Psychology
Social Psychology Experiments
Social psychology experiments are research studies that investigate how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the presence of others. These experiments often explore topics such as conformity, obedience, group dynamics, and social influence. They use controlled settings to observe and measure social interactions, attitudes, and perceptions, providing valuable insights into human behavior within social contexts.
Written by Perlego with AI-assistance
Related key terms
1 of 5
12 Key excerpts on "Social Psychology Experiments"
- Dogan Gursoy, Sedat Çelik, Dogan Gursoy, Sedat Çelik(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Social psychology is a scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others (Allport, 1954). That is to say, social psychology’s main concern is on the interactions between persons in various social situations. These situations consisted of person-to-person relations, relationships between members in social groups, and social processes in intergroup contexts. Social psychologists develop concepts and theoretical explanations and carry out research to test their hypotheses derived from various social psychological theories on the wide range of topics that vary from interpersonal to intergroup interactions. Investigating the social and cognitive processes in human interactions can serve to comprehend why people act the way they do, and also to guide social psychologists to make suggestions to solve some important social problems. Most social psychologists are interested in human social interactions rather than animals in contrary to some psychologists because making generalizations from animal to human is quite difficult (Hogg & Vaughan, 2011). Also, social psychologists focus on cognitive and social processes rather than observed behavior. Let us consider the situation at the beginning of this chapter as an example of those kinds of social situations
eBook - ePubSocial Psychology
Core Concepts and Emerging Trends
- Daniel W. Barrett(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
- Social psychology is the scientific study of the social experiences and behaviors of individuals. Social psychology is different from other disciplines because it examines the relationships between individuals and groups, considers multiple levels of explanation, and focuses primarily on laboratory research.
- Social psychology is driven by the desire to examine the fundamental questions of human nature having to do with free will, independence, rationality, the self, sociality, and morality.
- During the early 20th century, social psychology grew from a nonexperimental to an experimental science. Two early textbooks helped to define social psychology and differentiate it from other social scientific approaches.
- Kurt Lewin’s field theory articulated how social behavior is a product of the interactions between dispositional and situational influences on social behavior.
- Social psychologists acknowledge that social behavior has many causes and integrate them to develop more complete understandings of social behavior. These three levels of explanation are (1) evolutionary forces, (2) contextual influences, and (3) individual experiences.
- The four principles of social psychology are that social behavior is purposive; stems from both dispositional and situational influences; is affected by how people construe the social world; is cultural.
- The hindsight bias is demonstrated when people believe that they could have accurately predicted the occurrence of an actual event if they had been asked to predict it before it occurred. Students of social psychology need to be aware of this so that they don’t mistakenly think that some research findings are “obvious” and, consequently, not fully appreciate them.
- Social psychological science is a process of discovery that is creative, dynamic, honest, and self-correcting, and is not merely a body of facts. Social psychology seeks to describe, explain, and predict social behavior.
eBook - ePubSociological Methods
A Sourcebook
- Norman K. Denzin(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
In summary, we have suggested that the subject must be recognized as an active participant in any experiment, and that it may be fruitful to view the psychological experiment as a very special form of social interaction. We have proposed that the subject’s behavior in an experiment is a function of the totality of the situation, which includes the experimental variables being investigated and at least one other set of variables which we have subsumed under the heading, demand characteristics of the experimental situation. The study and control of demand characteristics are not simply matters of good experimental technique; rather, it is an empirical issue to determine under what circumstances demand characteristics significantly affect subjects’ experimental behavior. Several empirical techniques have been proposed for this purpose. It has been suggested that control of these variables in particular may lead to greater reproducibility and ecological validity of psychological experiments. With an increasing understanding of these factors intrinsic to the experimental context, the experimental method of psychology may become a more effective tool in predicting behavior in nonexperimental contexts.References
Asch, S. E., Social Psychology (New York: Prentice Hall, 1952).Brunswik, E., Systematic and Representative Design of Psychological Experiments with Results in Physical and Social Perception , (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1947, Syllabus Series, no. 304.Damaser, Esther C., Shor, R. E., and Orne, M. T., “Physiological Effects During Hypnotically-Requested Emotions ” Psychosomatic Medicine , 4 (1963), 334–343.Frank, J. D., “Experimental Studies of Personal Pressure and Resistance: L Experimental Production of Resistance .” Journal of General Psychology , 30 (1944), 33–41.Orne, M. T., “The Demand Characteristics of an Experimental Design and their Implications ,” paper read at American Psychological Association , Cincinnati, 1959a.Orne, M. T., “The Nature of Hypnosis: Artifact and Essence ”, Journal of Abnormal Social Psychology , 58 (1959b), 277–299.Orne, M. T., and Scheibe, K. E., “The Contribution of Nondeprivation Factors in the Production of Sensory Deprivation Effects: The Psychology of the ‘Panic Button ’,” Journal of Abnormal Social Psychology , 68 (1964), 3–12.Pierce, A. H., “The Subconscious Again ,” Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Method , 5 (1908), 264–271.Riecken, H. W., “A Program for Research on Experiments in Social Psychology ,” paper read at Behavioral Sciences Conference , University of New Mexico, 1958.Rosenthal, R., “On the Social Psychology of the Psychological Experiment: With Particular Reference to Experimenter Bias ,” paper read at American Psychological Association , New York, 1961.Sarbin, T. R., “Contributions to Role-taking Theory: L Hypnotic behavior
- Clyde Hendrick, Russell A. Jones(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Academic Press(Publisher)
Chapter 4 CONDUCTING THE EXPERIMENT In this chapter we will deal with some topics that have been mentioned earlier, but which require more explicit discussion. We include a dis-cussion of (a) the types of social experiments, (b) pretesting, and (c) the nature of experimental operations—particularly the issue of behavioral versus cognitive operations. The Types of Social Experiments Social psychology more than most areas of psychology varies in the types of experiments which go under the banner of social psycho-logical. The articles reprinted in this book illustrate this variety. These experiments range from the relatively simple impression studies to the fairly complex dissonance studies. One reason for this variety is the lack of standardized manipulations of independent variables. In contrast, 75 76 4. Conducting the Experiment areas such as verbal learning and opérant conditioning have fairly well standardized research paradigms which include an elaborate technology. Another reason for the variety of different experiments is that social psychologists are interested in a wide range of behavior—from small group processes to the study of cognition within the individual head. Such diverse interests necessarily require variation in techniques and procedures. However, even within a specific research area, diversity of procedures is endemic. One investigator may manipulate a variable in one way, a second in a very different way. Consequently, it is difficult to compare the two experiments in any meaningful manner. Some people have become discouraged with the seemingly endless production of in-dependent research studies. On the other hand, the series of articles in this book indicate that continuity of research does exist. Nevertheless, the criticism does have some merit. The independent, single studies prob-ably still outnumber the cumulative research series. This is due only in part to the variation in methodology.
eBook - PDF- Barry Kantowitz, Henry Roediger, III, David Elmes, Barry Kantowitz, Henry Roediger, III, David Elmes, (Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
6. Recently, social psychologists have adapted the techniques of cognitive psychologists to study such topics as attitudes. We can make inferences about people’s attitudes and prefer- ences based on how long they take to respond to situations or what they remember. KEY TERMS autokinetic phenomenon blind bystander effect conformity confounding control variables demand characteristics diffusion of responsibility double-blind experiment experimental control experimental error experimenter bias field research implicit attitude measures implicit memory tests interaction obedience placebo effect prime priming randomization simulating control participants single-blind experiment social facilitation social loafing social norms social psychology target visual masks 428 PART 2 • PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Copyright 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Why is experimental control often more difficult to achieve in Social Psychology Experiments than in other sorts of research? To illustrate, make a list of variables that would have to be controlled (or randomized) in a typical bystander interven- tion study that is done a. in a laboratory situation, and b. in a field experiment. 2. Evaluate the following statement: “If an extrane- ous variable is in danger of being confounded with the independent variable of interest in an experiment, it is better to randomize the influence of the variable across conditions than to control it so that it cannot vary between conditions.” Explain why you think this statement is true or false.
eBook - PDFSocial Science Experiments
A Hands-on Introduction
- Donald P. Green(Author)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
4 A Tour of Social Science Experiments In Chapter 2, we defined experiments as research studies in which subjects are assigned at random to treatment or control conditions. Chapter 3 set the mechanics of random assignment in motion via a humble product-testing experiment. That exercise was meant to solidify your understanding of how to design and deploy an experimental intervention, create a database, and estimate the average effect of the treatment on outcomes. The next step is to apply the experimental method to the study of social phenomena. Before trying your hand at a social experiment, first get a sense of how social scientists have used experiments to learn about cause and effect. Although these experi- ments all share a common ingredient, random assignment, they vary widely in their substantive focus. One aim of this chapter is to call readers’ attention to the breadth of topics that lend themselves to experimental investigation. Another aim of this chapter is to illustrate the design choices that researchers make when balancing their eagerness to learn against practical and ethical constraints. Some researchers opt for laboratory studies conducted under tightly controlled conditions; others opt for experiments conducted in naturalistic settings, perhaps with some loss of control over whether subjects take the treatment they are assigned. As we will see, what an experiment can teach us depends on its design. Special attention must be paid to four aspects of an experimental research design: Who the subjects are, what interventions they are exposed to, the context in which the intervention takes place, and the way in which outcomes are measured (see Box 4.1). An important skill is to be able to read a research study and succinctly describe these four design elements, each of which has implications for what the experiment can teach us. This chapter begins with a brief overview of the four main types of experiments.
eBook - PDFBlind Alleys in Social Psychology
A Search for Ways Out
- A. Eskola, A. Kihlström, D. Kivinen, K. Weckroth, O.-H. Ylijoki(Authors)
- 1988(Publication Date)
- North Holland(Publisher)
This reflects the considerable time lag before the general theoretical debate reaches different peripheral fields of social psychological research, such as alcohol studies. Finally, to revert to the question we had at the beginning of this chapter - Is the laboratory experiment applicable to social psychology? - our discussion above has made it clear that this question is inseparable from the question, What is social psychology concerned with, what is its research ob- ject? These two questions are organically bound together, as all ontological (what is reality lie?) and epistemological (how can we learn about that reality?) questions are. Jnsofar as social psychologists wish to carry on their search for connec- tions between the use of alcohol and behaviour or emotions, for example, they should at least admit that there are no necessary, universal relations to be discovered but only empirical regularities. Experimenters would find a far more interesting object of study in the meaning structures created by their subjects, rather than in those they have created themselves: What does alcohol mean to different individuals living in different ‘alcohol cultures’, what kind of rules and roles can be discovered in drinking episodes? To 6nd their way beyond the taken-for-granted type of regularities and into the meanings and interpretations adopted by the in- dividual, researchers will need methods other than the traditional laboratory experiment. Another alternative to the endless search for determining factors is also conceivable. Social psychologists could turn to the core of their discipline and through original theoretical work attempt to clarify the basic principles of human interaction and in this way to establish the proper research object of social psychology. Through these efforts they might be able to discover some kind of basic system constituting the essence of all social psychological knowledge.
eBook - PDF- Jeffrey H Goldstein(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Academic Press(Publisher)
The social psychologists joined the group in order to observe how and to what extent members would support one another in the face of an unfulfilled prophecy. They found that after the predicted date of destruction passed, rather than acknowledge that a mistake had been made, the group actually took credit for pre-venting doomsday and began to recruit new members. While the results of this study are difficult to quantify and analyze in statistical terms, they provide some important theoretical insights into group dynamics, social relationships, and persuasion. Social psychologists occasionally study a few isolated individuals in order to test or develop theories of some aspect of behavior. These studies are referred to as case studies. Case studies provide the basis for psychoanalytic theory and are frequently presented as supporting research for it (Freud, 1963a, 1963b). In an early social psychological study on the nature of social attitudes, M. Brewster Smith, Jerome S. Bruner, and Robert W. White (1956) closely explored ten individ-uals' attitudes toward Russia. The men in their study were not chosen to be representative of all men, because the researchers were primarily interested in examining how attitudes form, how they are supported, and how they alter our way of viewing the world. Rather than providing a test of a theory, such case studies more often serve to generate theoretical ideas. Because the individuals under study are seldom representative of any larger population, case studies provide a means of examining some aspects of behavior in depth and arriving at hypotheses. The hypotheses can then be tested by more conventional methods. MEASUREMENT IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Comparisons form the very foundation of research. A researcher attempts to test a hypothesis by comparing two or more individuals or groups of individuals, or by comparing the same individuals at MEASUREMENT IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 65 •
- William Outhwaite, Stephen Turner, William Outhwaite, Stephen Turner(Authors)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
Theory building is the goal of sociology; the empirical methods used are means to that end. The investigations sometimes termed ‘experimental sociology’ would better be labeled ‘theoretical sociology’. The goal is theory creation and development, not the running of experiments. In this chapter we investigate the links between theory and experiments in the con-text of the social sciences. The most general question is how experiments can be useful in improving knowledge of social structures and social processes. We also address oppo-sition to experimentation—not to decry it as a form of prejudice, but rather to show its sources in different overarching worldviews that different social scientists have adopted, not always consciously or deliberately. Following that, we outline design elements and show their links to theory development, 10 Theory and Experimentation in the Social Sciences M u r r a y W e b s t e r, J r. a n d J a n e S e l l and illustrate those points with an analysis of a sensitive experiment in sociology. We begin with a definition of ‘experiment’ as we understand the term. What Experiments are and How They are Useful In the social sciences, experiments are social situations deliberately created for the pur-pose of better understanding some aspects of social structures and social processes. An experiment is a research design in which an investigator controls the level of independent variables before measuring the level of depen-dent variables. The time ordering is what makes an experiment. In other methods—sur-veys, content analyses, structured and unstructured observation—a researcher con-fronts the independent and dependent vari-ables simultaneously. Then ‘control’ of independent and intervening variables is accomplished statistically to assess correla-tions with the dependent variables. This tem-poral ordering is associated, as we will show below, with different meanings of ‘general-ization’.
eBook - PDF- Dov M. Gabbay, Paul Thagard, John Woods(Authors)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- North Holland(Publisher)
The wary attitude — sometimes a sceptic view — on the role of experiments in the social sciences has changed progressively. The dominant perspective has moved steadily towards a clear acceptance of the possibility of experiments in social sciences. Furthermore, it includes a neat attempt to explore new aspects of experimentation in human affairs. The movement has received impulse from two kinds of approaches: a) some new philosophic-methodological analyses — on science, in general, and on social sciences, in particular — grounded in the idea of scientific activity, 2 and b) an important amount of contributions in the realm of the scientific research on human affairs , such as in the case of economic matters with the experimental branch. On the one hand, since the mid-1980’s the analysis of philosophy and method-ology of science has paid the attention to experiments on the basis of a new con-sideration of the scientific practice . 3 The previous emphasis on the contents of science (semantic, logical, epistemological, . . . ) has given way to a more detailed reflection on how science is made as a human activity in a social environment (i.e., the laboratories as institutions where the scientists intervene). This involves a direct reflection on the practice of laboratory experimentation. 4 In addition, the scope of the philosophical and methodological analysis has been enlarged with new light shed on applied science and on applications of science. 5 Simultaneously, on the other hand, scientific research on social events has widened the original fields in the last decades, mainly in the sciences of psychology and economics. Some new territories have been embraced, such as “experimental economics”, which in 2002 received public recognition in the form of a Nobel Prize (Vernon Smith 6 and Daniel Kahneman 7 ). Experimental economics is a scientific branch which has been the focus of increasing attention since the mid-1980’s.
- Murray Webster, Jane Sell(Authors)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- Academic Press(Publisher)
Locke writes, “Both college students and employees appear to respond similarly to goals, feedback, incentives, participation, and so forth, perhaps because the similarities among these subjects (such as in values) are more crucial than their differences” (1986, p. 6). Thus, despite the prevalence of the claim, the data suggest that many laboratory findings generalize to field settings. 11 X. CONCLUSION I began this chapter with the goal of outlining the philosophical and logical foundations of experimental methods in the social sciences. For those of us engaged in the business of designing and executing experiments, the advan-tages this method affords in terms of promulgating scientific theory and aiding empirical exploration are unmistakable. However, we are still a small (though growing) segment of practicing social scientists. Critics are decidedly more abundant, and vocal, as they galvanize around issues of random assignment, artificiality, external validity, and experimental utility. In some ways it is hard to conceive that the experimental strategy—the touchstone of scientific inquiry in physics, medicine, biology, chemistry, and so on—was argued to be in critical condition less than a decade ago. In truth, experimental methods in the social sciences serve the same function as they do in other scientific are-nas. Experimentation is the best known way to examine theoretical hypotheses, eliminate alternative explanations, and provide clues to causal inference . In closing, the experimental method is the sine qua non of scientific inquiry, spanning disciplines from particle physics to aerospace exploration and every-thing in between. The ubiquity of the experimental method likely stems from 84 Laboratory Experiments in the Social Sciences 11 It may not be obvious, but the structure of generalization in empirically driven experiments is the same as in theory-driven experiments.
eBook - ePub- Clyde Hendrick(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Psychology Press(Publisher)
The context of social psychology: A critical assessment. New York: Academic Press, 1972.Murchison, C. A. (Ed.). A handbook of social psychology. Worcester, Mass.: Clark University Press, 1935.Murphy, G. The future of social psychology in historical perspective. In O. Klinberg & R. Christie (Eds.), Perspectives in social psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1965.Murphy, G., & Murphy, L. B. Experimental social psychology. New York: Harper, 1931.Murphy, G., Murphy, L. B., & Newcomb, T. M. Experimental social psychology (Rev. ed.). New York: Harper, 1937.Nagel, E. The structure of science. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1961.Nisbet, R. A. Social change and history. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.Phillips, D. L. Abandoning method. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1973.Piaget, J. Understanding Causality. New York: Norton, 1974.Popper, K. The logic of scientific discovery (K. Popper, Trans.). New York: Harper & Row, 1968. (Originally published, 1934.)Resnick, J. H., & Schwartz, T. Ethical standards as an independent variable in psychological research. American Psychologist, 1973, 28, 134–139.Richards, M. The biological and the social. In N. Armistead (Ed.), Reconstructing social psychology. Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books, 1974.Riecken, H. W. Research developments in the social sciences. In O. Klineberg & R. Christie (Eds.), Perspectives in social psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1965.Ring, K. Experimental social psychology: Some sober questions about some frivolous values. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1967, 3, 113–123.Rosenthal, R., & Rosnow, R. L. Artifact in behavioral research. New York: Academic Press, 1969.Rowan, J. Research as intervention. In N. Armistead (Ed.), Reconstructing social psychology. Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books, 1974.Ryan, A. (Ed.). The philosophy of social explanation
Index pages curate the most relevant extracts from our library of academic textbooks. They’ve been created using an in-house natural language model (NLM), each adding context and meaning to key research topics.
