passion, , and marital satisfaction among couples, this information might be, helpful in providing couple counselling., ,  Correlations can range from 0 to -1.00 or +1.00. The greater the, , departure from 0 the stronger the correlation., ,  Positive numbers mean that as one variable increases, the other increases, , too. Negative numbers indicate that as one variable increases, the other, decreases., ,  Eg: There is a negative correlation between age and the amount of hair on, , the head of males.

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CORRELATIONAL METHOD,  Correlational method: a method of research in which a scientist, , systematically observes two or more variables to determine, whether changes in one are accompanied by changes in the other., ,  This method involves carefully measuring each variable, and then, , performing appropriate statistical tests to determine whether and to, what degree the variables are correlated., ,  E.g. To find out the relationship between marital satisfaction and, , passion , both the variables are measured separately among couples, and relationship is found.

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CORRELATIONAL METHOD,  The fact that two variables are correlated in no way guarantees that, , they are casually related – that changes in one cause changes in the, other,  On the contrary, the relationship between them may be due to the, , fact that both variables are related to a third variable, and not really, to each other,  Eg. Going for work at the same time to same place

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CORRELATIONAL METHOD,  It can’t establish the direction of relationship between variables, just, , their existence and strength, ,  E.g. while trying to find out the whether the FB posts reflects a, , person’s actual personality, the person’s personality dimensions are, measured separately and they are compared with the Facebook, posts they create., ,  It is also possible that posting on Facebook leads to changes in, , poster’s personalities, in the direction of becoming more like the, information on FB

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CORRELATIONAL METHOD,  Despite its drawbacks, it is used by social psychologists in natural, , settings where experiments might be very difficult to conduct, and it, is often highly efficient – a large amount of information can be, obtained in a relatively short period of time,  Since it can’t establish a cause and effect relationship, social, , psychologist prefer another method called “Experiment” in many, instances

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EXPERIMENTAL METHOD,  Experimentation or experimental method is a method of research in, , which one or more factors (the independent variables) are, systematically changed to determine whether such variations affect, one or more other factors (dependent variables),  Experimental method involves two key steps,  (1) the presence or strength of some variable believed to affect an, , aspect of social behavior or thought is systematically changed,  (2) the effects of such changes are carefully measured

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EXPERIMENTAL METHOD,  The factor systematically varied by the researcher is termed as, , independent variable, while the aspect of behavior studied is, termed the dependent variable,  E.g. To study whether exposure to video games increase the, , likelihood that people will aggress against others in various ways (, verbally, physically, spreading false rumors, posting embarrassing, photos of them in internet, the participants will be asked to play, violent video games.

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EXPERIMENTAL METHOD,  After that, they would be placed in a situation where they could, , aggress against other person if they wish., ,  They could be told that the next part of the study is concerned with, , taste sensitivity and thus they can add hot sauce to a glass of water, that another person would drink. Lots of sauce would make the, drink so hot that it would truly hurt the person., ,  If the participants who played the video games, hurt the other, , person, we can conclude that playing aggressive video games, increase aggression

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EXPERIMENTAL METHOD,  In an experiment, the independent variable – exposure to one or, , other type of video game – is systematically changed by the, researcher.,  In the correlation method, variables are not altered by the, , experimenter. Naturally occurring changes in them is simply, observed and recorded.

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EXPERIMENTATION: KEY REQUIREMENTS,  Random assignments: this means that all participants in an, , experiment must have an equal chance of being exposed to each, level of the independent variable., ,  If participants are not randomly assigned to each condition, it may, , later be impossible to determine if difference in their behavior stem, from differences they bought with them., ,  Watching motivation videos and academic performance. One watch, , video , other doesn’t watch video. But one group is with high, intelligence

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EXPERIMENTATION: KEY REQUIREMENTS,  All factors other than the independent variable that might, , affect participant’s behavior must be held constant,  If the examiner of the experimental group is a having a polite, , attitude while the control group examiner has a rude behavior, that, will affect the results,  Here, the independent variable is confounded with another variable, , which is not under systematic investigation

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EXPERIMENTAL METHOD: LIMITATIONS,  Experimentation is the most powerful social psychology’s methods, , but it still have some limitations,  Since they are conducted in laboratory settings there is a question, , of external validity. i.e., we can’t generalize the results to real life, situations,  There are situations where because of ethical or legal, , considerations experimentation can’t be used.

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SOCIALIZATION

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SOCIALIZATION,  Socialization is the process of learning to behave in a way that is, , acceptable to society, ,  It is the activity of mixing socially with others, ,  According to W. F. Ogburn “Socialization is the process by which, , the individual learns to conform to the norms of the group”, ,  Peter Worsley explains socialization as the process of, , “transmission of culture, the process whereby men learn the, rules and practices of social groups”

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THANK YOU