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Lecture 1 - Intro To 113

This document provides an overview of a course on social psychology in the digital age. It includes: 1) Core learning outcomes which focus on theories, real world applications, and research methodologies in social psychology. 2) A definition of social psychology as the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by others. 3) Key areas of social psychology including social influence, social cognition, and social relations. 4) An illustration of the levels of analysis in social psychology from culture to self. 5) An outline of the course structure over several weeks, covering topics like impression formation, attraction, social influence, and prejudice.

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16 views

Lecture 1 - Intro To 113

This document provides an overview of a course on social psychology in the digital age. It includes: 1) Core learning outcomes which focus on theories, real world applications, and research methodologies in social psychology. 2) A definition of social psychology as the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by others. 3) Key areas of social psychology including social influence, social cognition, and social relations. 4) An illustration of the levels of analysis in social psychology from culture to self. 5) An outline of the course structure over several weeks, covering topics like impression formation, attraction, social influence, and prejudice.

Uploaded by

ctriolaire
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Social Psychology in the Digital Age

Jaime Benjamin
[email protected]
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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