Talk:Social psychology (sociology)

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psychology/sociology split[edit]

Wow, this is a mess now that these two domains of social psychology have been split. They do overlap a bit, but I believe that much of the current sociological content belongs more appropriately on the psychology page. I just moved my original section on research ethics over to the psychology section and will try to make more changes as time and energy allows...

Good luck trying to reason with some of the elements there. Evidently the entire faculty of Cornell has a very narrow idea of what is, and isn't, social psychology. They'll continue to dominate the article cluster until well-credentialled persons object. Lucidish { Ben S. Nelson } 00:37, 18 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Generic SP material[edit]

I removed the following, because none of it deals with uniquely SSP-related content. I'm posting it here so that a) it can be spellchecked and reviewed, and b) in case other editors want to adapt and re-include the material after a thorough re-evaluation.

The concerns of social psychology[edit]

General research interests[edit]

Social Psychology Diagram
Social Psychology Diagram

Social psychology attempts to understand the relationship between minds, groups, and behaviors in three general ways.

First, it tries to see how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other(s) (Allport 3). This includes social perception, social interaction, and the many kinds of social influence (like trust, power, and persuasion). Gaining insight into the social psychology of persons involves looking at the influences that individuals have on the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of other individuals, as well as the influence that groups have on individuals. This aspect of social psychology asks questions like:

  • How do small group dynamics impact cognition and emotional states?
  • How do social groups control or contribute to behavior, emotion, or attitudes of the individual members?
  • How does the group impact the individual?
  • How does the individual operate within the social group?

Second, it tries to understand the influence that individual perceptions and behaviors have upon the behavior of groups. This includes looking at things like group productivity in the workplace and group decision making. It looks at questions like:

  • How does persuasion work to change group behavior, emotion or attitudes?
  • What are the reasons behind conformity, diversity, and deviance?

Third, and finally, social psychology tries to understand groups themselves as behavioral entities, and the relationships and influences that one group has upon another group (Michener 5). It asks questions like:

  • What makes some groups hostile to one another, and others neutral or civil?
  • Do groups behave in a different way than an individual outside the group?

Specific research interests[edit]

The scope of social psychological research. Based on input from Cote and Levine, 2002.

Some of the basic topics of interest in social psychology are:

  • Impression Formation - which investigates the cognitive processes underlying the way we form impressions of others. This includes the biases guiding our impressions, the inferences we make, and the weight we give to different pieces of information.
  • Social Judgment - which investigates the cognitive processes underlying our beliefs about the social world. Some of the heuristics or “rules of thumb” include the availability heuristic, representativeness heuristic, and anchoring and adjustment. We are sometimes also biased toward over-attributing our own personal beliefs to society at large, i.e. the false consensus effect. Some people also tend to believe in a just world which can lead to blaming the victim in some circumstances.
  • Attitudes – The focus of this area is the study of the relationship between attitudes and behavior and the use of persuasive communication to change attitudes. The primary theories used to explain and predict the relationship between attitudes and behavior are the theories of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) and planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985). The primary theory of attitude change is the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Caccioppo, 1986).
  • Social influence - This area of research studies the methods people use to make us comply, conform, or obey their authority. Social Impact Theory is the most heavily used theory in this area (Latane, 1981).
  • Group Processes - includes the study of group formation, effectiveness and influences on the individual.
  • Close Relationships - Social Psychologists in this area study the processes underlying relationship formation, maintenance and dissolution. Prominent theories in this area are Interdependence Theory (Rusbult, Agnew & Arriaga, 2001) and Attachment theory (Reis & Patrick, 1996).
  • Intergroup Relations - which studies prejudice and discrimination.
  • Socialization (which investigates the learning of standards, rules, attitudes, roles, values, and beliefs; and the agents, processes, and outcomes of learning) and Development (which looks at the contribution of both nature and nurture in production of social behavior).
    • Gender roles - the effects of role schemas on the perceived makeup of gender and the sexes
    • Personal development and life course - the general facets of life in various societies, including personal careers, identities, biological development, and shifts in roles
  • Communication (which delves into the learning and processing of verbal and non-verbal language, and the effects of social structures and societies on the use of both).

Research methods and theoretical issues[edit]

Social psychologists make use of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Quantitative methods include surveys, controlled experiments, mathematical modeling, and correlational research.

Whenever possible, social psychologists rely on controlled experimentation. Controlled experimentation requires the manipulation of one or more independent variables in order to examine its effect on a dependent variable. Also required is the experimental control of potential confounding influences, known as extraneous variables. Controlled experiments are attractive for use in social psychology because they are high in internal validity, meaning that they are free from the influence of extraneous variables, and so are more likely to accurately indicate a causal relationship. However, the small samples used in controlled experiments are low in external validity, which means that the results are less likely to hold up accurately to the larger population.

Since it is usually impossible to test every person in a population, research tends to be conducted on a sample of persons from the wider population. Social psychologists frequently use survey research when they are interested in results that are high in external validity. Surveys use different forms of random sampling to obtain a sample of respondents that are representative of a population. One drawback of survey research is that it is low in internal validity, since the strength and direction of the relationship between variables is harder to track, and extraneous variables are harder to eliminate. Without these facts at their disposal, the researcher has a harder time establishing a cause-and-effect relationship. However, new statistical methods like structural equation modeling are being used to test for potential causal relationships in correlational data.

Also available to the social psychologist is the close examination of existing scientific literature, which is called meta-analysis.

Qualitative methods include naturalistic observation and field research, participant observation, content analysis, discourse analysis, ethnomethodology, and etogenia.

Observational methods like participant observation are sometimes employed by social psychologists. These methods have very little internal but a decent level of external validity, as the behavior studied is not confounded by a prior assumptions of the researcher. They are used mainly to generate theory and hypotheses for later testing through experimental or survey research.

Many researchers emphasize the importance of a multimethodological approach to social research, drawing from both qualitative and quantitative approaches. [1] For example, using qualitative methods to provide the hypothesis, quantitative methods to test the hypothesis, and subsequent qualitative methods to understand deviations from the hypothesis.

References

  1. ^ (Roth, 1987)

Important terms and concepts[edit]

Heuristics[edit]

Heuristics - Broadly, a heuristic is a method for problem-solving. The word comes from the same Greek root as "eureka". In psychology heuristics seen to be are simple, efficient rules of thumb which have been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to judgments and solve problems, typically when facing complex problems or incomplete information. These rules work well under most circumstances, but in certain cases lead to systematic cognitive biases.

  • availability heuristic is a heuristic which occurs when people estimate the probability of an outcome based on how easy that outcome is to imagine. As such, vividly described, emotionally-charged possibilities will be perceived as being more likely than those that are harder to picture or are difficult to understand, resulting in a corresponding cognitive bias.

Persuasion[edit]

Persuasion is a form of influence. It is the process of guiding people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not only logical) means. It is a problem-solving strategy, and relies on "appeals" rather than force. There are four basic aspects:

  1. The Communicator, a person whose credibility, expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness all play a role.
  2. The message, possessed of varying degrees of reason or emotion, is either one-sided or two sided, and is emphasized by primacy or recency.
  3. The Channel, whether it be interpersonal or media based, passive or active in nature.
  4. The audience, possessed of a wide variety of demographics and preferences.
  • Influence - Social psychology considers a great number of ways in which an individual can be influenced. Two of the reasons why people consciously allow themselves to be influenced are:
  • Credibility is the believability of a statement, action, or source, and the ability of the observer to believe that statement. In public speaking, Aristotle considered the credibility of the speaker, his character, to be one of the forms of proof. Contemporary social science research has found that there are several dimensions of credibility. Berlo and Lemert (1961) noted three: competence, trustworthiness and dynamism.
  • Elaboration Likelihood Model distinguishes between two routes to persuasion: the Central Route and the Peripheral Route of processing. This is a dual-process theory of information processing. Central route processes involve careful, logical scrutiny of a persuasive communication (e.g., a speech, an advertisement, etc.) to determine the merits of the arguments. Under these conditions, a person’s unique cognitive responses to the message determine the persuasive outcome (i.e., the direction and magnitude of attitude change). Peripheral route processes, on the other hand, require little thought, and therefore predominate under conditions that promote low elaboration. These processes often rely on judgmental heuristics (e.g., “experts are always right”) or surface features of a message (e.g., the number of arguments presented) or its source (e.g., their attractiveness). Which route is taken is determined by the extent of elaboration. Both motivational and ability factors determine elaboration. Motivational factors include (among others) the personal relevance of the message topic, accountability, and a person’s need for Cognition (their innate desire to enjoy thinking). Ability factors include the availability of cognitive resources (e.g., the presence or absence of time pressures or distractions) or relevant knowledge needed to carefully scrutinize the arguments. Under conditions of moderate elaboration, a mixture of central and peripheral route processes will guide information processing.
  • Foot-in-the-door technique is a persuasion method. In it, the persuader does something small in order to catch the target's interest, before moving on to what he really wants. A related trick is the Bait and switch. An example is the practice of charities mass-mailing small free gifts (such as pens) to recipients in the hope of persuading them to open the letter and consider donating money, rather than simply throwing the letter in the wastebasket.

Group dynamics[edit]

Group dynamics is the study of how individual behaviors differs depending on individuals' current or prospective connections to a sociological group.

Social facilitation was traditionally seen to be the tendency for people to be aroused into better performance of simple tasks when under the eye of others rather than while they are alone. Complex tasks are often performed in an inferior manner in such situations however. Social facilitation has been redefined as the increased likelihood of the individual performing already likely tasks when in the company of others. This effect has been shown to be strongest among those who are most concerned about the opinions of others, and when the individual is being watched by someone they do not know, and/or cannot see well.

Social loafing is the tendency of individuals to slack when work is pooled and individual performance is not being evaluated. A good example of social facilitation is a foot race (where the individual runs faster when in the presence of others) as opposed to a group tug-of-war (where the work is pooled, and an individual's lack of performance is hard to notice).

De-individuation is the phenomenon of relinquishing one's sense of self-awareness or identity. This can happen as a result of becoming part of a group, such as an army or mob, but also as a result of meditation. It can have quite destructive effects, sometimes making people more likely to commit a crime, like stealing (Diener, 1976) or even over-enforce the law, such as police in riot situations.

Risky shift - in group conditions, people with relatively moderate viewpoints tend to assume that their groupmates hold more extreme views, and to alter their own views in compensation--a phenomenon known as groupthink. This can occur simultaneously and in isolation: all group members might adjust their views to a more conservative or liberal position, thus leading to a "consensus" that is totally false. The risky shift occurs when the group collectively agrees on a course of action that is likewise more extreme than they would have made if asked individually. Risky shift is one side of a more general phenomenon called group polarization.

Groupthink - In a groupthink situation, each member of the group attempts to conform his or her opinions to what they believe to be the consensus of the group. In a general sense this seems to be a rational way to approach the situation. However this results in a situation in which the group ultimately agrees upon an action which each member might individually consider to be unwise (the risky shift).

Minority influence and leadership - Minority influence is the degree to which minorities influence the group. Their ability to influence is based upon several factors, including the consistent maintenance of their position, the degree of their defection from the majority, and their self-confidence. Leadership is the ability to guide, mobilize, and maintain the group. Some view leadership as a form of minority influence, in this case a minority of one. Leadership can be divided into two types: task leadership, and social leadership. Task leadership focuses on organization, standards and goals. Social leadership offers support and help to others, fosters teamwork and mediates conflict. Most organizations include aspects of both leadership styles within the hierarchy of their management.

Conformity is the degree to which members of a group will change their behavior, views and attitudes to fit the views of the group. The group can influence members via unconscious processes or via overt peer pressures on individuals. Group size, unanimity, cohesion, status, prior commitment and public opinion all help to determine the level of conformity an individual will reflect towards his group.


  • Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social behavior. NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  • Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckman (Eds.), Action-control: From cognition to behavior (pp. 11-39). Heidelberg: Springer.
  • Allport, G. (1954). The nature of prejudice, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. p. 3.
  • Brehm, S.S., Kassin, S.M. & Fein, S. (2002). Social Psychology. Houghton Mifflin: Boston.
  • Cote, James E. and Levine, Charles G. (2002). Identity formation, Agency, and Culture, Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Freud, Sigmund (1920). Group Psychology and Ego Analysis
  • Heise, D. R. 1979. Understanding Events: Affect and the Construction of Social Action. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • House, J.S. (1977). The three faces of social psychology. Sociometry, 40, 161-177.
  • James, William (1890). The Principles of Psychology part II, 469-471.
  • Kearl, M. and Chad Gordon. (1992). Social Psychology. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon.
  • Mead, G.H. (1934). Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Latane, B. (1981). The psychology of social impact. American Psychologist, 36, 343-356.
  • Michener, H. Andrew et al. (2004). Social Psychology. Wadsworth: Toronto.
  • Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 19, pp. 123-205). New York: Academic Press.
  • Roth, P.A. (1987). Meaning and method in the social sciences: A case for methodological pluralism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
  • Smith, E.R. & Mackie, D.M. (2000). Social Psychology. Taylor & Francis: Philadelphia.
  • David Myers (2005) Social Psychology, 8th edition McGrawHill: New York, NY ISBN 0072977515
  • Harry Reis & Brian Patrick, (1996). "Attachment and Intimacy: Component Processes." In Higgins, E. T. (Ed); Kruglanski, A.W. (Eds). Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles. (pp. 523_563)
  • Rusbult, C. E., Arriaga, X. B., & Agnew, C. R. (2001). Interdependence in close relationships. In G. J. O. Fletcher & M. S. Clark (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Interpersonal processes (pp. 359-387). Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Stryker, S., & Burke, P. J. (2000). The past, present, and future of an identity theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63, 284-297.

request for comments[edit]

On race and intelligence, please [1] Slrubenstein | Talk 16:29, 31 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Absence of a social cognition section.[edit]

In the "Traditional schools" section, it mentions there are three theories, but it only lists two: symbolic interactionism and social exchange (rational choice) theory. Someone should clarify what "social cognition theory" means. Michael 01:46, 1 June 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikem1234 (talk • contribs)

Social Structure and Personality[edit]

in this section, it states "Another line of research deals with how education, occupation, and other components of social class impact values." Where did this info come from? The actual research paper where it was found, the researchers involved, should be cited. Lizette92 (talk) 23:35, 23 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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