Person, situation, interaction an introduction to the social psychological perspective

1. Person, situation, interactionan introduction to the social psychological perspective KuliahPsikologiSosialI

2. Ross and McDougall: Two Early Versions of Social Psychology • The year was 1908, a sociologist, Edward Ross and the other a psychologist, William McDougall, published their separate introductory textbooks in social psychology. • Both were concerned with understanding the relationships between person and society and therefore their field was called social psychology; however, each offered a different analysis.

3. Ross and McDougall: Two Early Versions of Social Psychology • Ross emphasized the important role that social and situational factors played in shapping the person; • McDougall stressed the role that person factors played in shaping social interaction and society. • According Ross: Human Behavior = f (situational factors) • According Behavior: Human Behavior = f (person factors)

4. Social Psychology • The scientific study of the ways in which the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of one individual are influenced by the real, imagined, or inferred behavior or characteristics of other people. • Social psychology –the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by other people

5. Characteristics of social psychology • The level of analysis is the individual in the social context (i.e., how an individual influences and is influenced by other individuals) • Social psychology studies individuals’ overt behaviors as well as their internal psychological states such emotions, motivations, and beliefs • Social psychologists use the scientific method to answer questions

6. Scientific Description and Explanation • Social Psychology, like any science, involves: • Description –careful and reliable observation • Explanation –development of theories that connect and organize observations

7. Scientific Description and Explanation • Theories are scientific explanations that: • Connect and organize existing observations • Suggest fruitful paths for future research.

8. Major Theoretical Perspectives • Sociocultural • Evolutionary • Social Learning • Social Cognitive

9. Sociocultural • Socioculturalperspective –a theoretical viewpoint that searches for the causes of social behavior in influences from larger social groups • E.g., norms within cultural groups, social class differences, nationality/ethnicity, fads

10. Evolutionary • Evolutionary perspective –a theoretical viewpoint that searches for the causes of social behavior in the physical and psychological predispositions that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce

11. Evolutionary • What drives social behavior? • Genetic predispositions inherited from our ancestors that promoted their survival and reproduction, such as: • The tendency to automatically recognize an angry face • The tendency for mothers to feel protective of their children

12. Social Learning • Social learning perspective –a theoretical viewpoint that focuses on past learning experiences as determinants of a person’s social behaviors

13. Social Learning • What drives social behavior? • Classically conditioned preferences • For example, the feeling of fear at sight of person who hit you. • Habits rewarded by other people • For example, a boy who fights frequently after his father praised him for winning fight with neighborhood bully.

14. Social Learning • What drives social behavior? • Imitating the rewarded behavior of others • For example, buying a gun after seeing a movie in which the hero wins true love after shooting half the people in his girlfriend’s neighborhood.

15. Social Cognitive • Social cognitiveperspective –a theoretical viewpoint that focuses on the mental processes involved in paying attention to, interpreting, and remembering social experiences • E.g., self-enhancing biases

16. The study of social behavior • Descriptive methods involve attempts to measure or record behaviors, thoughts or feelings in their natural state. • Experimental methods involve attempts to manipulate social processes by varying some aspect of the situation.

17. Descriptive Methods Social psychologists use five major types of descriptive methods: • Naturalistic Observation • Case Studies • Archives • Surveys • Psychological Tests

18. Experiments • An experiment is a research method in which the researcher sets out to systematically manipulate one source of influence while holding others constant.

19. Experiments • Independent variable –the variable manipulated by the experimenter • Dependent variable –the variable measured by the experimenter

20. Experiments • Social psychologists use two major types of experimental methods: • Laboratory experiments • Field experiments

21. Experiments • Advantages: • Allows cause-effect conclusions • Allows control of extraneous variables • Disadvantages: • Artificial situations may not represent relevant events as they naturally unfold (subjects’ responses may not be natural, since they know they are being observed).

24. Orientation in Social Psychology • The Reinforcement-Theory Orientation • The Field-Theoritical Orientation • The Cognitive Orientation • The Psychoanalytic Orientation • Role Theory