SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
Social Psychology according to Gordon Allport: “Scientific investigation of how the
thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or
implied presence of others.”
Social psychology today:
Focuses on how people are similar
Draws on knowledge in evolutionary biology and neurosciences
Investigates how people think about, relate to, influence and are affected by
others
Three streams of research
1) Social thinking
o The social world we perceive is subjective
o We construe our own reality even though we behave the same
o Ex: job stress is received differently for everybody
2) Social influence
o The social context influences our behavior (we are influenced by others)
o Ex: if one person yawns you will likely yawn too, people follow fashion
trends from other people, …
3) Social relations
o How is cooperation achieved and conflict resolved
o Cooperation requires trust, how do you know if you can trust someone?
o Everybody can win or everybody can lose the decision you make will be
based on the outcome
Social psychology is a science because it aims to formulate theories following
the scientific method is it objective?
Facts can be objective but a collection of facts is not more a science than bricks a
house
The challenge is use the facts to build a theory the theory can only be as good
as the facts itself
Why do we want a theory?
Nothing is more practical than a good theory a good theory:
Is able to explain a wide range of phenomena
Allows predictions which may confirm or negate the theory
May be adapted when the observations don’t match the theory
Is a source of new research ideas
Generates applications
What to watch out for?
1) The subjective nature of perception:
o You see what you expect
2) The naturalistic fallacy:
o Bridging “what is” to “what ought to be”
1
, o The error of turning a descriptive claim (we behave like X to a prescriptive
or moral claim, therefore X is good and justified)
3) The hindsight bias: “I knew it all along”
o Is social psychology just common sense?
o Ex: “opposites attract” or “bird of a feather flock together”
o The point is not that common sense is predictably wrong. On the contrary,
common sense is often right, but after the fact
o Thinking that “we knew it all along” is a form of self-deception
o We need science to shift reality from illusion and genuine predictions from
hindsight
Learning about the social world using the scientific method
Inductive: start with observation and come up with a theory problem: you
can’t observe everything, you might miss out on something
Deductive: you start with a theory (knowledge base) and then you make a
hypothesis and draw data that does or does not confirm the theory
CORRELATION STUDIES
Advantages of correlational studies: easy to conduct in naturalistic settings and plot
(regression lines), very powerful predictive tool
Disadvantages:
Don’t know direction (see M&T p. 6 self-esteem & achievements of kids)
Over-interpretations (see patterns where there aren’t, ignore regression to the
mean)
Example: Operationalize variables
Socio-economic status: length of pillar – X-axis (high, medium, low)
Longevity: year of death – year of birth – Y-axis
Results: the higher the pillar the longer they live
o Poor women don’t live long (probably during giving
birth)
o The data is wrong centred, people are only included
that are already dead it doesn’t say anything about
today because you stop analysing that at a certain
point
Correlation is NOT the same as causality
Experimental method: searching for cause and effect
Ex: interaction effects
2
, o Room temperature might be a moderating variable indicating an
interaction
o Two independent variables: noise & temperature
o Dependent variable: learning
Examples of REAL interaction effects between chemicals and conditions/individual
differences:
A genetic variant of the MAO enzyme leads to violent behaviour only when it
coincides with abuse in childhood
Hormone oxytocin boosts trusting behavior in economic game only for people with
low dispositional trust
Advantages of controlled experiments
Dissociate cause and effect
Isolate effect of one particular variable
Unravel interaction effects
Disadvantage:
Often difficult to generalize to real-life settings
o Low ecological validity)
Conducted with homogeneous populations
o WEIRD - populations
Replication problems
3
, STUDYING THE SELF (AND OTHERS) IN A SOCIAL WORLD
HOW DO WE COME TO UNDERSTAND OTHERS AND ONE-SELF
UNDERSTANDING OTHERS
We understand others by imitating them, this is called the chameleon effect
Mirror neurons allow us to feel what others feel
Vitorio Gallese: “Embodied simulation: from mirror neuron systems to interpersonal
relations“
By means of embodied simulation we do not just see an action, an emotion, or a
sensation. Side by side with the sensory description of the observed social stimuli,
internal representations of the body states associated with actions, emotions, and
sensations are evoked in the observer, as if he/she would be doing a similar action
or experiencing a similar emotion or sensation.
Implications of mirror neurons, it contributes to
Learning through imitation
Empathy: understanding feelings of others
Theory of mind: understanding intentions of others
UNDERSTANDING ONE-SELF
Our self-concept develops from learning in a social context. We obtain feedback for the
things we try out. This affects our future perceptions, choices, and behavior.
Think of 5 words that describe you
Now think of how it is that you came to think about yourself this way
Our self-concept is utterly important to us
Self-referencing effect
Spotlight effect
Illusion of transparency
Yet we are often poor at predicting our own behavior
Ethics and virtues
Professional competence
College entrance examinations
Driving ability
o “The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender,
religion or ethnic background, is that we all believe we are above-average
drivers.” (Dave Barry)
And we often deceive ourselves when trying to explain our behavior
Self-serving bias
4
INTRODUCTION
Social Psychology according to Gordon Allport: “Scientific investigation of how the
thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or
implied presence of others.”
Social psychology today:
Focuses on how people are similar
Draws on knowledge in evolutionary biology and neurosciences
Investigates how people think about, relate to, influence and are affected by
others
Three streams of research
1) Social thinking
o The social world we perceive is subjective
o We construe our own reality even though we behave the same
o Ex: job stress is received differently for everybody
2) Social influence
o The social context influences our behavior (we are influenced by others)
o Ex: if one person yawns you will likely yawn too, people follow fashion
trends from other people, …
3) Social relations
o How is cooperation achieved and conflict resolved
o Cooperation requires trust, how do you know if you can trust someone?
o Everybody can win or everybody can lose the decision you make will be
based on the outcome
Social psychology is a science because it aims to formulate theories following
the scientific method is it objective?
Facts can be objective but a collection of facts is not more a science than bricks a
house
The challenge is use the facts to build a theory the theory can only be as good
as the facts itself
Why do we want a theory?
Nothing is more practical than a good theory a good theory:
Is able to explain a wide range of phenomena
Allows predictions which may confirm or negate the theory
May be adapted when the observations don’t match the theory
Is a source of new research ideas
Generates applications
What to watch out for?
1) The subjective nature of perception:
o You see what you expect
2) The naturalistic fallacy:
o Bridging “what is” to “what ought to be”
1
, o The error of turning a descriptive claim (we behave like X to a prescriptive
or moral claim, therefore X is good and justified)
3) The hindsight bias: “I knew it all along”
o Is social psychology just common sense?
o Ex: “opposites attract” or “bird of a feather flock together”
o The point is not that common sense is predictably wrong. On the contrary,
common sense is often right, but after the fact
o Thinking that “we knew it all along” is a form of self-deception
o We need science to shift reality from illusion and genuine predictions from
hindsight
Learning about the social world using the scientific method
Inductive: start with observation and come up with a theory problem: you
can’t observe everything, you might miss out on something
Deductive: you start with a theory (knowledge base) and then you make a
hypothesis and draw data that does or does not confirm the theory
CORRELATION STUDIES
Advantages of correlational studies: easy to conduct in naturalistic settings and plot
(regression lines), very powerful predictive tool
Disadvantages:
Don’t know direction (see M&T p. 6 self-esteem & achievements of kids)
Over-interpretations (see patterns where there aren’t, ignore regression to the
mean)
Example: Operationalize variables
Socio-economic status: length of pillar – X-axis (high, medium, low)
Longevity: year of death – year of birth – Y-axis
Results: the higher the pillar the longer they live
o Poor women don’t live long (probably during giving
birth)
o The data is wrong centred, people are only included
that are already dead it doesn’t say anything about
today because you stop analysing that at a certain
point
Correlation is NOT the same as causality
Experimental method: searching for cause and effect
Ex: interaction effects
2
, o Room temperature might be a moderating variable indicating an
interaction
o Two independent variables: noise & temperature
o Dependent variable: learning
Examples of REAL interaction effects between chemicals and conditions/individual
differences:
A genetic variant of the MAO enzyme leads to violent behaviour only when it
coincides with abuse in childhood
Hormone oxytocin boosts trusting behavior in economic game only for people with
low dispositional trust
Advantages of controlled experiments
Dissociate cause and effect
Isolate effect of one particular variable
Unravel interaction effects
Disadvantage:
Often difficult to generalize to real-life settings
o Low ecological validity)
Conducted with homogeneous populations
o WEIRD - populations
Replication problems
3
, STUDYING THE SELF (AND OTHERS) IN A SOCIAL WORLD
HOW DO WE COME TO UNDERSTAND OTHERS AND ONE-SELF
UNDERSTANDING OTHERS
We understand others by imitating them, this is called the chameleon effect
Mirror neurons allow us to feel what others feel
Vitorio Gallese: “Embodied simulation: from mirror neuron systems to interpersonal
relations“
By means of embodied simulation we do not just see an action, an emotion, or a
sensation. Side by side with the sensory description of the observed social stimuli,
internal representations of the body states associated with actions, emotions, and
sensations are evoked in the observer, as if he/she would be doing a similar action
or experiencing a similar emotion or sensation.
Implications of mirror neurons, it contributes to
Learning through imitation
Empathy: understanding feelings of others
Theory of mind: understanding intentions of others
UNDERSTANDING ONE-SELF
Our self-concept develops from learning in a social context. We obtain feedback for the
things we try out. This affects our future perceptions, choices, and behavior.
Think of 5 words that describe you
Now think of how it is that you came to think about yourself this way
Our self-concept is utterly important to us
Self-referencing effect
Spotlight effect
Illusion of transparency
Yet we are often poor at predicting our own behavior
Ethics and virtues
Professional competence
College entrance examinations
Driving ability
o “The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender,
religion or ethnic background, is that we all believe we are above-average
drivers.” (Dave Barry)
And we often deceive ourselves when trying to explain our behavior
Self-serving bias
4
