Lecture 1-Social Psychology - Introduction (1)

[Audio] By: Niranjan Madawala 19th September 2021 Social psychology.

[Audio] What is Social psychology? Social psychology examines the effects of our environment on our behaviour and how our actions are influenced by individuals, groups and culture. Our thoughts and feelings are strongly influenced by the social setting in which we find ourselves and we will behave in ways we perceive as being consistent with the social setting There is less emphasis on other psychological determinants of behaviour, such as cognition and biology. Social psychologists tend to use surveys and field experiments when investigating the impact of the environment on our behaviour They are carried out in real-life settings and can be universally applied when studying individuals, groups and culture..

[Audio] Origin and development of social psychology The science of social psychology began when scientists first started to systematically and formally measure the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of human beings The earliest social psychology experiments on group behavior were conducted before 1900 (Triplett, 1898), Triplett noticed that cyclists tend to have faster times when riding in the presence of a counterpart as opposed to riding alone. He then demonstrated this effect in a controlled, laboratory experiment and concluded that children perform a simple lab task faster in pairs than when performing by themselves. People sometimes show an increased level of effort as a result of the real, imagined, or implied presence of others. Floyd Alport, coined the term social facilitation (1924).

[Audio] During the 1940s and 1950s, the social psychologists Kurt Lewin and Leon Festinger refined the experimental approach to studying behavior, creating social psychology as a rigorous scientific discipline. Lewin is sometimes known as “the father of social psychology” because he initially developed many of the important ideas of the discipline, including a focus on the dynamic interactions among people Social psychology was energized by researchers who attempted to understand how the German dictator Adolf Hitler could have produced such extreme obedience and horrendous behaviors in his followers during the World War II. The studies on conformity conducted by Muzafir Sherif (1936) and Solomon Asch (1952), as well as those on obedience by Stanley Milgram (1961), showed the importance of conformity pressures in social groups and how people in authority could create obedience.

[Audio] The latter part of the 20th century saw an expansion of social psychology into the field of attitudes, with a particular emphasis on cognitive processes. Social psychologists developed the first formal models of persuasion, with the goal of understanding how advertisers and other people could present their messages to make them most effective. In the 21st century, the field of social psychology has been expanding into still other areas. Social neuroscience—the study of how our social behavior both influences and is influenced by the activities of our brain. Social psychologists continue to seek new ways to measure and understand social behavior, and the field continues to evolve. We cannot predict where social psychology will be directed in the future..

[Audio] Goals of Social Psychology Social Psychology Seeks to Understand the Causes of Social Behaviour and Thought Social psychologists are primarily, interested in understanding the many factors and conditions that shape the social behavior and thought of individuals. Mainly, how individuals form ideas relating to the actions, feelings, beliefs, memories and inferences concerning other persons. 2. The Actions and Characteristics of Other One person’s behavior and their characteristics expressed in the behavior directly influence other person’s feeling and action. For example, If a customer goes to the counter straightly without standing on the line, it will defiantly create different types of feelings and as well action from the people who are already waiting in the line..

[Audio] 3. The Cognitive Processes The Cognitive processes such as perception, memory and inferences play a key role on the understanding and behavior of every individual in the society. Reactions to a certain situation by an individual strongly depend on the memories of others past behaviors and the inferences an individual formed about these behaviours. 4. The Environmental Factors The weather and the climate a person experiences has a say in his/her behavior. The findings of research indicate the physical environment necessarily influences the feelings, thoughts and behavior of everyone. The climatically conditions make a person either happy or sad. For example people become more irritable and aggressive when the weather is hot and steamy than when it is cool and comfortable..

[Audio] 5. The Cultural Context People live in different cultural settings. Each culture comes out with its own rules and norms to be systematically followed in different facets of human life cycle. The practices followed in one culture will be different than the other cultures. If a person is hailing from a particular culture he/she has to adapt appropriately the behavior patterns accepted by his/her culture. 6. The Biological/Evolutionary Factors This is a new branch of social psychology that seeks to investigate the potential role of genetic factors in various aspects of human behavior. According to this view as any other species human beings also have a process of biological, evolution throughout history..

[Audio] Basic Principles of Social Behavior 1. Social behavior is goal oriented. People have short-term immediate goals that are linked to broader long-term goals and ultimately to more fundamental motives (such as establishing social ties, understanding ourselves and others, gaining and maintaining status, defending ourselves and those we value, and attracting and maintaining mates). 2. Social behavior represents a continual interaction between the person and the situation. Different situations activate different parts of the self Situations have different facets, each of which can activate different social motives in the person Not everyone responds in the same way to the same situation People change their situations People choose their situations Situations change people Situations choose people..

[Audio] How Psychologists Study Social Behavior There are three major approaches to conducting research that are used by social psychologists. The observational approach The correlational approach The experimental approach Each approach has some advantages and disadvantages Descriptive methods (including naturalistic observations, case studies, archival studies, and surveys) involve recording behaviors, thoughts, and feelings in their natural state. They can uncover correlations but do not permit cause–effect inferences..

[Audio] Experimental Research The goal of much research in social psychology is to understand the causal relationships among variables, and for this we use experiments. Experimental research designs are research designs that include the manipulation of a given situation or experience for two or more groups of individuals who are initially created to be equivalent, followed by a measurement of the effect of that experience. Key elements of a simple experiment: The experimental hypothesis: A statement that predicts that the treatment will cause an effect. The experimental hypothesis will always be phrased as a cause-and-effect statement. The null hypothesis A hypothesis that the experimental treatment will have no effect on the participants or dependent variables. It is important to note that failing to find an effect of the treatment does not mean that there is no effect. The treatment might impact another variable that the researchers are not measuring in the current experiment..

[Audio] Cross-Cultural Research Cross-Cultural Research help to determine universal psychological processes unique to humans and the cultural influences on basic social psychological behaviour. The scientists must not impose their own viewpoints and definitions from their own culture onto the unfamiliar culture, but the two variables are to be understood in the same way in the different culture. Bias in Research Bias is the distortion of results by a variable. Common types of bias include: Sampling bias Subject bias (The social desirability bias) Experimenter bias.

[Audio] An Introduction to Social Psychology, 7th Edition Miles Hewstone (Editor), Wolfgang Stroebe (Editor).

[Audio] . The Power of Expectations and Feedback.