Chapter 1: Intro to Social
Psychology
Part 2: Fri. Jan. 16, 2015
Social Psychology and Values
• Our values influence our research.
– Our choice of research topics
– Our observations of people:
– What are we primed to see & hear?
• Michael Shermer’s TED talk – examples…
• Where is most social psych research done?
– Influence on theory building?
• Leadership theories across cultures -
• Haidt study of social psychologists’ political views
– How might liberalism / conservatism affect choice of research
topic? What type of research gets published?
• Application – video on American approach to healing
after trauma (Ethan Watters’ book “Crazy Like Us”)
– Limitations / assumptions about PTSD?
Research Methods
• Importance of scientific method
– Advantages of standardization
– Use of theories & predictions (hypotheses)
– What are theories?
– Some results appear counterintuitive
• How to increase voter turnout?
• Sampling issues –
– Sample  generalize to population
– How is a random sample defined?
• Why is it best?
• How can we draw a random sample?
– What is random assignment to groups?
• Why is this important?