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All credit goes to http://ucspace.canberra.edu.au/display/7125/Lecture+Introduction

Introduction to Social Psychology

Defining Social psychology

Social psychology is defined as a joint function of personal and situational influences. (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008)

There are 3 main facets of Socila psychology; the ABCs.

Affect(feelings)
Behaviour(action)
Cognition(thoughts)

Social psychology can be between 2 individuals, an individual and a group and among groups.

How does Social psychology differ from Sociology?

Simply, Sociology focuses on groups while Social psychology focuses both on groups and individuals

There are 3 aspects of Social psychology.

Social perception-How we interpret social objects
Social influence-How others influence our attitudes & behaviours
Social interaction-How we interact with others in the social world

Applications of Social Psychology Social psychology can be applied in
Business when sales assistants make deals with their customers,

health when peers influence us to drink or smoke,

Education when we learn more about ourselves and others,

Law and environment when we engage in prosocial behaviour.

History of Social psychology

volkerpsychologie(folk psych)
crwod psychology (group mind)
influences of WWII
Gordon Allport
Gestalt theory
Post WWII-explaining atrocities with experiments like Milgram (obedience) and Zimbardo (roles)

Research

state problem
create hypothesis
design study/experiment
conduct study, collect data & results
data analysis
conclusion and discussion

Research methods

experimental (DV, IV) +control, low flexibility, low ecological validiy vs non experimental (more naturalistic, ethical, higher construct validity, low control)

quantitative vs qualitative

Research ethics

informed consent
harm, discomfort, risk, benefits
deception
confidentiality
debrief

Culture and nature

psyche-mind-
evolution-natural selection: survival, mutation, reproduction