Social Psychology notes

Notes:

Definition(s):

1. Social psychology is the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to others. The focus may be on perceptions and attitudes, interactions among people, or group dynamics.
2. The systematic study of human behavior with emphasis on the social context.
3. Study of society: scientific study of how people think about it, influence, and relate to others

3 main approaches to/levels of social psychology:

1. Societal - different views on issues in society and the conflicts that may arise
2. Individual - assistance in coping/socializing/conforming
3. Interpersonal level

It has its roots in the psychoanalytic theory (Freud), behaviorism (Kurt Koffka) and Gestalt psychology. For instance, social psychologists recognize that behavior is influenced by personal motives and by the emotional reactions individuals have to situations and other people. They are interested in how we learn to be helpful or to obey authority or to espouse conservative political views. And from Gestalt psychologists they have learned an emphasis on social cognition - the study of how we perceive and understand our social world.

History of Social Psychology (brief)

History of Social Psychology (notes):

Beginnings (1900's):

1908-1924 - William McDougal - instinct, innate behavior

1935 - Muzafer Sherif; Kurt Lewin, Leon Festinger - conformity, experimentation; cognitive dissonance

1960's - interpersonal relationships, concentration, aggression

1970's - gender discrimination (difference in maturity between men and women), attribution

1990's - emphasis on cognitive aspect

I      Gathering forces - 1880-1935

II    Great advances - 1936-1945

III   Classic period - 1946-1960

IV   Confidence and crisis - 1961-1975

V    An era of pluralism - 1976-present

Stage I:

Norman Triplett, an American psychologist, and Ringelmann, a French agricultural engineer made advances in studying people's behavior in the presence of other people

(However, it has been found that Triplett's findings were statistically insignificant)

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/taking-another-look-at-the-roots-of-social-psychology.html

In the 1880s, Max Ringelmann studied whether workers pulled harder when they were together than when they worked alone. In 1894, Binet and Henri published a study of social influence among children and in 1887, Charles Féré authored a book that described experiments on how the presence of others could increase individual performance. But the field didn’t find its modern identity until 1924, says Stroebe, when Floyd Allport published a textbook defining social psychology as the experimental study of social behavior.

 Stage II:
Muzaffer Sherif used a visual illusion experiment (description) (among others) to study conformity

Sherif (July 29, 1906 – October 16, 1988) was a founder of modern social psychology, who developed several unique and powerful techniques for understanding social processes, particularly social norms and social conflict.

 Kurt Lewin studied interpretations: what we think we see and how we interpret it. He was a field theorist. He summarizes his theory that "Behavior is a function of people and behavior" influenced by internal dialogue (personality psychology) and external environment (social psychology) as:
B = f(PE)

Kurt Zadek Lewin (September 9, 1890 – February 12, 1947) was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States.^[2] Kurt Lewin, exiled from the land of his birth, made a new life for himself. In this new life, Lewin defined himself and his contributions within three lenses of analysis; applied research, action research, and group communication were his major offerings to the field of communication.

Lewin is often recognized as the "founder of social psychology" and was one of the first to study group dynamicsand organizational development.

 Stage III:
Classic Period - Golden Age - 1946-1960

• post-WWII
• govts wanted to reconstruct their economies
• identity was a huge issue

1. Gordon Allport studied prejudice and stereotypes. His visit with Freud made him reject psychoanalysis:

 He contributed to the formation of Values Scales and rejected both a psychoanalytic approach to personality, which he thought often went too deep, and a behavioral approach, which he thought often did not go deep enough. He emphasized the uniqueness of each individual, and the importance of the present context, as opposed to past history, for understanding the personality.

He had a knack for attacking and broadly conceptualizing important and interesting topics (e.g. rumor, prejudice, religion, traits).  
Read up on:
Allport's Trait Theory
Genotypes and Phenotypes and
Functional Autonomy of Motives

2. Solomon Asch studied conformity, and person perception. 

Asch stated: "Most social acts have to be understood in their setting, and lose meaning if isolated. No error in thinking about social facts is more serious than the failure to see their place and function" (Asch, 1952, p. 61). He is most well known for his conformity experiments, in which he demonstrated the influence of group pressure on opinions.

 3. Leon Festinger studied what he termed as cognitive dissonance (theory)

Leon Festinger (8 May 1919 – 11 February 1989) was an American social psychologist, perhaps best known for cognitive dissonance and social comparison theory. His theories and research are credited with renouncing the previously dominantbehaviorist view of social psychology by demonstrating the inadequacy of stimulus-response conditioning accounts of human behavior. Festinger is also credited with advancing the use of laboratory experimentation in social psychology, although he simultaneously stressed the importance of studying real-life situations, a principle he perhaps most famously practiced when personally infiltrating a doomsday cult. He is also known in social network theory for the proximity effect (or propinquity).

4. Fritz Heider: 

his book presents a wide-range analysis of the conceptual framework and the psychological processes that influence human social perception

 His was the first of attribution theories

5. Harold Kelley studied social exchange

6. Carl Hovland studied attitudes and persuasion

With the advent of government propaganda in support of the United States’ participation in World War II, the artifacts worth investigating helped with increase of persuasive communication with intent to affect behavior, attitude, and values. These artifacts had a remarkable amount of money invested into them, however, were they effective? This concept of effectiveness and affecting change within individuals, interpersonal relations, and persuasion are exactly what Hovland was interested in. Carl Hovland's contributions to the field of communications were three-fold. First, he emphasized micro-level analysis, next he was interested in all facets of interpersonal communication, and finally he revolutionized persuasive research.

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Social cognition
Study of how people perceive, remember and interpret information about self and others
1980's - cognitive revolution era

• multicultural perspectives
• emphasis on social identity and minority groups
• collectivist approach (collectivist culture)

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Theories:

1. Motivation (situations can create or arouse needs that, in turn, lead people to engage in behaviors that reduce those needs)
2. Learning (a person's current behavior is determined by past experience; classical conditioning, reinforcement, observational learning, modeling)
3. Cognitive (a person's behavior depends on the way he/she perceives a social situation)
4. Decision-making (individuals evaluate the costs and benefits of various actions and choose the best alternative in a fairly logical, reasoned way; expectancy-value theory)
5. Interdependence (the outcomes one person receives depend at least in part on the behavior of the other and vice versa; social exchange theory)
6. Socio-cultural (how people's diverse social backgrounds influence their thoughts, feelings and behavior; culture, socialization, social norms, social role, individualism, collectivism)
7. Evolutionary (applied the principles of evolution and natural selection to the understanding of human behavior and social life)
8. Mid-range (theories that account for only a specific aspect of of social behavior)