Aronson 7e Ch02 Research

8/13/2019 Aronson 7e Ch02 Research

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Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Social Psychology

Elliot AronsonUniversity of California, Santa

Cruz

Timothy D. WilsonUniversity of Virginia

Robin M. AkertWellesley College

slides prepared byTravis Langley

Henderson State University

7th edition




Chapter 2

Methodology: How Social

Psychologists Do Research

“Theory is a good thing, but a good

experiment lasts forever.”

–Peter Leonidovich Kapista




• How can we decide who is right about the

effects of something like pornography?

• Some say it increases the likelihood men

will commit sexual violence.

• Some conclude that it does not.

• Is there a more scientific way to

determine the answer?

• Social psychologists believe there is.




Social Psychology: An Empirical Science

A fundamental principle of social psychology is

that social influence can be studied

scientifically.

The results of some of the experiments you

encounter may seem obvious, because social

psychology concerns topics with which we areall intimately familiar — social behavior and

social influence.





Scientific methods of answering questions are ofthree types:

• the observational method ,

• the correlational method ,

• the experimental method .

Each is a powerful tool in some ways and a weaktool in others.

Part of the creativity in conducting socialpsychological research involves choosing theright method, maximizing its strengths, andminimizing its weaknesses.





Once we know the winner of a political election, theoutcome seems inevitable and easily predictable, evenif we were quite unsure who would win before theelection.

The same is true of findings in psychology experiments; itseems like we could have easily predicted theoutcomes — once we know them.

The trick is to predict what will happen in an experimentbefore you know how it turned out.

Hindsight Bias

Tendency for people to exaggerate how much they could

have predicted an outcome after knowing that it occurred.


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Formulating Hypotheses

and Theories

Social psychological research begins with a

hypothesis about the effects of social influence.

There is a lore in science that brilliant insights come allof a sudden, as when Archimedes shouted “Eureka! I

have found it!” when the solution to a problem flashed

into his mind as he bathed.

Though such insights can occur suddenly, science is a

cumulative process, and people often generate

hypotheses from previous theories and research.



Inspiration from Earlier

Theories and Research

• Many studies stem from a researcher’s

dissatisfaction with existing theories and

explanations.

• After reading other people’s work, a

researcher might believe that he or she

has a better way of explaining people’s

behavior (e.g., why they fail to help in anemergency).



Inspiration from Earlier

Theories and Research

Social psychologists, like scientists in other

disciplines, engage in a continual process

of theory refinement:

• A theory is developed,

• specific hypotheses are derived from that

theory are tested,

• based on the results obtained, the theory is

revised and new hypotheses are formulated.



Hypotheses Based on

Personal Observation

Many other hypotheses come fromobservations of everyday life, such asLatané and Darley’s hunches about why

people failed to help murder victim KittyGenovese.

Thirty-eight neighbors failed to call policeduring her prolonged and violent murder.

Genovese’s neighbors might have assumedthat someone else had called the police.



Hypotheses Based on

Personal Observation

Latané and Darley (1968) called thisdiffusion of responsibility. Perhaps thebystanders would have been more

likely to help had each thought he orshe alone was witnessing the murder.

Once a researcher has a hypothesis,how can he or she tell if it is right? Inscience, idle speculation will not do;the researcher must collect data to testa hypothesis.



The Observational Method:

Describing Social Behavior Observational Method

The technique whereby a researcher observespeople and systematically records

measurements or impressions of their behavior.

If the goal is to describe what a particular

group of people or type of behavior is like,the observational method is very helpful.



Ethnography

The method by which researchers attempt to

understand a group or culture by observing

it from the inside, without imposing any

preconceived notions they might have.

• Ethnography is the chief method of cultural anthropology ,

the study of human cultures and societies.

• As social psychology broadens its focus by studyingsocial behavior in different cultures, ethnography is

increasingly being used to describe different cultures and

generate hypotheses about psychological principles.





Describing Social Behavior

• In the early 1950s, a group predicted that the

world would come to an end in a violent

cataclysm on a specific date.

• Leon Festinger and colleagues wanted toobserve this group closely and chronicle howthey reacted when their beliefs and prophecywere disconfirmed.

• To monitor conversations of this group, thesocial psychologists joined and pretended theytoo believed the world was about to end.





Describing Social Behavior

Suppose a researcher wants to investigatehow much aggression children exhibit during

school recesses.

• The observer would systematically look for particularbehaviors that are concretely defined before the observationbegins.

• The observer might stand at the edge of the playground andsystematically record how often aggressive behaviors occur.

• How do we know how accurate the observer is?

Interjudge Reliability

The level of agreement between two or more people

who independently observe and code a set of data.




Archival Analysis

Think back to the question of the relationship between pornographyand violence.

One problem with addressing this question is in defining what

pornography is.

Archival analysis enables researchers to describe the content of

documents present in the culture:• Nature of characters depicted,

• Differences in how men and women are depicted,

• Aggressive themes.

Archival Analysis

A form of the observational method in which the researcher

examines accumulated documents (archives).

e.g., diaries, magazines, newspapers






The Correlational Method:Predicting Social Behavior

Researchers might be interested in questions like:

What is the relationship between pornography and

adult aggression?Or between the amount of violent television children

watch and how aggressive they are?

Correlational Method

The technique whereby two or more variables are

systematically measured and the relationship between them

(i.e., how much one can be predicted from the other) is

assessed.




Positive correlation

Increases in the value of one variable are

associated with increases in the value ofthe other variable.

• Height and weight are positively correlated;the taller people are, the more they tend to

weigh.





Negative correlation

Increases in the value of one variable are

associated with decreases in the value of theother variable.

• Vaccination rate correlates negatively with

disease rate: The more often people get

vaccinated, the less often people get thedisease.




• Correlation coefficients are expressed as numbers thatcan range from – 1.00 to +1.00.

• 1.00 means that two variables are perfectly correlatedin a positive direction.

• 0 means that two variables are not correlated

• – 1.00 means that two variables are perfectly correlatedin a negative direction.

• In everyday life, of course, perfect correlations are rare.Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education. All rights reserved.




• Survey results are often correlated.

• To make sure that the results are generalizable,

researchers randomly select surveyrespondents from the population at large.

Surveys

Research in which a representative sample

of people are asked questions about their

attitudes or behavior.





Advantages of Surveys

• Researchers can judge the relationship betweenvariables that are difficult to observe, such as how oftenpeople engage in safer sex.

• Another advantage of surveys is the ability to samplerepresentative segments of the population.

• As long as the sample is selected randomly, we canassume that the responses are a reasonable match tothose of the population as a whole.

Random Selection

A way of ensuring that a sample of people is

representative of a population by giving everyone in

the population an equal chance of being selected

for the sample.




Advantages of Surveys

Potential Problem of Surveys

• Accuracy of responses

Often people simply don’t know the answer— but they

think they do.

• Researchers can judge the relationship betweenvariables that are difficult to observe, such as how oftenpeople engage in safer sex.

• Another advantage of surveys is the ability to samplerepresentative segments of the population.

• As long as the sample is selected randomly, we canassume that the responses are a reasonable match tothose of the population as a whole.




Limits of the Correlational Method:Correlation Does Not Equal Causation

• The major shortcoming of the

correlational method is that it tells us only

that two variables are related.

• But the goal of the social psychologist is

to identify the causes of social behavior.

• We want to be able to say that A causesB, not just that A is correlated with B.




Limits of the Correlational Method:

Correlation Does Not Equal Causation

If two variables (e.g., TV violence &aggression) are correlated, there are three

possible causal relationships:

1. Maybe TV violent makes the viewer becomeviolent

2. Maybe kids who are already violent are morelikely to watch violent TV

3. Maybe both are caused by something elselike parental neglect




The Experimental Method: Answering Causal Questions

The only way to determine causality is to

use the experimental method.

Experimental Method

Method in which the researcher randomly assigns

participants to different conditions and ensures these

conditions are identical except for the independentvariable (the one thought to have a causal effect on

people’s responses).




The Experimental Method: Answering Causal Questions

Experimental method is the method of choice inmost social psychological research because itallows causal inferences.

Observational method helps describe socialbehavior.

Correlational method helps us understand whataspects of social behavior are related.

However, only a properly executed experimentallows us to draw conclusions about causeand effect.




Independent and Dependent Variables

• The independent variable is the one

researchers vary to see if it has a causal

effect (e.g., how much TV children watch).

• The dependent variable is what

researchers measure to see if it is

affected (e.g., how aggressive children

are).




Independent and Dependent Variables

Independent variable: Number of people supposedly present when aresearcher pretends to have a seizure.

Dependent variable: Number of people who try to help in theemergency.

Latané and Darley (1970)

Outcome:

• When participants believed four other people witnessed the seizure,

only 31% offered assistance.

• When participants believed only two others witnessed the seizure,helping behavior increased to 62%.

• When each participant believed that he or she was the only witness,

nearly everyone helped (85%).







Internal Validity in Experiments

Experiments should be high in internal validity.

Internal Validity

Making sure that nothing besides the

independent variable can affect thedependent variable.

This is accomplished by controlling all

extraneous variables and by randomlyassigning people to different experimentalconditions.




Random Assignment to Condition

A process ensuring that all participantshave an equal chance of taking part inany condition of an experiment.

Through random assignment, researchers

can be relatively certain that differencesin the participants’ personalities orbackgrounds are distributed evenlyacross conditions.

This powerful technique is the most

important part of the experimental

method.




Probability Level (p -value)

A number calculated with statisticaltechniques that tells researchers how likelyit is that the results of their experimentoccurred by chance instead of the

independent variable(s).The convention in science is to consider

results significant (trustworthy) if probabilityis less than 5 in 100 that the results mightbe due to chance factors and not theindependent variables studied.




External Validity in Experiments

• For all the advantages of the experimental method,

there are some drawbacks.

• By virtue of gaining enough control over the situation so

as to randomly assign people to conditions and rule out

the effects of extraneous variables, the situation canbecome somewhat artificial and distant from real life.

External Validity

The extent to which the results of astudy can be generalized to othersituations and to other people.




External Validity in Experiments

External validity Note that two kinds of generalizability are at

issue:

1. Generalizability across situations: the extent to

which we can generalize from the situationconstructed by an experimenter to real-lifesituations and

2. Generalizability across people: the extent to

which we can generalize from the people whoparticipated in the experiment to people ingeneral.




Generalizability Across Situations

There are different ways in which an experimentcan be realistic.

• Mundane Realism

The extent to which an experiment is similar toreal-life situations.

• Psychological Realism

The extent to which the psychological

processes triggered in an experiment aresimilar to psychological processes that occur ineveryday life.





Even though Latané and Darley staged anemergency that in significant ways was unlike onesencountered in everyday life . . .

• Was it psychologically similar to real-life

emergencies?• Were the same psychological processes triggered?

• Did the participants have the same types ofperceptions, thoughts, decisions, and behaviors

that they would in a real-life situation?• If so, then the study is high in psychological realism

and we can generalize the results to everyday life.





Psychological realism is heightened if

people feel involved in a real event.

Cover Story

A description of the purpose of a study, given

to participants, that is different from its truepurpose, used to maintain psychological

realism.




Generalizability Across People

• The only way to be certain an experiment’sresults represent the behavior of a particularpopulation is to ensure that the participants arerandomly selected from that population.

• Unfortunately, it is impractical and expensive toselect random samples for most socialpsychology experiments.

• Many researchers address this by studyingbasic psychological processes so fundamental

that they are presumably universally shared.





• The question then is, how can researchers tellwhether the processes they are studying areuniversal?

• How can we trust that a study done with only

college sophomores captures everydayresponses?

• The ultimate test of an experiment’s externalvalidity is replication.

Replication

Repeating a study, often with different subject

populations or in different settings.





Several studies might find an effect of the

number of bystanders on helping

behavior, for example, while a few do not.

How can we make sense of this?

Meta Analysis

A statistical technique that averages theresults of two or more studies to see if the

effect of an independent variable is reliable.




Cross-Cultural Research

Cross Cultural Research

Research conducted with members of

different cultures, to see whether thepsychological processes of interestare present in both cultures orwhether they are specific to the

culture in which people were raised.





Much research on human emotions has shown

evidence for both:

• Universality: People in different cultures

express emotions on their faces in the sameway, even in remote cultures having no contact

with the rest of the world.

• Cultural influences: People are best at

recognizing emotions expressed by membersof their own cultural group.





Researchers always have to guard againstimposing their own viewpoints anddefinitions, learned from their culture,

onto another culture with which they areunfamiliar.

They must also be sure that theirindependent and dependent variables are

understood in the same way in differentcultures.




The Basic Dilemma of

the Social Psychologist

One of the best ways to increase external validityis by conducting field experiments.

• In a field experiment, researchers study behavioroutside of the laboratory, in its natural setting.

• A field experiment has the same design as a laboratoryexperiment except that it is conducted in a real-lifesetting (sidewalk, store, street, campus grounds).

• Participants in a field experiment are unaware that the

events they experience are in fact an experiment.• External validity of such an experiment is high, since, itis taking place in the real world with real people.






There is almost always a trade-off between internal andexternal validity in social psychological research.

• By increasing internal validity, some external validity(generalizability) is sacrificed.

• By increasing external validity (e.g., by conducting afield experiment), researchers often lose control overthe setting and sacrifice internal validity.

• Researchers often begin by maximizing internal validity,so that they know what is causing what, and then

establishing external validity with replications indifferent settings and with different populations.






The way to resolve this dilemma is not to try to doit all in a single experiment.

• Most social psychologists opt first for internalvalidity, conducting laboratory experiments.

• Other social psychologists prefer to maximizeexternal validity by conducting field studies.

• Many social psychologists do both.

• Through replication, a given research questioncan thus be studied with maximum internal andexternal validity.




Basic Versus Applied Research

Basic Research Experiments:

Designed to answer basic questions

about why people do what they do.

Applied Studies:

Research designed to find ways to solve

specific social problems.




Basic versus Applied Research

In social psychology, the distinction between basic andapplied research is fuzzy.

Even though many researchers label themselves as eitherbasic or applied scientists, the endeavors of one group

are not independent of those of the other group.There are countless examples of basic science advances

that at the time had no known applied value but laterproved to be the key to solving a significant appliedproblem.




Basic Versus Applied Research

In order to solve a specific social problem, weoften must understand the psychological

processes responsible for it.

Indeed, Kurt Lewin (1951), one of the founders of

social psychology, coined a motto: “There isnothing so practical as a good theory.”

He meant that to solve social

problems, one must firstunderstand underlying

psychological dynamics.



Ethi l I i S i l




Ethical Issues in Social

Psychology

• Social psychologists are concerned with

the welfare of their research participants.

• Researchers also make discoveries thatcan benefit society.

• To gain insight into such critical issues,

researchers must create vivid events thatare involving for the participants.

Ethi l I i S i l





Psychology

Informed Consent

Agreement to participate in an experiment,granted in full awareness of the nature of

the experiment, which has beenexplained in advance.

• In many experiments, this sort of description isfeasible — and where it is feasible, it is done.

• But sometimes it is impossible.

Ethi l I i S i l





Psychology

Deception

Misleading participants about the true

purpose of a study or the events that willactually transpire.

Note that not all research in socialpsychology involves deception.




Guidelines for Ethical Research

Guidelines to ensure the welfare of their research

participants include:

• Having an Institutional Review Board approve

their studies in advance• Asking participants to sign informed consent

forms

• Debriefing participants afterwards about the

purpose of the study and what transpired,

especially if there was any deception involved




Guidelines for Ethical Research

Investigators studying the impact on participants

in deception studies find:

• People do not object to the kinds of mild

discomfort and deceptions typically used insocial psychological research.

• Most who participated in deception experiments

said they had learned more and enjoyed the

experiments more than those who participatedin nondeception experiments did.



Social Psychology

Elliot AronsonUniversity of California, Santa

Cruz

Timothy D. WilsonUniversity of Virginia

Robin M. AkertWellesley College

slides prepared byTravis Langley

Henderson State University

7th edition

Documents

Aronson 7e Ch02 Research