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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Unit Structure:
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Social Psychology: A working definition
1.2.1 Social Psychology : Scientific Nature 1.2.2 Focus on Individual Behaviour 1.2.3 Understand Causes of Social Behaviour and Thought 1.2.4 Brief History of Social Psychology : what we learn from it? 1.3 Social Psychology on Cutting Edge 1.3.1 Cognition and Behaviour 1.3.2 Social Neuroscience 1.3.3 Role of Implicit Process 1.3.4 Social Diversity
1.4 Let us sum up
1.5 References
1.0 OBJECTIVES :
By the end of this unit you should be able to understand :
- The scientific nature of Social Psychology.
- Causes of social behaviour and thought.
- Understand current trends in the study of Social Psychology such as role of cognition, social neuroscience, social diversity, etc.
1.1 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY : AN INTRODUCTION :
Human beings are essentially social beings. We stay with other and our actions, thoughts, and feelings are affected by the presence of others. At the same time we influence the behaviour of other individuals. This consists of large amount of human behaviour. Social psychology is a discipline that tries to understand the human social behaviour. As is the case with psychology, even social psychology has a past which is less than 100 years. This course will help you to learn and answer many questions. You will learn theoretical perspectives in various areas of social psychology. You will understand that the scope of social psychology is wide and it is ever widening. Social cognition, social perceptions, attitudes, self, stereotype, prejudice and discrimination, interpersonal
attraction, close relations, social influence, pro-social behaviour, aggression, group and individuals, applications of social psychology, and many more are the topics of social psychology. Most of the important topics are covered in this course. This course will equip you to understand social behaviour and will also motivate you to work in the area of social psychology and to become social psychologist.
1.2 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY : A DEFINITION :
Defining any field is a very difficult task. So is the case with social psychology. Here are some examples:
According to Gordon Allport (1954) social psychology is best defined as the discipline that uses scientific methods in “an attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings”.
Myers and Spencer (2006) define social psychology as the “scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another”.
Barron and Byrne (2007) defined social psychology as “the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and cause of individual behaviour and thought in social situations”.
1.2.1 Social Psychology: It’s Scientific Nature :
For many students, the word science means physics, chemistry biology, genetics, etc. They and many others would wonder whether social psychology is science. To understand the scientific nature of social psychology, we need to understand what we mean by science. In reality science is not a label for certain fields of advanced studies in natural sciences. It has set of values and methodology. Accuracy, objectivity, scepticism, and open- mindedness are the values of science. The data collection, analysis and inferences are drawn in most error-free manner. The collection of data and interpretation is as free as possible from the human biases. Only those scientific conclusions are accepted that have been proved time and again. The views are open to change, no matter how strong they are. The principles that are determinants of science are Empiricism; Objectivity; Parsimony; and Converging evidence. Empiricism means human experience, so the scientific enquiry should be human experience and not beyond and without it. Parsimony means simple explanations are preferred over complex (also known as Occam’s Rezor). Considering all these parameters, science differs from the non science.
and value system. For example, our decisions would depend on whether we belong to individualistic culture or collectivistic culture. For instance, marriage would be decided by individual in individualistic cultures and they are decided by a process of mutual agreement among the family members in collectivistic cultures.
- Biological Factors : The biological factors influence our social behaviour. They can be understood as physiological factors and neurological factors, genetic factors, and evolutionary factors.
The physiological factors contain hormones, functions of various glands, immune system, motor system, etc. The neurological factors include the brain structures, the neural cells (neurons), the neurotransmitters, etc. The genetic factor would contain the study of influence of genes on human behaviour. The evolutionary psychology focuses on explaining the social behaviour as a function of process of evolution.
- Physiological and Neurological Factors : These factors focus on the physiological and neural substrates of social psychological processes of mind. Typically, it studies the impact of brain and biology on social behaviour. Brain waves (electroencephalography, EEG), fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), measures of skin conductance (galvanic skin response, GSR), cardiovascular measures (heart rate, HR; BPM; HRV; vasomotor activity), muscle activity (electomyography, EMG), changes in pupil diameter with thought and emotion (pupillometry) and eye movements, etc., are commonly used methods of measurement in this area. The details of neuroscience are provided in the next section.
- Behaviour Genetics : Behaviour genetics approach is used in social psychology to understand variation in social behaviour of human beings as a function of two components: genetic and environmental. The research methods used are family studies, twin studies, and adoption studies. Family studies are based on the idea that children share 50 percent of their genes with each parent. If genes have to influence social behaviour, the trait in question must run in families. Twin Studies : Monozygotic twins share 100% genetic information, whereas dizygotic share 50% (similar to non-twin siblings). Similarities and differences between them indicate the genetic and environmental influence. Adoption Studies : The sibling reared in the same family should show similar social behaviour similar to the behaviour of siblings reared apart (because of adoptions most of the times), such a behaviour indicates the influence of environment.
- Evolutionary Social Psychology : When we think of evolution, we tend to think of biological evolution. The same process would hold true for psychological processes. In last one decade, the evolutionary psychology has grown up as a discipline. David Buss is one of the pioneer psychologists in this field. Evolutionary psychology tries to explain the traits and social behaviours as a function of evolutionary process. The evolutionary process is based on key process known as natural selection (sexual selection). In addition to natural selection, kin selection and parental involvement are important components of evolutionary social psychology. If certain trait has evolutionary benefits, then that social trait will become part of human psyche. Buss has stated three important conditions of evolution of social behaviour. They are variation, inheritance and selection. Variation refers to the fact that members of specific species vary (are different) on various traits. For example, Intelligence, everybody has different intelligence. At least, part of this variation in the specific trait is inherited i.e., inheritance. For example, some part of intelligence is contributed by genes. If this trait gives an advantage in reproductive success, then this trait is selected and it develops as a process of evolution. For example, intelligent people are more likely to be resourceful; hence the reproductive success would be high for intelligent people.
Our ancestors, some thousand years back, have gone through the same process and so we have the set of traits and social behaviours and preferences. For example, evolutionary psychology has a principle of sexual selection. One of the prediction is the sex that invests more in parenting is more choosy in mate selection. Several studies all over the world have provided evidence to this hypothesis. These studies have shown that males prefer more partners than women, over any period of time (For example, Schmitt, 2004).
In this section we have learned that the social psychology is the science. It qualifies for the definition of science. It focuses on individual behaviour. The social psychology seeks to understand the causes of human social behaviour. These causes are characteristics and actions of others, cognitive processes, environmental variables, culture, and biological causes.
1.2.4 Brief History of Social Psychology :
Social psychology has an interesting history. It can be traced back to 1895 when Le Bon theorized crowd behaviour. Triplett’s (1897) experiment on "social facilitation" effects, Ross and McDougall’s (1908) first textbook of social psychology, were the early events. Social psychology started as "Experimental" science.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, are some examples. In this section, we would discuss current trends, the cutting edge of Social Psychology.
1.3.1 Cognition and Behaviour :
Couple of decades back, cognition and behaviourism were considered as two different kinds of things in psychology. But it no longer exists. Cognition and behaviour are currently considered as intimately linked and related approaches. Present research findings are clearly indicating that the cognition and behaviour need to be considered as strongly linked with each other.
1.3.2 Social Neuroscience :
Social neuroscience is merging of two different fields: social psychology and neuroscience. In fact, now specialist journals are being published in this area, eg, Social Neuroscience. This interdisciplinary field is devoted to understanding how biological systems execute social processes and behaviour. It uses concepts and methods from biological sciences to understand and purify theories of social thought, behaviour and processes. The MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imagery), fMRI (Functional MRI), PET (Positron Emission Temography) are commonly used techniques in this science. Typically, when people engage in social activities, their biological parameters are measured.
For example, Ito and Urland (2003) asked white students to indicate ethnicity (black / white) and gender (Male / Female) of the photograph shown while measuring their event related brain potential. Results shown that initially attention was paid to ethnicity and then to gender. Other social factors (presence of other members) activated brain later. This indicates that people consider ethnicity and gender as important factors and paid attention first.
1.3.3 Role of Implicit Process :
The implicit processes are nonconscious processes. The process that occur in the mind but we are not aware of them. We are not aware of many factors that influence our behaviour. Pelham, Mirenberg, and Jones (2002) have shown that if something is closer to our self concept then we tend to like it more. For example, they found that significantly more number of people stay in the city that resembles their own name (more than chance number of people with the name Louse stay in the city St. Louse). They have called it implicit egotism.
1.3.4 Social Diversity :
If you look at India, you will realize that it is a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multi-religious country. It has 18 languages and more than 3000 dialects. Every part of the world shows the diversity that exists. Cross-cultural research focuses on this diversity. Recently, multiculturalism has been promoted as a position to understand this diversity. Multiculturalism means the acceptance or promotion of multiple ethnic cultures, for practical reasons and for the sake of accepting and celebrating diversity. It is useful in many demographic setups. e.g., schools, businesses, neighborhoods, cities, etc. It promote the idea of equitable status to all religious, ethnic groups without encouraging any specific values as central. This has been used in various psychological practices, for example, multicultural counselling.
1.4 LET US SUM UP :
This unit has provided an introduction to various aspects of social psychology. We studied the definition of Social Psychology. While doing so we have understood the scientific nature of social psychology. We know that focus of social psychology is on individual behaviour. We have also learned the various causes of social behaviour and thought. While discussing the current trends in social psychology we have discussed issues like cognition and behaviour, social neuroscience, role of implicit process, and social diversity. This will help you understand the rest of the chapters in social psychology.
1.5 REFERENCES :
- Baron, R. A., Byrne, D. and Branscombe, N. R. (2006). Social Psychology. Prentice-Hall India: New Delhi.
- Feldman, R. S. (2001). Social Psychology. Prentice Hall.
- Buss, D. M. (1995). Evolutionary Psychology: A new paradigm for psychological science. Psychological Inquiry, 6, 1-30.
- Buss, David M. (Ed.) (2005). The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. Hoboken, NJ.
2.2 UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH METHODS :
In social psychology we study human behaviour in social context. Information based on the research covers major part of any text on social psychology. To be scientific in understanding, it is essential to know how the information is gathered. This picture becomes clear when we have some basic understanding of research. It is important to know what was the method used in any research. We often come across research regarding attitude of people towards certain product, what is the opinion of people regarding a political party, political leaders, etc. To rely on this information the way research was conducted needs to be explored. This helps us to develop insight in to the issue. Following are some basic methods employed in social psychological research:
2.2.1 Systematic observation :
This is a widely used and appreciated research method. In this method there is a systematic observation and recording of behaviour. It is a careful observation of behaviour as compared to our routine observation. It is also called as naturalistic observation- observation of behaviour as it occurs. Here a great effort is laid on the observer to avoid any interference or influence on the person who is being observed.
Another method is survey method. In this method a large number of people are asked about their responses regarding their attitudes or opinions on different issues. There can be a verbal inquiry or written questions in the form of semi-structured interview schedules, scales, questionnaires and inventories can be used. However, certain aspects needs to be taken care. One is the sampling and another is the wording of the questions. In sampling it is important to see that the sample is representative of the entire population in question. For example, if you are investigating the attitude of the people towards compulsory (mandatory) voting in the country, than it is not sufficient to take sample only from one state of the country. It will not represent the opinion or attitude of the entire country. Similarly, wording is also as important as sampling. For example, if you worded your question as person who murdered someone should be hanged, possibly you will get an answer as ‘yes’, but if you frame your question as “is death penalty necessary” or “are you in favour of death penalty”, you may get both type of answers. Wording is important because it can have different impact on different people.
2.2.2 Correlation :
Research question often ask, “are two factors related?” For example, does rain fall in particular region is related to the type of crops cultivated? Or how study habits are related to better performance in exams? Such questions helps us in finding the correlation among two factors. Research refers to these factors as variables. Correlation method is scientific and systematic observation of whether a change in one variable is accompanied by changes in the other variable. This method helps in investigating or establishing relationships among the variables. Correlation can range from zero to -1.00 or +1.00. More the departure from the zero indicates stronger relationship. These relationships can be either positive, negative or no correlation. However, it is necessary to explore that correlations focuses only on relation and not causation. For example, low self-esteem eventually leads to depression indicates relation but not the cause of depression; as depression could be a result of some life event. Though there are limitations to this method, it is a regularly used and trusted method in social psychology.
2.2.3 The experimental method :
As correlation speaks about the relationships among the two variables, experimental method gives explanation for the relationship. In short experimental method answers the ‘why’ of the relationship. The strategy experimental method follows is like; a systematic change in the one variable produces measurable changes in the other variable. In this way it tries to establish cause- effect relationship which helps in prediction.
In experimental it is assumed that (a) changes in one factor may produce change in another variable, (b) that the change can be measured. The variable that is systematically changed is called as independent variable and the variable that is measured for change is called as dependent variable. To illustrate this we will consider one example, thirty students were participant of the experiment where it was to investigate that does amount of food increases the levels of concentration in the classroom. For this experiment the ten students were given no food at all, next ten received only half the lunch than required and another group received complete meal as required. This is called as systematically making variations in independent variable. All thirty students were exposed to a lecture for one hour. Later rating scale was given to them on which all students have to report how much was their concentration, concentration was the dependent variable, where changes could be measured in the three groups according to the amount of food they received. This was a simple illustration. In an experiment there could be many independent and dependent
2.3 THE ROLE OF THEORY IN SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY :
There are many ways through which the topics for research projects are formulated. Some are formulated by informal, day-to- day observations of the social world, events around us. Social psychologists observe and take note of these incidents and plan research to increase their understanding of that aspects/events. However, sometimes ideas or topics for research is suggested by the earlier studies. Earlier research indicated need to further explore some of the facts. Successful experiments not only answer questions posed but also raise new questions. Therefore, the research work based on such ideas are valuable in the field.
Even though these are the various ways through which the ideas for research are generated, the most important basis for research ideas in social psychology is formal theories.
Theories are defined as the efforts by scientists in any field to answer the question Why? Theories involve attempts to understand why certain events or processes occur as they do. Where other type of research tries to observe and describe the various social behaviours, the research based on theories tries to explain and attempt to understand the principles behind it.
Regardless of how they are expressed, theories consist of two main parts: (1) several basic concepts and (2) statements concerning relationships among these concepts.
Formulation of a theory is just the first step in a continuing process, however. Only theories that have been carefully tested and confirmed are useful. After a theory is proposed, several steps are undertaken: (i) Predictions are listed from the theory. (ii) These predictions are listed in accordance with basic principles involved in that theory. These predictions are known as hypotheses. For example, if people have more tolerance of frustrations than they exhibit less aggressive behaviour. (iii) These hypotheses are tested in actual research. (iv) If they are confirmed, confidence in the accuracy of the theory is increased. If they are disconfirmed, however, confidence in the theory is reduced. (v) Then the theory is revised to generate new predictions. Having evidence obtained thorough research is an important feature of useful theories. Theories considered useful by scientist have several features. First, it will explain why people high on frustration tolerance show less aggressive behaviour. Second, successful theory can be expanded so that it will explain a wide range of phenomena.
It must be remembered that theories are open to test and are accepted with more or less confidence depending on the weight of available evidence. In addition, research is never undertaken to prove or verify theory.
2.4 THE QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE AND THE
RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS : SEEKING AN
APPROPRIATE BALANCE :
There is similarity between social psychologist and researchers from many other fields. They use similar types of experimentation and systematic observation methods, and in their emphasis on theory construction. However, there is one technique which is unique in social psychology, which is deception. This technique involves efforts by researchers to withhold information about experimental conditions; it is because many social psychologists believe that if participants know the true purpose of an investigation then their behaviour will be changed by that knowledge.
However, the use of deception raises important ethical issues, which are worth considering.
First, Deception may result in some kind of harm to the persons/participants participated in it. Participants may be upset/ disappointed with the procedure used, or by their own reaction, which they have given during experimental procedure. The procedures in which deception is involved had powerful psychological effects on research participants, and raise important ethical issues. This is serious lacuna of this technique.
Second, there is possibility that participants will resent being “fooled” during a study, and they may develop negative attitude about these experimental activities and towards the field of social psychology as a whole.
Because of these issues, the use of deception poses something of a dilemma to social psychologist. Dilemma that the use of deception technique may yield genuine responses which are useful for the phenomenon under study but at the same time, use of it raises several problems.
There are two opinions on it. First, deception is inappropriate, no matter how useful it is. Second, majority believes that temporary deception is acceptable if certain safeguards are adopted like informed consent procedure i.e., receiving as much information as possible about the procedure to be followed before making their decision to take part in a study and at the end of a
SOCIAL COGNITION
The following two units of this chapter on Social cognition, will deal with social cognition. It contains discussion on five major points. They are as follows:
- Schemas: Mental Framework for Organizing and Using Social Information.
- Heuristics: How We Reduce Our Efforts in Social Cognition.
- Automatic and Controlled Processing: Two Basic Models of Social Thought.
- Potential Sources of Errors in Social Cognition.
- Affect and Cognition: How Feelings Shape Thought and Thought Shape Feelings.
Out of these five points, the unit titled ‘Social Cognition-I’ presents a discussion on 1. Schemas: Mental Framework for Organizing and using social information and 2. Heuristics: How we reduce our efforts in social cognition. Whereas unit titled ‘Social Cognition-II’ presents a discussion on 1. Automatic and Controlled Processing: Two basic models of Social thought; 2. Potential Sources of errors in social cognition; and 3. Affect and Cognition: how feelings shape thought and thought shape feelings.
SOCIAL COGNITION - I
Unit Structure:
3.0 Objectives 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Schemas : Mental Framework for Organizing and Using Social Information 3.2.1 The Impact of Schemas on Social Cognition: Attention, Encoding, and Retrieval 3.2.2 Priming 3.3 Heuristics : Reducing Efforts in Social Cognition 3.3.1 Representativeness Heuristics 3.3.2 Availability Heuristics 3.3.3 Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristics 3.4 Let us Sum up
3.0 OBJECTIVES :
By the end of this unit you should –
- Understand what are schemes and how they influence us.
- Know the concept of priming.
- Acquire knowledge about heuristics, its types and ways in which they influence us.
3.1 INTRODUCTION :
Social cognition refers to the ways in which individuals interpret, analyze, remember, and use information about social world. Social cognition studies the ways in which social information is processed by people, particularly encoding, storage, retrieval, and application to social situations. It means application of knowledge and methods of cognitive psychology and information processing theory to the field of social psychology. For example, if we want to buy a new mobile in a buy-back offer, then we neither meticulously mathematically calculate the exact price of the old and new mobile nor we do any probability calculations to maximizing our profits. We simply have a rough estimate of the prices and accept bargains more or less around that price. We can understand few interesting things about our mind from this example. (a) One, we have frameworks developed from the past experience (often called as ‘schema’) regarding selling and buying and we propose a lower price to buy and higher price to sell than our expectations. (b) Two, the mental processes we carry out are faster, automatic and very quick. (c) Third, at the same time these mental frameworks are prone to systematic errors and biases in decisions
remember some instances, which do not at all fit in the schemas. For example, if you go to the government office and your work is done in five minutes, most probably you will not forget the instance, because it was contradictory to your expectations.
Retrieval : The relationship between schemas and retrieval is a complex issue. Some researchers have shown that information that is consistent with schemas is better retrieved. Others have shown that the information inconsistent with the schemas are more easily stored and retrieved.
3.2.2 Priming :
We have large number of schemas. Out of them specific schema is used for interpreting social information. Priming is one of the mechanisms that influence the selection of schema. Priming refers to the events or stimulus that increases the availability of the specific type of information in the memory or consciousness as compared to other type of information. Usually stronger schemas are used for processing. But priming can also have an impact on the activation of certain schemas. For example, you had fight with your boss when you came out of the office. While walking on road, somebody bangs you, and before he says anything you get extremely angry with him. This is because you have schema of aggressively interpreting social information that is activated. Studies on the effectiveness of priming have suggested that the effect of priming last for years together.
Priming : Events or stimulus that increases the availability of the specific type of information in the memory or consciousness.
The effects of priming can decrease. This is called as unpriming. If the priming is expressed in thinking process or in social action (behaviour), then effect of priming decreases. This is unpriming. If priming is not expressed, then it does not lose its effect.
Figure1 : Unpriming of Schemas in Sparrow and Wagner’s experiment. Experimental study carried out by Sparrow and Wagner (2006) supported this hypothesis. They had two groups of subjects. The task was to incorrectly answer very simple questions. Group 1 did this task twice, first they were asked to answer correctly, and on the second occasion, they were required to answer incorrectly. The Group 2 had to answer incorrectly on their first trial.
This means that the schema for correct answers was activated for both groups. The Group 1 expressed their schema by giving correct answers on first trial. So the unpriming happened on the second trial. Group 2 did not express their schema and so no unpriming happened for them (Figure 1 explains the same). The result showed that Group 1 gave 59% correct answers, and Group 2 gave 49% correct answers. This clearly demonstrates the impact of unpriming on group 1, because of which they could give incorrect answers.
3.3 HEURISTICS : REDUCING EFFORTS IN SOCIAL
COGNITION :
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman have carried out series of experiments to demonstrate that human beings use mental short-cuts to make sense of the world under conditions of uncertainty. They proved that individuals do not think rationally while making judgments. They make systematic errors and biases in their inferences. They argued that human beings use heuristics because they cannot manage information. This is known as information overload. Human cognitive system can process limited amount of information at a given point of time. When the information is more than it could be processed, we fail to process all information. This is called as information overload.
Information Overload is a situation when the information for processing is more than the ability of our cognitive system.
We use smart tactics under conditions of information overload and manage this information. These tactics are known as heuristics. Heuristics are simple rules of thumb or mental shortcuts that help us to make complex decisions and drawing inferences in speedy and efficient way. They reduces our mental efforts. Tversky and Kahneman have demonstrated the use of three heuristics.
Schema is Primed Simple questions activate correct answer schema.
Group 1 : Initial phase Initially gave correct answers. (Schema expressed in behaviour)
Group 1 : 2 nd^ Phase Gave 49% correct answers. Priming had less impact.
Group 2 : No initial Phase Schema not expressed in behaviour.
Group 2 : Test Phase Gave 59% correct answers. Priming had more impact.
