PERSON, SITUATION, INTERACTION

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Kuliah Psikologi Sosial I

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.

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)

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

Characteristics of social psychology1. The level of analysis is the individual

in the social context (i.e., how an individual influences and is influenced by other individuals)

2. Social psychology studies individuals’ overt behaviors as well as their internal psychological states such emotions, motivations, and beliefs

3. Social psychologists use the scientific method to answer questions

Scientific Description and Explanation

Social Psychology, like any science, involves: Description –

careful and reliable observation Explanation –

development of theories that connect and organize observations

Scientific Description and Explanation

Theories are scientific explanations that: Connect and organize existing observations Suggest fruitful paths for future research.

Major Theoretical Perspectives Sociocultural Evolutionary Social Learning Social Cognitive

Sociocultural

Sociocultural perspective –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

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

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

Social Learning

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

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.

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.

Social Cognitive

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

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.

Descriptive Methods

Social psychologists use five major types of descriptive methods: Naturalistic Observation Case Studies Archives Surveys Psychological Tests

Experiments

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

Experiments

Independent variable –the variable manipulated by the experimenter

Dependent variable –the variable measured by the experimenter

Experiments

Social psychologists use two major types of experimental methods: Laboratory experiments Field experiments

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).

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