What Social Psychologists Do

One way to get a quick glimpse of what social psychologists do and think about is to read the web pages of several social psychologists. Your task this unit is to explore the Internet to find social psychologists and gain a better understanding of the vast field of social psychology. For this exploration, I would like you to focus on individual socialpsychologists rather than general social psychological topics.

There are several approaches to finding social psychologists on the Internet:

• One way is to use a list of social psychologists and their web pages, such as the lists at  (Links to an external site.)“>Social Psychology Network (Links to an external site.)or  (Links to an external site.)“>APA Science In Action (Links to an external site.). You can use lists such as these ones and arbitrarily select several social psychologists to read about.
• Another approach is to use a search engine to look for the home pages of particular universities or colleges, and to go from there to find the faculty who teach social psychology courses. For example, you might do a search for University of X, then select the most relevant-looking option such as Departments, and then select Psychology, and then Faculty, and then look at the faculty research descriptions for social psychology interests. Schools vary considerably in how their pages are set up, but it’s usually pretty easy to find the social psychology faculty, if the school has any.
• A third approach is to search by the names of particular social psychologists. Skim through the textbook and select the names of a few social psychologists mentioned there, perhaps one per chapter. Not all of the social psychologists mentioned will have a web page (indeed, several people whom students select might not be alive today), but it shouldn’t take many tries to find several who do have web pages.

Once the web pages are found, you should peruse the page and any links from the page, and take note of the kinds of questions that the social psychologists are interested in. Individuals’ web pages vary dramatically in how much information they have, how personal they are, and so forth, but often one can learn a good deal about the research and interests of the person. Your job is to find two social psychologists that meet two of the following criteria:

1. Research that is most unusual or unique.
2. Research that is most surprising.
3. Research that has the most practical relevance or application.

Again, choose two psychologists that fit two of the three categories listed above. Identify the category and the name of the psychologist, their school/institution/corporation of affiliation, and a brief description of their research. Thoroughly address why you feel their research meets the specific criterion that you cited. What potential benefits will society reap from their research efforts? What potential benefits will society reap from their research efforts? 

Research in Social Psychology

This unit you will be conducting your own “mini-study” (using a field experiment, as opposed to a laboratory experiment) to examine the power of the situation. Specifically, you will be examining the impact of nonverbal cues on social responding. This homework gives you the chance to:

• Explore the expression of emotions, including individual and sex differences in such expression
• Demonstrate the power of nonverbal communication
• Increase awareness of how self-image is affected by the responses of others
• Develop students’ skills as experimenters; and to study the influence of experimental variables.”

MINI STUDY

1. Your Task:
   Your task is to look at strangers and either smile or not smile, and to record these strangers’ responses to you. Specifically, you must make eye contact with each stranger and, on the basis of a random assignment determined before you choose the stranger with whom you will make eye contact, you should smile or not smile at this person, and should maintain this eye contact for a few seconds. If the stranger has not already done so, you should end the eye contact and move away. Then, you should record whether the stranger:

• smiled
• neither smiled nor acknowledged your smile in any way
• acknowledged without a smile — as by nodding the head or showing some other form of greeting without smiling
• showed avoidance — as by looking away and avoiding further response
• other, which you should describe in your notes
• Categorize Responses:
  You should choose only one of these categories to describe each stranger’s response. You should also be sure to note the gender of each stranger and which condition he or she was in (i.e., did you smile or not?).

  It is very important that you use random assignment (such as a flip of a coin) to determine whether or not you will smile at a person, and this random assignment should be done before you select the stranger with whom to make eye contact. Also, you should try to select strangers who are alone.

1. Collect Data:
   You must collect data on at least three men and three women in each condition (so, smile at three men, don’t smile at three men, smile at three women, don’t smile at three women – total of 12 targets).ConditionMenWomenSmile

3 participants

3 participantsDon’t Smile

3 participants

3 participants

1. Calculate Number of Smiles:
   When the data have been collected, calculate the number and the percentage of strangers in each condition who smiled, the number and the percentage who did not smile, the number and the percentage who acknowledged without a smile, and so on. Then do these calculations separately for each condition, as well as separately for males in each condition and females in each condition. Examine your results and look for differences between conditions and between male and female strangers. Provide an interpretation of the results. Suggest a theoretical reason to account for any differences that you found between or among conditions.
2. Evaluate Results:
   Examine your results and look for differences between conditions and between male and female strangers. Provide an interpretation of the results. Suggest a theoretical reason to account for any differences that you found between or among conditions.
3. Discuss Your Findings:
   Discuss what you learned about experimentation by conducting this “mini-study”?

   (CRITICAL NOTE: In the “no smile” condition, to avoid discomfort for you and the target, as well as an appearance of rudeness, please feel free to acknowledge your targets in a friendly manner, after you note their initial response.

Unit 1: Literature Review Research Topic and First Three Peer-Reviewed Study AbstractsStart Assignment

• Due Sunday by 11:59pm
• Points 10
• Submitting a file upload

Select Research Topic and First Three Peer-Reviewed Study Abstracts

PART 1: SELECT RESEARCH TOPIC

1. IDENTIFY TOPICTo begin your investigation, you will need to find a topic. Start by browsing the table of contents in your textbook to gain a sense of the different topics addressed by social psychology.When you find a topic that is interesting to you, you will then want to investigate a bit further to identify specific issues or questions relevant to that topic.Think critically about your topic area:

• What questions are left unanswered?
• What populations have been addressed?
• What areas seem to provide contradictory information?
• How is technology challenging our current understanding of the issue?

2. FORM A RESEARCH QUESTIONNext, you will form a research question. I have provided an extensive list of research questions other students have developed and used in the Course Information overview Literature Review tab. It is important the question is specific, definable and answerable. To ensure that you have selected a workable, manageable topic, you will want to go to the Links to an external site.“>online libraryLinks to an external site. and conduct a quick search to see if you can find studies to support your question. Use the following table for examples of good and poor research questions:Poor Research QuestionGood Research QuestionWhat is self-esteem?How does media affect self-esteem?What causes aggression?What is the relationship between aggressive behavior and playing violent video games?What is the bystander effect?How does being in a group influence helping behavior?What is stress?How does stress affect health?Is prejudice changing?How do stereotypes affect prejudice?

Part 2: Select First Three Peer-Reviewed Articles

1. CONDUCT A LITERATURE SEARCHNow you need to go to the library, access Park’s online library resources, or use the internet to search for peer-reviewed articles in support of your research topic and that give background information.If you need help with finding the right journals, the links will help you get started using the databases at Park University: Links to an external site.“>Psychology: Finding ArticlesLinks to an external site.

2. SELECT 3 PEER-REVIEWED STUDIES THAT SUPPORT/AGREE WITH YOUR TOPIC

• They can give background information, generally support/agree with your topic, or present an alternative viewSelect carefully. You should have looked up and reviewed many peer-reviewed studies from which to choose the ones you use that best support your research question.