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Social Psychology as Science

Social Psychology as Science. A couple of concepts…. …that make research especially important. Hindsight bias. This is the tendency to overestimate our ability to predict events, once we know the outcome Everyone is susceptible to this bias

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Social Psychology as Science

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  1. Social Psychology as Science

  2. A couple of concepts… …that make research especially important

  3. Hindsight bias • This is the tendency to overestimate our ability to predict events, once we know the outcome • Everyone is susceptible to this bias “I just KNEW the Mariners would lose a hundred games!”

  4. Confirmation Bias A tendency to search for, and see, information that confirms one’s preconceptions. “I’ve been noticing that students seem a lot more stressed out these days because of the economy.”

  5. The Scientific Method • Wonder why • Formulate hypothesis • Test hypothesis • Draw conclusions • Report results

  6. Primary Concerns with Research • Are the data reliable? • Are the data valid? • Aronson uses “experimental realism” and “mundane realism” • Ethics of the experiment • Effects on subject • Use of results

  7. Experimental Design:What is involved? • Independent Variable • Dependent Variable • Control Group • Experimental Group • Random Selection • Random Assignment

  8. Experimental Design Strengths Only way to determine cause and effect. Weaknesses Validity – Ethical considerations Practicality Why the only way to determine causation? Random assignment Control of variables

  9. Most famous Social Psych Experiments Milgram Zimbardo

  10. An Example • Your observation:  that human service professionals care very much about client well being, but tend not to be very politically active on issues that affect their clients.

  11. Hypothesize Hmmmm.... • they're so busy, they don't have time to learn about the issues or call/email legislators • they don't know who to contact or how to contact them • they don't think their input matters • etc. • "When people are given a concise and easy to understand explanation of the issue and what they can do, they will take action to influence politics."

  12. Test your hypothesis • Two groups:  Experimental group gets an email with concise talking points, specific request and contact info.  The control group gets an email with just the request. • How are subjects selected and assigned to groups?  What if people volunteer to participate and then are randomly assigned?  What if Sound Mental Health provides the researchers with email of all staff and then fifty of those are randomly selected and then randomly assigned to one of the groups?  What if all the staff at the Tukwila clinic are assigned to the experimental group while the Capitol Hill staff are assigned to the control group?

  13. Draw conclusions • Statistical analysis • Probability of results due to chance • .01 • .05 In other words, how likely is it that the results are due to chance.

  14. Report Results • Scholarly/peer reviewed journals

  15. Design an experiment! • Wonder why – what do you want to know? • Formulate hypothesis – specific question? • Test hypothesis • Draw conclusions • Ethical considerations

  16. Report Back • What did you wonder about? • What is your hypothesis? • How would you test it? • What difficulties did you encounter in planning the research?

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