10 - Applications of Social Psychology

Question 1

James-Lange Theory of emotions

Answer 1

instead of:

• stimulus causing an emotion which causes a physiological response
• the stimulus causes a physiological response, from which we interpret our emotion

Question 2

Schachter & Singer (1964)

Answer 2

• emotions are determined jointly by perception of physiology and context
  > found that in an anger-stimulating context, those that had been injected with AD unknowingly reported higher levels of anger than those that knew that AD would increase their heart rate

Question 3

Issues with psychology

Answer 3

Scope:
- often in W.E.I.R.D societies
> Western Educated Industrialised Rich Democratic
- often use university students

Question 4

Hofstede Dimensions

Answer 4

Describe (fairly well) the differences between cultures

• Power distance (hierarchy)
• Individualism vs Collectivism
• Masculinity vs Femininity (values: bravery vs caring)
• Uncertainty Avoidance (preference for truth)
• Long-term vs Short-term orientation
• Indulgence vs Restraint`

Question 5

Cultural variations on psychological dimensions

Answer 5

Self-Concept
- Individualistic countries
> focus on internal characteristics
> independent self-concept (when describing individuals)
- Collectivistic countries
> focus on relational roles
> interdependent self-concept (conceptualise themselves based on relational qualities)
+ people in both camps project their values onto situations
Study
- primed bicultural people with symbolic representations of each culture to prime them, and this activated the culture-specific self-concept

Self-Enhancement
- a meta-analyses found all cultures to self-enhance
> but the aim of the self-enhancement is dependent on the culture (individualistic self enhance in success, collectivist self-enhance in friendship)

Affect

• i.e. aggression
• southern Americans show higher levels of testosterone after an aggressive event (bumping) than northern Americans

Perception

• individualistic cultures are likely to judge perception based on a key rule
• collectivist cultures are more likely to judge perception based on overall features

Question 6

Problems with research methods

Answer 6

Experimental Problems:
Demand Characteristics
- participants are not passive recipients
> they actively try to confirm / disconfirm the hypothesis

Self-Presentation effects
- they may actively try to present themselves in a positive/particular way
> because they are being observed by the experimenter

Experimenter Expectancies
- experimenters are not neutral, they may influence results in their favour

• these factors challenge the legitimacy of the experimental model

Relevance Problems:
- reliance on WEIRD cultures

Social Relevance
- maybe lab-based experimental evidence is not really extrapolate-able

Reductionist approach
- simplifying explanations

Problems of Theory an Approach:
Individualistic point of view
- ignores culture, social structure and class

Enlightenment Effects
- discovered knowledge is integrated into cultural knowledge and may influence people to behave differently (thus removing the accuracy of the initial finding)

Question 7

Consequences and solutions of the limitations of social psychology

Answer 7

Consequences

• the quality of the studies is limited
• findings may be contaminated due to the procedures (impossible to impartially study people)
• natural science model doesn’t fit

Solutions

• use a broader methodological scope
• use longitudinal studies
• more observational research (vs manipulative)
• qualitative analysis

Question 8

Questionable Research Practices

Answer 8

• incentives that influences researchers to present untrue evidence

Practices:
- multiple dependent variables / conditions
> only publish one
- keep collecting data until the effect becomes significant
- adjust for other variables (until you get the right effect)
- find a significant effect, then construct a paper around it (rather than constructing a paper to find a significant effect)

Question 9

Reproducibility Project

Answer 9

• attempt to reproduce findings in 100 published studies (social psychology)
• direct replication as far as possible
• 36% of the original findings were replicated
• when effects were found they were weaker than originally published
  > this low replicability is not extraordinarily low (compared to other disciplines)

Outcomes

• more honest and comprehensive reporting
• prior publication of study protocols
• set data collection termination rules in advance
• data must be made available for inspection