Social Psychology

• “an attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others” (Allport, 1954)

Journals

• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP)

• Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSPB)

• Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (JESP)

• Psych Bull, Psych Review, PSPR, AESP

Societies

• Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP)

• Society of Experimental Social Psychologists (SESP)

• www.socialpsychology.org

Who are you?

• Say something interesting about yourself

• Why learn about the history of SP? • What determines what topics are studied or

no longer studied?

Brief history of Social Psychology

• Greek philosophers• Psychology begins in 1800s• 1864 Cattaneo uses “social psych” for

group emergence• 1871 mentioned in Linder’s textbook• 1876 Ringlemann study• 1898 Triplett study

• First textbooks—1908 (McDougall, Ross)• Floyd Allport’s text in 1924• Experiments are king—The psychology of

groups is the psychology of the individuals• Journal of Abnormal Psych becomes J of

Ab Psych and Social Psych in 1921

More history

• vs. behaviorism and psychoanalysis• WW2 and Nazis

– Gestalt psych– Practical applications

• Kurt Lewin• GI Bill, boom time for social psychologists

• First handbook 1954• Leon Festinger—experimental revolution

• 1947 SPSP starts, 1965—JPSP and JESP• 50s/60s—group dynamics wanes.

Individuals and attitudes become more prominent

• 70’s cognitive revolution– Paper and pencil are king!– Gergen, social psych as history– McGuire—need more diverse methods– IRBs, better data analysis techniques

• 80’s new topics like love and relationships, evolutionary psychology, the self

• 1980 JPSP split into 3 parts• EJSP and JASP 1971• PSPB 1975

• 90’s decade of the brain– Evolutionary psych– Social neuroscience

• 00’s influence of culture– Multidisciplinary– Nonconscious approaches– Internet

00’s and beyond

• Broadening 5 ways• “You can never have too many social

psychologists.”

Broadening topics

• Positive psychology• Evil, terrorism• Motivated social cognition• Emotion• Unconscious, automaticity• Construals, socially shared cognition• Religion• Intergroup relations, prejudice• Funding issues

Broadening the discipline

• Social neuroscience• Emphasis on culture and how it evolves• Spatial analyses• Links to other areas (business, law,

health…)• More multidisciplinary research

Broadening perspectives

• Evolutionary psychology• Social identity theory• Terror management theory• Dynamical systems

Broadening methods

• Advanced statistics, going beyond ANOVA• Computer simulation• Internet data collection• Qualitative items• But less behavioral measures—15% of

JPSP articles had in 2006 vs. 80% in 1976

Broadening globally

• Influencing and being influenced by other social psychologies (European = more sociological)

• Growth! 2800 to >7000 members of SPSP in less than 20 yrs from all over world

Controversies and resolutions

• Social psych continues to respond to zeitgeist

• Construal vs. behaviorism• Basic vs. applied• Person vs. situation• Evolution vs. culture• Still going on: IAT, free will, how to give

psych away

McGuire’s (1973) koan

• We put too much emphasis on testing hypos, not enough on generating them

• We need to get away from simple, linear models• We need to remember that data come from people• We need to put together more data archives and do more

longitudinal studies• We should use ANOVAs less and other techniques that let

us deal with messier data more.• See the advantages of decreased funding (get more

personal with your research, think about it more)• It’s okay that some of these recommendations conflict with

each other.

Analysis from leaders in the field• Don’t build enough • Shouldn’t only build• Need more activism• Too narrow• Need more links to other fields/ cultures• Blame it on social cognition• Need bigger theories (cog, evo, soc ident)• Too negative and problem-focused• Not enough emphasis on time

Other criticisms

• Ellsworth– Participants are people too– Think more about what you’re doing, less on

stats and their outcomes

• How can we address these issues as a discipline?

WEIRD people

• Henrich et al.– Sears, 1988

• Are our samples a problem? Are they more for some areas than others?

• Can we generalize? How far? • What and how much should we report on

demographics?

• Is it a problem to study college students? When?

• How are college students different from other people?

• Is this a social psych problem or a psych problem or something bigger?

• Are there problems with Henrich et. al’s cited samples?

• How does it affect what we study?• Are there domains that should be more or

less universal?

What should we do about WEIRD samples?

• Explicitly discuss generalizability of findings

• Give info on demographics• Give people credit for using nonstudent

samples• Build more diverse participant pools

Theories (Van Lange, 2013)

• “There’s nothing so practical as a good theory.” Kurt Lewin

• What is a theory?• What is not a theory? • What makes a good theory?

– Truth– Abstraction– Progress– Applicability

• What does a theory do for us? • Are we too theory focused or not enough?• What are “levels” of theories and what level

should we be theorizing at?• What are the advantages and disadvantages

of theory-based research?• Theory-driven research vs. HARKing

Public Skepticism

• Is it a problem? If so, why is it? • 6 myths

– Psych is common sense– Psych doesn’t use scientific methods– Can’t generalize b/c everyone is unique– Psych doesn’t yield replicable results– Psych can’t make precise predictions– Psych not useful to society

 

Why are people skeptical?• We do some bad stuff. • Our public face isn’t necessarily scientific• See psych as another helping profession• Hindsight bias in findings• Think they are experts too• Look for biological explanations• Explain results they don’t like as

nonscientific• Don’t see value in basic research

What should we do differently?

• Communicate better w/ the public• Don’t look down on “popularizers”• Explain why it’s not just obvious• Use evidence-based practice• Organizations should promote more, show

what against

B/F “persons”

• Consistency seeker• Self-esteem maximizer• Terror manager• Info seeker• Information processor• Foolish mistake maker• Nondifferent individual• Impression manager• Naturally selected animal• Cultural animal• Group member• Benighted layperson