Module 10: Social Psychology

In this module, you learned how people’s behaviors can be altered by the presence or actions of others around them. To help apply what you have learned about social psychology, you will take on the role of a social psychologist, and observe the actions of people in a real-world setting. To do this, you need to observe a location or an event with a large crowd. Some options might include the following:

• Sporting event
• Concert
• School assembly
• Shopping mall
• Church or congregation of people
• Busy restaurant

The above list of settings names only a few examples. If you prefer, you may choose another location; however, be sure there is a substantial number of people interacting as individuals or as part of a group, or multiple groups.

After you have chosen your setting, carefully describe the location, including time, place, approximate number of people, and other important details. Then, describe the kinds of interactions you observe. Keep in mind that for any naturalistic observation, the key is to imagine you are a stranger who has suddenly stumbled into a novel land. For example, if you are describing a football game, imagine how someone who has never seen or heard of football would describe the scene. Make sure your observations are as vivid and concrete as possible. Your description should be between 200 and 300 words.

Next, review what you wrote for your observation, and determine how many of the terms from the social psychology module apply to what you witnessed. Explain the meaning of each term in your own words, and describe a specific example of how you witnessed the term. You may also highlight social psychology terms that you expected to see, but did not. In this case, clearly explain why you did not witness an example of the term in your naturalistic observation.

Reference the table below to view a list of the social psychology terms included in this module. You must incorporate a least five terms into your explanation.

aggression	door-in-the-face phenomenon	prejudice
altruism	foot-in-the-door phenomenon	role
attitude	frustration-aggression principle	self-disclosure
attribution theory	fundamental attribution error	self-serving bias
bystander effect	group polarization	situational attribution
central route persuasion	groupthink	social facilitation
cognitive dissonance	ingroup	social impairment
companionate love	just-world phenomenon	social loafing
conflict	mere exposure effect	social psychology
conformity	outgroup	social reciprocity
deindividuation	passionate love	stereotype
discrimination	peripheral route persuasion	superordinate goals
dispositional attribution

Before you begin, access the Social Psychology Observation Rubric to make sure that you include all of the items required for full credit. You may need to use resources outside of this course to complete the assignment. If so, please submit a Works Cited document.

Reflection

Take a moment to reflect on the following questions, then respond to them in a brief four-to-five sentence paragraph.

• What aspects of your chosen setting made it easier or more difficult to connect your observation to concepts from this module?
• Did people in your chosen setting display more pro-social behaviors, like altruism and cooperation, or more negative behaviors? Explain.
• If you could step back and observe your day-to-day interactions as if you were someone from a foreign land, what types of positive and negative aspects of your various groups might you discover?

 

Once you have completed your observation and reflection, please submit your work to the dropbox.

 

Once you have completed this module, please complete the module test.