Investigating social behavior.

Abstract

INVESTIGATING SOCIAL BEHAVIORStudents with a background in elementary psychology have a fairly good idea as to what is meant by scientific psychology. The application of the scientific method involves (1) the formulation of an hypothesis, and (2^ the testing of this hypothesis by means of experiment under controlled conditions for verification or revision. The investigator, impartial and objective, guards himself against the inclination to prove what he himself prefers to believe. These tenets provide the frame of reference for psychology-as-a-science.The experimental approach is not limited to laboratory investigations, though persons with a naive conception of science are prone to think of the scientist as strictly a laboratory technician. Social psychologists would sacrifice their touch with reality if they were to restrict themselves to "brass instrument" research. Accurate knowledge of human behavior in society can be gained only by including the approach of the field worker: observing individual persons in their everyday contacts, in the home, in the school, in the market place. In such a world of intercourse, it is impossible to control conditions as a scientist would like to do in order to be sure of discovering the significant factors in a situation. It is difficult to establish valid principles when we are dealing with the personal variables involved in human relations. Unfortunately, crowds, strikes, elections, wars, and similar mass phenomena cannot be duplicated in the laboratory. The social psychologist is limited, too, by the fact that precise measurements in many cases are difficult to obtain. Despite these obstacles, there are encouraging features in the situation: statistical controls are available to make possible significant measurements of many kinds of social phenomena in real-life situations; descriptive methods of investigation may be used to good advantage if care is taken to be accurate. Qualitative (non-quantitative) reports may give us just as true an account of reality as that attained through the experimental methods of the laboratory.6}

Capturing Behavior in Small Doses: A Review of Comparative Research in Evaluating Thin Slices for Behavioral Measurement

“…Observing and measuring behavior is foundational to behavioral research (Greene, 1941 ; Vaughan, 1948 ). The measurement of behavior to understand features of communication and person perception is widespread across many domains such as psychology, sociology, medicine, and communication.…”