Social Psychology

Richard Gross, Rob McIlveen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317799757
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

In everyday life we depend upon, interact with, influence are influenced by many people in situations that range from brief single encounters to the special relationships we form with family and close friends. Social interactions such as these are just a part of what make up social psychology, the study of human social behaviour and thought.In 'Social Psychology', the authors have incorporated the most recent theoretical developments and research findings and accounted for more than a decade of growth and expansion in the discipline since the publication of Pennington's 'Essential Social Psychology' (from which this book is descended). The result is a wholly fresh textbook that provides a clear and readable introduction to this empirical discipline.Assuming no prior knowledge, this book guides the reader through the main topic areas, providing insights into the key theories, concepts, research and debates that define the field. Particular attention is paid to how research is applied, with each chapter containing a section demonstrating the application of social psychological findings in the contexts of education, law, health and organisations. A summary of the main points and suggestions for further reading are included at the end of each chapter. There are figures, tables and photographs provided throughout to encourage visualisation and aid understanding.

1	Introduction

• Social psychology and everyday life

• The scope of social psychology

• Assumptions about human behaviour

• Historical perspective

• Social psychology as science

• Methods of investigation

• Validity of experiments

• The social psychology of experiments

• Ethics and values in social psychological research

• About this book

• Summary

• Suggestions for further reading

1.1 Social psychology and everyday life

The cover of this book is taken from a painting by L. S. Lowry of people in a park; take a careful look at the cover. You will see numerous people, older and younger, engaged in social interaction. But these people all seem a little ‘strange’ in one way or another, for example, the man with one leg, or the woman at the bottom left with only one eye open. In the middle towards the right, is what seems like an older woman, with a bent back looking at the ground. Lowry chose to depict people in a social setting in a way that arrests our attention. This picture was chosen as the cover of a social psychology text book for two main reasons: first, the picture reflects a basic principle of social psychology that each person constructs a different social reality. This means that how we perceive, understand and imagine ourselves and other people to be is often different from one person to another. Second, the picture serves to remind us that other people have an important influence on how we think, feel and behave.

How we experience and enjoy life is strongly affected and determined by other people: how we think about ourselves and how others think and react to us are important determinants of both how we feel and behave. Specific social situations also influence our behaviour, for example, behaviour appropriate at a party would be largely inappropriate at an interview or our place of work. Social behaviour, our actions in the presence of one or numerous other people, is governed both by perceptions and social norms. Much of the time we are unaware of these influences. The discipline of social psychology – the scientific study of social behaviour, thought and feelings – offers insight and understanding based upon theory and sound evidence.

In everyday life we depend upon, interact with, influence and are influenced by many people. The presence of others is comforting; brief encounters with strangers are common when, for example, we go shopping. Relationships reveal a wide diversity from acquaintances, workmates, friends through to lovers and marriage partners. Some people we interact with just once and never see again; others become well known to us through work or social activities. A small number of people are very special to us, such as spouses and close friends, who are permanent features of our lives. As a baby and young child our dependence upon others is total; not only do parents or caretakers provide for our physical needs but they also socialise us. As we get older we are able to interact, with confidence and ease, with peers and adults. Inadequate socialisation, as will be seen in Chapter 2, is regarded by many social psychologists as a critical factor explaining anti-social behaviour and low self-esteem in an individual. In later life, as adults, we depend upon people for company (being alone for long periods of time is often a very distressing experience), for information (in the form of, for example, how we are expected to behave in a specific social situation) and for pleasure (simply talking to somebody we are close to is enjoyable in itself and, when worried, may relieve us of a mental burden). This is summarised in Figure 1.1.

Acting appropriately, assessing ourselves and others, knowing when to succumb to the influence of other people and when to attempt to influence others round to our way of thinking, are all common features of everyday life. To function effectively in these ways means we are all social psychologists in a sense. Without intuition, common sense and shared understanding our ability effectively to engage in our social world would be greatly impaired, resulting in socially clumsy, ineffective and inappropriate actions. Social psychology attempts to assess the soundness and validity of these common-sense notions. Sometimes, as we shall see in this book, social psychological research yields surprising results: empirical evidence occasionally overturns what we commonly believe to be the case.

The aims of both the lay-person and professional social psychologist are the same: both are attempting to understand and predict the behaviour of others and ourselves in the diversity of social situations that can and do confront us. Without prediction and understanding, organised society, of any sort, would soon disintegrate and collapse. If we or others behaved unpredictably without control or order, we would find it almost impossible to interact in a sensible way with other people. We often make mistakes by misjudging people and how they will behave; common sense is often a good guide but one which lacks objective, rigorous, empirical support. As a result, our experience of the world is inevitably biased and subjective. The scientific study of social behaviour, thought, and feelings attempts to provide an unbiased and objective means of understanding and predicting human social behaviour. If social psychology can offer greater understanding and prediction it should enable us to achieve greater control over our own lives.

Figure 1.1: Some examples of the importance of other people in our lives

1.2 The scope of social psychology

Gordon Allport (1985), one of the founders of modern social psychology, offers the following definition of social psychology: ‘Social psychology is the scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.’ This definition serves to highlight five aspects of social psychology that you will encounter again and again in the following ten chapters of this book. First, this definition firmly establishes the discipline as one proceeding and progressing by scientific enquiry. More will be said about this in Section 1.5 of this chapter. Here it is sufficient to say that social psychology gains knowledge through empirical enquiry by formulating and testing theories. Throughout this book the results of empirical research, largely from experimental methods, are referred to and described to demonstrate how they offer support or refutation of a theory. Second, social psychology concerns itself with what cannot be directly observed – thoughts and feelings – but which we know affect our social lives in all sorts of ways. Cognitive social psychology is broadly concerned with our social thinking and has become a dominant area of enquiry in the last 20 years. Social thought refers to such constructs as attitudes, values, beliefs, self-esteem, social perception, and personal and social identity.

Third, including how people feel reflects the central role that our emotional lives play in our interactions with other people. Friendships and more intimate relationships have strong affective components, and how we feel about ourselves in relation to self-esteem or self-perception is often critical for our general mental health. Fourth, the focus on behaviour in this definition recognises that this is all that can be directly and objectively observed. We cannot see what people think and feel; it is only a person’s actual behaviour that leads us to infer another person’s thoughts and feelings. The influential behaviourist approach in psychology staunchly adheres to this principle. Fifth, people may influence how we think, feel and behave through our social interaction or by simply thinking or imagining them to be present. For example, before deciding what birthday present to buy a close friend, you will most likely think about what their likes and dislikes are. What you imagine these to be will influence the present you buy.

Representing social psychology as the scientific study of social behaviour, thought and feelings, avoids imposing boundaries on legitimate areas of enquiry. This is necessary since the interests of social psychologists range from detailed enquiries into thought processes (social cognition) through to broader considerations of the individual in a societal context (sociological social psychology). Uniting these widely different perspectives is the attempt to understand how people interact and influence each other.

Perusal of the chapter headings in this book will give you some idea of the scope of social psychology. These chapters do not exhaust the areas of study but, in our view, represent the essential and fundamental areas of enquiry. To do justice adequately to the full range and scope of social psychology would require a volume many times this size. Specialist books, dealing with particular areas or topics can be more profitably read by the student once he or she has a general foundation in social psychology. This book aims to provide a sound and representative account of social psychology.

1.3 Assumptions about human behaviour

In general conversation we often say ‘it is in his nature to behave like that’ or ‘being like that comes naturally to her’. In everyday usage the words ‘nature’ or ‘naturally’ are ill-defined and ambiguous. In psychology, however, such a characterisation would be taken to mean the person’s behaviour is biological in origin and results from the action of inherited genes.

Two positions are possible, both representing long traditions in psychology and philosophy: first, behaviour and characteristics such as intelligence and personality are entirely a result of genetic make-up. Second, behaviour and human characteristics result entirely from our experience of the world, from birth onwards. Few, if any, psychologists would now argue solely for a nature or nurture (experience) position; most now agree that human behaviour and characteristics are a result of the interaction of these two influences. Controversy still rages, however, often in a bitter and emotional way, over the relative contribution of each in determining a person’s intelligence. Apart from the problem of no adequate, agreed-upon definition of intelligence (cynics say IQ is simply the ability to do IQ tests), evidence for one viewpoint or another is less than clear.

In social psychology the contemporary approach claiming biology to be important, by drawing upon Darwin’s theory of evolution, is known as socio-biology (Wilson, 1975). The claim is a relatively simply one, but difficult to substantiate satisfactorily with respect to human social behaviour: if human beings are solely a product of evolution then many social behaviours will have evolved in a similar way. Parental behaviour, aggression and altruism are claimed by socio-biologists to be a product of evolution rather than environmental experiences. One of the fundamental problems is that human beings inherit their genetic makeup and also a society and culture which are continually evolving. Perhaps with non-human primates and other animals it is easier to see the biological and evolutionary contribution since animal ‘societies’ do not progress and change in any way comparable to that of humans. In the topics that are dealt with throughout this book the nature/nurture theme will arise many times. Mostly reference will be made to animal studies; however, relevance and applicability to human social behaviour will be provided as appropriate.

The view that social behaviour can be explained in biological and/or evolutionary terms is one that dates back to the beginnings of modern social psychology. McDougall (1908) attempted an explanation of all social behaviour in terms of instincts. Two logical flaws caused the demise of this approach: first, the number of instincts could be extended indefinitely so that every social behaviour could have an instinct attached to it. Second, saying people have an instinct to be altruistic, for example, does not explain the causes of altruistic behaviour, but simply renames the behaviour. What is not explained is why people have instincts and how so many instincts could have evolved. The discipline of ethology offers a more sensible and circumscribed approach to the role of instincts in animal – both human and non-human – social behaviour.

1.4 Historical perspective

Social psychology, like other areas of psychology, emerged as an empirical discipline from strong philosophical roots that can be traced back to the ancient Greeks. Much of the philosophical work of Plato and Aristotle concerns itself with speculations about human thought and behaviour. Plato, for example, recognised that when individuals come together as a crowd, they can be transformed into an irrational mob. This was taken up by Gustav Le Bon in 1908, who wrote about the group mind, and how individual behaviour is transformed to crowd behaviour. Le Bon’s theorising has influenced our understanding of crowd psychology to the present day.

The identification of social psychology as an independent area of enquiry was, perhaps, established through two text books which appeared in 1908 and 1924, together with important, early experiments at the turn of the century. In 1908 William McDougall published a book entitled Social Psychology, this was not empirically based but put forward the view that social behaviour was a direct result of instincts that we inherit. Such a view has not endured in modern social psychology. Floyd Allport published a text in 1924 which emphasised the importance of experimentation and presented research conducted in such areas as conformity, recognition of emotion in facial expressions, and how individuals perform a task in front of an audience (to become known as social facilitation – see Chapter 10). Many of the themes that Allport considered, together with the use of evidence from empirical research, set the scene for the development of social psychology as a scientific discipline of enquiry.

The first experiments in social psychology can be traced back to Triplett (1898) and Ringelmann (1913). Triplett conducted an experiment to investigate whether the presence of other people enhances or inhibits an individual’s performance of a task. For example, Triplett asked sc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Social development
• 3 Attitudes, attitude change and behaviour
• 4 Social cognition I: Perception of self and others
• 5 Social cognition II: The attribution approach
• 6 Non-verbal communication and interpersonal behaviour
• 7 Social relationships
• 8 Social influence
• 9 Pro-social and anti-social behaviour
• 10 Prejudice, conflict and intergroup behaviour
• 11 Groups and group performance
• References
• Index