Preface to the Second Edition xi Acknowledgments xiv About the Author xv 1 Studying Social Psychology 1 Introducing and Defining Social Psychology 1 Establishing Causality: The Importance of Experimentation in Social Psychology 3 Levels of Explanation: Social Psychology''s Relation to Other Fields of Inquiry 5 Personality Psychology''s Relation to Social Psychology 7 The Scientific Method: Doing Social Psychology 8 Why? Social Psychology is Social 11 Social Thought 12 Social Influence 12 Social Connections 12 Where? The Lab and the Field 13 The Lab 13 The Field 13 One More Distinction: Basic and Applied Research 15 Social Psychologists Today 16 Active Learning Exercise 1A: Learning About Active Social Psychologists 16 Learning Research Methods for Social Psychology 18 Active Learning Exercise 1B: Planning a Research Project in Social Psychology 18 Exercises 19 2 Developing Research Topics in Social Psychology 20 The Scope of Social Psychology 22 Traditional Topics and New Avenues for Research 23 Extending Earlier Research 26 Finding a Research Question 26 Self-Reflection 26 Explore but Verify Hindsight 27 Your Campus 27 Your Community 28 Look to the Media 29 The Wider World 29 Ask an Expert 30 The World Wide Web 30 Watch Other People 31 Other Sources for Research Ideas 31 Active Learning Exercise 2A: Developing Topic Ideas by Brainstorming 32 Active Learning Exercise 2B: Keeping a Social Psychology Log 33 Searching the Social Psychological Literature 34 Searching Databases 36 Searching the Library Catalog 39 Seeking Help: Speak to Reference Professionals 39 Active Learning Exercise 2C: Maintaining a Bibliography and Organizing Sources 40 Reading Social Psychology Research 41 Borrowing Ideas from Published Social Psychology Experiments 43 Exercises 44 3 Ethical Issues in Social Psychological Research 45 Milgram''s Obedience Research 47 Other Ethically Challenging Examples 50 The Problem of Deception in Social Psychology Experiments: Balancing Benefits and Costs 51 Arguments for Using Deception: Some Benefits 53 Arguments Against Using Deception: The Costs 55 The Special Role of Confederates 56 Labels Do Matter: Participants, Not Subjects 57 Institutional Review Boards 59 Active Learning Exercise 3A: Forming an In-Class IRB 61 Active Learning Exercise 3B: Completing an IRB Form 62 Informed Consent is Essential 63 Confidentiality 64 Obtaining Informed Consent 65 Active Learning Exercise 3C: Creating an Informed Consent Form for Your Project 66 Ethical Issues and Field Research 68 Shared Virtues: Ethical Treatment, Education, and Science 69 A Last Word on Ethics? 70 Exercises 71 4 Basic Experimental Design 72 The Logic of Experimentation 73 The Advantages of Experiments 76 Why Experiments Matter in Social Psychology 77 Turning a Research Question into a Hypothesis 77 Operational Definitions in Social Psychological Research 78 Active Learning Exercise 4A: Writing an Operational Definition 80 Independent and Dependent Variables 81 Active Learning Exercise 4B: Identifying Independent and Dependent Variables in Social Psychology Experiments 82 Doing Randomization in Social Psychology Experiments 83 Issues of Error 83 Sampling and Randomization 87 Active Learning Exercise 4C: Performing Random Assignment and Random Selection 89 Common Experimental Designs in Social Psychology 92 Between-Subjects Research Designs 92 Within-Subjects Research Designs 98 Active Learning Exercise 4D: Recognizing Main Effects and Interactions 99 Joining Between- and Within-Subject Variables: Mixed Designs 104 Design Matters 104 Exercises 105 Active Learning Exercise 4B Answers 105 Table 4.6 Answers 105 5 Alternatives to Experimental Research in Social Psychology 106 Leaving the Comfort of the Lab: Problems and Prospects 109 Observational Research 110 Active Learning Exercise 5A: Designing and Conducting an Observational Study 111 Correlational Approaches 112 Active Learning Exercise 5B: Conducting a Correlational Study on Personality 115 Quasi-Experimental Research Designs 117 Nonequivalent Group Designs 118 Time Series Designs 120 Survey Research 123 Approaches to Surveying Opinion 123 Experience Sampling Methods and Diary Approaches 124 Active Learning Exercise 5C: Conducting an ESM Study 125 Dear Diary: An Example 126 Internet-Based Research 127 Internet Ethics 128 Time, Participant Loss, and Sampling Issues 129 An Internet-Based Example: Online Character Pre- and Post-September 11, 2001 131 Archival Research and Meta-Analysis 133 Summarizing Studies of Social Behavior: Meta-Analysis 138 Conclusions 140 Exercises 140 6 Developing Questionnaires and Surveys 142 Caveat Emptor: Let the (Jam) Buyer Beware 143 The Obvious Advantage of Asking Questions 145 Sampling Issues 146 Probability and Nonprobability Samples 147 Scales of Measurement 149 Nominal Scales 150 Ordinal Scales 151 Interval Scales 151 Ratio Scales 151 Types of Questions: Open-Ended and Close-Ended 152 Open-Ended Questions 152 Close-Ended Questions 154 The Most Common and Useful Numerical Scale: The Likert Scale 155 Writing Clear Questions 157 Phrasing 158 Sequencing Questions 163 Being Sensitive 165 Last Words on Wording for Questionnaires and Surveys 165 Active Learning Exercise 6A: Writing and Revising Questions 166 Active Learning Exercise 6B: Pilot Testing Questions 167 Social Desirability Concerns, Halo Effects, and Yea-Saying 167 We Like to be Liked 167 Likes or Dislikes Can Matter 169 Yes, Yes, A Thousand Times, Yes 170 Anonymity or Identity? 171 A Brief Word on Survey Data Collection 171 Questionnaires and Surveys as Precursors to Experiments 172 Exercises 173 7 Introducing a Difference: Independent Variables 174 Conceiving Independent Variables 176 Types of Independent Variables 178 Can One Operationalization of an Independent Variable Represent All Possibilities? 180 Providing Context for the Independent Variable: Instructions 181 Plan for Piloting 182 Delivering the Independent Variable 182 Delivery via Authority: The Experimenter 183 Personal Delivery: Confederates and Peers 184 Written Delivery 185 Other Forms of Delivery 185 One More Time: Instruct, Repeat, and Probe 186 Active Learning Exercise 7A: Developing Independent Variables 187 How Many Independent Variables? A Reprise 188 Individual Differences as Independent Variables: Prospects and Problems 188 Verifying Cause and Effect: Manipulation Checks 189 Active Learning Exercise 7B: Developing a Manipulation Check 191 The Best Laid Plans (and Independent Variables) 192 Perform an Internal Analysis 193 Ask Participants But be Wary 194 Impact: Increase Obviousness 194 Reconsider the Hypothesis 195 Keep a Causal Focus 196 Exercises 196 8 Measuring What Happens: Dependent Variables 198 Behavioral Dependent Measures 199 Measuring What People Do 202 Measuring Intentions and Future Commitments 205 Behavioral Measures in Disguise: Unobtrusive Measures 206 Active Learning Exercise 8A: Creating Creative Dependent Measures 208 Verbal Measures 209 Varieties of Verbal Measures Revisited 210 Some Additional Verbal Dependent Measures 214 Other Types of Dependent Measures 216 Nonverbal Measures 216 Implicit Measures 216 Physiological Measures 217 False Physiological Feedback: The Bogus Pipeline 219 Narrative Approaches 219 Some Practical Issues for Administering Dependent Variables 219 Active Learning Exercise 8B: Developing Dependent Variables by Looking to the Literature 221 Reliability and Dependent Variables 222 Exercises 223 9 Validity and Realism in Research 224 Trusting Research Evidence: Demonstrating Internal Validity 226 General Threats to Internal Validity 228 Reprise: Ways to Enhance a Study''s Internal Validity 231 Generalizing to Other Settings: External Validity 231 External Validity via Replication 232 College Sophomores as Threats to External Validity 233 Context Matters 234 Enhancing External Validity 235 In Praise of External Invalidity 236 The Social Psychologist''s Challenge: Trade-Offs Between Internal and External Validity 237 Active Learning Exercise 9A: Evaluating Your Project''s Internal and External Validity 238 Making It Real: Mundane, Experimental, and Psychological Realism 239 Active Learning Exercise 9B: Enhancing Mundane and Experimental Realism 242 (Re)Considering Construct Validity 243 Beyond Construct Validity 244 Validity and Realism via Replication 244 Exercises 245 10 Conducting Social Psychology Experiments: Practical Matters 246 Setting the Stage 248 Deception Revisited: Think Carefully Before You Decide to Deceive Participants 2.