PSYC 215 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Field Experiment, Descriptive Knowledge, Emotional Contagion

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 215
• Professor: Mark W Baldwin

Document Summary

Scientific study of feelings, thoughts, behaviors of individuals in social situations. Emotional contagion: to converge emotionally with another. Negative: the more you get one, the less you get of the other (ex: days absent from school/gpa) Positive: the more you get of one, the more you get of the other (ex: height/weight) Research generally shows a positive correlation between friendship closeness & mood similarity. Reverse causation: friendship closeness mood similarity. Third variable problem: something else friendship closeness, mood similarity. Manipulate one (or +) independent variables and observe the outcome on the dependent variable. Manipulating a variable in a real-world setting. Experimentation allows for manipulation of one variable to observe effects on another variable. Field experiments have some positive aspects, but labs allow greater experimental control to assess detailed hypotheses. Most established ideas in social psychology end up being studied using a wide range of research methods. Knowledge about types of people and social situations.