Chapter 1: the mission and the method
Social psychology: scientific study of how people affect and are affected by others.
One of the first social experiments was conducted by Norman Triplett and he found that people
work harder in the presence of others, while another social experiment of Ringelmann found that
people slacked off in the presence of others.
Allport: attitudes were the most distinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary American
social psychology.
Lewin’s formula: behavior is a function of the person and the situation.
Behaviourism: sought to explain human behavior in terms of learning principles such as reward or
punishment.
Freudian psychoanalysis: preferred elaborate interpretations of individual experiences instead of
experimental studies that counted behaviors.
Eventually social psychology used scientific approaches to measure not only behavior but also
thoughts, feelings and other inner states.
Today social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field of study that investigates how biological
systems influence social thought and behavior.
Social psychology aims for a broad understanding of the social factors that influence how human
beings think, act and feel.
ABC triad:
- A = affect, how people feel inside.
- B = behavior, their actions.
- C = cognition, what people think about.
Various social sciences:
- Anthropology: study of human culture. The human culture consist of the shared values,
beliefs and practices of a group of people, which are passed down from generations.
- Economics: study of the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.
- History: study of past events. For humans to progress, they should understand and learn
from past events.
- Political science: study of political organizations and institutions, especially governments.
- Sociology: study of human societies and the groups that form those societies.
Psychology: study of human behavior.
- Biological/physiological psychology and neuroscience have focused on learning about what
happens in the brain, nervous system and other aspects of the body.
- Clinical psychology focuses on abnormal behavior.
- Cognitive psychology: basic study of thought processes.
- Developmental psychology: study of how people change across their lives.
- Personality psychology focuses on important differences between individuals as well as
inner processes.
Philosophy: love of wisdom. They deal with problems by thinking carefully and systematically about
them.
Applied research: research is applied to a specific problem.
Basic research: research that tries to advance the cause of knowledge generally, in the hope that
creating a solid knowledge base will eventually result in a general understanding of basic principles
that can be applied to many different problems.
Social psychology: scientific study of how people affect and are affected by others.
One of the first social experiments was conducted by Norman Triplett and he found that people
work harder in the presence of others, while another social experiment of Ringelmann found that
people slacked off in the presence of others.
Allport: attitudes were the most distinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary American
social psychology.
Lewin’s formula: behavior is a function of the person and the situation.
Behaviourism: sought to explain human behavior in terms of learning principles such as reward or
punishment.
Freudian psychoanalysis: preferred elaborate interpretations of individual experiences instead of
experimental studies that counted behaviors.
Eventually social psychology used scientific approaches to measure not only behavior but also
thoughts, feelings and other inner states.
Today social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field of study that investigates how biological
systems influence social thought and behavior.
Social psychology aims for a broad understanding of the social factors that influence how human
beings think, act and feel.
ABC triad:
- A = affect, how people feel inside.
- B = behavior, their actions.
- C = cognition, what people think about.
Various social sciences:
- Anthropology: study of human culture. The human culture consist of the shared values,
beliefs and practices of a group of people, which are passed down from generations.
- Economics: study of the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.
- History: study of past events. For humans to progress, they should understand and learn
from past events.
- Political science: study of political organizations and institutions, especially governments.
- Sociology: study of human societies and the groups that form those societies.
Psychology: study of human behavior.
- Biological/physiological psychology and neuroscience have focused on learning about what
happens in the brain, nervous system and other aspects of the body.
- Clinical psychology focuses on abnormal behavior.
- Cognitive psychology: basic study of thought processes.
- Developmental psychology: study of how people change across their lives.
- Personality psychology focuses on important differences between individuals as well as
inner processes.
Philosophy: love of wisdom. They deal with problems by thinking carefully and systematically about
them.
Applied research: research is applied to a specific problem.
Basic research: research that tries to advance the cause of knowledge generally, in the hope that
creating a solid knowledge base will eventually result in a general understanding of basic principles
that can be applied to many different problems.
