PSY 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Research, Social Comparison Theory, Internal Validity
16 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Social psychology- the scientific discipline that attempts to understand and explain how thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual imagined, or implied presence of others. Uses scientific method, i. e. observations, hypothesis: step 1: observation, step 2: theory/hypothesis generation. Descriptive hypothesis: proposes a specific event, pattern of behavior, or pattern of data. Must include a prediction, not necessarily explanation. Explanatory hypothesis: propose a mechanism by which the predicted event occurs. Must include both prediction and explanation: step 3: selecting a method. Qualities of good experiments: three kinds of validity. Agreement between a concept and a measure. Does the effect generalize to the larger population. Ethics & the social self: research ethics, the social self, self-awareness (theory, self-regulation, sources of self knowledge. Three ethical concerns: harm (physical, psychological, social, economic) The benefits to the person and to the society must outweigh the risks of harm.
