SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Social Psychology

Abstract

Social psychology in recent years reveals the idea of man as there is guidance in the behavior regarding his personal characteristics and qualities; however this is not always the case. The fact is that when one person watches the other as an actor, he seems to figure out a situation on which his action appears. The observer does not waste any mental energy in trying to determine as to what incentives can be affected by the situation in this or that behavior, and what sort of barriers can prevent these reactions. A person's behavior might possibly be sent to a situation where significant people can socially become a part of this situation. Basically it is the study of human behavior and the study of social relationships in groups, the formation in those groups, ways of conflicts and ways to resolve them. Figuring out how to shape behavior of members in the social groups is considered essential.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Discussion1

Deception in Research Process1

Is Deception ever justified?2

Conclusion5

References6

Ethics in Social Psychology

Introduction

Starting as early as 1925, deception has been used in social psychology research and is particularly common in social psychology to this day. This can be contrasted with research in economics in which deception is deliberately proscribed. In the last decade there has been a resurgence of the debate on whether deception is a worthwhile tool for use in psychology and economics research. On one side are economists and psychologists condemning deception for contaminating a shared pool of study participants while some maintain that deception is empirically justified. This paper introduces and discusses topics related to deception's use in experiments. Evidence will then be presented from the current experiment in which deception's external validity as a research technique is examined. These results are discussed in the context of other problems in deception research.

Discussion

Deception in Research Process

Deception is defined in several different ways. A general definition, consistent with its use in this document, is information intentionally provided to mislead participants about aspects of a study. In order for deception to be used in research, four assumptions must be made: participants are naïve to the study design, the research design holds no clues to the hypothesis, the effectiveness of the deception can be validated, and level of suspicion does not alter the results. Deception should only be used when there are no alternatives that would produce the same results, when the cost of deceiving is outweighed by the scientific benefit of the study, and when participants are given the truth as soon as possible.

Is Deception ever justified?

The question of deception's justification has ethical and practical dimensions. Its ethical implications cannot be examined empirically, but its practical implications have. Participating in an experiment involving deception increases participant suspicion for up to three months. This effect reported by Epley & Huff (1998) did not spread to non-participants, failing to lend support to the shared-resource model proposed by some. Although strict guidelines are now in place regarding the implementation of deception research, evidence shows that students may ...