BESC1528 Lect 2 Research 2023

Psychology of Social Life
Lecture 2
Research Methods
Demonstration 1
This demonstration looks at research and theory development
If you are yet to view the following video, please either
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gugjMmXQrDo
or
2. Return to the Canvas site and click on the video
RMIT University Slide 2

Demonstration 2
Now you have viewed the video, please attempt to answer the following
1. What question was the researchers trying to answer?
2. What type of research is being used?
3. What contradiction [thinking versus behaviour] did the researchers find?
4. How could this contradiction be explained?
5. What impact do you think this research would have:

a. On the adult participants
b. As an anti-smoking advertisment

Demonstration 3a
Answers
1. What question was the researchers trying to answer?

• Whether smokers believed that their smoking was harmful to their health
2. What type of research is being used?

• This research is considered a “field experiment” [see this lecture] and it
has the advantage of studying real [natural] behaviour
3. What contradiction [thinking versus behaviour] did the researchers find?

• That while adults smoke [behaviour], they believe that smoking is
harmful to their health [thinking] – as evidenced by discouraging others
[children] from smoking

Demonstration 3b
Answers
4. How could this contradiction be explained?

• Psychologists use the theory of cognitive dissonance to explain this.
o People are motivated to be logical and internally consistent
o Cognitive dissonance explains inconsistency between thoughts
and behaviours
o Once they are made aware of this inconsistency, they feel
uncomfortable and attempt to change either their thoughts or
behaviours to make them consistent
o Theoretically,
 Thinking [cognitions] could change – smoking is not harmful
 Behaviour could change – stop smoking

Demonstration 3c
Answers
5. What impact do you think this research would have:

a. On the adult participants
• It was a novel way to get smokers to feel cognitive dissonance, and
because this will make them uncomfortable and make them think, ideally
they will consider changing their behaviour [quit smoking]
b.
As an anti-smoking advertisement
•Advertisements are verbal attempts of influence [see lecture on
persuasion]
o This is a subtle attempt at persuasion
o Australia’s quit smoking campaign tends

to use shock type advertisements [see images
on cigarette packages or anti-smoking ads
End of Demonstration
Consider
Pause
Reflect – on what is the most powerful health-

related advertisement you can recall – was it
positive and information-based or was it negative
and emotion-based [fear]
Stop and have a short rest break
Play and continue with lecture

Psychology of Social Life
Lecture 2
Research Methods
Learning objectives
1. What are the three main aims of social research
2. Name the four methods of research in Social Psychology

and list the main advantages and disadvantage of each?
3. Discuss the La Piere study in terms of research

implications for survey methods
4. Describe Rosenthal's experiment that highlighted the main

disadvantage of field/laboratory experiments
5. List and describe Milgram’s innovative research

techniques. [Note, this does not include the obedience
study]

Learning objectives




study]

Aims of social research 1
1. To understand complex interactions between people
• While most people could predict the actions-reactions of a family member or

a close friend, social research attempts to explain behaviours of the majority
of people in diverse environments

Aims of social research 2a
2. To formulate underlying rules governing people’s behaviour
• There are three general laws of human behaviour
Law #1: Most behaviour follows the status quo. Thus past behaviour is the
best predictor of current behaviour
• Much of human behaviour is habitual and runs on autopilot - it takes a

significant degree of effort to change normal routines
• One implication is that it is hard to remove “bad” habits such as

procrastination [over studying], over-eating, consuming drugs and not
engaging in enough exercise
• Hence, when trying to change behaviours, up to 80% of people relapse and

return to their habitual behaviour

Aims of social research 2b
Law #2 human behaviour complex and is a function of the person and

their environment [B = f(P.E]
• That is, behaviour is a function of the person [personality and abilities]

interactions with their physical and social environment
• While personality theorists expect consistency – ie, personality = behaviour

– in reality people’s behaviour changes depending on the environment [most
people display more extraverted behaviours with family/friends compared to
strangers
• A second example, when people try to change [habitual behaviour], a

powerful predictor of relapse is stress in their lives – alcoholics will remain
abstinent until something goes wrong in their personal or work life

Aims of social research 2c i
Law #3 Every action leads to a consequences
• Decisions typically involve a trade-off - costs and benefits
Examples
1. Eating poorly relieves stress, but it leads to a gain in weight and health
problems
2. the decision to enrol in University means less money in the short term [while
studying], but much more money for the rest of a working life
• There are often unintended consequences related to trade offs.
For example, most students come to university to learn [intrinsic motivation],

but later in their degree they begin just to focus on getting high marks
[extrinsic motivation] and lose their enjoyment of learning
Aims of social research 2c ii
Law #3 Every action leads to a consequences - continued
• Another example [tragedy of the commons – see later lecture] – our

modern day lives lead to overconsumption of energy which leads to climate
change and a negative impact on everyone
• Another example may be more positive – each any vaccination protects the
vaccinated individual’s health, but it also leads to herd immunity and
protects people who for health reasons cannot be vaccinated [see altruism
in later lecture]
• Under these three “laws” there are many more specific theories which this
course will cover [see later lectures]

Aims of social research 3
3. To educate people in these rules of social interaction
a. To inoculate people against social pressure
b. To help make professionals more effective
c. To teach particular individuals (eg., social phobic's) the social skills they
may lack

End of learning objective 1
Consider
Pause
Reflect – on a “bad” habit that you tried to change

in the past but failed to do so. What was the trade
off [costs versus benefits], and why in the end did
you “fail”

Learning objectives
2. Name the four methods of research in Social

Psychology and list the main advantages and
disadvantage of each?



study]

Definitions of the four major research methods
Review of past Research does not involve collecting data from primary
(historical) sources, but are drawn from the already-completed work of
research other researchers. Data includes other research, historical
data, census data etc.
Field survey This method collects data from subjects who respond to a
series of questions about behaviours and opinions, often in
the form of a questionnaire. The survey is one of the most
widely used scientific research methods
Natural Gathers data from a natural environment without doing a lab

observation experiment or a survey- observes natural behaviour in the
real world – the researcher is the one out of their element.
Field/ Researchers test theories by conducting an experiment that

Laboratory test a hypotheses using a scientific approach. There are two
Experiment main types of experiments: lab-based experiments and
natural or field experiments
Method by topic: migration
Review of past Using census data to determine country of

(historical) origin of migrants
research
Field survey Survey on attitudes toward migration
Natural Observe if migrants are treated differently than

observation citizens
Field/ Two actors, role playing different ethnic groups,

Laboratory asking for same service, measure helpfulness
Experiment

Using more than one method
Why multiple methods?
Many researchers advocate using more than one method to study an issue
• Obtain different perspectives
• Methods vary on internal validity

– Internal validity – does the study obtain the results that reflect reality
[compare natural observation with survey research]
• Degree of experimenter control – compare historical research [no control]

with Laboratory research (total [maybe too much])
• See La Piere’s attitude – behaviour research in this lecture [LO #3]

Example: Review of past research
• Analyse data that has been collected by others for another purpose
• Examples
o Migration information from census data
o Mortality data from lung cancer

Review of past research: Ads v Disads
• Advantage
o No role in data collection and therefore cannot bias the data or valid
conclusions
• Disadvantage
o Data only correlational, cannot conclude causal relationship
• Note: dangers of smoking

and lung cancer known in
the early 1950s, but no
successful litigation until
the late 1980s – they could
not prove cause

Example: Field survey
• Involves the construction, evaluation and administration of standard
questions on a pre-determined form
http://meds.queensu.ca/assets/questionnaire.jpg
• Examples
o Collection of census data
o Attitude surveys regarding migration
Field survey: Ads v Disads
• Advantage
o Ask many (easy) questions to a large random sample
• Disadvantage
o May not get the truth.
o Why?
• May not have thought about the issue
• Not motivated to complete the survey
• May not be politically expedient to do so
• See LaPiere’s study on attitudes and migration [see next LO]

Example: Natural observation
• Unobtrusive recording of real behaviour in natural setting
http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rd/stories/20050131-friends.jpg
• Examples
o Observation of crowd behaviour (gender by risk taking)
o Observe how migrants interact with resident population

Natural observation: Ads v Disads
• Advantage
o Observe actual behaviour in natural settings (the ultimate goal of social
psychology – see Milgram)
• Disadvantage
o Time consuming, observe only public behaviour and cannot determine
“why?”
• See LaPiere’s study on migrant resident interaction [next learning

objective]
• Note: any manipulation of the situational variables creates a field

experiment

Example: Field/lab experiment
• Manipulation and control of situation [Feldman, 1968]
o Dressed actors as locals or tourists and got them to

ask locals directions to city landmarks
• Examples
o Rosenthal’s study of IQ bloomers [see LO #4 in this lecture]
o Causal attributions associated with problem gambling

Field/lab experiments: Ads v Disads
• Advantage
o Design and experimenter control allows for causal conclusions (see
Rosenthal’s experiment)
• Disadvantage
o Problem of experimenter bias, where expectations about the results
influences the results (see Rosenthal’s experiment)
• Note: Male experimenters (compared to female experimenters) measuring

social skills get gender differences because males interact differently with
each gender

Consider
Pause
Reflect – on how you “know” about the world – has

it been by observing the world [natural
observation] and trying to explain it and/or
reading about social psychological research

Learning objectives




study]

LaPiere studying racial discrimination
• Phase 1: Natural observation

o Compared his interactions with owner-operators of small fast food
stores with a Chinese couple’s interactions
o Defined discrimination at three levels

• Refusal to serve and asked to leave
• Served out of turn
• Served in a less pleasant manner
• 5% discrimination, all less pleasant manner

• Phase 2: Field survey
o Surveyed same owner-operators,

gave them a hypothetical example
of a Chinese couple, asked
whether they would serve them
• 95% discrimination, refuse to serve
• Why the difference?

• This study illustrates:

o People’s actual behaviour differs from their stated attitudes
o Different types of research methods generate different results
o Need to use more than one research method to validate research

findings
• La Piere explained the difference between attitudes and behaviour in terms

of social pressure – people who have strong negative attitudes are unlikely
to express them publicly as it will lead to negative consequences – both in
what others think of them [see conformity lecture] and behaviour [people
could react negatively – other customers may avoid this business] [see
person perception lectures]
Consider
Pause
Reflect – on what you disclose and do not disclose

to others [at work or socially] when you first meet
them – and try to think why you choose to
disclose or not disclose [trust???]

Learning objectives


4. Describe Rosenthal's experiment that highlighted the

main disadvantage of field/laboratory experiments

study]

Rosenthal’s study of IQ bloomers
• Wanted to determine the influence of teachers on student academic ability
o Used a true experimental design

True experimental design- Rosenthal
Rosenthal randomly divided classes into two groups, pre-tested them to ensure
they had the same level of IQ, then only for the teachers, gave the groups
different labels and different predictions and then at the end of the term re-
tested them and found groups differences
Group Exp.
allocation Pre-test Manipulation Post-test
Exp. group Random Same Labelled IQ Changed
(measure bloomers (higher IQ)
IQ)
Control Random Same Labelled no No change
group (measure change
IQ)
Rosenthal’s design
• Found that the IQ bloomers group achieved higher IQ scores compared
to the rest of the class
• Allowed Rosenthal to conclude that teacher’s (person) perception of

students influenced their academic ability
• How?
a) Paid more attention to IQ bloomers

b) Asked them more questions
c) Waited longer for their answers

Rosenthal’s design
• This change in teacher behaviour is also a good example of

Experimenter bias
• When teachers were told by Rosenthal of the false hypothesis [that some
students would increase their IQ], they inadvertently changed their
behaviour to ensure the outcome
(see lecture on person perception and self-fulfilling prophecy)

Consider
Pause
Reflect – on one of your beliefs about gender

differences that influence your behaviour toward
same and different genders and consider how
that change of behaviour influences your on-
going relationship with that person

Learning objectives




study]

Milgram’s innovative research
• Famous for
o Obedience research [see lecture
on obedience] and
o experimental realism [this LO]
• Experimental realism is defined as:

…creation of a setting that causes people to behave in a
naturalistic manner
That is, as they naturally behave, not as they believe they should

Milgram’s innovative research
• Covered in this lecture:
1. Small world phenomenon
2. Urban overload
3. Familiar stranger
4. Cyranoids
5. Lost letter technique
6. Natural “obedience” studies

Milgram 1.0
• Small world phenomenon
(or six degrees of separation)
Example of a small world
I went to a conference in Berlin, on

the plane returning to Australia, was
seated beside an ex-colleague/
RMIT staff member who
had been to the same conference

Milgram 1.1
• Small world phenomenon (or six degrees of separation)
o Often when strangers meet, they find a common acquaintance
o Used 296 people, found they took six links to send letter to an interstate
stranger [note A does not know B]

o
Milgram 1.2
• Later research
o Facebook researchers studied 721 million active users of this social
network and found it is now less than five degrees of separation

Milgram 1.3 Applied
• Viral messages
o Why did this image go viral???
• Do you send “viral” messages

and to whom???
• Who sends messages
o No gender or age or cultural differences
o Tied to social motivations
• Need to be part of a group – post and respond to messages
• Need for personal growth
– Social comparison – compare thoughts, feelings, actions [see
lecture next week]
– Being an active part of a group [see lecture on group
processes]
– Creates social currency – future discussion topics
Milgram 1.4 Applied
• Content of viral messages

o Positive [including humour] rather than negative
o Emotional arousing – primarily humour [see Queen photo-bomb] but
also other emotions: anger, fear, disgust
o Tells a story or is part of a story
o Memorable and hence repeatedly discussed
• To whom
o Friends/acquaintances - see lecture on friendship formation
o Those who are perceived to have some common features – see lecture
on person perception
• Can viral messages be used in positive health campaigns???

o quit smoking, reducing binge drinking [Note: the quit smoking
video at the beginning of this lecture went viral]
Milgram 1.4 Applied
Granovetter’s theory of weak ties 1
Described the following levels within social networks
1. Strong ties [estimated 10 people]

o Interact often, know them intimately and have strong emotional bonds
o People you interact with more than twice a week
2. Moderate ties [estimated 50 people]

o Interact occasionally and have some emotional involvement
o Interact with them more than once a year
3. Weak ties [estimated 150 people]

o Rarely interact and have no emotional involvement
o Acquaintances not friends
o Interact with them less than once a year
Milgram 1.4 Applied
4. Absent ties
o People you are aware of but have not meet
o They are friends/acquaintances of your family and friends

Milgram 1.4 Applied
Securing next work position [job] by source of information
Number of interactions by source of information for next job

• 16.7% report strong ties [> 2 times a week]
• 55.6% report weak ties [< once a year]
• 27.8% report absent ties [information from a tie that the job-seeker has
never met
Number of steps/ties to next position

• 39.1% direct
• 45.3% one intermediary
• 12.5% two intermediaries
• 3.1% more than two intermediaries
Weak ties and social networks play a critical role within work force –
Milgram 1.4 Applied
Dunbar’s number 1
Definition - Dunbar's number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of

people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—
relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how
each person relates to every other person
Biological – tied to brain size [cognitive capacity] of all primates [see next
slide]
• That is, different primate species vary on their cognitive abilities, the greater
the learning and memory, the greater the capacity for more social meaningful
relationships within their own species

Milgram 1.4 Applied
Dunbar’s number 2
Biological [cognitive] limitations on the number of social meaningful
relationships people can have

Milgram 1.4 Applied
Dunbar’s number 3
This is reflected in the types of relationships people have and the size [number
of others] of each group
As a “rough” estimate, does the

figure to the right, describe
the various groups of people
in your current life
Noting, social media [eg

Facebook] would be
represented by Personal
Network [~150 people]
-
Milgram 1.4 Applied
Dunbar’s number 4
What happens when this limitation is reached
Milgram’s research indicated that people would shift from being social people to
being asocial {See next study Urban overload]

Milgram 2.1 What are these people doing?

Milgram 2.2
• Urban (information) overload
o Modern humans meet too many people [Dunbar’s number] to assimilate
all relevant information and create social contacts
o Solution?????

Milgram 2.3
• Urban (information) overload [continued]
o Create/maximize personal space
o Minimize conversation/social interaction

o
o Adapt by becoming less social (that is, ignore conventions and

avoid eye contact and purposefully ignore people)
• Two studies (urban versus rural)

o Door knock, lost and like to make a phone call
o Telephoned, wrong number, but could you provide information
• Results
o Most people refused to help – urban more so than rural people
Milgram 2.4
Urban (information) overload
What is the average size of the group that we typically interact with?
• In evolutionary terms = 150 - 200

• In indigenous groups = 50 – 100
• In modern society = 50
• In “Facebook” = 130 - 150
[interact with every year]
Note, currently, 16 million (out of 25

million Australians) have an active
Facebook account
• This is compared to many [thousands] of people we interact with everyday

and actively avoid any social interaction with them

Milgram 3.1

Milgram 3.2
• Familiar stranger
o Extension on urban
overload research
o Defined as a regular contact, but mutually agreed not to talk to each

other. Found in:
 Transport hubs, eating places, large University classes
o 80% of people can identify at least one (av. 3 – 4)
o Over 50% of people are themselves familiar strangers
o Most recognized familiar stranger

RMIT University Slide 62 – has unique feature
Milgram 4.1 Cyranoids
• Cyranoids
– Do we judge people by appearance or action?
– Cyranoid – appearance of (say) child but echoes the speech of an (say)

adult
– Teachers asked to rate child’s ability

• Would they detect the deception and rate the behaviour, or be
dominated by appearance
• Teachers were deceived and rated the child as clever, advanced but
never an adult
• Note, most discrimination is about appearance [gender, age, cultural

background, disability, etc] and not abilities
RMIT University • Thus, who you are, not what

Slide 63 you do – see later lecture on person
Milgram 4.2 – applying Cyraniod technology
“Bug in the ear” method

Milgram 4.3 – Parent Child Interaction Therapy [ADHD
children who experienced parental abuse]
• Comparing PCIT “bug in the ear” training [behaviour change] with standard
group parent training [attitude change]
• Proportion of welfare families maintaining child custody
• Experiment [behaviour change] much more effective than survey [attitude

change] – see persuasion, discrimination lecture

Milgram 4.4 – Cyraniods
• Why are robots created to have a human appearance?
• Researchers have found that:

o People empathise more with human-like robots,
o Robots [with camera eyes] now maintain eye contact
when interacting human co-workers, determine their
emotions [frustration, anger, etc] and adjust their input
accordingly – both reduce anger/aggression
• Note, robots that are too real, humans stop

trusting them

Milgram 5.0
• Lost letter technique
o “dropped” 400 with various addresses in places such as footpaths,

shops, phone booths and under windshield wipers
o 50+% return rate, % differed
o Medical research highest, Nazi party lowest
o Technique continues to be the best predictor of actual attitudes –

including political (Presidential) elections

Milgram 6.0
• Natural obedience studies
o Able bodied postgraduates
were required to board crowded
commuter trains and request a seat
from the most elderly
o 100% compliance, no bystander intervention [see lectures on

conformity and altruism]
o Study stalled when postgrads could no longer enter train carriages to

make the request – see role behaviour/conflict in later lecture
Conclusion
• Naturalistic study of obedience (by the elderly) and bystander
apathy (other passengers) – see later lectures on obedience
and altruism
Conclusions from Milgram’s research
1. Live in an interconnected interdependent [small] world where our

personal social influence is widespread – see conformity lecture [Are
your friend’s friends making you fat?]
2. Are aware of others (familiar strangers) but urban overload makes being
non-social the new social-cultural norm - see bystander apathy
3. Who we are (physical appearance) dominates what we do (or our abilities

– see first impression, person perception, stereotypes, discrimination
4. Environmental pressures/demands overrides our personal judgements –

see conformity and obedience research

Consider
Pause
Reflect – on how you could use natural

observation or a field experiment to try to
understand some aspect of human
behaviour
RMIT University Play and continue

Slide 70 with lecture
Overall conclusions
1. The aim of social research is to develop rules/laws to explain human
social behaviour and to use this information to develop skills and help
people in a positive way
2. There are four major research methods [each with advantages and
disadvantages] and using more than one approach [mixed-method]
helps overcome the disadvantages
3. La Piere’s study illustrated that an individual’s attitudes/thoughts may

not be consistent with their behaviour
4. Rosenthal showed that humans [via subtle behaviours] can influence

another’s behaviour – leading to a self fulfilling prophecy
5. Milgram’s innovative realism research has formed the basis of most

social psychological theories [see remaining lectures in this course]

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Psychology of Social Life

If you are yet to view the following video, please either

1. Use the following link

2. Return to the Canvas site and click on the video

RMIT University Slide 2

1. What question was the researchers trying to answer?

2. What type of research is being used?

3. What contradiction [thinking versus behaviour] did the researchers find?

4. How could this contradiction be explained?

5. What impact do you think this research would have:

RMIT University Slide 3

1. What question was the researchers trying to answer?

2. What type of research is being used?

3. What contradiction [thinking versus behaviour] did the researchers find?

RMIT University Slide 4

4. How could this contradiction be explained?

RMIT University Slide 5

5. What impact do you think this research would have:

o Australia’s quit smoking campaign tends

Reflect – on what is the most powerful health-

Stop and have a short rest break

Play and continue with lecture

2. Name the four methods of research in Social Psychology

3. Discuss the La Piere study in terms of research

4. Describe Rosenthal's experiment that highlighted the main

5. List and describe Milgram’s innovative research

RMIT University Slide 9

2. Name the four methods of research in Social Psychology

3. Discuss the La Piere study in terms of research

4. Describe Rosenthal's experiment that highlighted the main

5. List and describe Milgram’s innovative research

RMIT University Slide 10

• While most people could predict the actions-reactions of a family member or

RMIT University Slide 11

• Much of human behaviour is habitual and runs on autopilot - it takes a

• One implication is that it is hard to remove “bad” habits such as

• Hence, when trying to change behaviours, up to 80% of people relapse and

RMIT University Slide 12

Law #2 human behaviour complex and is a function of the person and

• That is, behaviour is a function of the person [personality and abilities]

• While personality theorists expect consistency – ie, personality = behaviour

• A second example, when people try to change [habitual behaviour], a

RMIT University Slide 13

• Decisions typically involve a trade-off - costs and benefits

• There are often unintended consequences related to trade offs.

For example, most students come to university to learn [intrinsic motivation],

• Another example [tragedy of the commons – see later lecture] – our

RMIT University Slide 15

a. To inoculate people against social pressure

b. To help make professionals more effective

RMIT University Slide 16

Reflect – on a “bad” habit that you tried to change

Stop and have a short rest break

Play and continue with lecture

2. Name the four methods of research in Social

3. Discuss the La Piere study in terms of research

4. Describe Rosenthal's experiment that highlighted the main

5. List and describe Milgram’s innovative research

RMIT University Slide 18

Natural Gathers data from a natural environment without doing a lab

Field/ Researchers test theories by conducting an experiment that

Review of past Using census data to determine country of

Field survey Survey on attitudes toward migration