Social psychology (psychology)

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This page deals with Social Psychology as a subfield of Psychology. Social Psychology is also a subfield of Sociology (see Social psychology (sociology)).

Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others (Allport, 1985). By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all of the variables that are measurable in an individual human being. Finally, the reference to imagined or implied others suggests that people are prone to social influence even when no other people are present, such as when watching television, or following internalized cultural norms.

Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the interaction of mental states and immediate, social situations. As Kurt Lewin (1951) stated, behavior can be viewed as a function of the person and the environment, B=f(P,E).

Social psychology began as an interdisciplinary field, with sociologists and psychologists who had an interest in studying behavior in small groups. The field is poised midway between psychology, which deals with the individual and sociology, which focuses on groups and institutions. Over the years, however, social psychology has become increasingly specialized, and this entry approaches the subject from a psychological perspective.

Major theories

Social psychology is a highly empirical field. Rather than seeking global theories of human behavior, social psychologists utilize a wide range of specific theories for various kinds of social and cognitive phenomena. Here is a sampling of some of the more influencial theories that can be found in this branch of psychology.

  • Attribution Theory - is concerned with the ways in which people explain (or attribute) the behavior of others. The theory divides the way people attribute causes to events into two types. External or "situational" attributions assign causality to an outside factor, such as the weather. Internal or "dispositional" attributions assign causality to factors within the person, such as ability or personality.
  • Cognitive Dissonance Theory - was originally based on the concept of cognitive consistency, but is now more related to self-concept theory. When people do something that violates their view of themselves, this causes an uncomfortable state of dissonance that motivates a change in either attitudes or behavior (Festinger, 1957).
  • [[|dual process theory|Dual process theories]] (such as the Elaboration Likelihood Model) - maintain that infromation processing, often in the case of a persuasion attempt can be divided into two separate processes based on the "likelihood of cognitive elaborations," that is, whether people think critically about the content of a message, or respond to superficial aspects of the message and other immediate cues.
  • Evolutionary Psychology - suggests that human behavioral tendencies are at least partly inherited and have been influenced by the process of natural selection. One popular area of study is the possibility that human sex differences are due to differential reproductive strategies.
  • Schema Theory - focuses on "schemas" which are cognitive structures that organize knowledge and guide information processing. They take the form of generalized beliefs that can operate automatically and lead to biases in perception and memory.
  • Self-perception Theory - emphasizes that we observe ourselves in the same manner that we observe others, and draw conclusions about our likes and dislikes. Extrinsic self perceptions can lead to the overjustification effect.
  • Social Comparison Theory - suggests that humans gain information about themselves, and make inferences that are relevant to self-esteem, by comparison to relevant others.
  • Social Exchange Theory - is an economic social theory that assumes human relationships are based on rational choice and cost-benefit analyses. If one partner's costs begin to outweigh his or her benefits, that person may leave the relationship, especially if there are good alternatives available.
  • Social Identity Theory - was developed by Henri Tajfel and examines how categorizing people (including oneself) into ingroups or outgroups affects perceptions, attitudes, and behavior.
  • Social Learning Theory - suggests that behavior can be acquired by observation and imitation of others, unlike traditional learning theories which require reinforcement or punishment for learning to occur.

Research in social psychology

Research interests

Some of the basic topics of interest in social psychology are:

  • Attitudes – The focus of this area is the study of the relationship between attitudes and behavior and the use of persuasive communication to change attitudes. The primary theories used to explain and predict the relationship between attitudes and behavior are the theories of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) and planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985). The primary theory of attitude change is the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Caccioppo, 1986).
  • Close Relationships - Social Psychologists in this area study the processes underlying relationship formation, maintenance and dissolution. Prominent theories in this area are Interdependence Theory (Rusbult, Agnew & Arriaga, 2001) and Attachment theory (Reis & Patrick, 1996).
  • Conformity
  • Gender roles - the effects of role schemas on the perceived makeup of gender and the sexes
  • Group Dynamics - includes the study of group formation, effectiveness and influences on the individual.
  • Impression Formation - which investigates the cognitive processes underlying the way we form impressions of others. This includes the biases guiding our impressions, the inferences we make, and the weight we give to different pieces of information.
  • Socialization (which investigates the learning of standards, rules, attitudes, roles, values, and beliefs; and the agents, processes, and outcomes of learning) and Development (which looks at the contribution of both nature and nurture in production of social behavior).
  • Social Judgment - which investigates the cognitive processes underlying our beliefs about the social world. Some of the heuristics or “rules of thumb” include the availability heuristic, representativeness heuristic, and anchoring and adjustment. We are sometimes also biased toward over-attributing our own personal beliefs to society at large, i.e. the false consensus effect. Some people also tend to believe in a just world which can lead to blaming the victim in some circumstances.

Research methods

Social psychology is an empirical science that attempts to answer a variety of questions about human behavior by testing hypotheses both in the laboratory and in the field. Careful attention to sampling, research design, and statistical analysis is important, and results are published in peer reviewed journals such as The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

  • Experimental methods - the researcher manipulates an independent variable and observes the effect on a dependent variable in an attempt to explore causal relationships
  • Correlational methods - the researcher looks at the statistical association between two naturally occuring variables, For example: viewing violent media and performing violent behaviors
  • Observational methods - this method is purely descriptive and includes naturalistic observation, participant observation, and archival analysis

Controlled experiments are useful in social psychology because they are high in internal validity, meaning that they are free from the influence of extraneous variables, and so are more likely to accurately indicate a causal relationship. However, the small samples used in controlled experiments are low in external validity, or the degree to which the results can be generalized the larger population. There is usually a trade-off between experimental control (internal validity) compared to being able to generalize results to a naturalistic situation for the population at large (external validity).

Regardless of which method is used, it is important to evaluate the research hypothesis in light of the results, either confirming or rejecting the original prediction. Social psychologists use standard probabibility testing, which defines a significant finding as less than 5% likely to be due to chance. Replications are important, to ensure that the result is valid and not due to chance, or some feature of a particular sample.

Research ethics

The goal of social psychology is to understand cognition and behavior as they naturally occur in a social context, but the very act of observing people can influence and alter their behavior. For this reason, many social psychology experiments utilize deception to conceal or distort certain aspects of the study. Deception may include false cover stories, false participants (known as confederates or stooges), false feedback given to the participants, and so on.

The practice of deception has been challenged by some psychologists who maintain that deception under any circumstances is unethical, and that other research strategies (e.g. role-playing) should be used instead. Unfortunately, research has shown that role-playing studies do not produce the same results as deception studies and this has cast doubt on their validity. In addition to deception, experimenters have at times put people into potentially uncomfortable or embarrassing situations (e.g. the Milgram Experiment, Stanford prison experiment), and this has also been criticized for ethical reasons.

To protect the rights and well-being of research participants, and at the same time discover meaningful results and insights into human behavior, virtually all social psychology research must pass an ethical review process. At most colleges and universities, this is conducted by an ethics committee or institutional review board. This group examines the proposed research to make sure that no harm is done to the participants, and that the benefits of the study outweigh any possible risks or discomforts to people taking part in the study.

Furthermore, a process of informed consent is often used to make sure that volunteers know what will happen in the experiment and understand that they are allowed to quit the experiment at any time. A debriefing is typically done at the conclusion of the experiment in order to reveal any deceptions used and generally make sure that the participants are unharmed by the procedures. Today, most research in social psychology involves no more risk of harm than can be expected from routine psychological testing or normal daily activities.

Famous experiments

Well known experiments and studies in social psychology include:

File:Milgram experiment.png
The Milgram Experiment: The experimenter (E) persuades the participant (S) to give what the participant believes are painful electric shocks to another participant (A), who is actually an actor. Many participants continued to give shocks despite pleas for mercy from the actor.
  • The Milgram experiment, which studied how far people would go to avoid dissenting against authority even when the suffering of others was at stake. (At the time a poll of psychiatrists showed a belief that only 1% of the populace would be capable of continuing to cause pain to an extreme point.) Coming soon after World War II, it suggested that people are more susceptible to control by authority than was then assumed in the Western democratic world.
  • The Asch conformity experiments from the late 1950s, a series of studies that starkly demonstrated the power of conformity in groups on the perceptions/cognitions and behaviors of individuals.
  • Muzafer Sherif's Robbers' Cave State Park experiment. The researchers divided boys into two competing groups and tried to combine them again later on through mutual challenges. Also known as realistic group conflict theory, because the intergroup conflict was induced through competition over resources.
  • Paul Ekman's studies of the facial expression of emotion.
  • The article Social Psychology as History by Kenneth Gergen. This article was one of the major works on the incident known as the 'crisis of social psychology' in the '70s.

Important terms and concepts

Heuristics

Heuristics - Broadly, a Heuristic is a method for problem-solving. The word comes from the same Greek root as "eureka". In psychology heuristics seen to be are simple, efficient rules of thumb which have been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to judgments and solve problems, typically when facing complex problems or incomplete information. These rules work well under most circumstances, but in certain cases lead to systematic cognitive biases.

  • availability heuristic is a heuristic which occurs when people estimate the probability of an outcome based on how easy that outcome is to imagine. As such, vividly described, emotionally-charged possibilities will be perceived as being more likely than those that are harder to picture or are difficult to understand, resulting in a corresponding cognitive bias.

Persuasion

Persuasion is a form of influence. It is the process of guiding people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not only logical) means. It is a problem-solving strategy, and relies on "appeals" rather than force. There are four basic aspects:

  1. The Communicator, a person whose credibility, expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness all play a role.
  2. The Message, possessed of varying degrees of reason, emotion (such as fear), one-sided or two sided messages, and other types of informational content.
  3. The Channel, whether it be interpersonal or media based, passive or active in nature.
  4. The Audience, possessed of a wide variety of demographics, personality traits, and preferences.
  • Influence - Social psychology considers a great number of ways in which an individual can be influenced. Two of the reasons why people consciously allow themselves to be influenced are:
  • Credibility is the believability of a statement, action, or source, and the ability of the observer to believe that statement. In public speaking, Aristotle considered the credibility of the speaker, his character, to be one of the forms of proof. Contemporary social science research has found that there are several dimensions of credibility. Berlo and Lemert (1961) noted three: competence, trustworthiness and dynamism.
  • Elaboration Likelihood Model distinguishes between two routes to persuasion: the Central Route and the Peripheral Route of processing. This is a dual-process theory of information processing. Central route processes involve careful, logical scrutiny of a persuasive communication (e.g., a speech, an advertisement, etc.) to determine the merits of the arguments. Under these conditions, a person’s unique cognitive responses to the message determine the persuasive outcome (i.e., the direction and magnitude of attitude change). Peripheral route processes, on the other hand, require little thought, and therefore predominate under conditions that promote low elaboration. These processes often rely on judgmental heuristics (e.g., “experts are always right”) or surface features of a message (e.g., the number of arguments presented) or its source (e.g., their attractiveness). Which route is taken is determined by the extent of elaboration. Both motivational and ability factors determine elaboration. Motivational factors include (among others) the personal relevance of the message topic, accountability, and a person’s need for Cognition (their innate desire to enjoy thinking). Ability factors include the availability of cognitive resources (e.g., the presence or absence of time pressures or distractions) or relevant knowledge needed to carefully scrutinize the arguments. Under conditions of moderate elaboration, a mixture of central and peripheral route processes will guide information processing.
  • Foot-in-the-door technique is a persuasion method. In it, the persuader does something small in order to catch the target's interest, before moving on to what he really wants. A related trick is the Bait and switch. An example is the practice of charities mass-mailing small free gifts (such as pens) to recipients in the hope of persuading them to open the letter and consider donating money, rather than simply throwing the letter in the wastebasket.

Cognitive bias

Cognitive bias includes any of a wide range of observer effects identified in cognitive science and social psychology including very basic Statistics, social attribution, and memory errors that are common to all human beings. Biases drastically skew the reliability of anecdotal and legal evidence. Social biases, usually called attributional biases affect our everyday social interactions. And biases related to probability and decision making significantly affect the scientific method which is deliberately designed to minimize such bias from any one observer. See Cognitive psychology and list of cognitive biases for more information.

  • Confirmation bias - One of the most important discoveries in Social psychology is Confirmation bias a type of statistical bias describing the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions. Researchers have been shown to actively seek out and assign more weight to evidence that confirms their hypothesis, and ignore or under weigh evidence that could disconfirm their hypothesis. As such, it can be thought of as a form of selection bias in collecting evidence.
  • Hindsight bias - a false memory of having predicted events, or exaggeration of actual predictions, after becoming aware of the outcome. Phrases like "I knew it!" or "I told you so!" sometimes, but not always, incorporate hindsight bias.
  • Self-serving bias and Egocentric bias - Self-serving bias is our tendency to take credit for our successes, and blame others for our failures. Egocentric bias is related, and describes our tendency to over-emphasize our personal contribution to group projects (both successes and failures).
  • Fundamental attribution error - The tendency to view ones own actions as based on external circumstances, but the actions of others as based upon their inherent personality and disposition. These attributions are guided by consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness. The Fundamental attribution error is generally seen to be the result of perspective. The subtle root causes behind the behavior of others are often disregarded in favor of information deemed to be more of greater salience.
  • Overconfidence - Humans have been proven to be surprisingly overconfident. Incompetence has been shown to aggravate such overconfidence, while actual efficacy tends to reduce it; see Overconfidence effect.
  • Illusory correlations are beliefs that inaccurately suppose a relationship between a certain type of action and an effect. They can be caused by, among other things, an event that stands out as unique. For example, "The only time I forget my pencil is when we have a test" is most likely an illusory correlation. It is likely caused by only a few other pencil-less tests, which stand out particularly well in the memory.
  • Illusion of control is the tendency for human beings to believe they can control or at least influence outcomes of which researchers deem them to have no influence over. Prayer, superstitions and postulated paranormal powers underline the limitations of science to falsify many of these "illusory" controls.

Self processes

  • Self-efficacy - Self-efficacy is the belief that one has the capabilities to execute the courses of actions required to manage prospective situations. Unlike efficacy, which is the power to produce an effect (in essence, competence); self-efficacy is the belief (however accurate) that one has the power to produce that effect.
  • Self esteem - self-esteem or self-worth includes a person's subjective appraisal of himself or herself as intrinsically positive or negative to some degree (Sedikides & Gregg, 2003). Contrary to popular opinion high self esteem is not always viewed as beneficial. High self esteem can result in unrealistic expectations, and can result in arrogance, rudeness, bullying or aggression, particularly when an individual with high self esteem is threatened or feels out of control.
  • Locus of control - The Locus of control (originally developed by Julian Rotter in the 1950s) measures the extent to which an individual views events and outcomes as being controlled by internal personal efforts, or by external forces, such as fate or chance. Compare free will and determinism.
  • Self-handicapping - is defined as "any action or choice of performance setting that enhances the opportunities to externalize failure and to internalize success." It involves the placement of obstacles in ones own path so as to excuse ones subsequent failure. An example would be playing video games instead of studying before the big test.
  • Cognitive dissonance - Cognitive dissonance holds that contradicting cognitions serve as a force which compels the human mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs, or to modify existing beliefs, so as to minimize the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions. This normally takes the form of self-justification.
  • self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that, in being made, actually causes itself to become true. For example, in the stock market, if it is widely believed that a crash is imminent, investors may lose confidence, sell most of their stock, and actually cause the crash.
  • Attitudes - are learned, global evaluations of a person, object, place, or issue that influence thought and action (Perloff, 2003). Or defined more simply, attitudes are likes and dislikes (Bem, 1970). Attitudes express personal identity and values. They also influence cognition and behavior.

Group dynamics

  • Social facilitation was traditionally seen to be the tendency for people to be aroused into better performance of simple tasks when under the eye of others rather than while they are alone. Complex tasks are often performed in an inferior manner in such situations however. Social facilitation has been redefined as the increased likelihood of the individual performing already likely tasks when in the company of others. This effect has been shown to be strongest among those who are most concerned about the opinions of others, and when the individual is being watched by someone they do not know, and/or cannot see well.
  • Social loafing is the tendency of individuals to slack when work is pooled and individual performance is not being evaluated. A good example of social facilitation is a foot race (where the individual runs faster when in the presence of others) as opposed to a group tug-of-war (where the work is pooled, and an individual's lack of performance is hard to notice).
  • De-individuation is the phenomenon of relinquishing one's sense of self-awareness or identity. This can happen as a result of becoming part of a group, such as an army or mob, but also as a result of meditation. It can have quite destructive effects, sometimes making people more likely to commit a crime, like stealing (Diener, 1976) or even over-enforce the law, such as police in riot situations.
  • Risky shift - in group conditions, people with relatively moderate viewpoints tend to assume that their groupmates hold more extreme views, and to alter their own views in compensation--a phenomenon known as groupthink. This can occur simultaneously and in isolation: all group members might adjust their views to a more conservative or liberal position, thus leading to a "consensus" that is totally false. The risky shift occurs when the group collectively agrees on a course of action that is likewise more extreme than they would have made if asked individually. Risky shift is one side of a more general phenomenon called group polarization.
  • Groupthink - In a groupthink situation, each member of the group attempts to conform his or her opinions to what they believe to be the consensus of the group. In a general sense this seems to be a rational way to approach the situation. However this results in a situation in which the group ultimately agrees upon an action which each member might individually consider to be unwise (the risky shift).
  • Minority influence and leadership - Minority influence is the degree to which minorities influence the group. Their ability to influence is based upon several factors, including the consistent maintenance of their position, the degree of their defection from the majority, and their self-confidence. Leadership is the ability to guide, mobilize, and maintain the group. Some view leadership as a form of minority influence, in this case a minority of one. Leadership can be divided into two types: task leadership, and social leadership. Task leadership focuses on organization, standards and goals. Social leadership offers support and help to others, fosters teamwork and mediates conflict. Most organizations include aspects of both leadership styles within the hierarchy of their management.

Other concepts

  • Controlled and automatic processing - Controlled processing is our conscious mind, and includes thoughts we are aware of, and plan out in a linear manner. Automatic processing is our intuitive or instinctual subconscious thoughts and feelings, which we often do not expect and cannot predict.
  • Conformity is the degree to which members of a group will change their behavior, views and attitudes to fit the views of the group. The group can influence members via unconscious processes or via overt peer pressures on individuals. Group size, unanimity, cohesion, status, prior commitment and public opinion all help to determine the level of conformity an individual will reflect towards his group.
  • Reactance (psychology) is an action in direct contradiction to rules and regulation; it can occur when someone is heavily pressured to accept a certain view or attitude. Reactance can cause the person to adopt or strengthen a view or attitude that is contrary to what was intended and also increases resistance to persuasion. A mild example could be a boy being all the more interested in a girl playing "hard to get", or teenagers drinking to excess in an environment of prohibition when they would not do so in a more liberal culture. The essence of reactance is rebellion.

References

  • Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckman (Eds.), Action-control: From cognition to behavior (pp. 11-39). Heidelberg: Springer.
  • Allport, G. W. (1985). The historical background of social psychology. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology. New York: McGraw Hill.
  • Bem, D. (1970). Beliefs, attitudes, and human affairs. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
  • Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
  • Latane, B. (1981). The psychology of social impact. American Psychologist, 36, 343-356.
  • Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science: Selected theoretical papers. D. Cartwright (Ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
  • Perloff, R. M. (2003). The dynamics of persuasion. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 19, pp. 123-205). New York: Academic Press.
  • Harry Reis & Brian Patrick, (1996). Attachment and intimacy: component processes. In Higgins, E. T. (Ed); Kruglanski, A.W. (Eds). Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles. (pp. 523_563).
  • Rusbult, C. E., Arriaga, X. B., & Agnew, C. R. (2001). Interdependence in close relationships. In G. J. O. Fletcher & M. S. Clark (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Interpersonal processes (pp. 359-387). Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall.

External links

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