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Feenstra, J. (2013). Social Psychology. San Diego: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. ISBN:

Chapter 1

Discovering Social Psychology

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Learning Objectives

By the end of the chapter you should be able to:

· Define social psychology

· Describe the history of social psychology

· Describe the scientific method

· Discuss the observational method and explain when that method is most appropriate to the researchquestion

· Discuss the correlational method and explain when that method is most appropriate to the researchquestion

· Discuss the experimental method and explain when that method is most appropriate to the researchquestion

· Define terms associated with the experimental method including independent and dependent variable,experimental group and control group, random assignment and random sampling, internal and externalvalidity, generalizability, experimental and mundane realism, and demand characteristics

· Understand the dangers of hindsight bias

Chapter Outline

1.1 What Is Social Psychology?

1.2 Where Did Social Psychology Come From?

· Social Psychology Before 1950

· Social Psychology Since 1950

1.3 How Do We Do Social Psychology?

· Observational Method: What Is Happening?

· Correlational Method: What Might Happen?

· Experimental Method: What Causes That?

· Statistical Measurement

· Ethics in Research

Chapter Summary

* * *

One in every seven people on Earth is registered on Facebook. The site added the 1 billionth user in September 2012. Each U.S.user has an average of around 260 friends (Statista, 2012; Vance, 2012). In 2011 there were an estimated 181 million blogs bypeople from around the world (Nielsenwire, 2012). On its sixth birthday in March 2012, Twitter reported an average of 340million Tweets a day, with a 140 million users (Twitterblog, 2012). What can we conclude from this information? Humanbeings are intensely interested in and regularly seek out interaction with other human beings. Social psychology is a field thatis also interested in human beings. Social psychologists study people—in particular, people interacting with one another.

1.1 What Is Social Psychology?

Christin Gilbert/age fotostock/SuperStock

Humans use social networking websites to stay connected andinteract with other people.

Social psychology is the scientific study of human thoughts, feelings, andbehavior as humans relate to and are influenced by others. However,many academic disciplines are interested in human thoughts, feelings, orbehavior. If you were to take a literature course, you would find yourselfcontemplating the thoughts of Ishmael in Moby Dick or the actions ofLady Macbeth in Macbeth. In an art course you might work on translatinga particular feeling into a sculpture or a painting. What makes socialpsychology different is the method it employs to study humans. As withother science-related fields, social psychologists use the scientific methodto learn about human beings, a method that employs careful observationand empirical evidence to come to conclusions. The focus of socialpsychology, however, is on the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of people,rather than the physical pieces that together make up a person like DNA,cells, or muscles, and constitute the focus of natural science fields likebiology. Social psychology, as a branch of psychology, focuses on howindividuals are affected by others; and, as related to sociology, socialpsychology looks at a person's social setting within the dynamics of the social system.

Becoming a Social Psychologist

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Characteristics of a social psychologist.

Critical Thinking Questions

· According to Dr. Christenfield, what are the twoskills needed to thrive as a social psychologist?

· Which of these skills is easier to train, and why?

Social psychology is often paired with another branch of psychology, personalitypsychology. One of the largest organizations for social psychologists, the Societyfor Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), includes personality psychologists.Social psychologists emphasize how different people act in similar ways insimilar situations, documenting how outside forces affect behavior. Personalitypsychologists focus on differentiating people from one another, observing howforces inside the person affect behavior. For example, to explain why your friendStuart joined a cult, a social psychologist might look at the persuasivetechniques the cult used to convince all of their converts to join. In contrast, apersonality psychologist would focus on how Stuart's tendency toward followingthose in authority makes him, but not someone else, particularly vulnerable tocults. Because situational forces interact with personal characteristics,explanations for behavior must address both. Social and personalitypsychologists therefore largely address both in the work they do.

Social psychologists study a wide variety of topics, including views of the self,persuasion, attraction, and group processes. In general, social psychologists areinterested in how people relate to and influence one another, but there aremany facets that do not fit this definition. Social psychology is a large, unwieldy,and largely disjointed field of study. In a history of the field of psychology,science writer Morton Hunt (1983) aptly summarizes the issue: “The problem,"he writes, “is that social psychology has no unifying concept; it did not developfrom the seed of a theoretical construct . . . but grew like crabgrass in uncultivated regions of the social sciences" (p. 397). Welcome tothe study of crabgrass.

Large, unwieldy, and disjointed as it may be, social psychology offers the student and the scientist a way of answering the questions thathaunt our daily lives. How do I understand who I am and my capabilities? What should I do in this new situation? Is that personinterested in dating me? Does that infomercial really convince anyone to buy the product? How do I get my school or work group to workbetter together? The diversity of topics found in social psychology also allows for wonderful interconnections with other areas ofpsychology. Both social psychologists and cognitive psychologists are interested in decision making and attributions. Social psychologistsand developmental psychologists are both interested in attachment and romantic relationships. The special expertise and focus of thedifferent areas means we know more about these topics than we might if they were studied in only one field of psychology.

Test Yourself

Given the preceding introduction to the field of social psychology, which of the following questions would best be answeredby social psychology? Click on each question below to reveal the answer.

· What happened in Gettysburg in July 1863?

· Does playing violent video games cause people to behave more aggressively toward others?

· Can playing hard-to-get make a person more attractive to others?

· Is there a God?

1.2 Where Did Social Psychology Come From?

In 1898, Norman Triplett published an article posing a question about bicyclists. He wondered why cyclists seemed to race faster when inthe presence of other cyclists than when racing against the clock alone. To explore the effect of others on individual action, Triplettdeveloped a few hypotheses and then tested them using the scientific method. For this reason, Triplett is considered by many socialpsychologists to have conducted the first social psychological research study (Allport, 1954; Jones, 1998; though there is somedisagreement, see Danziger, 2000 and Haines & Vaughan, 1979). Triplett found that, in general, participants in his study were able toperform actions more quickly when in the presence of others.

The other study often cited as one of the first in the field of social psychology was performed by Max Ringelmann, a French agriculturalengineer. He carried out his work in the 1880s and published his findings in 1913 (Kravitz & Martin, 1986). In his research, Ringelmannasked participants to pull on a rope either alone, in a group of 7, or in a group of 14. He then assessed how hard the participants pulled.He found that in the group of 14, the average per person force was much less than the average per person force when participants werepulling alone: 61.4 kg of force versus 85.3 kg of force. In a later study where participants pushed a cart in pairs or alone, he also foundless individual exertion of force when participants were working with others. Both Triplett's and Ringelmann's studies used the scientificmethod to better understand how an individual's performance is affected by others, the essence of social psychology.

Social Psychology Before 1950

Portrait of Kurt Lewin.

Associated Press

Kurt Lewin, an important early social psychologist,emphasized the importance of theories and methods.

If we date the start of social psychology to 1898, we realize that the field is not veryold, at least not for a scientific discipline. Work in the field began slowly, and before1950 the number of researchers and theories was small. Muzafer Sherif (1936) didsome early work on the power of the group to influence judgments, discovering thatnorms were quickly and naturally developed in groups of people. Miller and Dollardstudied aggression and proposed a link between frustration and aggression (Dollard,Doob, Miller, Mowrer, & Sears, 1939; Miller, 1941). In early work on attitudes, RichardT. LaPiere (1934) found that our attitudes and our actions do not always align, whileFritz Heider (1946) proposed a theory of attitudes that focused on balance.

In these early days the field struggled to define itself, its method, and its subject ofinterest. Two major figures in the field held opposing views. Floyd Henry Allport(1890–1979) wrote an early textbook for social psychology, published in 1924. Allportwas a strong proponent of the use of a rigorous scientific method. He advocated for afocus on individuals, not groups or norms, and the behaviors of people, not thoughtsor feelings. Another major figure was Kurt Lewin (1890–1947), a refugee from NaziGermany who moved to the United States in 1933. Lewin had a major influence on thefield of social psychology. He believed that outside forces affect the behavior of theindividual, that the actions and decisions of the individual are constrained by fields offorce, similar to how the planets in our solar system are constrained in theirmovement by the pull of gravity from the bodies that surround them. But Lewin'scontributions were primarily in the realm of theory and method—it was the way hedid social psychology that people emulated. For more on what Lewin did and hisdisagreement with Allport, see the Social Psychology in Depth box.

Social Psychology in Depth: Lewin's Contributions

The psychologist finds himself in the midst of a rich and vast land full of strange happenings: There are menkilling themselves; a child playing; a person who, having fallen in love and being caught in an unhappysituation, is not willing or not able to find a way out; . . . there is the reaching out for higher and moredifficult goals; loyalty to a group; dreaming; planning; exploring the world; and so on without end.

It is an immense continent full of fascination and power and full of stretches of land where no one ever hasset foot.

Psychology is out to conquer this continent, to find out where its treasures are hidden, to investigate itsdanger spots, to master its vast forces, to utilize its energies. How can one reach this goal? (Lewin, 1940, citedin Marrow, 1969, p. 3)

As a young science, social psychology struggled to find its direction and focus. Kurt Lewin helped the field find its way,while also making great contributions to child development and industrial/organizational psychology (Ash, 1992). Lewinexplained that behavior (B) was a function (f) of both the person (P) and the environment (E), resulting in an equationwritten as B = f (P, E). For human beings, the environment (E) most often includes other people, so Lewin was intenselyinterested in the effect we have on one another. In fact, Lewin was the person who coined the term group dynamics(Berscheid, 2003).

Lewin saw the importance of studying people outside the laboratory, in everyday situations. He also studied the importantissues of the day, focusing psychological study on the particular social issues that needed to be solved. The study thatinitially gained him popularity in the United States was one of leadership styles. Lewin and his colleagues (Lewin, Lippitt, &White, 1939) compared the behavior of children assigned to groups led by adults using an authoritarian and laissez-fairestyle with the behavior of children led by those using a more democratic style. They found that hostile behavior was usuallyhigher in the groups led using an authoritarian or laissez-faire style than led using a democratic style. Lewin believed thatgroups could be studied experimentally and did so in studies like the one on leadership styles.

Another prominent psychologist, Floyd Allport (1924), argued that only the individual could be the subject of study. Allportmaintained that psychology studies the individual, so extending psychology to groups goes against the definition of the field.Allport also believed that social psychologists should focus on laboratory studies. It was Allport who pointed to Triplett's1898 study as the first in the history of social psychology, not because Triplett himself saw it as a social psychological studybut because it fit Allport's model of what a study in social psychology should be (Berscheid, 2003). Allport was a goodsalesman.

The topics that social psychologists study, however, are more in line with Lewin's ideas of appropriate subjects for the fieldthan Allport's ideas. Social psychologists study the interaction of the person and environment, and groups—both largegroups and very small groups (those made up of two people). The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, anorganization Lewin helped start, is alive and well. Lewin's ideas continue to be used in the area of action research, whichfocuses on making improvements to difficult situations while advancing scientific knowledge (Bargal, 2008; Sommer, 2009).Given the big issues we face in the world today—war, poverty, and discrimination, to name a few—one can hope for Lewin'stradition to continue.

Social Psychology Since 1950

In the 1950s and 1960s, the number of social psychologists and research within the field expanded rapidly. A number of factorscontributed to this increased interest in the field. One desire of a number of social psychologists, and therefore a topic of study in thisperiod, was to explain the violent events leading up to and taking place during World War II. Researchers focused on subjects such as thecauses of aggression, group actions (e.g., conformity and social facilitation), and individual actions (e.g., obedience). In the United Statesthe field benefited from a number of psychologists who fled Europe before or during World War II. Serious study of many of the topicsyou will read about throughout this text began in these decades. These concepts, the researchers, and their major findings aresummarized in Table 1.1. As we explore social psychology throughout the coming weeks, keep this table in mind.

Table 1.1: Social psychological topics and researchers of the 1950s and 1960s
Topic	Researcher, Date, Title, and Journal	Major Finding
Aggression	Berkowitz, L., & LePage, A. (1967).Weapons as aggression-elicitingstimuli. In the Journal of Personalityand Social Psychology.	The presence of a weapon elicited greater aggressionthan the presence of a neutral stimulus or no object.
Attraction	Walster, E., Aronson, V., Abrahams, D.,& Rottmann, L. (1966). Importance ofphysical attractiveness in datingbehavior. In the Journal of Personalityand Social Psychology.	Attractive individuals were liked more, more likely tobe pursued for a later date, and rated their datesmore harshly.
Cognitivedissonance	Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M.(1959). Cognitive consequences offorced compliance. In the Journal ofAbnormal and Social Psychology.	Participants receiving a small reward to lie toanother participant were more likely to report theyenjoyed the boring study and would participate in asimilar study in the future than those who received alarge reward.
Conformity	Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies ofinterdependence and conformity: Aminority of one against theunanimous majority. In PsychologicalMonographs.	Even when an answer was obviously wrong,individuals conformed to a unanimous group at leastsome of the time.
Helping	Latane, B., & Darley, J. M. (1968).Group inhibition of bystanderintervention in emergencies. In the Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology.	Participants alone helped more quickly when alonethan when in the presence of unresponsive others orother naïve participants.
Obedience	Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral studyof obedience. In the Journal ofAbnormal and Social Psychology.	Commands of obedience were obeyed even when thecommands appeared to harm another individual.
Persuasion	Hovland, C. I., & Weiss, W. (1951).The influence of source credibility oncommunication effectiveness. In Public Opinion Quarterly.	After time, participants accepted an originallyrejected message from an untrustworthy source.
Socialfacilitation	Zajonc, R. B., Heingartner, A., &Herman, E. M. (1969). Socialenhancement and impairment ofperformance in the cockroach. In the Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology.	Cockroaches running a difficult maze took a shortertime when they were alone than when they wereobserved by other cockroaches. Cockroaches runningan easy maze took a longer time when they werealone than when they were observed.

Since the 1960s, psychology as a whole has put more emphasis on cognition or thinking processes rather than just observable behavior.In research on the self, for example, social psychologists have found that the way we think about ourselves influences the way weapproach the world. People who view themselves as possessing particular qualities tend to notice those qualities in others. Our cognitiveprocesses also impact the decisions we make, an idea we will explore in the chapter on making judgments. Basic cognitive processes suchas categorization also impact how we think about others. Because of our tendency to categorize, we assume people who share onecharacteristic share others as well, resulting in stereotypes.

As our technologies for looking inside the brain have improved, so too have our abilities to see how brain anatomy and brain processesrelate to the social aspects of the person. Researchers have found that when we think about ourselves, we use a different part of the brainthan if we are thinking about other people or things. Processing information about the self utilizes a unique location in the brain, andwhen people are thinking about themselves, this part of the brain shows heightened activation. Other parts of the brain are activatedwhen people are paying attention to what others are doing, either in attempting to understand others' thought processes or evaluatingwhether their actions may be threatening. We also use different parts of our brain when we are attempting to regulate our thoughts orbehaviors in social situations (Heatherton, 2011). Social neuroscience is still a relatively new field; researchers are only beginning toexplore all the ways our brain reflects our social activities.

In more recent decades, social psychologists have also paid more attention to the impact of cultural differences on the person (e.g.,Markus & Kitayama, 1991). They have found that people may think differently about themselves and their relationships and interact withone another differently depending on culture. For example, studies show that young people in the United States place more emphasis andimportance on romantic relationships than people in South Korea do. College students in the two countries were surveyed at thebeginning and the end of the spring semester to assess stability of romantic relationship status, romantic loneliness, and closeness. Theresearchers then compared the South Korean and U.S. students—those who were in stable romantic relationships and those who werenot. U.S. students in stable romantic relationships showed less loneliness than their U.S. counterparts without a stable romanticrelationship. Korean students had only a small decrease in loneliness when in a stable romantic relationship. In other words, when not ina romantic relationship, Korean young adults do not experience as much romantic loneliness as young adults in the United States do.Within relationships, young adults in the United States report greater closeness to their partner than young adults in Korea do(Seepersad, Choi, & Shin, 2008). These findings suggest that young adults in the United States place greater importance on romanticrelationships for combatting loneliness and gaining closeness with another person. Friends or family may be more important for SouthKorean young adults in meeting social needs.

Expand Your Knowledge: Looking forMore?

The Inquisitive Mind, or In-Mind, is a website withinteresting, accessible articles on social psychology forthe general public. If you would like to learn more aboutcurrent findings in the field from respected researchers,take a look at http://www.in-mind.org/ .

Social psychologists have also begun incorporating evolutionarytheories to explain various psychological findings. According toevolutionary theory, those characteristics of an organism that allow itto survive and reproduce within its environment are most likely toappear in later generations. Evolutionary theory is often used inbiology and other sciences, but within psychology our focus is moreoften on adaptive behaviors (e.g., being afraid of strangers) rather thanon adaptive biological characteristics (e.g., opposable thumbs). Adaptivebehaviors may still have a biological mechanism that can be passed onthrough the genes. For instance, in evolutionary history, individualswho showed a strong response to strangers in the amygdala, the brainstructure largely responsible for the emotion of fear, were more likely to survive an attack by a rival group. Their survival meant they hadchildren and passed the genes responsible for their stranger-activated amygdala on to future generations.

Evolutionary psychology can act as a metatheory, a theory that explains other theories (Duntley & Buss, 2008). For example, on the themeof romantic relationships, evolutionary psychologists would suggest that a man capable of identifying a fertile woman and keeping thatwoman away from other men will be more successful in passing down his genes to future generations. A woman, on the other hand,would want to identify a man who is willing and able to invest in her and her offspring, given the long investment she has in pregnancyand a dependent infant. We find exactly these kinds of patterns across cultures (Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, 1992; Buss &Schmitt, 1993; Kaighobadi, Shackelford, & Buss, 2010). Men report greater interest in physical attractiveness, desire more sexual partners,and are more jealous of sexual infidelity than emotional infidelity. Women, on the other hand, show more interest in status and incomeand are more jealous when a partner becomes emotionally close to another woman, which could potentially lead him to stop investing inher and their offspring.

Test Yourself

Click on each question below to reveal the answer.

· The first study in social psychology was conducted by Triplett in

a. 1809

b. 1898

c. 1950

d. 1989

· When did the number of researchers in the field of social psychology begin to increase?

1.3 How Do We Do Social Psychology?

What makes social psychology a science? The common theme among the chemist in the lab, the physicist at the Large Hadron Collider,the ecologist out in the forest, and the psychologist is the method all use to explore the subject matter: the scientific method. Thescientific method begins with a testable prediction, a hypothesis, which can be inspired by experiences in the world or developed from a theory, which is a set of principles or a framework for a set of observations based on previous research. Once a hypothesis has beendeveloped, the researcher will want to actually test the prediction. There are three basic methods for testing hypotheses: theobservational method, the correlational method, and the experimental method. Which one to use depends on the question asked.

Observational Method: What Is Happening?

A female psychologist watches two young girls pretend to apply makeup to each other's faces.

Belinda Images/SuperStock

Observational studies allow researchers to observe people andtheir behavior in naturalistic settings.

When a researcher simply wants to know what is happening within asituation or with a particular phenomenon, observational methods aremost appropriate. For example, while watching one of those longcommercials on late-night television called an infomercial, a researchermight wonder how many include a “free bonus gift." An observationalmethod can help to answer this question. When using observationalmethods, a researcher simply observes a behavior or situation andrecords what is happening.

Observational methods are systematic in nature. Before conducting theobservation, a researcher most often decides exactly what constitutes thebehavior being studied. For example, in investigating how manyinfomercials offer a free gift, the researcher might specify that the freegift must come with the purchase and not require separate shipping andhandling charges. Decisions must also be made about when to sample thebehavior. A researcher could decide to sample infomercials occurringbetween 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. on network television or between 1:00p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on weekends on cable television. Depending on the research question, observational research might take place in awide variety of settings. An interest in children's aggressive behavior might lead to observations in a day care setting. For a researchquestion about the actions of people sitting in waiting rooms, data collection could take place at a local dentist's office.

Observational methods are helpful in describing if or how often something might happen. Many observational studies take place innaturalistic settings, so people's behaviors are generally the same as in their everyday lives. One drawback of this method is thatrelatively rare or private behaviors, such as sexual activity, are difficult or unethical to observe. Scientists using this method also need tobe careful to not allow their presence to affect the behavior being observed.

Test Yourself

Click on the question below to reveal the answer.

· Describe several research questions that would best be answered using the observational method.

Correlational Method: What Might Happen?

Researchers often want to be able to predict if one behavior (or feeling or thought) will occur as a result of another behavior. In thesecases, they use the correlational method. If a researcher was interested in whether the age of people is associated with their likelihoodof buying an infomercial product, the correlational method would be used. To apply this method, people's ages would need to berecorded, as well as how many infomercial products they had purchased within a specified period, for instance, within the last month. Inresearch, the entities assessed when using a correlational method are called variables. A variable is literally something that varies or canvary. In this study, two variables are assessed: age and purchases. Researchers are interested in whether there is a relation between thetwo variables they are comparing. Does knowing a person's age tell us anything about the number of advertised products bought lastmonth? Are these variables co-related?

Correlational research often involves the use of survey methods. Surveys help researchers gather information about people by askingindividuals to answer a question or a series of questions about themselves and what they think, feel, or do. Surveys may be conducted ina wide variety of ways. Sometimes researchers do face-to-face interviews, or talk to people on the telephone to collect information. Othertimes a paper-and-pencil survey is sent to potential participants or people sit in a group setting, like a classroom, to fill out a survey.Surveys are also administered online. Surveys can be helpful in collecting a lot of information in a relatively short period, but researchersmust be careful of the wording of questions within a survey so they do not lead people to a desired answer.

Another concern of survey research is the reliability of the survey. A reliable survey is one that provides consistent information. Forexample, if an individual was surveyed about his or her religious beliefs one week and then again 2 weeks later, the answers on thesurvey should be similar both times, unless, of course, the person surveyed experienced a religious conversion in that time. If twoadministrations of a survey provided very different results and there is no alternative explanation for the lack of consistency, the survey isunreliable and should not be used in research. Surveys are often used in correlational research but may also be used in experiments tofind out how people think, feel, or behave.

Beyond the survey method, other methods can be used when collecting data on variables, combining more than one research method. Forexample, if the researcher was interested in whether children's aggressive behavior was related to the number of teachers observing thechildren's play, the children could be observed on the playground, and the number of teachers watching could also be recorded. If aresearcher wanted to know if the number of aggressive acts by children was related to parental attitudes toward violence, observationsmight be paired with a survey of parental attitudes toward violence. Data might also be obtained from other sources. A research questionabout the relation between age and purchasing from infomercials might be answered with a survey of individuals but could also beaddressed if the researcher received permission to look at people's credit card purchases of infomercial products, as well as the creditcard company's data concerning their clients' ages. Note that with the correlational method, the researcher is not manipulating theenvironment or attempting to change people's behavior, but rather, looking at what people are naturally doing, specific attributes, or whatthey are thinking or feeling.

Expand Your Knowledge: Participate inResearch

Want to see what social psychological research is reallylike? Participate in online research. One clearinghouse forstudies can be found at the Social Psychology Networkwebsite: http://www.socialpsychology.org/ .

The correlational method can be very useful, but it must be used withcaution. If knowledge of one variable (age) helps predict another(buying), does that mean that one causes the other? Not necessarily. Itis possible that the first variable caused the second, or that the secondvariable caused the first, or that some other variable caused bothvariables. Without further research we cannot know which possibilityis true. For example, a researcher might find a negative correlation inschools between the number of teachers monitoring hallway behaviorand the number of acts of aggression in the hallway. It is possible thatmore teachers in the hallway caused lower aggression, but it is alsopossible that there were fewer teachers in the hallway in the face of aggression because they had left to avoid it. Knowing that there is acorrelation between two events does not tell us which, if either, is the cause. In fact, it is quite common to have a third variable cause acorrelation between two other variables. For example, sunburn and outdoor temperature are correlated. Does this mean that hot weathercauses sunburn or that sunburn causes hot weather? Of course not. The summer sun causes both sunburn and hot weather. Cum hocpropter hoc—correlation does not imply causation.

Test Yourself

Click on each question below to reveal the answer.

· If a researcher were to give a test of creativity to a participant and get a score of 12 and a week later give the sametest again and get a score of 12, that creativity test would have what quality?

· If two variables are correlated, does that mean that one of them causes the other?

Experimental Method: What Causes That?

A researcher interested in causality would use the experimental method (see Figure 1.1). For example, if we are interested in whetheroffering a free gift makes people more likely to buy things, we would do an experiment. In this basic experiment half of a group of peoplewould be randomly assigned to watch an infomercial where a free gift is offered at the end, and the other half of the group would watchan identical infomercial but without reference to a free gift. Each person would then be asked how much they would like to buy theproduct.

The Experimental Study

In an experiment, the group that receives the treatment or experiences a change in their environment is called the experimental group.In the study of free gifts in infomercials, the group that is offered the free gift would be the experimental group, and the group to whichnothing was offered is called the control group. Researchers use other terms for other parts of an experiment. The variable manipulatedin an experiment, in this case the presence or absence of a free gift offer, is called the independent variable. The variable we measure inan experiment, in this case desire to buy, is the dependent variable. An experiment tests whether the independent and dependentvariable have a cause and effect relationship. If the presence or absence of a gift (i.e., the independent variable) changes buying behavior(i.e., the dependent variable), the assumption is that gifts cause a desire to buy.

Figure 1.1: The experimental method

A simple experiment can be designed to test a hypothesis.

Many experiments involve random assignment, which means that each individual in the sample has an equal chance of being in each ofthe groups (levels of the independent variable). In the study of infomercials, the researcher might flip a coin and assign those who gotheads to get the free gift and those who got tails to be offered no free gift. Random assignment is important because it lessens thepossibility of extraneous variables affecting the study. Extraneous variables are things that are outside of our interest but that may affectthe results of the study. For example, if a researcher assigned the first half of the people who volunteered to be part of the study to watchthe infomercial with the free gift, they may be more likely to buy because they are generally eager people. They signed up quickly for thestudy and were also very interested in other opportunities, like a free gift. If, instead, the researcher randomly assigned individuals to thetwo groups, the eager people would likely be distributed fairly equally between the two groups. Random assignment allows preexistingdifferences within participants to be randomly distributed among the groups in a study.

Despite researchers' best efforts, there are times when a particular kind of extraneous variable interferes with research conclusions. Confounding variables, also known as "third" or "latent" variables, are variables that change or are inadvertently manipulated alongwith the independent variable. For example, imagine we found a difference in buying behavior between the experimental group andcontrol group in our study of infomercial free gifts. If every participant saw the same infomercial in our study, and only the experimentalgroup saw a final segment offering them a free gift, we might reasonably assume that a free gift encourages buying. But this might not bethe case. If the offer of the free gift took another 20 seconds, perhaps the extra processing time influenced the buying behavior of theexperimental group. Along with our independent variable manipulation (offer of a free gift), came a confounding variable (extraprocessing time). Extraneous variables, and in particular confounding variables, are notoriously difficult to control and, at times, even see.As you read about research in social psychology, be on the lookout for extraneous variables and keep in mind their potential impact onour conclusions.

A study free from extraneous and confounding variables, where we are fairly certain that the independent variable caused the observedchange in the dependent variable is described as having internal validity. But having humans as research participants creates specialproblems for those who study them. For example, demand characteristics occur when research participants change their behaviorbecause of what they perceive to be the purpose of the study. If participants believe a researcher is looking at whether free gifts madepeople happy, those participants might report being happy when getting a gift, even though they actually find the free gift an annoyingdistraction. When demand characteristics are in play, the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable cannot be clearlyseen. The researcher would not know if the participants were acting happy because they were being nice or because the free gift actuallymade them happy. One way to avoid demand characteristics is to use deception to mislead participants about the true focus of the study.However, deception brings with it a variety of ethical problems.

Test Yourself

Click on each question below to reveal the answer.

· Identify the independent and dependent variables.

a. To see if college students ate less when served on smaller plates, students received a normal cafeteria meal on theregular plates or on plates that were 1 inch smaller in diameter.

1. Investigating whether receiving candy while taking a test improved test scores, students either received a smallcandy bar while taking a test or no candy.

1. Looking at the difference clothing might make on perceived trustworthiness of a newscaster, the newscaster eitherwore very casual clothes or his usual suit and tie to present the news. Both the viewers who saw him wearingcasual clothes and the viewers who saw him in his usual clothing rated his trustworthiness.

1. For each of the preceding scenarios, identify the experimental and the control group.

Application of an Experiment

Pairs of men stand facing each other in close proximity in a classroom.

If a psychological study is conducted with only adolescent-agedmales, do the results have external validity?

Researchers want the findings of their work to have generalizability. Astudy that is generalizable is one whose results can be applied in avariety of situations. If the findings of a study apply only to the laboratorysetting or only with the type of people that participated, the findings arenot very useful to everyday people in everyday situations. Studies that aregeneralizable are said to have external validity, which is the extent towhich the results of a particular study are applicable to other places,other people, and other times.

To ensure that findings are relevant to a variety of people, researchers tryto get a representative sample of the population to be part of the study. Ina study of the effect of free gifts in infomercials on buying behavior, aresearcher could recruit a number of friends to be part of the study. Theproblem with this idea is that the results might apply only to people likethe researcher, likely of similar age and life situation. Would the findingsalso apply to an 80-year-old widow, 50-year-old businessperson, and 30-year-old stay-at-home dad? To make certain the findings will apply to awide variety, researchers try to get a random sample from a population. A random sample is a group of individuals chosen from a populationwhere every member of the population had an equal chance of being part of the study. Random samples give us a good chance of gettinga sample that is representative of the population, and therefore, results that are applicable back to the population. Random samples areimportant not just when using the experimental method but for the observational and correlational method as well.

True random samples can be difficult to obtain. Getting the contact information for everyone at a somewhat small workplace might berelatively easy, but what if the population is the entire television-viewing public in the United States? How does one assure that every U.S.television viewer has an equal chance of being part of a study? Choosing a sample from all the people listed in phone books would beexcluding those with only cell phones, unlisted numbers, or no phone. A sample from all the addresses of U.S. households, assuming sucha list could be obtained, would exclude the homeless and those in transition between residences.

Conducting Research

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Using the scientific method in social psychologyresearch.

Critical Thinking Questions

· How is the scientific method utilized in socialpsychology research?

· Think of a question related to social psychology.How would you go about answering that question?

The issue of random sampling has been problematic in social psychology. Manysocial psychologists teach and do research at colleges and universities, so theyuse the participants that are easily available to them: college students. In oneassessment of this problem Henry (2008) looked at articles on prejudice andstigma published in the top three journals in social psychology between 1990and 2005, finding that between 87% and 98% used student samples. While thistells us a great deal about “college sophomores in the laboratory," as Sears(1986) put it, the findings may not apply well to those not in college, those ofmiddle age, or the elderly.

When drawing conclusions about social behavior, there is a temptation tobelieve that the conclusion reached was obvious all along. This tendency tooverestimate your ability to have predicted the results is known as hindsightbias (Bernstein, Atance, Loftus, & Meltzoff, 2004; Fischhoff, 1975; Werth &Strack, 2003). An example of hindsight bias is when someone says that theyknew which team was going to win a championship game, after that team hadalready won. Or, after telling your grandma about your recent engagement, sheinforms you that she "knew all along that girl was 'the one.'" Many students ofsocial psychology face hindsight bias when studying various socialphenomenons. As you read about the research of social psychologists, you maythink that the conclusion was obvious, so much so that it seemed like a sillystudy to do in the first place. But what is obvious is not always right.

Researchers want to be able to apply results to different people and to settingsoutside of the laboratory. If participants act differently in a research lab than they do in everyday life, a researcher can only predict whathappens in research labs, not in the real world. In order to encourage participants to act naturally, some researchers try to make theexperimental setting as similar to the real-life setting as possible. When the environment participants experience is similar to what theywould experience in real life, the study is said to have mundane realism. For example, in a study of infomercials, researchers might askparticipants to sit on a comfortable couch in a decorated room to simulate the home environment rather than have participants sit at adesk or on a hard office chair.

Even without mundane realism, it is possible to encourage experimental realism in a research study. Experimental realism occurs whenresearch participants are completely involved and engaged in what they are doing. With experimental realism, the participants'immersion in the activity causes them to act as they would in their everyday lives. Researchers generally prefer experimental realism overmundane realism. Participants watching an infomercial on a comfortable couch may experience the real-life setting but still act in the waythey think the experimenter wants them to, showing demand characteristics and providing a response they would not in their everydaylife. Mundane realism can encourage experimental realism, but experimental realism can occur even without mundane realism.Participants might feel very comfortable watching the infomercial on the couch and pay as much attention to it as they would in theirown living room at home, but it is possible they might have been equally engaged while sitting on a hard chair in a stark room.

Test Yourself

Click on each question below to reveal the answer.

· Why is generalizability important?

· What is the difference between random sampling and random assignment?

· If you were doing a study on conflict in romantic relationships, what might you do to encourage mundane realism?

· Why is the hindsight bias also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon?

Statistical Measurement

The results of research need to be organized and summarized so they can be understood and shared. Researchers use various statisticalmeasures to help them see what the collected information means and to communicate this information succinctly. Within observationalresearch, counting the total number of behaviors seen and describing the range can be helpful. For example, a researcher could observeaggression shown by different children on the playground and report the total number of aggressive acts shown by each child. Table 1.2shows the results from one observation of seven children on a playground. A researcher could report that the range of scores wasbetween 2 and 7 acts, with a total of 5 acts between the most aggressive and least aggressive child. This may be helpful information, butit would also be interesting to know the number of aggressive acts most children engage in or the average number of aggressive acts.

One way to report this information would be to describe the most common number of aggressive acts seen in the children. Reporting themost common response is reporting the mode. As seen in Table 1.2, three of the seven children engaged in three aggressive acts; 3 wasthe most common number of acts, so the mode for this group is 3. Another way of looking at the average score is to line the scores upfrom smallest to largest and see what score falls in the middle. The middle score in such a list is called the median. For the number ofaggressive acts performed by children, the numbers from the table would line up like this: 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7. The middle number in thatlist is the last 3, so the median for this group is 3. The final way of looking at the most common score is to find the arithmetic average ofthe scores, called the mean. To find the mean the scores are summed and divided by the number of scores. In the list of scores in thetable, 4 + 6 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 7 + 3 = 28. The sum (28) divided by the number of scores (7) equals 4. The mean for this group of scores is 4.In observational research the mean, median, or mode are reported to help communicate the most common score.

Table 1.2: Number of aggressive acts observed
Child	Number of aggressive acts
Child 1	4
Child 2	6
Child 3	3
Child 4	3
Child 5	2
Child 6	7
Child 7	3

In correlational research, researchers often use the results of a statistical test to describe any potential relation between variables. Theprimary statistic used with the correlational method is the aptly named correlation coefficient (technically a Pearson product-momentcorrelation). A correlation coefficient is a number that describes a relationship between two variables, varying from a −1.0 to a +1.0.There are three possibilities for a correlation. The first possibility is that as one variable increases, the other variable increases as well. Ifthe older people in a study of buying behavior and age bought more than the younger people, and the older they were the more theybought, the relationship would be described as a positive correlation. A correlation coefficient between 0 and +1.0 is a positivecorrelation. The second possibility is that as one variable increases, the other variable decreases. If the older that people are, the less theybuy—that is, if buying goes down as age goes up—the relation would be described as a negative correlation. A correlation coefficientbetween 0 and −1.0 is a negative correlation. The final possibility is that the two variables are not related to one another. In this instanceage would have no relationship to buying, no correlation. A correlation coefficient of 0 indicates no correlation. Scores closer to 0, eitherpositive or negative, indicate a weaker correlation; and scores closer to −1 or to +1 indicate a stronger correlation. Figure 1.2 shows whatpositive, negative, and no correlation might look like.

Figure 1.2: Scatterplot of a positive correlation, negative correlation, and no correlation

In a positive correlation (A), when one variable increases, so does the other. For a negative correlation (B), asone variable decreases, the other decreases as well. When there is no correlation (C), no discernible patternexists.

In experimental research, experimenters often compare the means of groups to see if they are different. If means are quite different fromone another and the study was well designed, and therefore high in internal validity, it is likely that the differences are due to themanipulation of the independent variable. When the means of groups are close to one another, it is possible that any difference is duesimply to chance. Various statistical tests might be used to look at whether the differences between the means are likely to be due to areal difference and not because of chance, but two of the most basic statistical tests are “t tests" and “analysis of variance." A t test is usedwhen a researcher is comparing two groups and looking for a difference between them. Analysis of variance is used when there are threeor more groups and a researcher is looking at whether there are differences among them.

When looking at the qualities of a group, psychologists use a variety of scores ranging from very high to very low. Much of the time, veryfew people have very low scores and very few people have very high scores, with the majority of people in the middle. When averagingthose high, low, and medium scores, we end up with an average right in the middle. When there are a few high scores, a few low scores,and a large number in the middle, we have a distribution of scores called a normal distribution, also known as a normal curve or a bellcurve. When looking at differences between groups, we get two distributions of scores. The averages of two groups might be vastlydifferent (far apart) or extremely similar (close together). When the averages are close together, their distributions are likely to overlap(see Figure 1.3). Overlapping distributions mean that a number of people in one of the groups have similar scores to the people in theother group. When the averages are farther apart, there is likely to be less overlap of the distributions, so many members of the twogroups are likely to have different scores. The amount of overlap between two distributions also depends on the spread of the scores inthe distribution, that is, how variable the scores are. Two very spread out distributions may have a great deal of overlap despite havingaverages that are far apart.

Figure 1.3: Overlapping distributions

Graph showing two overlapping bell curves. The second bell curve begins at around the mid-point of the first. The overlapped area of the two curves is shaded.

Overlapping distributions indicate that a number of participants in one grouphave similar scores to participants in the other group.

One technique psychologists use extensively is meta-analysis. In meta-analysis, researchers use a statistical technique to combine theresults of a large number of studies. By combining results we get a better idea of what is truly happening because many more people areincluded in the analysis—an extraneous variable that might have impacted the results of one of the studies will have only a small effectwhen many studies are combined. The statistic most often used to describe the results of a meta-analysis is called an effect size. Theeffect size takes into account how much difference there is between distributions. If there is no difference between two groups, thedistributions of the groups should overlap completely. Sometimes there is very little difference between two groups, and theirdistributions overlap a great deal. When this is true, we have a low effect size. It is hard to see differences with a low effect size withoutusing statistics. A medium effect size might be visible to someone who is paying attention. This is when the distributions do overlap, butthe differences between the groups are big enough to see. A large effect size is one that is very easy to see. The averages of the twogroups and the distributions do not show a lot of overlap.

Test Yourself

Click on each question below to reveal the answer.

· What is the most common score in a list of scores called?

· Name two variables that are likely to be positively correlated.

· Name two variables that are likely to be negatively correlated.

Ethics in Research

When conducting research, it is important to safeguard the well-being of participants. Social psychologists must solve a difficult problem:While seeking to discover how a normal person in a normal situation might act, simply watching the action might change the nature ofthe action. For example, if you knew someone was watching you in a public restroom, you might spend more time washing your handsthan you normally do. In one study of this phenomenon, researchers found that women observed in the bathroom were more likely towash their hands than those who believed they were not observed (Pedersen, Keithly, & Brady, 1986).

To avoid this problem, researchers have disguised the purpose of their studies, the identity of the researchers, or, at times, not toldresearch participant that they were participating in research. A number of studies have included someone trained by the experimenter toappear to be a naive part of the situation, usually pretending to be another participant. This individual, called a confederate, helps createa situation that would be otherwise impossible to set up. However, the practice is ethically questionable because it involves deception.

Deception is a potentially dangerous practice in research, and hiding the nature of a study introduces a number of problematic issues.One obvious problem is that being lied to could cause distress in the short term and even affect how individuals feel about themselvesover the long term. Angry or upset people may be a problem for the deceptive researcher and may cause larger problems for research ingeneral. Knowing they may be deceived, participants may be less likely to volunteer to participate and more suspicious during a study,leading to behavior that is not as natural as a researcher might desire. If researchers become known as liars, the results they arereporting might be questioned as well. If they were willing to lie to research participants, why not lie about the results as well?

After a number of studies with questionable ethics in the 1960s, the field of psychology as a whole has paid more attention to issues ofthe rights of participants and the ethics of research methods. Studies involving human participants must go through an institutionalreview board, which is a committee at a university, college, or other organization where research is done that evaluates the ethics of aresearch study. For most studies researchers must obtain informed consent from participants. Informed consent involves researcherstelling the participants what they can expect within their participation, and informing them of their rights as participants—including theright to discontinue participation (see Figure 1.4). Research participants can then be part of the research knowing what is expected ofthem or decline to participate. Deception is still used in some social psychological research but only when deemed absolutely necessary.Researchers who use deception are also careful to talk to participants afterward and address any negative feelings that might have comeup. Almost all research in social psychology now includes an explanation to participants about the nature of the study, whether or notstudy included deception. This explanation is called a debriefing. A major goal in debriefing is to identify and address any distress aresearch participant might have experienced in the course of the study.

Figure 1.4: APA's ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct

Figure displaying the American Psychological Association's standards of informed consent (section 3.10) and informed consent to research (section 8.02).

The APA has formulated strict literature on the nature of informed consent in psychological research.

Source: Copyright © 2010 by the American Psychological Association. Reproduced with permission. The official citation that should be used inreferencing this material is: American Psychological Association (2010a). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct (2002, amended June1, 2010). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx . No further reproduction or distribution is permitted without written permissionfrom the American Psychological Association.

Test Yourself

Click on the question below to reveal the answer.

· Describe a research question or topic that would be difficult to study without the use of deception.

Conclusion

What Do Social Psychologists Study?

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Social psychology covers a broad range of topics.

Critical Thinking Questions

· What are some examples of behaviors that arestudied by social psychologists?

· What are some of the applications of these types ofstudies?

Social psychology is a broad field, covering a variety of topics. At the heart ofsocial psychology is an interest in people as they relate to others. Althoughrelatively new, it is a field of much richness and diversity. Social psychologistsstudy a variety of topics including attraction, helping, aggression, obedience, andattitudes. To conduct these studies, researchers use various methods to learnabout these topics and more.

Chapter Summary

What Is Social Psychology?

Social psychology is all about people: what they do, how they think, and what they feel. As a branch of the larger field of psychology,social psychology is unique in its attention to how people relate to and influence one another. Social psychologists use the scientificmethod to study how others affect our thinking, actions, and feelings.

Where Did Social Psychology Come From?

Most date the beginning of social psychology to 1898 with Norman Triplett's study on the effects of the presence of others on bicyclists'speeds and Max Ringelmann's 1913 study of people working together on a task. After World War II, social psychology expanded as a fieldand now covers a wide range of topics. In more recent years, greater attention has been paid to cognition, neuroscience, and evolutionarypsychology.

How Do We Do Social Psychology?

Social psychologists use the scientific method—a hypothesis, or testable prediction, is developed and then tested using observational,correlational, or experimental methods. These different methods answer different kinds of questions. Observational methods answerquestions relating to what is happening. Correlational methods look at relationships between variables, enabling prediction. Correlation,however, does not allow us to determine causation. With the experimental method, researchers manipulate one variable, the independentvariable, and measure the effect of that manipulation through assessment of the dependent variable. At times, once one knows the resultsof a research study, those results may seem obvious, but people tend to fall short when truly predicting results beforehand. This sensethat “you knew it all along" is called the hindsight bias. In research, attention is paid to potential ethical issues. Researchers have theirresearch plans checked by an institutional review board, and participants provide informed consent and are debriefed at the end ofparticipation.

Critical Thinking Questions

1. What makes social psychology different from other academic disciplines?

2. What makes social psychology different from other areas of psychology?

3. If social psychology were the only discipline we could use to answer questions, what types of questions would we have difficultyanswering?

4. As a discipline that is just over 100 years old and covers a wide variety of topics, what issues might social psychology encounter andpresent that an older or more focused field might avoid?

5. Consider a topic such as online shopping. What research questions might a social psychologist ask about this topic? For thesequestions, what research method might you use to answer them?

6. If two things are correlated, why is this correlation not evidence of causation?

7. Experiments are designed to investigate causality. How do they do that?

8. Why is hindsight bias dangerous?