Psychology 2070A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Wendy Craig, Murder Of Kitty Genovese, Leon Festinger
20 Nov 2016
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Chapter 2 – Methodology (How social Psychologists Do Research)
A. Social Psychology: An Empirical Science
• Hindsight Bias: The tendency for people to exaggerate how much they could have predicted the
outcome after knowing that it occurred.
o Experiment: Olson and Roese @ University of Western Ontario
▪ Process:
• Asked students to read a story based on WWI about a young British soldier who devised
a plan to save a small village that was about to be invaded.
• Tell them the acceptance of the solder’s plan and the result of the village
• Asked them how predictable the outcome was
▪ Results: Students felt it was obvious to predict the result in both situation (Success and
Failure plan) → Hindsight Bias
▪ Conclusion: Predict before running the experiment.
• Social Psychology: An empirical science with a well-developed set of methods to answer questions
about social behavior.
o 3 Types of Methods:
▪ Observational Method
▪ Correlational Method
▪ Experimental Method
B. Formulating Hypotheses and Theories
• Theory: An organized set of principles that can be used to explain observed phenomena
• Hypothesis: A testable statement or idea about the relationship between 2 or more variables
a. Inspiration from Earlier Theories and Research
• Stem from dissatisfaction with existing theories and explanations.
• Social psychologists develop a theory → Test specific hypotheses → revise the theory with new
hypotheses based on the 1st result.
b. Hypotheses Based on Personal Observation
• Hypotheses stem from any phenomenon they find curious and interesting in their everyday life.
• Example: The Kitty Genovese murder case by Bibb Latané and John Darley
o Description: She was attacked while waling to her car and brutally murdered in the alley of an
apartment complex. With no fewer than 38 people heard her scream, none of them call the police.
o Psychologist hypothesis: Why none of the New Yorkers are willing to help that night?
o Conclusion:
▪ Diffusion of Responsibility: the more people who witness an emergency, the less likely it is
that any given individual will intervene.
• How to prove a hypothesis is true? (Table 2.1 P. 31)
o Collect data to test the hypothesis.
o Operational Definition: The precise specification of how variables are measured or manipulated.
Goal:
- Choose the right methods
- Maximize its strengths
- Minimizing its weaknesses.
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C. The Observational Method
• Observation Method: The technique whereby a researcher observes people and systematically
records measurements of their behavior.
o Goal: Describe what a particular group of people or type of behavior is like
o Usage: Address important social problems.
o Varies according to the degree to which the observer actively participates in the scene.
▪ Ethnography: The method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture
by observing it from the inside w/o imposing any preconceived notions they might have.
• Goal: Understand the richness and complexity of the group by observing it in action.
• The chief method of cultural anthropology (The study of human cultures and societies)
• Experiment #1 - Leon Festinger and his colleagues
o Description: In 1950s, people in the U.S. Midwest believe that the world would end
in a violent cataclysm on specific date and will be rescued in time by a spaceship
that would land in their leader’s backyard.
o Question: Why people are so insists that their idea is correct?
o How: Join the group for discussion and pretend believing the world is ending soon.
o Conclusions: The more you think about one thing, the more you feel right about it.
(It renewed the efforts to convert other → More committed to the belief system)
▪ Not present inside the observe group but observing them by external machine.
• Experiment #2 – Debra Pepler @ York U and Wendy Craig @ Queen’s U
o Description: In order to observe bullying behavior in school settings, they ask
students to wear waist pouches containing small microphones w/ hidden video
camera filming their interactions. → Spontaneous, naturally occurring behavior
▪ Address the problem that people change their behavior while an observer
presents → Solution: Interjudge Reliability
▪ Interjudge Reliability: The level of agreement between 2 or more people who
independently observe and code a set of data; by showing that 2 or more
judges independently come up with the same observations, researchers
ensure that the observations are not the subjective impressions of one
individual.
o Question: What are the bullying behaviors and who are they?
o Operational Definition: It is only defined a power imbalance when there is a
discrepancy in terms of height and weight.
o Conclusion: The bigger child is likely to be in a position of power relative to a
smaller child.
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a. Archival Analysis
• Archival Analysis: A form of the observational method whereby the researcher examines the
accumulated documents, or archives, of a culture (E.g. Diaries, novels, magazines, and newspapers)
o Allows a unique look at the value and interests of a culture.
• Experiment #1 - Eric Patton @ Saint Joseph’s University and Gary Johns at Concordia University
o Observe women’s absenteeism in the workplace by examining the content of articles published in
the New York Times over the last 100 years
o Conclusion: Women’s absenteeism were usually portrayed as reasons related to familial and
domestic obligations → Being viewed negatively → Gender stereotypes and discrimination
• Experiment #2 – Researchers at York U
o By portrayed in magazines, they examine the relation between body ideals and the body sizes of
average young men and women
o Conclusions:
▪ The body sizes of the female models have decreased over time to the point where nearly
% of them are underweight according to the (ealth Canada’s guidelines
▪ The body mass index of North American women actually has increased in the past 4 decades.
▪ The body sizes of the male models and average young men have both increased over time.
▪ The bodies of the models have increased dramatically in muscle not fat, whereas opposite
direction for average young guy.
o Solutions:
▪ French government introduced a criminal law about promoting excessive thinness in the
fashion industry in April 2008
▪ Fashion-show organizers in Spain banned models with a body mass index under 18 from
fashion runways → < 18 = starvation level
▪ Canadian clothing retailer Jacob aligned itself with the no retouching camp and asking
models to wear size 4 instead of size 0 in October 2010.
D. The Correlational Method
• Correlational Method: The technique whereby researchers systematically measure 2 or more
variables and assess the relation between them (i.e. How much one can be predicted from the other.)
o Ideal to answer whether two variables are related.
o E.g. Whether the amount of time spent reading beauty magazines is associated with the
acceptance of the body ideal of thinness.
o Found out the answer by calculating the correlation coefficient
▪ Correlation Coefficient: A statistic that assesses how well you can predict one variable based
on another E.g. (ow well you can predict people’s weight from their height.
▪ Range from -1.00 – 1.00
• +ve correlation = x y E.g. Height Weight
• -ve correlation = x y E.g. Classes a person skipped The grade
• Uncorrelated: cannot predict one variable from the other (=0) E.g. Shoe size and books
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Document Summary
Failure plan) hindsight bias: conclusion: predict before running the experiment, social psychology: an empirical science with a well-developed set of methods to answer questions about social behavior, 3 types of methods, observational method, correlational method, experimental method. Spontaneous, naturally occurring behavior: address the problem that people change their behavior while an observer presents solution: interjudge reliability. Height weight: uncorrelated: cannot predict one variable from the other (=0) e. g. Ve correlation = x y e. g. Independent variable: the variable a researcher change or varies to see if it has an effect on some other variable: e. g. Number of people who offered to help: internal validity in experiments. Telling the participants we are studying personal problems a college students would encounter: reason: trying to remain the same level of psychological realism, generalizability across people. Increase external validity: field experiments: experiments conducted in natural settings, rather than in the laboratory.
