februari 2015 | door jasper verkroost 1...actor-observer differences in attribution, 38 affective...

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februari 2015 | door Jasper Verkroost 1

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Index

Definitions ........................................................................................................................................... 3

1. What is social psychology? ............................................................................................................... 5

2. Asking and answering research questions ...................................................................................... 11

3. Perceiving individuals ..................................................................................................................... 21

4. The self .......................................................................................................................................... 35

5. Perceiving groups ........................................................................................................................... 54

6. Social identity ................................................................................................................................ 67

7. Attitudes and attitude change ........................................................................................................ 80

8. Attitudes and behavior .................................................................................................................. 93

9. Groups, norms and conformity .................................................................................................... 104

10. Norms and behavior................................................................................................................... 117

11. Liking and loving ........................................................................................................................ 129

12. Interaction in groups .................................................................................................................. 147

13. Aggression and conflict .............................................................................................................. 160

14. Helping and cooperation ............................................................................................................ 175

Epilogue ........................................................................................................................................... 184

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Definitions

accommodation, 143 actor-observer differences in

attribution, 38 affective interdependence, 134 agentic state, 123 aggression, 161 alcohol myopia, 89 algebraic approach, 32 altruism, 176 ambivalent, 83 appraisals, 44 arbitration, 173 assimilation, 91 attachment styles, 138 attitude, 81 attitude scale, 81 attractiveness heuristic, 85 audience inhibition, 176 authoritarian personalities, 57 bask in reflected glory (BIRG), 71 behavioral interdependence, 134 black sheep effect, 77 boomerang effect, 87 brainstorming, 153 catharsis, 163 causal attribution, 28 central route to persuasion, 86 charismatic leaders, 158 chronic accessibility, 25 classical condition, 84 clinical depression, 49 close relationship, 134 coalition formation, 167 cognitive bolstering, 122 cognitive dissonance, 95 cognitive interdependence, 134 collective self-esteem, 76 color-blind ideology, 79 commitment, 136 communal relationships, 133 communication networks, 159 companionate love, 134 configural approach, 32 conflict, 161 conformity, 105 consensus information, 29 consistency information, 29 construct validity, 14

contact hypothesis, 15, 64 contamination, 111 contingency theories of

leadership, 156 contrast, 91 contrast effect, 65 conversion, 65 coping-strategies, 50 correspondence bias, 26 correspondent inferences, 26 counterfactual thinking, 117 covariation information, 29 cross-categorization, 78 cross-race identification bias, 73 decisional dissonance, 98 deindividuation, 119 demand characteristics, 17 depolarization, 108 depressive attributional style, 49 descriptive social norms, 105 devil's advocates, 114 diffusion of responsibility, 177 discounting, 29 discrimination, 55 disidentification, 77 dissociation, 77 distinctiveness information, 29 distributive solutions, 172 dominant responses, 148 door-in-the-face-technique, 120 double minorities, 115 downward comparisons, 43 effort-justification effect, 98 egoism, 176 egoistic relative deprivation, 165 elaboration, 87 emotional appeals, 84 emotional reconciliation, 144 emotion-focused coping, 50 empathy-altruism model, 179 evaluation apprehension, 148 evaluative condition, 59 exchange relationships, 133 expectation of agreement, 106 expertise heuristic, 85 explicit attitudes, 81 external validity, 16 extrinsic motivation, 37

face-to-face groups, 105 false consensus effect, 106 familiarity heuristic, 85 fight or flight, 51 final solutions, 169 foot-in-the-door technique, 94 fraternal relative deprivation, 165 frustration-aggression theory, 162 graduated and reciprocated

initiatives in tension reduction (GRIT), 173

group polarization, 108, 166 group socialization, 150 groupthink, 113 habits, 100 hostile aggression, 161 How do I feel about it? heuristic,

85 ideal self, 46 idiosyncrasy credits, 115 illusory correlation, 58 implicit attitudes, 81 implicit measures, 61 implicit personality theories, 30 implicit theories of relationships,

139 imposed solution, 172 impression management function,

82 individual mobility, 77 informational influence, 106 informed consent, 20, 123 ingratiation, 48 in-groups, 68 inoculation, 91 instrumental aggression, 161 integrative solutions, 172 intellective task, 107 internal validity, 15 intimacy groups, 149 intrinsic motivation, 37 judgment task, 107 just world, 124 just-world belief, 61 Lake Wobegon effect, 36 leadership, 155 learned helplessness, 49 log-rolling, 172

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looking-glass self, 37 low-ball technique, 121 mediators, 173 mere exposure effect, 85, 132 message-length heuristic, 86 meta-analysis, 19 minimal intergroup situation, 73 narcissists, 162 need for cognition, 90 negative effect, 30 negative-state relief model of

helping, 179 negotiation, 172 nondominant responses, 148 norm of obedience to authority,

123 norm of social reciprocity, 120 norm of social responsibility, 176 normative influence, 106 object appraisal function, 82 organizational citizenship behavior

(OCB), 183 ought self, 46 out-group homogeneity effect, 73 out-groups, 68 participative decision making, 119 peripheral route to persuasion, 84 perseverance bias, 33 personal control, 104 persuasion, 81 persuasion heuristic, 84 persuasive arguments

explanation, 110 pluralistic ignorance, 113 post-decisional regret, 98 prejudice, 55 prescriptive norms, 105 prevention focused, 90 prevention goals, 47

primacy effect, 33 priming, 25 private conformity, 105 problem-faced coping, 51 promotion focused, 90 promotion goals, 47 prosocial behavior, 176 public conformity, 105, 112 public-goods dilemma, 180 puppy dog close, 122 quality circles, 119 rational messages, 84 reactance, 125 reactive devaluation, 172 realistic conflict theory, 14, 165 reconciling inconsistencies, 34 reference group, 107 relative deprivation theory, 165 resource-depletion dilemmas, 180 risky shift, 108 romantic love, 134 salience, 24 secondary groups, 149 self-awareness, 47 self-categorization, 68 self-complexity, 42 self-disclosure, 133 self-discrepancy theory, 47 self-efficacy, 52 self-enhancing attributes, 51 self-enhancing bias, 42 self-esteem, 41 self-evaluation maintenance, 42 self-expression, 47 self-fulfilling prophecy, 34, 64 self-handicapping, 51 self-monitoring, 48 self-perception theory, 36, 94 self-presentation, 48

self-relevance, 89 self-reports, 81 selling the top of the line

technique, 121 selve-guides, 46 social categorization, 55 social change, 78 social comparison, 153 social comparison theory, 37 social competition, 78 social creativity, 78 social dilemma, 180 social facilitation, 148 social groups, 55 social identity, 69 social identity function, 82 social identity theory, 69, 73 social interdependence, 149 social loafing, 153 social norms, 60 social support, 139 stereotype, 55 stereotype threat, 75 stigma, 75 subliminal persuasion, 92 subtypes, 65 superficial processing, 32 superordinate goals, 174 systematic processing, 32 task interdependence, 149 tend and befriend, 51 that's-not-all technique, 121 theory of planned behavior, 127 theory of reasoned action, 100,

127 transformational leadership, 158 utilitarian function, 82 weapon effect, 163 win-win solutions, 172

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1. What is social psychology? definition of social psychology - the scientific study of the effects of social and cognitive processes on the way individuals perceive,

influence, and relate to others - seeks an understanding of the reasons people act the way they do in social situations - helps us comprehend the factors that contribute to the complex events of our times - if we understand how people are influenced by social and cognitive processes, we can begin

developing solutions for such pressing social problems

social and cognitive processes - cognitive: the ways in which people's memories, perceptions, thoughts, emotions and motives

influence their understanding of the world and guide their actions; emotion, motivation, memory and thought are intrinsic parts of every cognitive process

- social: the ways in which our thoughts, feelings and actions are influenced by the people around us, the groups to which we belong, our personal relationships, the teachings of our parents and culture, and the pressures we experience from others

- social: affect us even when others are not physically present: even during many of our most private activities (studying, practicing a musical instrument, exercising, showering) we are motivated by our concern for what others think of us

- social: when others are present depend on how we interpret those others and their actions, and therefore on the operation of cognitive processes

- when we are alone or together with others, then, both social and cognitive processes operate together to affect everything we think, feel, and do

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history of social psychology

philosophy (ancient Greeks) - crowd mind (Plato): "even the wisest individuals, if assembled into a crowd, might be transformed

into an irrational mob" empirical science (late 19th century) - emerge of scientific psychology - researchers begin considering questions about social influences on human thoughts and action split from general psychology (20th century) - throughout much of the 20th century North American psychology was dominated by behaviorism

(Watson, Skinner), but social psychologists maintained an emphasis on the important effects of thoughts and feelings on behavior: "individuals often hold divergent views of, and react in different ways to, the same object or idea; such findings could only be explained by differences in individuals' attitudes, personality traits, impressions of others, group identifications, and emotions"

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the rise of Nazism (1930s-1940s) - many social psychologists fled to USA where they had a major influence on the field's direction - significant questions generated by the rise of the Nazism and World War II (prejudice, hate) shaped

research interests during this period - search for immediate practical problems (post-WW II): change eating habits, maintain military troop

morale, improve performance of aircraft and tank crews, teach troops to resist enemy propaganda growth and integration (1950s-1960s) - social psychology grew and flourished, moving toward an integrated theoretical understanding of

social and cognitive processes and toward further applications of social-psychological theory to important applied problems

- research contributions during this period laid the foundations of what we now know about self-esteem, prejudice and stereotyping, conformity, persuasion and attitude change, impression formation, interpersonal attraction and intimate relationships, intergroup relations, group membership, influence within groups, competitive relationships between groups

cognitive revolution (1960s) - tight grip on behaviorism on North American psychology finally broken; cognitive themes and

theories swiftly gained attention in experimental, developmental, personal and clinical psychology - was no revolution for social psychology; cognitive themes such as the importance of people's

interpretations in shaping their reactions to events were familiar to social psychologists because their foundations had been laid decades earlier in the 1930s and 1940s

perception and memory (1970s-1980s) - concepts such as attitudes, norms, and beliefs, already common currency in social psychology,

began to be applied to new areas of study: personal relationships, aggression, altruism, stereotyping, and discrimination

social processes (1990s) - personal and group relationships and social influence impinge on everything people do - our perceptions, interpretations, attitudes, and beliefs are fundamentally shaped by our

relationships to others, our thoughts about their reactions, and the group membership that help us to define who we are (Markus, Kitayama & Heiman, 1996)

cognitive and social processes (today) - researchers in all domains of social psychology are weaving together the effects of cognitive and

social processes to provide explanations of people's experience and behavior early research results - Norman Triplett (1898), Max Ringelmann (1913): the presence of others often facilitates

performance when individual contributions are easily identified (Triplett), but it reduces performance when people are 'lost in the crowd' (Ringelmann)

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- Edward Alsworth Ross (1908): people are heavily influenced by others, whether those others are physically present or not

- Floyd Henry Allport (1924): individuals often hold divergent views of, and react in different ways to, the same object or idea; such findings could be explained only by differences in individuals' attitudes, personality traits, impressions of others, group identifications, and emotions

- Kurt Lewin (1936): all behavior depends on the individual's life space, a subjective map of the individual's current goals and his or her social environment; people's subjective interpretation of reality is the key determinant of their beliefs and behaviors

- Muzafer Sherif (1936): a social group can influence even a person's perception and interpretation of physical reality

- Samuel Stouffer (1949): comparisons with others can lead to feelings of relative deprivation - Carl Hovland (1953): persuasion depends on who delivers the message, who receives it and how it is

processed focus areas - health: the emotions we experience, the amount of stress we encounter from daily hassles, our

ability to find love and acceptance in close relationships, the way we feel about ourselves can influence our bodies as well as our minds

- education: teachers' expectations can shape their pupils' self-esteem, self-confidence and even their actual performance

- law: from crime to conviction, social-psychologists processes are at work as police enforce laws, juries weight evidence, and societies try to distribute justice

- environment: human dimensions of environmental change are motivating social-psychologists to discover how individuals can be encouraged to conserve energy or to recycle used materials; or how groups can be convinced to cooperate in harvesting renewable resources instead of overexploiting and destroying them

- business: effective leadership can mold diverse individuals into a smoothly functioning work team, while ineffective leadership generates only conflict, dissatisfaction, and low productivity

fundamental axioms construction of reality [construeren van de eigen werkelijkheid] - discovering how different the reactions of others can be to the 'same' social event overturns our

usual lack of awareness of the extent to which we construct our own reality; at such times we discover that we do not, in fact, share the same experience

- real for each of us, shaped in part by cognitive processes (the way our minds work) and in part by social processes (influence from others who are actually present or whose presence we imagine)

- cognitive processes operate as we piece together fragments of information, draw inferences from them, and try to weave them into a coherent whole

- social processes enable us to influence and be influenced by the view of others as we pursue agreement about the nature of reality; within the groups that are important to us, agreement is our standard for interpreting and responding to events

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pervasiveness of social influence [onvermijdelijke sociale invloed] - other people influence all of our thoughts, feelings, and behavior whether those others are

physically present or not - our thoughts about others' reactions and our identification with social groups mold our innermost

perceptions, thoughts, feelings, motives, and even our sense of self - our membership in a group provides a frame and a filter through which we view social events - social influence is most profound when it is least evident: when it shapes our most fundamental

assumptions and beliefs about the world without our realizing it - changes often seem so natural that we attribute them not to social influence but to simple reality

motivational principles striving for mastery [streven naar mastery] - mastery: understanding ourselves and the world around us and applying that understanding to help

us to control outcomes in our lives - we seek to understand and predict events in the social world in order to obtain rewards - is an important incentive in our attempt to form and hold accurate opinions and beliefs about the

world, because accurate beliefs can guide us to effective and satisfying actions seeking connectedness [zoeken naar verbondenheid] - each person attempts to create and maintain feelings of mutual support, liking, and acceptance

from those they care about and value - conforming to group standards, even standards that have destructive consequences for people

outside the group, fulfills a need for belonging and connectedness

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people value me and mine [mensen hechten waarde aan zichzelf en personen waarmee men zich verbonden voelt] - we are motivated to see ourselves and anything or anyone connected to us in a positive light - our biased views of those who are connected to us often explain why members of different groups

see the same events in very different ways, to make them feel good about themselves processing principles conservatism [conservatisme] - the principle that individuals' and groups' views of the world are slow to change and prone to

perpetuate themselves; established knowledge tends to perpetuate itself accessibility [toegankelijkheid van informatie] - the principle that whatever information is most readily available to us usually has the most impact

on our thoughts, feelings and behavior - every social situation provides an incredibly rich array of information, so rich that we could not

consider all its details; consequently we are likely to consider, remember, and use only a tiny fraction of the potentially relevant information when we make judgments or decisions

- in many situations, what comes most easily to mind is what we were already thinking; in other situations we base our judgments on the information that is most easily noticed and interpreted

superficiality vs. depth [oppervlakkigheid versus diepte van informatieverwerking] - much of the time, people seem to operate on automatic, putting little effort into forming a

superficial picture of reality and relying heavily on whatever information is most accessible - when we notice that events fail to match our expectations or when our important goals are

threatened, we take the time and trouble to process information more extensively - disagreement or rejection challenges not only our sense of mastery and understanding but also our

feelings of connectedness, triggering anxiety and uncertainty - threats to any of our important goals may motivate us to consider information in more depth and to

think hard about our own beliefs and actions common processes, diverse behaviors - exactly the same processes that produce useful and valuable outcomes in some situations produce

misleading and destructive outcome in others

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2. Asking and answering research questions empirical science - the theories and conclusions of social psychology rest on the result of research - scientific research methods produce answers that are more likely to be trustworthy and unbiased

than those we arrive at through everyday common sense, hunches, and intuitions - most people are unaware of the biases in their everyday thinking and knowledge, and they

therefore fail to guard against them

research questions - are provoked by curiosity about why people act the way they do - often reflects concern about important social problems that have an impact on many people's lives - social psychologists do not strive merely to understand specific events or individuals; they seek

instead to discover general principles that explain the behavior of many people in many situations social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) - idea that people evaluate their abilities, opinions and outcomes by comparing themselves to others

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scientific theory - a statement about the causal relationships among abstract constructs - this statement holds for specified types of people, times, and settings - requirements: (1) statement about constructs; (2) describes a causal relation; (3) is general in scope construct - the knowledge of others' attitudes and the evaluation of one's own attitudes are two constructs that

feature in social comparison theory - each of these constructs is abstract, in that it cannot be directly observed causal relation - a change in one construct (cause) produces a corresponding change in another construct (effect) - social comparison theory is a theory about cause and effect: our knowledge of other people's

outcomes, performances, or opinions causes changes in how we evaluate our own outcomes, performances, or opinions

- intervention: if we know that one state or event causes another, we can use practical steps to change behavior or solve problems

general in scope - they apply to many people in different settings and times - the ranging of applicability may vary from one theory to another - the more generally applicable it is (like social comparison theory) the more useful it is because it will

hold for many different kinds of people in many different situations and at many different times - currently little is known about just how broadly many social-psychological theories can be applied realistic conflict theory (Campbell, 1965) - hostility between social groups is caused by direct competition for limited resources testing theories - construct validity: because theories deal with constructs, researchers have to be sure the specific

observations they make in their studies are in fact relevant to those constructs - internal validity: because theories describe causal relations, researchers have to be sure they know

the causes of any changes in behavior they find in their studies - external validity: because theories are general in scope, researchers have to be sure they have

learned something about how people in general, not just a few individuals, think, feel, and act construct validity - independent variables: variables that are considered to be causal factors - dependent variables: variables representing effects; depend on the causal or independent variable - two parts: (1) the independent and dependent variables used in the research must correspond to

the intended theoretical constructs; (2) they must not correspond to other constructs

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social desirability bias - people's tendency to act in ways that make them look good (Rosenberg, 1969) - a common problem with construct validity is that a variable may be affected by other influences

(like social desirability bias) besides the construct that it is intended to measure - social psychologists must be constantly on guard against the thread of social desirability, particularly

when they are interested in attitudes or behaviors that might meet with some social disapproval, such as stereotyping, prejudice, aggression, or unusual opinions or lifestyles

using the best measure for the purpose - self-report measures: rely on asking the individual about his or her thoughts, feelings, or behaviors;

probably the best source of information about beliefs, attitudes, and intentions; but also particularly susceptible to social desirability biases, especially if the topic is a sensitive one

- observational measures: to directly watch and record people's behavior; good construct validity when participants are unaware of being observed; if the research setting is public or if participants know they are being observed, social desirability biases could still undermine construct validity

- performance measures: because people usually just try to perform as well as they can on such tasks, social desirability tends to be less of a problem than with self-reporting or observational measures

- when different measures produce the same results researchers' can be reasonable confident that they are measuring the intended construct and nothing else

contact hypothesis - states that casual friendly contact with members of a different ethnic group increases liking for that

group (Allport, 1954) internal validity - the extent to which it can be concluded that changes in the independent variable actually caused

changes in the dependent variable in a research study - whether or not such a conclusion can be drawn depends primarily on a study's research design,

which specifies how research participants will be selected and treated - the major thread is that factors other than changes in the independent variable may be present and

may be causing the observed changes in the dependent variable non-experimental research - a design in which researchers simply measure both the independent and the dependent variable - in such a design it is always possible that people who differ on the intended independent variable

may also differ in other unintended ways - each additional difference offers an alternative explanation for any results researchers find; and

each alternative explanation threatens the internal validity of the research experimental research - crucial aspects for internal validity: (1) participants are randomly assigned to experimental groups,

sometimes called conditions; (2) after the random assignment takes place, the independent variable

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is manipulated (or intentionally varied) rather than simply measured so that participants in the different conditions are exposed to different treatments

- because the groups were expected to be equivalent to begin with, this procedure creates groups that differ only in terms of the independent variable

- finally, the researchers measure the dependent variable; now it is reasonable to conclude that any observed differences in the dependent variable were caused by the independent variable, simply because no other differences between the groups are expected to exist

reasons for non-experimental research - some theoretically important independent variables (gender, ethnicity, area of residence) obviously

cannot be intentionally varied - for ethnical reasons researchers must not manipulate variables like participants' relationships with

their marriage partner, their feeling of depression, or the degree of their ethnical prejudice - other research manipulations just cannot be as powerful as the variation in constructs found in

everyday life

external validity - the results of research can be generalized to other people, settings, and times - when a theory is intended to apply to a particular population and setting, external validity is

ensured by conducting studies using that population and setting - when a theory is intended to apply generally across different people, places, and times, external

validity is ensured by conducting repeated tests of the theory in diverse populations and settings - a specific target population and setting is the researcher's primary interest where the goal is to use

scientific findings to solve immediate practical problems - one of the important functions of research is to determine just how broadly theories generalize; the

key question becomes: exactly what aspects of the research conclusions will successfully generalize? - the results of a study are not applied directly to another population or setting, but are used to

support a general theory, which in turn has implications for other people and places (Mook, 1980)

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the type of people studied - participants can be unrepresentative of all the people to whom the theory is intended to apply societies and cultures - culture strongly dictates the content of people's thoughts and actions - the processes by which that content is developed and used, however, are more likely to generalize - sometimes both content and processes can differ for members of different cultures (individualist or

independent vs. collectivist or interdependent cultures) - the different content of their self-concepts leads to several differences in the ways members of

different cultures process information about the self, respond to social conflict and disagreement, and experience emotions

laboratory research - the setting or place in which the research is conducted can limit generalizability - most social-psychological research is conducted in the laboratory because the researcher can

control this setting - advantages: (1) randomly assign participants to different conditions; (2) manipulate independent

variables while keeping other factors constant; (3) measure dependent variables with high construct; (4) experimental designs with high internal validity are most easily implemented there

- disadvantages: (1) the short time span of most studies; (2) the somewhat artificial quality of many laboratory manipulations and measures; (3) participants probably pay much more attention to the information provided in the laboratory than they would in some other context; (4) participating in research may itself elicit special motives (demand characteristics)

demand characteristics - behaviors that are based on the participants' perceptions of the research purpose; threaten

construct validity because elements of the experiment other than the intended construct may affect the participants' behavior (Orne, 1962; Rosenthal, 1969)

- to counteract researchers make sure that team members are prevented from knowing the responses that are expected from any particular participant, so that they cannot subtly and unintentionally communicate those expectations to the participant

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- in addition, researchers often attempt to conceal the true purpose of their research from participants, and, in some cases, may even mislead participants about the purpose

non-laboratory research (field research) - can study the long-term effects of such variables as relationship development or public health

campaigns; they can measure concrete, powerful variables - can also study the effects that cannot ethically or practically be reproduced in the laboratory - often has good construct validity; can provide good internal validity if random assignment and

manipulation of independent variables can be implemented in the field - for practical reasons carrying out experiments outside the laboratory is often very difficult; as a

result, most field studies are non-experimental in design - can have high external validity if it avoids triggering the special processes that often occur in the

laboratory setting, but this is not always the case ensuring external validity - if the goal is to generalize some specific target population and setting, the participants and setting

must be representative of the target - if the goal is to generalize across people, places, and times, the best way to do so is to repeat the

research in multiple settings and with multiple populations, including people from different cultures

evaluating theories - theories become generally accepted if the results of multiple valid studies show them to be superior

to rival theories - sometimes theories that seem to compete are in fact complementary explanations of events - researchers' attempt to increase one form of validity often decreases other forms

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importance of replication - because no single study can be fully convincing by itself, researchers seek to replicate, or reproduce,

the results of prior research; therefore scientists are required to report the procedures and methods used in their studies

- the most important replications produce the same results by using different manipulations of the theoretical constructs in studies carried out in different settings with different participant populations

- because replications provide such convincing support for theories, social psychologists often compare the results of different tests of the same theory using meta-analysis

- meta-analysis: systematic technique for locating relevant studies and summarizing their results; allows researchers to examine the generality of results across replications conducted by different researchers using diverse methods, settings, and participant populations

- when many studies produce similar results, they provide stronger evidence for or against theories

competition with other theories - scientists avoid applying the term proven to a theory; at best it is generally accepted, a phrase that

points to the importance of social consensus, the judgment made by the community of scientists

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- in some cases, theories that first compete to explain research findings turn out to provide complementary explanations of events (e.g. cognitive dissonance and self-perception theories)

ethics and values: being fair to participants - researchers seek to treat their participants fairly, often ensuring that participants know what they

will experience in the study and agree to it in advance - to avoid biases when sensitive topics are investigated, researchers sometimes deceive participants

about various aspects of the study - if deception is used, participants must be given information about research procedures and

purposes at the conclusion of the study potential sources of harm to participants - 1. self-reports or observations may reveal things about participants that they would not wish to have

publicly known; solution: keep responses completely anonymous and unidentifiable - 2. people can be upset or distressed by their participation in research: (2a) involved in potentially

doing harm; (2b) required to make difficult decisions; (2c) are placed in situations over which they have no control; (2d) upset by their own reactions to events

- Stanford prison experiment: study of 'prison life'; some participants were randomly assigned to be prison guards and others to be prisoners; as time passed the cruelty and abusiveness of the guards and the passivity and dehumanization of the prisoners increased; the experiment soon went out of control as prisoners had to be released with depressive or psychotic symptoms (Zimbardo, 1973)

social dilemma - research on topics as divergent as helping and stereotyping often causes distress when participants

later realize that their actions were socially unacceptable - social psychologists want their research to address many important issues, but in such research

some participants may discover potentially damaging information about themselves or others - researchers must obtain participants informed consent [vrijwillige toestemming] (consent

voluntarily given by an individual who decides to participate in a study after being told what will be involved in participation) and allow them to withdraw from a study without penalty at any time

use of deception - participants are often told in advance what they will experience during the study (e.g. watching a

video clip, filling out a questionnaire) without being told the exact purpose of the study or the details of the procedure until their participation is complete

- in other cases participants are actually misled about what will happen to them - the point of deception is to combat demand characteristics and social desirability biases while

gathering information about socially important topics - most researchers argue that many social-psychological topics, such as helping, aggression, racial and

gender prejudice, and conformity, are so sensitive that deception is often necessary to produce valid results, yet the use of deception makes it impossible to obtain truly informed consent

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goals of debriefing - participant can raise questions and concerns about the research; the researcher can address them - researcher can fully explain any necessary deception - researcher and participant can discuss the overall purpose and methods of the study, thereby

enhancing the educational value of research participation - researcher can detect and deal with any possible negative effects of the research (if a participant is

led to believe that he has failed an important task the deception is carefully explained and every effort is made to ensure that participants leave the study feeling no worse than when they entered)

- most research show that debriefing can provide deceived participants with more positive attitudes both about themselves and about research activities

Review Boards - committees at universities and other research institutions whose members include both scientists

and members of the community - review and approve research plans before the research is conducted - have the power to ask for changes in the plan or even deny approval if they believe a study may

harm participants ethics and values: being helpful to society - social psychologists have long focused on major social issues like poverty, prejudice, pollution, and

peace because they believe that their discipline can contribute to solving these problems - psychologists often disagree about social and political issues; these differences often show up as

disagreements over how science can best serve our society - every researcher must come to his own decision about how research findings should be applied

(e.g. many researchers question the benefit of conducting research designed to show gender or ethnic differences, especially in politically and legally sensitive areas like leadership potential or propensity (=neiging) to aggression)

THEMES - construction of reality: scientific theories are developed to summarize and explain observed

patterns of behavior - pervasiveness of social influence: scientists are influenced not only by the rules and customs of

science but also by personal and cultural values and goals - striving for mastery: scientists attempt to understand and predict nature

februari 2015 | door jasper verkroost 1...actor-observer differences in attribution, 38 affective...

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