Social Psychology
PS1206
Dr. Jean Quigley
Hilary term 2009
Tues 1-2 Arts 1008; Fri 1-2 Arts 2043
Course Outline
Social psychology as a discipline:
1. Defining Social Psychology
2. A short history of Social Psychology
3. Evidence: Methods of Enquiry
Evaluating our social world:
4. The concept of Attitude
5. Attitude Change
Social thinking - Perceiving people and events:
6. Constructing the Self
7. Social Perception and Attribution
8. Social Cognition
Social influence - Understanding our place within the group:
9. Social Influence
10. Social Interaction
11. Intergroup Relations - Group Processes
Interacting with others:
12. Aggression & Altruism
13. Interpersonal Attraction
14. Prejudice and Out-Group Perception
Broader perspectives in social psychology:
15.
16.
17.
18.
Language & Discourse in Social Psychology
Evolutionary Social Psychology
A Cross Cultural Perspective on Social Psychology
Using Social Psychology
Reading
Required text(s)
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Hogg, M.A. & Vaughan, G.M. 5th Ed. (2008) Social Psychology. London: Arnold.
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Fraser, C. & Burchell, B. (2001) Introducing Social Psychology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Recommended reading
Supplementary texts
For classical readings:

Hewstone, M., Manstead, A. S. R. & Stroebe, W. (1997) (Eds.). The Blackwell Reader in Social Psychology. Oxford:
Blackwell.
For detailed overviews of main topics:

Gilbert, D.T., Fiske, S.T., & Lindzey, G. (1998). (Eds.). The Handbook of Social Psychology. (4th ed.). Boston: McGrawHill.
Advanced/Critical Readings [Reference]:

Gergen, K.J. (1985). Social psychology and the wrong revolution. European Journal of Social Psychology, 19, 463-84.
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Parker, I. (1989) The Crisis in Modern Social Psychology and How to End it. London: Routledge.

Rogers, R.S., Stenner, P., Gleeson, K. & Rogers, W.S. (1995). Social Psychology: A Critical Agenda. London: Polity
Press.
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Sapsford, R., Still, A., Wetherell, M., Miell, D. & Stevens, R. (1998). Theory and Social Psychology. London: Sage.
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Tesser, A. (1995). Advanced Social Psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
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Tuffin, K. (2005) Understanding Critical Social Psychology. London:Sage.
The social animal:
The importance of social relationships

Having close friends and staying in contact with family members is
associated with health benefits such as protecting against the
effects of Alzheimer’s disease, having lower blood pressure, and
living longer (Bennett et al., 2006; Giles et al., 2005; Hawkley et al., 2006).

Children who are socially excluded from activities by their peers are
more likely than other children to suffer academically, as well as
socially, in school several years later (Buhs et al, 2006).

Experiencing a social rejection is so painful that it produces activity
in the same part of the brain as when we feel physical pain, even
when rejection comes from a group we dislike (Gonsalkorale &
Williams, 2007)
What is social psychology?

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Studies the events and processes that make up
our everyday lives
Examines the way in which our thought and
behaviour is influenced by the presence of
others.
Seeks to discover the principles underlying
group and individual interaction.
Seeks to link observation, theory & application.
Understand social behaviour in terms of

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internal characteristics of the person (e.g., personality, mental processes)
external influences (the effect of the social environment).
Some questions:
 Why do we conform?
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What attracts us to other people?
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What are ‘cognitive misers?’
How do juries make decisions?
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How are we ‘social’ selves?
Why are we ‘social loafers?
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How are stereotypes formed?
…
Why do we behave differently in groups?
Academic discipline of social
psychology

One of the major areas within psychology closest to the social sciences.

A very large and very active field
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Poised between individual mind and broader
social context
Psychology or Sociology?
PSYCHOLOGY: social context is an additional variable that
modifies individual psychology but is not itself formative
SOCIOLOGY: begins with the nature of social context – how does
this construct the person? (George Herbert Mead, Lev
Vygotsky)
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Is there a universal human nature, do human minds work
much the same way across history and cultures?
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How can you establish the basic psychology of the individual
(motivation, desire, formation of beliefs and opinions) without
considering the formative nature of social life?
Methodology?
Is social psychology what social psychologists
do?
Core disagreements about nature of knowledge;
understandings of the individual; the role of
science (epistemology)
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Objective science of social psychology
Moral science of social psychology
Critical /politically informed social psychology
Gordon W. Allport 1954
With few exceptions, social psychologists regard
their discipline as an attempt to understand and
explain how the thought, feeling and behaviour of
individuals is influenced by the actual, imagined or
implied presence of others.
The term “implied presence” refers to the many
activities the individual carries out because of their
position (role) in a complex social structure and
because of their membership in a cultural group.
Some social psychological wisdoms
1.
Our judgments are often flawed.
2.
We process information in self-referential ways.
3.
We are more susceptible to social influence
than we realize.
4.
We can be significantly influenced by seemingly
insignificant situational variables.
The constructed nature of reality
We live out our lives embedded within a socially constructed
view of reality.
Muzar Sherif (1936) - the autokinetic effect, the tendency
for a stationary point of light viewed in a dark room to
appear to be moving.

Other classic research on related phenomena such as
conformity, persuasion, and social comparison, make
a strong case that our perceptions and beliefs about
ourselves and the world are profoundly shaped by our
social environment.
The power of social influence
The particular social situations we find ourselves in have a great
impact on our behavior.
Three main lines of research:
i) Solomon Asch and others (e.g., Asch, 1956) line experiments.
ii) Stanley Milgram’s (1974) obedience research.
iii) The Stanford Prison Experiment (Haney, Banks & Zimbardo, 1973).

We tend to attribute the (conformist/inhumane…) actions revealed in
these experiments to the (compliant/spineless/sadistic…) nature of the
participants rather than to the power of the social situations.
The limits of self-knowledge
We are not only often in error when judging why others behave they way they
do, but in judging the causes of our own behavior as well.
Although people can readily explain why they believe, feel, and do the things
they do, their explanations are often wrong.

Nisbett & Wilson (1977) demonstrated that people are often influenced by
aspects of their environment without any awareness of this influence. And
conversely, people sometimes think they are affected by an aspect of their
environment when in fact they are not.

The self we are aware of and that we think directs our thoughts, feelings,
and actions is really analogous to a figurehead readily influenced by
various psychological operatives working hard behind the scenes.
The effects of external cues on our
thinking
Important kinds of influences are overlooked when people try to
understand their beliefs, feelings, & actions
Subtle situational factors in the environment exert a powerful
influence on us without our conscious awareness
External cues bring particular thoughts and actions previously
stored in our minds from past experience closer to
consciousness, and by so doing, increase their effects on
our beliefs, feelings, and actions (Schachter & Singer
1962)
The effects of our desires on our
thinking
Unconscious motivations are also highly influential
(e.g., work on cognitive dissonance, reactance, self-serving
biases, goal automaticity, & terror management)
A large amount of what we believe, feel, and do is determined
by our desires to sustain positive and meaningful views of
ourselves, those individuals, groups, and concepts we care
about, and the world around us.
These motives often cloud our thinking and bias our judgments,
thereby reducing the accuracy of our views of ourselves and
others and reducing the effectiveness of our actions.
Social psychology investigates why people
allow their desires for positive and
meaningful views of themselves and the
world to bias them in various ways and
thereby interfere with accurate perceptions
and effective actions.
An Overall Social Psychological
Portrait of Humanity
We live out our lives within a culturally constructed view of reality,
prone to influence by the prevailing social milieu,
with limited insight into why we think, feel, and behave the way we do;
we are heavily influenced by cues in our environment and motives of
which we are often unaware,
and we are driven to defend our beliefs and strive for significance by
unconscious fears of vulnerability and mortality.