Chapter 1: What is Social Psychology? History, Axioms, and Principles
Social psychology = the scientific study of the effects of social and cognitive processes on the way
individuals perceive, influence, and relate to others
- Social processes = the ways in which input from the people and groups around us affect our
thoughts, feelings, and actions
o Social processes affect us when others are not present, thus it also affects cognitive
processes and vice versa
o Social processes affect us depending on interpretation of others and their actions, thus it
also affects cognitive processes and vice versa
- Cognitive processes = the ways in which our memories, perceptions, thoughts, emotions, and
motives influence our understanding of the world and guide our actions
Core axioms of social psychology
1. Construction of reality = the axiom that each person's view of reality is a construction, shaped
both by social and cognitive processes
- People respond not to objective reality, but to a subjectively constructed reality (what seems real
is in the eye of the beholder)
- Naïve realism = belief that we see the world as it really is and assuming that others who disagree
are biased or uninformed
- False consensus effect = tendency to overestimate how much others share our beliefs and
preferences
o Evident from experiment where Princeton and Dartmouth students watching the same
football game where each side saw the opposing team as more aggressive
Shows that perception is shaped by group identity and that reality is constructed
through social lenses
o Evident form pro-Israel and anti-Israel viewers watching the same news coverage, where
both groups perceived bias against their own side
Shows that even neutral information is interpreted through prior beliefs
2. Pervasiveness of social influence = the axiom that other people influence virtually all of our
thoughts, feelings, and behavior, whether those others are physically present or not
- Norms influence behavior in private and expert opinions shape judgments
o Evident from experiment where 50% of handwriting experts changed their judgments
after learning another expert disagreed
Shows that even trained professionals are influenced by others and that social
influence affects judgment quality
Motivational principles of social psychology
1. Striving for mastery = the motivational principle that people seek to understand and predict
events in the social world in order to obtain rewards
2. Seeking connectedness = the motivational principle that people seek support, liking, and
acceptance from the people and groups they care about and value
3. Valuing 'me and mine' = the motivational principle that people desire to see themselves, and
other people and groups connected to themselves, in a positive light
- Evident from experiment where clinicians assessed the same offender where risk scores where
higher when working for the prosecution than the defense
o Shows that motivation biases judgments and that experts align interpretations with
group interests
Processing principles of social psychology
1. Conservatism principle = the processing principle that individuals' and groups' views of the world
are slow to change and prone to perpetuate themselves
2. Accessibility principle = the processing principle that the information that is most readily
available generally has the most impact on thoughts, feelings, and behavior
,3. Superficiality versus depth = the processing principle that people ordinarily put little effort into
dealing with information, but as times are motivated to consider information in more depth
- Evident from experiment where judges were influenced by irrelevant anchors in sentencing
decisions
o Shows that even experts rely on superficial processing and that
cognitive limitations shape social judgments
Period Key Topics Historical Context
30s-40s Authoritarianism, conformity Fascism, WWII
50s-60s Obedience, aggression Cold War, civil rights
70s-80s Social identity, bias Feminism, computing
90s-00s Culture, terrorism Gloablization
Cartesian dualism = philosophical view that the mind and body are separate
Wilhelm Wundt = founder of experimental psychology who used
introspection to study conscious experience
- This was limited due to subjectivity, not directly observable, and poor
reliability across individuals
Behaviorism = theoretical view that psychology should focus on observable behavior
- Believed that human behavior can be explained using stimulus-response associations and where
mental concepts are unnecessary
- This was limited as it couldn't explain meaning, interpretation, or social influence, and it ignored
context and subjective experience
Gestalt psychology = psychological approach emphasizing that the whole is more than the sum of its
parts
- Believed perception depends on context, active organization of information, and emphasized
subjective meaning
- Rejected stimulus-response explanations and emphasized the understanding of social behavior
within its social context
, Chapter 2: Asking and Answering Research Questions
Scientific theory = a statement that satisfies three requirements
1. Constructs = abstract and general concepts that are used in theories and that are not directly
observable
- Construct validity = the extent to which the independent variable used in research correspond to
the theoretical constructs under investigation
o Social desirability response bias = people's tendency to act in ways that they believe
others find acceptable and approve of (threat to construct validity)
o Self-report measures = those based on asking the individual about his or her thoughts,
feelings, or behaviors
Susceptible to social desirability bias
o Observational measures = those based on directly watching and recording people's
behavior, including online behavior
Often has good construct validity, though sometimes social desirability bias
undermines it
o Archival measures = those based on examining traces of past behavior
o Performance measures = those that ask participants to perform some task as well as
they can
Social desirability bias is less of a problem as people usually just try to perform as
well as they can
o Physiological measures = those based on measurement of some physiological process
such as heart rate or muscle movements
Electroencphalographic, EEG = measures use electrical signals on the scalp to
very accurately detect the times at which specific neural events occur
Functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI = indirectly measures the
activation levels of specific brain regions
o Ensuring construct validity by using multiple measures
o Aggression cannot ethically measure direct harm, therefore proxies (noise blasts,
competitive tasks) are used
o Convergent validity = measures correlate with related constructs
o Discriminant validity = measures do not correlate (strongly) with unrelated constructs
2. Describing causal relation
- Internal validity = the extent to which it can be concluded that changes in the independent
variable actually caused changes in the dependent variable in a research study
o Correlation does not equal causation
o Research design = a plan that specifies how research participants will be selected and
treated
Nonexperimental research design / correlational design = a research design in
which both the independent an dependent variables are measured (threat to
internal validity)
Low internal validity
High construct validity if powerful effects of real-life variables can be
studied in their natural contexts
Experimental research design = a research design in whcih researchers randomly
assign participants to different groups and manipulate one or more independent
variables
Random assignment = the procedure of assigning participants of
different experimental groups so that every participant has exactly the
same chance as every other participants of being in any given group
Manipulate = intentionally varying some factor as the independent
variable in an experimental research design
Social psychology = the scientific study of the effects of social and cognitive processes on the way
individuals perceive, influence, and relate to others
- Social processes = the ways in which input from the people and groups around us affect our
thoughts, feelings, and actions
o Social processes affect us when others are not present, thus it also affects cognitive
processes and vice versa
o Social processes affect us depending on interpretation of others and their actions, thus it
also affects cognitive processes and vice versa
- Cognitive processes = the ways in which our memories, perceptions, thoughts, emotions, and
motives influence our understanding of the world and guide our actions
Core axioms of social psychology
1. Construction of reality = the axiom that each person's view of reality is a construction, shaped
both by social and cognitive processes
- People respond not to objective reality, but to a subjectively constructed reality (what seems real
is in the eye of the beholder)
- Naïve realism = belief that we see the world as it really is and assuming that others who disagree
are biased or uninformed
- False consensus effect = tendency to overestimate how much others share our beliefs and
preferences
o Evident from experiment where Princeton and Dartmouth students watching the same
football game where each side saw the opposing team as more aggressive
Shows that perception is shaped by group identity and that reality is constructed
through social lenses
o Evident form pro-Israel and anti-Israel viewers watching the same news coverage, where
both groups perceived bias against their own side
Shows that even neutral information is interpreted through prior beliefs
2. Pervasiveness of social influence = the axiom that other people influence virtually all of our
thoughts, feelings, and behavior, whether those others are physically present or not
- Norms influence behavior in private and expert opinions shape judgments
o Evident from experiment where 50% of handwriting experts changed their judgments
after learning another expert disagreed
Shows that even trained professionals are influenced by others and that social
influence affects judgment quality
Motivational principles of social psychology
1. Striving for mastery = the motivational principle that people seek to understand and predict
events in the social world in order to obtain rewards
2. Seeking connectedness = the motivational principle that people seek support, liking, and
acceptance from the people and groups they care about and value
3. Valuing 'me and mine' = the motivational principle that people desire to see themselves, and
other people and groups connected to themselves, in a positive light
- Evident from experiment where clinicians assessed the same offender where risk scores where
higher when working for the prosecution than the defense
o Shows that motivation biases judgments and that experts align interpretations with
group interests
Processing principles of social psychology
1. Conservatism principle = the processing principle that individuals' and groups' views of the world
are slow to change and prone to perpetuate themselves
2. Accessibility principle = the processing principle that the information that is most readily
available generally has the most impact on thoughts, feelings, and behavior
,3. Superficiality versus depth = the processing principle that people ordinarily put little effort into
dealing with information, but as times are motivated to consider information in more depth
- Evident from experiment where judges were influenced by irrelevant anchors in sentencing
decisions
o Shows that even experts rely on superficial processing and that
cognitive limitations shape social judgments
Period Key Topics Historical Context
30s-40s Authoritarianism, conformity Fascism, WWII
50s-60s Obedience, aggression Cold War, civil rights
70s-80s Social identity, bias Feminism, computing
90s-00s Culture, terrorism Gloablization
Cartesian dualism = philosophical view that the mind and body are separate
Wilhelm Wundt = founder of experimental psychology who used
introspection to study conscious experience
- This was limited due to subjectivity, not directly observable, and poor
reliability across individuals
Behaviorism = theoretical view that psychology should focus on observable behavior
- Believed that human behavior can be explained using stimulus-response associations and where
mental concepts are unnecessary
- This was limited as it couldn't explain meaning, interpretation, or social influence, and it ignored
context and subjective experience
Gestalt psychology = psychological approach emphasizing that the whole is more than the sum of its
parts
- Believed perception depends on context, active organization of information, and emphasized
subjective meaning
- Rejected stimulus-response explanations and emphasized the understanding of social behavior
within its social context
, Chapter 2: Asking and Answering Research Questions
Scientific theory = a statement that satisfies three requirements
1. Constructs = abstract and general concepts that are used in theories and that are not directly
observable
- Construct validity = the extent to which the independent variable used in research correspond to
the theoretical constructs under investigation
o Social desirability response bias = people's tendency to act in ways that they believe
others find acceptable and approve of (threat to construct validity)
o Self-report measures = those based on asking the individual about his or her thoughts,
feelings, or behaviors
Susceptible to social desirability bias
o Observational measures = those based on directly watching and recording people's
behavior, including online behavior
Often has good construct validity, though sometimes social desirability bias
undermines it
o Archival measures = those based on examining traces of past behavior
o Performance measures = those that ask participants to perform some task as well as
they can
Social desirability bias is less of a problem as people usually just try to perform as
well as they can
o Physiological measures = those based on measurement of some physiological process
such as heart rate or muscle movements
Electroencphalographic, EEG = measures use electrical signals on the scalp to
very accurately detect the times at which specific neural events occur
Functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI = indirectly measures the
activation levels of specific brain regions
o Ensuring construct validity by using multiple measures
o Aggression cannot ethically measure direct harm, therefore proxies (noise blasts,
competitive tasks) are used
o Convergent validity = measures correlate with related constructs
o Discriminant validity = measures do not correlate (strongly) with unrelated constructs
2. Describing causal relation
- Internal validity = the extent to which it can be concluded that changes in the independent
variable actually caused changes in the dependent variable in a research study
o Correlation does not equal causation
o Research design = a plan that specifies how research participants will be selected and
treated
Nonexperimental research design / correlational design = a research design in
which both the independent an dependent variables are measured (threat to
internal validity)
Low internal validity
High construct validity if powerful effects of real-life variables can be
studied in their natural contexts
Experimental research design = a research design in whcih researchers randomly
assign participants to different groups and manipulate one or more independent
variables
Random assignment = the procedure of assigning participants of
different experimental groups so that every participant has exactly the
same chance as every other participants of being in any given group
Manipulate = intentionally varying some factor as the independent
variable in an experimental research design
