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This chapter discusses social psychological research processes (how ideas are born and developed and how to begin the
research process) as well as social psych ethics and values.
Social psych poses questions on the courses of relationships, efficiency of working in groups and regret of action vs.
inaction.
a. Asking questions
Asking questions is beginning of all social psych study, a question can come from any distressing, curious or funny
observed event just as it can come from reading previous studies made by prior social psychologists (ex: Solomon Asch
read Muzafer Sherif’s demo on how individuals conform to others in groups when making judgment about weird
stimulus, which inspired Asch to study how people conform to a group even when perfectly clear that group is wrong)
Observational Studies: learning about other people simply by observing (ex: Hawkins research on bullying among
schoolchildren in Canada, how common is it? How often do peers step in to defend another child? Researchers used
hidden cameras and mikes to observe children and found that bullying was much more pervasive than most believed)
observing people who are being unknowingly filmed mays also cause certain ethical issues, (ex: certain TV news
networks may show footage that backs up their theory but discard other footage that negates it); thus role of social
psychologist is to report full data and subsequently analyze it.
Archival Studies: involves examining existing records of past events and behaviors (ex: newspaper articles, medial
records, diaries, sorts stats, personal ads, crime stats) major advantage is that as researchers are observing second hand
they can be sure that they are not themselves influencing behavior by their own presence (important in study of Connolly,
Price and Read in investigation of role of social science experts in cases that involve child sexual assault alleged to have
been committed long before case comes to trial)
Surveys: asking people question about attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors (can be done in person, over phone, or by email)
many social psychological questions can be answered only through surveys because they involve variables that are
impossible/unethical to observe directly or even manipulate (ex: people’s sexual behavior, or thoughts about future)
anyone can conduct a survey but in terms of social psych, a certain protocol must be followed (as answers can be
controlled by wording and context researchers trained to test wordings before hand) researchers first select a
population to study from which they subsequently select a sample of individuals (which must be an accurate
representation of the population) to be as accurate as possible, survey must be representative of population in
characteristics such as sex, age, race, income, education, cultural background (best way is to use random sampling =
method of selection in which everyone has equal chance of being selected for the sample) researchers use randomizing
procedures (ex: tables of randomly distributed numbers generated by computers) in order to decide how to select
individuals for samples
Correlation Coefficient: when researchers examine relationship between variables that vary in quantity, can also
measure strength and direction of relationship between the variables and calculate a stat called correlation coefficient
correlation coefficient ranges form -1,0 to +1,0 (the absolute value of the number, without the positive or negative sign
indicates how strongly two variables are associated, the larger the absolute number, the stronger the relationship and the
better either of the two variables is a predictor of the other) positive correlation = as one goes up so does the other,
negative correlation = as one goes up, the other goes down
Concurrent correlation = obtained at single point in time across a number of individuals
Prospective correlation = obtained at different times from same individual (particularly useful in determining whether
certain behaviors at a certain age are associated with other behavior at another age)
Correlation can be extremely useful in developing new hypotheses to guide future research by gathering large sets of
correlations and using complicated statistical techniques to crunch data, we can develop highly accurate predictions of
future events
After having established a correlation between two events, next step is to examine cause-and-effect relationships, which
requires conduction of an experiment (= form of research that can demonstrate causal relationship because the
experimenter has control over the events that occur and participants are randomly assigned to conditions)
All experiments share two essential characteristics:
1. Researcher has control over experimental procedure, in manipulating variables of interest while ensuring
uniformity elsewhere (i.e. all participants are treated in same way unless experiment itself requires otherwise)
thus researcher attempts to make sure that differences obtained are produced by manipulation and not by other
events in experiment
2. Participants in study are randomly assigned to different conditions (i.e. manipulations) thus random
assignment entails that participants are not assigned to a condition on the basis of their personal or behavioral
characteristics and differences in outcome of experiment can be attributed to impact of manipulation and not pre-
existing differences between participants
Both characteristics serve to eliminate the influence on participant’s behavior of any factor other than the experimental
manipulation we can therefore make more sound affirmations as to why a certain behavior occurred
Subject variables
Some experiments include variables neither dependent nor independent ex of gender of ethnicity, which is not truly
manipulated by researcher thus can’t be independent, and at the same time can’t be influenced by independent variable,
and thus can’t be dependent variables this category is referred to as subject variables (a variable characterizing pre-
existing differences among the participants in a study)
Experiments often include subject variables so that researchers can test whether the independent variables have the same
or different effects on different kinds of participants (in pen study, cultural background was a subject variable)
Statistical significance
How to know whether findings are significant when reviewing results of an experiment? Results are examined with
statistical analyses that allow researcher to determine how likely it is that the results could have occurred by chance if
result could have occurred by chance in 5 or fewer times in 100, then they hold statistical significance BUT does not
mean results are certain statistical significance gives a 95% odd that the effect obtained is the result of experimental
manipulation but possibility that results occurred by chance are still present thus attempt at replication of results is
important, if results are the same than probability that they occurred by chance becomes one in 400 statistical
significance also relevant in matters of correlations (which may be statistically significant or not depending on strength of
correlation and number of participants or observations in data)
Deception in Experiments
To create more convincing circumstances, deception is often employed in order to do so, researcher can use
confederates (= accomplices of an experimenter who, in dealing with the real participants in an experiment, acts as if he
or she is also a participant) (ex: Pamela Reagan and Delia Gutierrez, in study on sex of participant and perceived need
of an item influenced the helping behavior of an individual, thus asking confederates in supermarkets to ask ordinary
shoppers for a quarter toward various items such as milk (a high need item), cookie-dough (a low need item) and alcohol
(low need with negative connotation))
Deception not only enhances realism but also:
Allows experimenter to manufacture situations in lab that would be difficult to observe in natural settings
To study potentially armful behaviors (i.e. aggression) in a safe manner
To assess people’s spontaneous reactions rather than socially acceptable presentations
b. Informed consent
Psychologists must also abide by own code of ethics called Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists set by the
Canadian Psychological Association which stipulates that researchers are obligated to guard rights and welfare of all
participants in their study including obtaining informed consent = an individual’s deliberate, voluntary decision to
participate in research, based on the researcher’s description of what will be required during such participation
researchers shan’t proceed if consent is given under any measure of coercion and participants are free to withdraw at any
point in practice, is in fact more difficult because information provided by researchers is at best vague as psychologists
don’t want knowledge to impact behavior of participants