RESPOND TO CLASSMATES POST FOR SOCIAL Psychology Course
RESPOND TO CLASSMATES POST WITH AT LEAST 3 PARAGRAPHS EACH..MAKE SURE TO CITE THE COURSE BOOK (Do not write things like “the student said” INSTEAD, write like you are me by saying things like: “you made a good point when….)
Course Book: Kassin, S. (2017). Social Psychology, 10th Edition. [Vitalsource]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/97813375095…
POST 1:
1. How has social psychological research changed throughout history? Describe current trends and directions for future research in the field.
Kassin (2017) describes social psychology as the study of how humans interact with others in a social context based off of their thoughts and feelings. Social psychology has been researched through observing and describing human behavior. Social psychology has longed researched how individuals interact socially and interact within their environment consciously and nonconsciously. When researching social psychologist often compare behaviors of individuals in within the same environment to describe the social concerns of different populations.
The first research in social psychology was conducted in the 1880’s and observed how a cyclist pedaled faster when in the presence of an audience (Kassin, 2017). As time moved forward a group of social psychologist formed a society for social psychology to research what made people do the things they did as it related to violence and social behavior. House, J. S. (2008) noted that social psychology could become obsolete in the next 25 years and also the trend of social psychology is based on the relationship between social science and public policy. Social psychology research became very popular after World War II but started to decline due to public policy and economics. Kassin (2017) describe the future trends of social psychology research heading in the direction of social cognition and multicultural perspectives. The trend is to now study how individuals perceive, remember, and interpret information about themselves and others.
2. Using the Fein, Goethals, and Kugler reading from Study 2, propose a plan for revising how presidential debates are held and covered by the media to ensure that the electorate (voters) make up their own minds as free of social influence as possible. Be sure to support your proposal with effective references and citations from the literature.
Fein, Goethals, and Kugler (2007) discuss if others conformity of a presidential campaign sway the way individuals vote fro the president. Do viewers base who they will vote for based of the reactions of others. Seiter, Weger, Jensen, and Kinzer (2010) study on rather nonverbal background cues effect the way individuals will vote for the next president. In their study they provided examples of presidential candidates who was seen as less likable because of the nonverbal cues expressed when their opponents were talking. Due to presidential debates being televised for the nation to see, one way to decrease social influence of voters is for the person who is speaking to be the only person in view of the camera. Another way to decrease the swaying of voters is to decrease the number of commentators during the presidential debate. Commentators opinion or bias can sway the way voters vote and if we minimalize how much of their opinions are broadcast then there may be chance to decrease social influence.
References
Fein, S., Goethals, G. R., & Kugler, M. B. (2007). Social Influence on Political Judgments: The Case of Presidential Debates. Political Psychology, 28(2), 165-192.
doi
:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2007.00561.x
House, J. S. (2008). Social psychology, social science, and economics: Twentieth century progress and problems, twenty-first century prospects*. Social Psychology Quarterly, 71(3), 232-256. Retrieved from http://library.capella.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%…
Kassin, S. (2017). Social Psychology, 10th Edition. [Vitalsource]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/97813375095…
Seiter, J. S., Weger, H.,Jr, Jensen, A., & Kinzer, H. J. (2010). The role of background behavior in televised debates: Does displaying nonverbal agreement and/or disagreement benefit either debater? The Journal of Social Psychology, 150(3), 278-300. Retrieved from http://library.capella.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%…
POST 2:
Social psychology research focuses on individual behavior and how other individuals, groups, and even society effect that behavior. One of the earliest published social experiments was completed by Norman Triplett in 1898 (Richard, Bond Jr., and Stokes-Zoota, 2003). The goal of the experiment was to understand how the presence of others effected an individual’s task performance. Reicher et al (as cited in Byford & Tileaga, 2014), wrote of early social psychology when a group of bystanders blocked the path of Bulgarian Jews from being deported to Nazi concentration camps. He noted this social movement by non-Jewish neighbors. More recent social experiment was the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971 (Drury, Hutchens, Shuttlesworth, & White, 2011). The main goal of this experiment was to view how when given power and authority, individuals behaved. This experiment also was useful to social psychology research because of the observed way students in the study behaved in response to others in the group.
Fein, Goethals, and Kugler (2007) discussed four different experiments where subjects viewed different presidential debates. Researchers were interested in how viewers reacted based on the reactions of others at the debate. Media plays a large role in what viewers consume, good and bad about various candidates. It’s hard to devise a plan for a non-biased way to present political agenda through media outlets. Even in the average day, people receive input and personal viewpoints from co-workers, friends and family members. The best way to observe debates may be to attend public appearances without the media filter.
Byford, J. & Tileaga, C. (2014). Social psychology, history, and the study of the Holocaust: The perils of interdisciplinary ‘borrowing’. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 20 (4), 349-364. http://dx.doi.org.library.capella.edu/10.1037/pac0000054
Drury, S., Hutchens, S., Shuttlesworth, D., & White, C. (2011). Philip G. Zimbardo on his career and the Stanford Prison Experiment’s 40th anniversary. History of Psychology, 15 (2), 161-170. http://dx.doi.org.library.capella.edu/10.1037/a0025884
Fein, S., Goethals, G.R., & Kugler, M. B. (2007). Social influence on political judgements: The case of Presidential debates. Political Psychology, 28 (2), 165-192. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2007.00561.x
Richard, F.D., Bond, Jr., C.F., & Stokes-Zoota, J.J. (2003). One hundred years of social psychology quantitatively described. Review of General Psychology, 7 (4), 331-363. http://dx.doi.org.library.capella.edu/10.1037/1089-2680.7.4.331