Psychology of Social Interaction - 1

PSYC 3330

social psychology

how the presence of others affects people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

physical presence

people actually being there cause presence

imagined presence

people’s expectations cause presence

• “what would my parents think?”

implied presence

the belief that people are watching cause presence

• security cameras, being in front of a mirror

scientific study

using the scientific method to disprove alternative hypothesis

• the methodology/systematic research is what matters

behavior =

person + situation

person (behavior)

• belief

• goals

• values

• perceptions

• individual differences

situation (behavior)

• norms

• roles

• time (as in, how much time they had to make the decision)

• “other people’s behavior” → go with crowd

illusory correlation

tendency to find relationships between variables where there are none

• due to pattern recognition, which is beneficial in nature

descriptive research

describes the topic

correlational research

systematic relationship between 2 variables

inferential/empirical research

cause and effect relationship between variables

• manipulate casual variable, measure resulting variable

• random assignment and careful control is essential

pearson-r correlation coefficient

measures the strength and direction between 2 variables (must be interval or ratio measurement)

strength of correlation for pearson-r

how accurately the predictor variable predicts the criterion variable

think about the absolute value for strength

• -1 to 1

direction of correlation for pearson-r

do values change in the same or opposite direction

• positive/direct: same direction

  • x goes up, y goes up OR x goes down, y goes down

• negative/inverse: opposite direction

  • x goes up, y goes down OR x goes up, y goes down

scatterplot

how we graph a correlation

• x-axis = predictor variable, y = criterion variable

• origin = 0

regression line

y-hat = bx + a

closer = stronger correlation

• y-hat: predicted y-value

• b = slope

• x = x-value

• a = y-intercept

limits of correlational research

only measures tendency

correlation does not equal cause and effect

• correlation could mean any of these

  • A causes B

  • B causes A

  • A and B cause each other

  • a confounding variable/C causes both A and B