PSY 380Introduction to Social Psychology

Today's Topic:

History & Themes in Social Psychology

January 11, 2000

Announcements

Discussion sections begin meeting this week.

Extra copies of the syllabus available on your way out.

Visit the website for lecture note outlines: www.umich.edu/~psychol/380sek

Outline for Today's Class

History & Themes in Social Psychology

Classic studies

Conducting research in social psych

History of Social Psychology

First experiment that can be called social psychology

First books on social psychology

World War II

History & Themes cont.

Kurt Lewin (1935)

Behavior is largely shaped by our construals of the world around us

Behavior is shaped by the interaction between person and environment

Social psychological theories should be applied to social problems

Classic Studies

S. Asch (1956): conformity

Leon Festinger (1957): justifying behavior

Latane' & Darley (1970): behavior in a crisis situation

Stanley Milgram (1963): obedience to authority

P. Zimbardo (1973): taking on social roles

Classic studies share common properties

high in psychological realism

focus on behavioral outcomes

Criticisms

are these lab studies ethical?

are the results generalizable?

is the deception justified?

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

New directions

focus on thought processes

 

focus on biology, psychophysiology

 

focus on culture

Conducting Research in Social Psychology

How do we test ideas in social psychology?

observational method

correlational method

experimental method

Correlational method

correlation: the technique whereby two or more variables are systematically measured and the relationship between them assessed.

correlation assess the extent to which variables naturally co-vary. If you have knowledge of one, you can predict the other.

Examples of correlations

smoking and lung cancer

education and income

having similar attitudes and liking

being Swedish and having blue eyes

frequency of watching "Mr. Rogers" and aggressive behavior

Correlational techniques

generally used when analyzing survey or archival data

use questionnaires, other methods to carefully measure two variables

conduct statistical analysis

provides a correlation coefficient

Correlation coefficient

a number between -1 and +1, including zero

indicates direction and magnitude of correlation

Example of Positive Correlation

Example of Negative Correlation

Example of Perfect Correlation

Example of No Correlation

Advantages of the correlational method

Can predict one variable from knowledge of the other

direction and degree of prediction relies on the correlation coefficient

Describes naturally occurring relationships

High generalizability

Disadvantages of the correlational method

Does not tell us that one variable caused the other to occur

consider the being Swedish/having blue eyes example

Three possible causal relationships

variable X causes variable Y

variable Y causes variable X

a third variable Z causes both

The correlational method is useful to describe relationships between variables, but correlation does not imply causation.

To infer causes, the experimental method must be used.

The Experimental Method

Basic components

manipulation of some variables

measurement of other variables

controlling confounding factors

An example of an experiment

"The Effects of Perceived Similarity on Liking"

Prediction: People like others who they perceive are similar to them.

Bring 50 research volunteers to the lab.

They have an informal interaction with "another participant" ("confederate").

Each person experiences one of two different situations

1. The participant meets a confederate who shares several of the same characteristics as the participant, OR

2. The participant meets a confederate who does not share any of the same characteristics.

The participant rates how well he/she liked the "other participant" on scale of 1-10

Results

Identify the components of the experiment

The manipulated variable

what did the experimenter change across the two groups?

this is the "independent variable"

The measured variable

what was predicted to be affected by the manipulation?

this is the "dependent variable"

Control of confounding factors?

What other variables would you want to control (hold constant across both groups)?

The Take-Home Point

In order to design a good experiment, you need to manipulate one (or more) variables, while holding all other potentially confounding variables constant.

When everything was the same for both groups of subjects except for the variable you manipulated, then you can conclude with reasonable certainty that the differences observed between the groups was due to the manipulation.