Chapter 1: Introduction to Social
Psychology
Social Psychology by
Tom Gilovich, Dacher
Keltner, and Richard
Nisbett
Characterizing Social Psychology
Social Psychology - The scientific study of the feelings,
thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social situations
1. Explaining Behavior
• What social psychologists study:
- how people are influenced by others
- how people make decisions
- inferences we make about others’ attitudes and personalities
- influence of situational variables on behavior
- how we make sense of our world
Characterizing Social Psychology
2. Comparing Social Psychology to Related
Disciplines
a. Personality psychology - stresses individual differences
in behavior
b. Cognitive psychology - study of how people think
about, perceive, and remember aspects of the world
c. Sociology - study of behavior of people in the
aggregate (population level issues)
Characterizing Social Psychology
3. Proximal and Distal Influences in Social
Psychology
Proximal - factors that exist in the here-and-now or that
immediately precede what the individual does
Distal - factors that are more removed in time from a given
context or episode
In recent years, two distal factors have greatly influenced the
field of social psychology:
Characterizing Social Psychology
a.
b.
Evolution - explaining commonalities in
human behavior as due to adaptation /
natural selection
Culture - attempt to understand the deep
cultural differences that exist between
societies, and how those differences
influence behavior
Themes in Social Psychology
The Power of The Situation
Classic issue in social psychology: is behavior
due to individual differences (personality) or
situational influences?
1. Early Research and Theory:
a. Lewin’s Field Theory
Themes in Social Psychology
The Role of Construal
A truism in psychology, based on much
research, is that people often think about,
perceive, or ‘construe’ the same stimulus in
different ways. If we are to predict behavior in a
given situation, we need to understand how an
individual construes the situation.
Themes in Social Psychology
The Role of Construal
1. Interpreting Reality
Gestalt Psychology - based on the German word,
Gestalt, meaning “form”, this approach stresses the fact
that objects are perceived not by means of some
automatic registering device but by active, usually
unconscious, interpretation of what the object
represents as a whole
Figure 1.2
Gestalt Principles and Perceptions
Themes in Social Psychology
Automatic and Controlled Processing
The mind processes information in two ways in a social
situation. One is an automatic, unconscious, often
emotional reaction. The other is conscious, systematic,
and likely to be governed by careful thought.
e.g. Devine’s (1989a, 1989b) research on prejudice.
Themes in Social Psychology
Automatic and Controlled Processing
1. Types of Unconscious Processing
a. James’ - “skill acquisition”
b. Freud - formation of beliefs & behaviors without
conscious awareness
2. Functions of Unconscious Processing
Evolution and Human Behavior:
How We Are The Same
Darwin assumed that Natural Selection (an
evolutionary process that operates to mold animals
and plants such that traits that enhance the
probability of survival and reproduction are passed
on to subsequent generations) is just as important
for behavioral propensities as they are for biological
characteristics.
Evolution and Human Behavior: How
We Are The Same
1. Human Universals
2. Group Living, Language, and Theory
of Mind
Theory of Mind - the understanding that other people
have beliefs and desires.
e.g. studies of children with autism demonstrate the
lack of theory of mind in these persons.
Evolution and Human Behavior:
How We Are The Same
3. Parental Investment
In virtually all mammalian species,
males expend far less energy devoted to
raising their offspring compared to females.
This may help to understand universal
tendencies related to child rearing, sex, and
gender.
Evolution and Human Behavior:
How We Are The Same
4. Avoiding the Naturalistic Fallacy
Definition: The way things are, are the
way they should be.
• It should be noted that some people
mistake evolutionary accounts for behavior as
suggesting that ‘biology is destiny.’ This is not
true. We are predisposed for plenty of various
behaviors, but those may often never arise.
Culture and Human Behavior: How
We Are Different
1. Cultural Differences in Self-Definition
• Independent (individualistic) vs.
Interdependent (collectivist) cultures
Table 1.3
Culture and Human Behavior: How We
Are Different
2. Qualifications to these distinctions
● regionalism, subcultures
3. Culture and Evolution as Tools for
Understanding Situations
● Nature proposes – culture disposes
The Need for Research

Common sense is inconsistent

20/20 Hindsight bias

Cognitive Errors in Judgment
–
Confirmation Bias
Research Methods

Experiments - Do changes in one variable (X)
cause changes in another variable (Y)?
–
Independent Variable (X)

–
Dependent Variable (Y)

–
condition or event that is manipulated by experimenter
variable that is affected (hopefully) by manipulating
independent variable
Extraneous Variable(s)

any variable other than independent variable that may
influence dependent variable
Example
A study was conducted to examine the effects of
temperature on aggression. Subjects were randomly
assigned to one of three conditions (low [70o-72o],
moderate [80o-82o], or a high [90o-92o] temperature
room).
While in the room an assistant irritates the subjects.
Subjects were later given a chance to “evaluate” the
assistant and told that low ratings would cause the
assistant to be fired.
Graphic Results
Effects of Temperature on Aggression
Subject Ratings of
Helper
14
12
12
10
7
8
6
3
4
2
0
Low
Moderate
Temperature
High
Confounding of Variables
–
occurs when independent and extraneous
variables are linked together
–
makes it impossible to tell which variable affected
dependent variable
The Process of Confounding
Research Methods

Minimize confounding with consistent
procedures

Minimize confounding with random assignment
–
subjects have an equal chance of being assigned to
any group or condition in the study.
–
the goal of random assignment is to equally
distribute potential extraneous variables in each
group.
Research Methods

Advantages of Experimental Research
–

Allows conclusions about cause & effect
relationships between variables
Disadvantages of Experimental Research
–
Experimental conditions are artificial

–
do results “generalize” to the real world?
Some questions can’t be tested in an experiment
Correlation/Descriptive Research

Surveys
–

Naturalistic Observation
–

investigators use questionnaires or interviews to
gather data about subject’s behavior
investigators observe subject behavior without
direct intervention
Case Studies
–
in-depth probe of individual subject(s)
Correlation/Descriptive Research

Advantages
–
Study phenomena that can’t be studied in a lab




–
riots
effects of supervisor behavior on employees
effects of job loss on couples’ relationship quality
effects of smoking on physical health
Very realistic

results can be generalized to other settings
Correlation/Descriptive Research

Disadvantages
–
–
–
less control over extraneous variables
difficult to measure behavior as precisely
(compared to lab experiments)
cannot demonstrate cause and effect
relationships
Ethical Considerations

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)
–

Potential benefits must outweigh potential harm
APA ethical guidelines
–
–
–
Voluntary participation
Informed consent
Privacy

–
Middlemist personal space experiments
Debriefing
Correlation
–
The extent to which one variable can be
understood on the basis of another

Two properties of correlation coefficient
–
direction (positive or negative)
–
magnitude (strength of the relationship)
Correlation:
Final Grade Points
350
r = .95
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0
50
100
Exam Points
150
Correlation:
Final Grade Points
350
r = .00
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0
50
100
Exam Points
150
Correlation:
High
Turnover Intentions
r = -.95
Low
Low
Job Satisfaction
High