PSYC 333 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Standard Deviation, Leon Festinger, Complex Dynamics
Document Summary
The con ict between the lessons of social psychology and the experience of everyday life: Eld rests: 1) power and subtlety of situational in uences, 2) importance of people"s subjective interpretations of the situation, 3) necessity of understanding both individual psyches and social groups as tension systems (equilibrium between impelling and restraining forces) Quasi-stationary equilibrium - dynamic contest between opposing forces koehler"s concept, implying that certain processes/levels uctuate within limits set by constraining/impelling forces. Predictability and indeterminacy: the limits of predictability in scientists vs laypeople; how they go about predicting. The two types of prediction we are concerned. Prediction by social scientists: authors think social scientists are unrealistic in their goals of predicting behavior in novel situations of individuals or groups; situations and peoples" construals of them are way too complex. Prediction by laypeople: authors more interested in the implications of social psych for the layperson"s predictions > social psychologists".