Social Psychology

• Define what social psychology is and

how it is different from other disciplines;

Objectives • Determine the brief history of social

psychology

• Discuss what its current trend are.

 What comes into your mind when you
Activity hear Social Psychology?
 The scientific study of the way in which
Social people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
Psychology are influenced by the real or imagined
presence of other people
 The effect that the words, actions, or mere
Social
presence of other people have on our
Influence thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behavior
 On a ½ crosswise sheet of paper, do the
following:

1. Make three lists of at least 5 values

Activity that are most important to:
• You
• Your parents
• Closest friends
 2. If there are differences in your lists,
how do they affect you?

3. Do some of your values conflict with

your parents or friends?
Activity
4. If so, do you find yourself rejecting one
set of values in favor of the other?

5. Are you trying to find a compromise

between the two?
  Social Psychology

Other  Sociology
Disciplines  Personality Psychology
 Personality
Sociology Social Psychology
Psychology
The study of groups, The study of the The study of the
organizations, and psychological characteristics that
societies, rather than processes people make individuals
individuals have in common that unique and different
make them from one another
susceptible to social
influence
Level of analysis: the
individual in the
context of a social
situation
The people in this photo
can be studied from a
variety of perspectives:
as individuals or as
members of a family, a
social class, an
occupation, a culture, or
a region. Sociologists
study the group or
institution.

Social psychologists
study the influence of
those groups and
institutions on
individual behavior.
Personality
psychologists study
qualities of the individual
that might make a
person shy,
conventional, rebellious,
and willing to wear a
turquoise wig in public or
a yellow shirt in a sea of
blue.

Social psychologists
study the powerful role of
social influence on how
all of us behave
 1. The question of the individual differences
that lead to one teenage boy committing
violent acts and his brother rarely committing
them would be most interesting to

Review a. Sociologist
b. Personality psychologist
c. Social psychologist
d. Biologist
 2. If a teenage girl is caught shoplifting, what
would social psychologists want to study about
her?
a. Whether or not her friends also shoplift and
if this influenced her decision to do so
b. What grades she is getting in school
Review
c. How her brain structure might be different
from the brain structure of other girls her age
d. How much money does her parents earn
and whether or not she has a part-time job
to earn her own income
 3. Which of the following statements is true about both
social psychology and sociology?

a. Sociologists focus on individual differences while

social psychologists focus more on personality.
b. Sociologist focus more on groups while social
psychologists focus more on society as a whole
Review c. Sociologists focus more on society as a whole while
social psychologists focus more on how society
influences individuals
d. Both social psychology and sociology mainly focus
on social class, economic status, and social
institutions.
 4. What is the “level of analysis” for a social
psychologist?

a. The individual in the context of a social

situation
Review
b. The social situation itself
c. A person’s level of achievement
d. A person’s level of reasoning
 5. Most social psychologists gather most of
their information about why people act the
way they do from sources and methods such
as

a. Folk wisdom and common sense.

Review
b. Asking people for their opinion.
c. Conducting experiments.
d. Interpreting a culture through its news, art,
images, and music.
 Question:
Why does it matter how people
explain and interpret events – and
their own and others’ behavior?
The Power
of Situation Answer:
Individual behavior is powerfully
influenced by the social environment,
but many people don’t want to
believe this
 Fundamental attribution error
The Power of
Situation: The The tendency to overestimate the extent
Importance of to which people’s behavior is due to internal,
dispositional factors and underestimate the
Explanation
role of situational factors
 It is important to understand not only how
situations influence individuals, but how
people perceive and interpret the social world
The Power of and the behavior of others.
Situation: The
Importance of Objective properties include:
Interpretation 1. Behaviorism
2. Construal
3. Gestalt Psychology
 Question:
Where do our construal come from?
Basic
Answer:
Human
It is largely shaped by two basic human
Motives motives: (1) the need to feel good
about ourselves and (2) the need to
be accurate.
 The Self-
esteem
Motive: the
Self-esteem: people’s evaluation of
Need to their own self-worth
Feel Good
About
Ourselves
The Social
Cognition
Social cognition: how people think
Motive: The about themselves and the social world
Need to Be
Accurate
A Brief History of Social
Psychology
“Psychology has a long past, but only a short history.”
- Herman Ebbinghaus, Summary of Psychology
The Birth and Infancy of Social
Psychology (1800s-1920s)

Norman Triplett
- who is credited with having published the
first research article in social psychology
at the end of the 19th century (1897-1898)
- His scientific approach to studying the
effects of the social context on individuals’
behavior can be seen as marking the birth
of social psychology
The Birth and Infancy of Social Psychology (1800s-1920s)

William McDougall Edward Ross Floyd Allport

(1908) (1908) (1924)
The Birth and Infancy of Social Psychology (1800s-1920s)

Allport’s book in particular with its focuses on:

- the interaction of individuals
- their social context
- its emphasis on the use of experimentation
and the scientific method

Floyd Allport
(1924)
A Call to Action: 1930s-1950s

Adolf Hitler
- had the most dramatic impact on the field
of social psychology
- Hitler’s rise to power and horrendous
consequences that followed caused
people around the world to become
desperate for answers to social
psychological questions
A Call to Action: 1930s-1950s

Gordon Allport (1936)

- Together with other social psychologists
formed the Society for the Psychological
Study of Social Issues
A Call to Action: 1930s-1950s

Muzafer Sherif (1936)

- Published groundbreaking experimental
research on social influence
- His research was crucial for the
development of social psychology
A Call to Action: 1930s-1950s

Kurt Lewin
- A bold and creative theorist whose
concepts have had lasting effects on the
field
- Fundamental principle:
- Interactionist perspective: an
emphasis on how both an individual’s
personality and environmental
characteristics influence behavior
Confidence and Crisis: 1960s – Mid-
1970s

Stanley Milgram (Early and Mid 1960s)

- His research was inspired by the
destructive obedience demonstrated by Nazi
officers and ordinary citizens in WWII.
An Era of Pluralism (Mid-1970s – 2000s)

Pluralistic Approach
- Emerged as a wider range of research
techniques and questions become
established
- A new subfield was born called Social
cognition
What is Trending Now?
 Behavioral Genetics
- A subfield of psychology that examines
the role of genetic factors in behavior
Genetic and
Evolutionary Evolutionary Psychology
- A subfield of psychology that uses the
Perspective principles of evolution to understand
human social behavior
 Culture
- A system of enduring meanings, beliefs,
values, assumptions, institutions, and
practices shared by a large group of
people and transmitted from one
generation to the next
Cultural
Perspectives Cross-cultural research
- Research designed to compare and
contrast people of different cultures

Multi-cultural research
- Research designed to examine racial and
ethnic groups within cultures
 Behavioral Economics
Other - An interdisciplinary subfield that focuses
on how psychology – particularly social
Interdisciplinary and cognitive psychology – relates to
Approaches economic decision making
 Social Neuroscience
- The study of the relationship between
neural and social processes
The Social
Brain and Embodied Recognition
- An interdisciplinary subfield that examines
Body the close links between our minds and the
positioning, experiences, and actions of
our bodies
END