I’m trying to study for my Psychology course and I need some help to understand this question.

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 Social Psychology Network (Links to an external site.)or 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?

Grading

To earn the full 15 points for the discussion assignment, you must complete the main post (350 words) with your summaries of the work of two psychologists and then two substantive, insightful shorter(150-200 words) response posts to further the discussion. Originality and creativity in your responses are encouraged. (See Grading and Rubrics for the Discussion Rubric.)

Citing Responses

Make sure you properly cite the source of the information you provide for the first part. Responses that are incomplete, vague, lack-detail or repeat previous postings will receive reduced grades.

When citing paraphrased information the authors’ last names and year should appear somewhere in your first post.

For example: (Kassin, Fein, & Markus) is the format used at the end of a sentence when paraphrasing information from a source.

When copying word-for-word “quotation marks” would be placed at the beginning and end of the copied information and a page number would be added to the citation; a paragraph number, instead of a page number, is provided when quoting material from websites.

Examples: Aggression is defined as a “behavior intended to harm another individual” (Kassin, Fein, & Markus, p. 436). “One reason. One journal. One future” (Park University, para. 1).

Remember, you should always relate your postings to social psychology. Additional postings are NOT simply your opinion; they involve your demonstrated understanding and application of the relevant social psychological principles. Proper citation of sources demonstrates your understanding of avoiding plagiarism and providing ethical representations (i.e., academic honesty) of your and other’s ideas.