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Social psychology

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Social psychology is often conceived to be the study of how individuals perceive, influence, and relate to others. More fundamentally it can be conceived to be the study of how our thought and self-awareness is social in origin (i.e., made possible by language and social interaction). According to Gordon Allport's classic definition, social psychology is an attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals is influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By imagined or implied presence, Allport is suggesting that the effects of social influence are felt even when there are no other people about.

Social Psychology is usually considered a subfield of either psychology or sociology, though there are differences depending on which discipline we are referring to. Some of these differences are organizational in nature. Psychological and sociological social psychologists tend to publish in different journals. Other differences include the type of processes emphasized by the respective disciplines.

Psychological social psychologists tend take an interactional approach to human social behavior which emphasizes factors both within the person (cognition, affect, motives, neurophysiology, and personality traits) and the immediate social situation.

Sociological social psychologists tend to emphasize processes outside of the person at a more distant macro-level, such as social structure and a more immediate micro-level, such as social interaction. Both include the use of the individual and the group as units of analysis in their research.

There are also perspectives overcoming the distinction between the individual and the social (or the opposition inside and outside the person) by taking a different unit of analysis (Discursive Psychology or Social Constructionism, for example, take language as their primary concern).

Contents

History

The discipline of social psychology began at the dawn of the twentieth century. Landmark moments include the publication of Charles Horton Cooley's "Human Nature and Social Order" in 1902, which sought to explain the social order by use of the concept of a looking-glass self. The first textbooks in social psychology would be published six years later by E. A. Ross and William McDougall.

John Stuart Mill, Comte and others laid the foundation for social psychology by asserting that human social cognition and behavior could and should be studied scientifically like any other natural science. Gabriel Tarde and Gustave Le Bon's crowd psychologies were also fundamental.

Relevant academic fields

Subfields of social psychology

Social Psychology subfields
Social psychological work can be approached with the interests and the emphases of both psychology and sociology in mind. As a result, the discipline can be split into at least two general subfields, which concentrate on the relative importance of some subjects over others. (House, 1977)

Relation to other fields

Social psychology has close ties with the other social sciences, especially sociology and psychology. It also has very strong ties to the field of social philosophy.

The concerns of social psychology

General research interests

Social Psychology Diagram
Social psychology attempts to understand the relationship between minds, groups, and behaviors in three general ways.

First, it tries to see how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other(s) (Allport 3). This includes social perception, social interaction, and the many kinds of social influence (like trust, power, and persuasion). Gaining insight into the social psychology of persons involves looking at the influences that individuals have on the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of other individuals, as well as the influence that groups have on individuals. This aspect of social psychology asks questions like:

  • How do small group dynamics impact cognition and emotional states?
  • How do social groups control or contribute to behavior, emotion, or attitudes of the individual members?
  • How does the group impact the individual?
  • How does the individual operate within the social group?
Second, it tries to understand the influence that individual perceptions and behaviors have upon the behavior of groups. This includes looking at things like group productivity in the workplace and group decision making. It looks at questions like:
  • How does persuasion work to change group behavior, emotion or attitudes?
  • What are the reasons behind conformity, diversity, and deviance?
Third, and finally, social psychology tries to understand groups themselves as behavioral entities, and the relationships and influences that one group has upon another group (Michener 5). It asks questions like:
  • What makes some groups hostile to one another, and others neutral or civil?
  • Do groups behave in a different way than an individual outside the group?
In European textbooks there is also fourth level called the "ideological" level. It studies the societal forces that influence the human psyche.

Specific research interests

The scope of social psychological research. Based on input from Cote and Levine, 2002.
Enlarge
The scope of social psychological research. Based on input from Cote and Levine, 2002.

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

Research methods and theoretical issues

Basic considerations

Social psychologists use a wide range of research methods; depending on the research questions.

There are several important issues to consider when setting up research, among which the essential questions:

  1. Is the research question exploratory (gathering information in order to build a theory) or confirmatory (gathering information in order to confirm a theory)?
  2. How important is experimental control (internal validity) compared to being able to generalise results to a naturalistic situation for the population at large (external validity)?
Based on considerations above, the type of research (qualitative, or quantitative) and the exact methods, theories and statistical analyses are chosen.

Methods

Social psychologists make use of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Quantitative methods include surveys, controlled experiments, and mathematical modeling, with some emphasis upon correlational research.

As it is impossible to test every person in a population research is conducted on a sample of persons from a wider population. Social psychologists typically use random assignment of participants and a control group that resembles the experimental groups in all respects other than the independent variable. When experiments take this form, it tends to mitigate the effects of potential confounds.

Social psychologists rely often on experimentation. Controlled experimentation requires the manipulation of one or more independent variables in order to examine its effect on a dependent variable. Also required is the experimental control of potential confounding influences, known as extraneous variables. Controlled experiments are attractive for use 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.

Social psychologists frequently utilize survey research when they are interested in results that are high in external validity. Surveys use different forms of random sampling (simple, stratified, clustered) to obtain a sample of respondents that are representative of a population. This method of subject selection increases the chances that the results from a survey study are generalizable to the population in question. On the other hand, surveys tend to be low in internal validity because they rely on correlational analysis, or the strength and direction of the relationship between variables. Because surveys do not systematically manipulate variables or control for confounds, the nature or direction of a potential causal relationship is unknown. However, new statistical methods like structural equation modeling are being used to test for potential causal relationships in correlational data.

Also available to the social psychologist is the close examination of existing scientific literature, which is called a meta-analysis.

Qualitative methods include naturalistic observation and field research, participant observation, content analysis, discourse analysis, ethnomethodology, and etogenia.

Observational methods like participant observation are sometimes employed by social psychologists. These methods have very little internal but a decent level of external validity, as the behavior studied is not confounded by a prior assumptions of the researcher. They are used mainly to generate theory and hypotheses for later testing through experimental or survey research.

Many researchers emphasize the importance of a multimethodological approach to social research, drawing from both qualitative and quantitative approaches. (Roth, 1987) For example, using qualitative methods to provide the hypothesis, quantitative methods to test the hypothesis, and subsequent qualitative methods to understand deviations from the hypothesis.

Underlying issues

In social psychology, as in any other discipline, there will be a number of underlying philosophical predispositions in the projects of scientists. Some of these predispositions involve the nature of social knowledge itself, the nature of social reality, and the locus of human control in action (Cote and Levine, 2002; Slife and Gantt, 1999). One main and lasting crisis has been the debate over positivism and phenomenology. In the former, the research focus has been an attempt to find overarching, universal laws to social behavior and history. In the latter, by contrast, the emphasis is upon a focus of empirical study, and making accurate descriptions of social reality, regardless of whether or not they fit a grand theory or explanation. These two forms have tended to lend themselves to favor either quantitative or qualitative methods, respectively. In addition to these two orientations, there is a third outlook: a kind of social rationalism, which makes use of axiomatic presuppositions in order to explain social reality.

One underlying problem for the social psychologists is whether or not their studies can or should ultimately be understood in terms of the meaning and consciousness behind social action, as with folk psychology, or whether or not more objective materialist and behavioral facts are to be given exclusive study. This problem is especially important for those within social psychology who study meaning and language, and for those in the sociological social psychology tradition who favor symbolic interactionism, because a rejection of the study of meanings would lead to the reclassification of such research as unempirical.

Three persistent themes in the philosophy of the social sciences, and which directly affect social psychology, have been the structure-agency debate, and the related arguments over determinism and free will.

Research ethics

Social psychologists are concerned with ethical issues, and there are certain ethical controversies that are especially apparent in this area. The goal of social psychology is to understand naturally occurring cognition and behavior in a social context, but the very act of observing people in social contexts tends to 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. This practice has been challenged by some psychologists who maintain that deception under any circumstances is not ethically correct, 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), and this has also been criticized for ethical reasons.

To protect the rights and wellbeing 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 as by routine psychological testing or normal daily activities.

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.

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 or emotion, is either one-sided or two sided, and is emphasized by primacy or recency.
  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 and preferences.

Group dynamics

Group dynamics is the study of how individual behaviors differs depending on individuals' current or prospective connections to a sociological group.

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 affect 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 not alone) as opposed to a group tug-of-war (where the work is pooled, and an individual's lack of performance is hard to notice).

Deindividuation 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.

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.

Other cognitions and internal influences

Major theories in Social Psychology

Attribution theory

Attribution theory - 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.

According to Harold Kelley, the three basic methods of determining if the actions of others are due to internal or external factors are: Distinctiveness (does the person behave in a manner unique to the situation, or do they often act this way?), consensus (would others behave this way in such a situation?), and consistency (does the person generally behave this way given this situation?).

Behaviorism

Reinforcement theory understands social behavior to be caused by classical and operant conditioning (reinforcement). In radical form, it presumes that all social cognition starts out blank and is created by conditioning.

Evolutionary theory

Evolutionary theory attempts to explain the actions of persons in the context of gene transmission across generations. Evolutionary psychology may take the cognitive perspective and form hypotheses about function and design by acknowledging the evolutionary causal process that built these cognitive mechanisms. Social psychologists who use an evolutionary perspective, such as Douglas Kenrick and Jeffry Simpson, address many of the same topics as scientists who identify as evolutionary psychologists, but tend to give more attention to more traditional social psychology topics, such as social influence, person perception, and intergroup relations.

Symbolic interactionism

Symbolic interactionism - a sociological theory, originating in the ideas of George Herbert Mead, that contains two major versions: Structural SI and Process SI. Structural SI utilizes shared social knowledge from a macro-level to explain social interactions and psychological factors at the micro-level. Structural SI focuses on the relatively static patterns in micro-level interactions that are caused by these macro-level structures. Structural SI researchers tend to use quantitative methods. Identity Theory (Styker & Burke, 2000) and Affect-Control Theory (Heise, 1979) grew out of this tradition. Process SI stems from the Second Chicago School and views social interactions to be constant flux and study it without reference to a larger social structure. Process SI researchers tend to use qualitative and ethnographic methods.

Cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology is the psychological science that studies cognition, the mental processes that underlie behavior, including thinking, reasoning, decision making, and to some extent motivation and emotion. Cognitive psychology covers a broad range of research domains, examining questions about the workings of memory, attention, perception, knowledge representation, reasoning, creativity and problem solving.

Other theories in social psychology

Well-known cases, studies, and related works

Famous experiments in social psychology include:

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.
Enlarge
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.

References

Further reading

  1. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Social_Psychology

See also

External links

 

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