1. INTRODUCTION TO
SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Presented by:
Mary Anne A. Portuguez, MP, RPm

2. OBSERVE.
THINK.
CHALLENGE.

3. WELCOME TO THE
WORLD OF
PSYCHOLOGY!

4. What is social
Psychology?
• It is the scientific study of how
people’s thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors are influenced by other
people.
• In lined with the four major goals
of Psychology: Describe,
explain, predict, control, and
influence.

5. To be
scientific is
to be
reliable and
valid.
A good scientific explanation
can connect many thousands of
observations, converting long
lists of unconnected “facts” into
an interconnected, coherent
and meaningful pattern.

6. Jules Henri
Poincaré
“Science is built up with
facts, as a house is with
stones, but a collection of
facts is no more a science
than a heap of stones is a
house.”

7. To be
scientific
means to
rely on
theories.
a set of related
assumptions that allows
scientists to use logical
deductive reasoning to
formulate testable
hypotheses.

8. Difference
between
deductive
and
inductive
method.
• Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by
natural selection implied that animals
could transmit unique characteristics
(such as long necks on giraffes or
flippers on seals) to their offspring.
• Copernicus’s radical theory that the
planets revolved around the sun, not
the earth, simplified and organized
thousands of prior heavenly
observations

9. Major
Theoretical
Perspectives
• Sociocultural perspective. The theoretical viewpoint that
searches for the causes of social behavior in influences from larger
social groups.
• Evolutionary perspective. A theoretical viewpoint that searches
for the causes of social behavior in the physical and psychological
dispositions that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce.
• Social learning perspective. A theoretical viewpoint that focuses
on past learning experiences as determinants of a person’s social
behaviors.
• Phenomenological perspective. The view that social behavior is
driven by a person’s subjective interpretations of events in the
environment.
• Social cognitive perspective. A theoretical viewpoint that focuses
on the mental processes involved in paying attention to,
interpreting, judging, and remembering social experiences.

10. In short,
what drives
social behavior
from these
various
perspectives?
Perspective What drives social behavior?
Sociocultural Forces in larger social groups.
Evolutionary Inherited tendencies to respond to
the social environment in ways that
would have helped our ancestors
survive and reproduce.
Social Learning Rewards and punishments. Observing
how other people are rewarded and
punished for their social behaviors.
Phenomenological The person’s subjective interpretation
of a social situation.
Social Cognitive What we pay attention to in a social
situation, how we interpret it, and
how we connect the current situation
to related experiences in memory.

11. THE NEXUS
PEOPLE INTERACT
WITH ONE ANOTHER TO
ACHIEVE SOME GOAL OR
SATISFY SOME INNER
MOTIVATION.

12. Basic
Principles
of Social
Behavior
1. Social behavior is goal
oriented. People interact with
one another to achieve some
goal or satisfy some inner
motivation.
2. Social behavior represents a
continual interaction between
the person and the situation.

13. Social
behavior is
goal-
oriented.
•Surface level
•Broader level

14. Fundamental
motives
• To establish social ties.
• To understand ourselves and
others.
• To gain and maintain status.
• To defend ourselves and those we
value.
• To attract and retain mates.

15. A taste of an
experiment on
heterosexual
attractions.
women and men differ in
some fascinating ways

16. Let’s talk
about a
PERSON in
the
SITUATION
> A person has features or
characteristics that individuals
carry into social situations.
> It refers to environmental events
or circumstances outside the
person.

17. PERSON-
SITUATION
INTERACTION
1. Different situations activate different parts of
the self.
2. Each situation has different facets, and the
social motive active in that situation depends on
which facet one is paying attention to.
3. Not everyone responds in the same way to the
same situation.
4. People change their situations.
5. People choose their situations.
6. Situations change people.
7. Situations choose people.

18. How
Psychologists
Study Social
Behavior
• Descriptive methods involve
attempts to measure or record
behaviors, thoughts, or feelings in
their natural state.
• Experimental methods attempt to
manipulate social processes by
varying some aspect of the situation.

19. Some
important
terms
• Naturalistic observation. Recording everyday
behaviors as they unfold in their natural settings.
• Hypothesis. A researcher’s prediction about what
he or she will find.
• Observer bias. Error introduced into
measurement when an observer overemphasizes
behaviors he or she expects to find and fails to
notice behaviors he or she does not expect.
• Case study. An intensive examination of an
individual or group.

20. Some
important
terms
• Generalizability. The extent to which the findings of a
particular research study extend to other similar
circumstances or cases.
• Archival method. Examination of systematic data
originally collected for other purposes (such as
marriage licenses or arrest records).
• Survey method. A technique in which the researcher
asks people to report on their beliefs, feelings, or
behaviors.
• Social desirability bias. The tendency for people to
say what they believe is appropriate or acceptable.

21. Some
important
terms
• Representative sample. A group of respondents
having characteristics that match those of the
larger population the researcher wants to describe.
• Psychological tests. Instruments for assessing a
person’s abilities, cognitions, motivations, or
behaviors.
• Reliability. The consistency of the score yielded by
a psychological test.
• Validity. The extent to which a test measures what
it is designed to measure.

22. Correlation
• Correlation. The extent to which two or more
variables are associated with one another.
• Correlation coefficient A mathematical
expression of the relationship between two
variables.

23. Experiment
• Experiment. A research method in which
the researcher sets out to systematically
manipulate one source of influence while
holding others constant.
• Independent variable. The variable
manipulated by the experimenter.
• Dependent variable. The variable
measured by the experimenter.
• Random assignment. The practice of
assigning subjects to treatments so each
subject has an equal chance of being in any
condition.

24. Other
terms
• Internal validity. The extent to which an experiment
allows confident statements about cause and effect.
• Confound. A variable that systematically changes along
with the independent variable, potentially leading to a
mistaken conclusion about the effect of the independent
variable.
• External validity. The extent to which the results of an
experiment can be generalized to other circumstances.
• Demand characteristics. Cues that make subjects
aware of how the experimenter expects them to behave.

25. Ethical safeguards in
social psychological
research
• Obtaining informed consent from
research participants.
• Fully debriefing subjects after the
research is completed.
• Evaluating the costs and benefits of
the research procedures.

26. Social
Psychology
and Allied
Sciences
• Developmental psychology consider how lifetime
experiences combine with predispositions and early
biological influences to produce the adult’s feelings,
thoughts, and behaviors.
• Personality psychology addresses differences between
people and how individual psychological components add
up to a whole person.
• Environmental psychology is the study of people’s
interactions with the physical and social environment.
• Clinical psychology is the study of behavioral dysfunction
and treatment.
• Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes.
• physiological psychology is studying the relation of
biochemistry and neural structures to behavior.

27. WE ARE NOT BOXED TO
ONLY ADJUST
OURSELVES TO THE
SITUATIONS. SOMETIMES,
WE TRY TO
CHANGE IT
OURSELVES

28. BY ACTIVELY FIGHTING
FOR IT. WE ARE NOT
SHEEP AND WE ARE
NOT SAINTS.

29. WE ARE HUMANS.
WE NEED TO FIGHT
FOR WHAT IS RIGHT!
Portuguez, 2016