PSYCH 13 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Gordon Allport, Scientific Method, Personality Psychology
Document Summary
Social psychology: the scientific investigation of how our thinking, feelings and behaviour are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others. Includes observable activity and psychological dimensions, group behaviour, relationships and public or private behaviour. Characteristics of social psychology: the individual in the social context as the level of analysis and examines internal psychological states as well as overt behaviour and uses scientific methods to investigate questions. Related areas of study are sociology (level of analysis and methodology), clinical psychology (focus) and personality psychology (stability). Social psychology and common sense: the knew-it-all-along" phenomenon. Common sense seems to explain many social psychological findings after the face. But how does one distinguish common sense faces from common sense myths. Unlike common sense, social psychology uses the scientific method to put its theories to the test. First textbooks were by mcdougall (1908), ross (1908) and f. allport (1924) These books established social psychology as a distinct.
