Important
- Retrieval Practice – Combining study sessions with self-testing and active retrieval practice is the most effective study method for test preparation.
- Hindsight Bias – The “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon makes research findings appear obvious after learning them, creating a false sense of security while studying.
- Correlation vs. Causation – Correlational findings do not establish causal relationships because of potential reverse directionality or third-variable influences.
- Research Ethics Guidelines – Core principles stemming from respect for persons, concern for welfare, and justice require informed consent, freedom to withdraw, confidentiality, debriefing, and minimizing harm.
Core concepts
- Social Psychology: The scientific study of how individuals perceive themselves and others, how social influence affects thoughts and actions, and how people relate in social contexts.
- Empirical Science: An approach relying on systematic, direct, unbiased observations and the scientific method to evaluate social behavior rather than intuition.
- Hawthorne Effect (Behavioral Reactivity): The tendency for participants to alter their behavior simply because they are aware of being observed.
- Sampling Bias: Distortion arising from non-random convenience sampling, which produces a sample that fails to represent the broader population.
- Socially Desirable Responding: The tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that presents them in a favorable light.
- Explicit vs. Implicit Attitudes: Explicit attitudes are conscious, controllable self-reports, whereas implicit attitudes are automatic, unconscious evaluations activated by attitude objects.
- WEIRD Samples: Study samples drawn predominantly from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic societies, which limits broad generalizability.
- Types of Realism: Methodological dimensions comprising mundane realism (real-world similarity), experimental realism (participant absorption), and psychological realism (activation of genuine psychological processes).
Theories and Frameworks
- Theory-Data Cycle: A systematic research framework where general theories generate hypotheses and study designs, yielding data that either support or revise the original theory.
- Person-Situation Interaction: The foundational construct asserting that human behavior is a joint function of individual personal characteristics and situational forces.
- Contact Hypothesis: Gordon Allport’s theoretical framework proposing that structured intergroup contact can effectively reduce prejudice between different social groups.
- Social Comparison Theory: Leon Festinger’s model stating that individuals evaluate their own abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to similar others when objective standards are absent.
- Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR): A framework categorizing response bias into self-deception and impression management.
Notable Individuals
- Norman Triplett: Published the first social psychology experiment after demonstrating social facilitation in competitive cyclists and children.
- Max Ringelmann: Identified social loafing by showing that individuals exert less physical effort when pulling a rope in a group than when working alone.
- Floyd Allport: Conducted early foundational research on group influence and social conformity.
- Gordon Allport: Formulated the contact hypothesis, authored The Nature of Prejudice, and studied attitudes as a pioneer in both social and personality psychology.
- Solomon Asch: Examined social conformity through classic line-judgment experiments demonstrating the impact of group pressure.
- Stanley Milgram: Conducted landmark laboratory experiments investigating obedience to authority figures.
- Muzafer Sherif: Researched the formation of social norms, intergroup conflict, and group dynamics.
- Leon Festinger: Developed social comparison theory and conducted participant observation research on cognitive dissonance within an end-of-world cult.
- Nisbett & Wilson: Demonstrated through stocking selection experiments that individuals are often unaware of the unconscious factors guiding their choices.