Chapter ONE
Social Psychology: The Science of the Social Side
of Life
Systematic Observation: Describing the
World around Us
Systematic Observation: A method of research in which
behavior is systematically observed and recorded
Survey Method: a method in which large numbers of
people respond to questions about their attitudes or
behavior
- measure attitudes toward specific issues such as smoking,
to find out how voters feel about various political candidates, to
determine how people feel about members of different social
groups
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Correlation: The Search for
Relationships
• Correlation refers to a tendency for one event to change
as the other changes
• Variables are changeable aspects of the natural world
• Correlational Method: the systematic observation of two
or more variables to determine whether changes in one
are accompanied by changes in the other
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Correlational Method
• The correlational method allows predictions to be
made
• A hypothesis is an as yet unverified prediction
concerning some aspect of social behavior or social
thought
• A stronger correlation yields a more accurate
prediction
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Correlational Method
• Correlations range from -1.00 to +1.00
• Correlations can be either positive or negative
• A positive correlation means that the two
variables move in the same direction, either both
increasing or decreasing
• A negative correlation means that as one variable
increases, the other decreases—the two variables
move in opposite directions
• The farther away from 0, the stronger the correlation
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Figure 1.11
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The Experimental Method: Knowledge
through
Systematic Intervention
• Experimentation (experimental method): A method of
research in which one or more factors (the independent
variables) are systematically changed to determine
whether such variations affect one or more other
factors (dependent variables)
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Experimentation: Its Basic Nature
• Independent variable is the variable that is
systematically changed (i.e. varied) in an experiment
• Dependent variable is the variable that is measured in
an experiment
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Experimentation: Two Key
Requirements for Its Success
1. Random assignment: Each research participant
must have an equal chance of being exposed to
each level of the independent variable
2. Other than the independent variable, all factors
that might also affect participants’ behavior must
be held constant - control
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Further Thoughts on Causality:
The Role of Mediating Variables
Mediating variable is a variable that is affected by an
independent variable, and then influences a dependent
variable.
• Helps explain why or how specific variables influence
social behavior or thought in certain ways
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Figure 1.13
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The Role of Theory in Social
Psychology
?
Theories are efforts by scientists in any field to answer
the question “Why?”
– involve attempts to understand why certain events or
processes occur as they do
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The Quest for Knowledge and the Rights
of Individuals:
Seeking an Appropriate Balance
Rights of individual participants:
1. No harm or distress
2. Informed consent
3. As much information as possible about a research
project before they decide whether to participate in it
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Rights of Individuals continued…
• Deception is a technique whereby researchers withhold
information about the purposes or procedures of a
study from people participating in it
• Informed consent is a procedure in which research
participants are provided with as much information as
possible about a research project before deciding
whether to participate in it
• Debriefing is the procedure at the conclusion of a
research session in which participants are given full
information about the nature of the research and the
hypothesis or hypotheses under investigation
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