Lecture 1 - Intro To 113

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Social Psychology in the Digital Age

Jaime Benjamin
j.benjamin@Lancaster.ac.uk
Subject-Specific Learning Outcomes

• Discuss core theories in social psychology (e.g., attribution and self and identify)

• Demonstrate knowledge of the relationship between social psychology and real world
issues.

• Describe different research methodologies as they relate to observational,


correlational and experimental designs

• Explain the significance of key research papers within social psychology


Definition

• Social Psychology is
The scientific study of how a person’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour
are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presences of others.

(Allport, 1954, p. 5).


Areas of Social Psychology

• Social Influence
– the way in which behaviour can be affected by presences of others
• Why do we conform?
• Why do we obey authority?
• When do we help?
• Social Cognition
– how we process social information
• How do we form impressions?
• How do we interpret others’ behaviour?
• How is our behaviour affected by our attitude?
• Social Relations
– How we interact with others
• How do we form bonds?
• How do we feel about others?
Level of Analysis

Culture+ •Economics
Environment •Sociology
•Social
Others
Psychology
•Clinical
Self
•Personality
The Synthesis and System of Social Psychology

Sociology

Biology
Number 1: Situation are powerful!

• They are often invisible to observers

• Known situations can influence our perception of


others in unexpected ways
– The situation others are in (e.g. funeral; Trope, 1986)
– The situation we are in (e.g. weather; Lee, Gino & Staats,
2014)

• History shapes the present (e.g. relationships, Harden,


2012)
Number 2: We often don’t know why people
do what they do
• Fundamental attribution error – bias in attributing
other’s behaviour to internal causes over
situational
• Actor-Observer Discrepancy – our own behaviour is
due to external influences & other’s internal

• Conscious experience is constructed and not


always accurate. This creates empathy gaps
Number 3: We often don’t know what we don’t
know
Adaptation - Processing work best when fast, outside of
awareness.
Number 4: It is amazing how accurate our
judgements are
• We do them well because we do
them automatically (yes, it’s a
contradiction)
– Thin slices - e.g. Ambady et al, (1999)
Judgements of sexual orientation, 55%
accuracy on photos, 70% on 10s silent
video.
Number 5: People have two fundamental
motivations
• People want to be liked and need to belong
– Self-esteem is our best guess of how we think others see us

• People want to be accurate, consistent and authentic


– Consistent in the eyes of others and themselves
• Data Science

• Cyberpsychology

• Computer Science
Cyber Psychology and every day lives

• Yours is the generation that has never


*NOT* had internet
How much of your life is spent online?

• Between 5-7 years of your


life on social media
- Younger people use it more
- Increased by 62.5% (or 1
hour) from 2012-2018

- MMOs
- Online community forums

Our electronics have become


social surrogates
What are they learning about you?

• If You're Not Paying, You're The Product


– Google
– Twitter
– Cambridge Analytica
Marketing Psychology

• Traditional
• Cyber
Course Outline: Subject To Change*
Week Day of Week Lecture Title Seminar WBA WBA Open Close
Week 16 Friday 25/2 Lecture 1 Intro to Social Psychology​ WBA1 WBA1 Open

Week 17 Monday 28/2 Lecture 2 Impression Formation​ WBA1

Week 17 Monday 28/2 Lecture 3 Attraction​ Attraction WBA1


Week 17 Friday 4/3 Lecture 4 Interpersonal Relationships​ WBA2 WBA2 Open

Week 18 Monday 7/03 Lecture 5 Social Influence​ WBA2 WBA 1 Close?

Week 18 Monday 7/03 Lecture 6 Aggression​ WBA2

Week 18 Friday 11/03 Lecture 7 Prosocial WBA3 WBA3 Open

Week 19 Monday 14/03 Lecture 8 ​Prejudice​ WBA3 WBA 2 Close

Week 19 Monday 14/03 Lecture 9 The Self​ Prosocial WBA3

Week 19 Friday 18/03 Lecture 10 Attribution​ WBA4 WBA 4 Open

Week 20 Monday 21/03 Lecture 11 Attitudes​ WBA4

Week 20 Monday 21/03 Lecture 12 Leadership​ WBA4


Closes Monday 28/03
How to get involved?

• Take part in experiments!

• Ask questions!

• Remain critical

• Check the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Facebook and Twitter

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