INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
SOGANG UNIVERSITY, SPRING 2023
WEEK 1, 3/7/2023
Instructor: Jinhyung Kim, Ph.D.
Email: jinhyung@sogang.ac.kr
Office Location: D634
Class Hours: Tue/Thu 09:00-10:15AM
OUTLINE
¡ What is social psychology?
¡ History of social psychology
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
¡ The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals
in social situations (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2011)
¡ The scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are
influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others
¡ Analysis of the individual in the context of a social situation
¡ Social psychologists ask a lot of interesting questions about human
behavior in social contexts!
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
¡ The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals
in social situations (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2011)
¡ Scientific methodologies
¡ Methods: correlation survey, experiment
¡ Analysis: quantitative (statistics), qualitative
¡ Interpretation: logics/rationales, empiricism
¡ Theoretical perspectives
¡ Guidance for explaining “why”
¡ Why together is happier than alone?
¡ Fundamental need to belong (Bamumeister & Leary, 1995)
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
¡ The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals
in social situations (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2011)
¡ Emotion
¡
happy, sad
¡
shame, guilt
¡
regret, nostalgia
¡ Cognition
¡
personal attitude, belief, value
¡
social identity, political orientation
¡
biases (e.g., confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance)
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
¡ The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals
in social situations (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2011)
¡ Behavior
¡
goal pursuit
¡
helping, aggressive behavior
¡
purchase, work
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
¡ The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals
in social situations (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2011)
¡ Social perception
¡ Self and identity
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
¡ The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals
in social situations (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2011)
¡ Social perception
¡ Self and identity
¡ Social judgment
¡ Fundamental attribution error
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
¡ The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals
in social situations (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2011)
¡ Social perception
¡ Self and identity
¡ Social judgment
¡ Fundamental attribution error
¡ Social influence
¡ Power of situation
¡ Asch’s line experiment
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
¡ The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals
in social situations (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2011)
¡ Social perception
¡ Self and identity
¡ Social judgment
¡ Fundamental attribution error
¡ Social influence
¡ Power of situation
¡ Asch’s line experiment
¡ Milgram’s obedience experiment
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
¡ The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals
in social situations (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2011)
¡ Social perception
¡ Self and identity
¡ Social judgment
¡ Fundamental attribution error
¡ Social influence
¡ Power of situation
¡ Asch’s line experiment
¡ Milgram’s obedience experiment
¡ Stanford prison experiment
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
¡ The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals
in social situations (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2011)
¡ Social perception
¡ Self and identity
¡ Social judgment
¡ Fundamental attribution error
¡ Social influence
¡ Power of situation
¡ Asch’s line experiment
¡ Milgram’s obedience experiment
¡ Stanford prison experiment
¡ Helping behavior
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
¡ The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals
in social situations (Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2011)
¡ Social relations
¡ Attachment
ISN’T IT COMMON SENSE?
¡ Often what we think is “common sense” is not necessarily the case
(context is important)
¡ Hindsight bias – tendency to overestimate our ability to prediction
once we already know the outcome of an event
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY QUIZ
¡ We tend to see the people in our own groups as more diverse and different from each other than we
see people in other groups.
¡ People are less likely to be aggressive if they recently released their tensions by aggressing than if they
did not aggress.
¡ If people tell a lie for a reward, they are more likely to come to believe the lie if they are given a small
reward rather than a large reward for telling the lie.
¡ Physically attractive individuals are usually seen as less intelligent than physically unattractive
individuals.
¡ People are LESS likely to help another person when they are alone than when there is a group around.
RELATION TO OTHER FIELDS
¡ Sociology – investigates issues of social class, social structure, institutions
¡ Both consider the impact of the social environment on outcomes
¡ Social psychology focuses on what happens to the individual; sociology focuses on what happens to societies
as a whole
¡ Personality psychology – investigates what personality characteristics make people different from each
other
¡ Both attempt to explain human (social) behavior
¡ Social psychology aims to identify when and how human behavior are contextualized; personality psychology
focuses on personality traits or how people are consistent over time
HISTORY OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
¡ Kurt Lewin (Founder of modern Social Psychology)
¡ Emphasize the power of the situation in influencing people’s behavior.
¡ B = f(P, E)
¡ Behavior is a function of the person and the environment.
¡ We must consider the situation, it holds weight!
¡ We tend to think that people’s actions are driven primarily by traits and dispositions about
a person (attribution bias), often failing to consider the influence of the situation on
behavior.
HISTORY OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
¡ 1880s-1920s
¡ Norman Triplett (1898)
¡ Maximilien Ringelmann (1913)
HISTORY OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
¡ 1930s-1950s
¡ Major impact of world events
¡ How do we understand the world?
¡ Attitudes & Persuasion
¡ Stereotyping, Prejudice, Discrimination
¡ Obedience
¡ Conformity
¡ Behaviorism was still dominant
HISTORY OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
¡ 1960s-1970s
¡ Ethical Issues
¡ What can we learn from “not-so-real-life” lab studies?
¡ Artificial, undergrads, demand characteristics
¡ Walter Mischel: No such thing as personality
HISTORY OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
¡ 1970s-1990s
¡ Cognitive Revolution: How does the mind work?
¡ Do we process social information the same way as other information?
¡ How does the situation influence how we process information?
¡ Shift from “real life” to how information is processed (but did we lose our way?)
HISTORY OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
¡ Modern Social Psychology
¡ Many influences on social information processing:
¡ Cognition
¡ Motivation
¡ Emotion
¡ Neuroscience
¡ Personality
¡ Evolutionary principles
¡ Cultural variations
¡ Still believe that B = f(P, E)
HOW TO CONDUCT SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH?
NEXT CLASS
¡ Autobiography – Due March 9th (Thursday)
¡ Submit to Cyber Campus
¡ Read Chapter 1 of the textbook