12. Applied social psychology

Question 1

Organisational psychology

Answer 1

The disciplines of organisational behaviour and social psychology are brought together to constitute what is known as ‘organisational psychology’.

Question 2

Insight offered by organisational psychology

Answer 2

▫ What motivates people to work and how is it related to performance?
▫ How can we identify and tackle stress and maintain well-being in the workplace?
▫ What makes someone a good leader at work, and what effect does it have on employee performance, relationships, and well-being?
▫ How effective is team-work?

Question 3

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1943)

Answer 3

Physiological, safety, love/belonging, self-esteem, self-actualisation.
Motivation can be defined as a choice into how much effort you put into the task.

Question 4

Application of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to the workplace

Answer 4

▪ Working to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Physical working conditions should be optimal to maximise performance.
▪ The working environment should protect us from risk or harm. Feeling safety and security in the workplace is crucial for well-being, relationships, and performance.
▪ The workplace should foster social cohesiveness, encouraging a shared sense of belonging and providing a meaningful workplace identity.
▪ Our work performance should be recognised and rewarded by others.
▪ Employees should feel fulfilled, achieving, and empowered.

Question 5

Modern critiques of Maslow’s need theory

Answer 5

→ Inapplicable to modern workplaces
→ Needs are complex and interrelated, therefore, the boundaries between levels are vague.
→ Employees do no work through the hierarchy of needs in the same order.
→ There are more needs than these five levels (e.g. finding the work stimulating or feeling unstressed).
→ It ignores the social influence on people’s own perceptions and construction of what they need.

Question 6

Vroom’s VIE theory (1964)

Answer 6

Motivation is a combination of valence, instrumentality, and expectancy.
- Valence -> attractive aspects of workplace and working life (e.g. being paid)/less attractive aspects (e.g. long hours).
- Instrumentality -> the relationship between performance, reward, and cost.
- Expectancy -> the belief that increasing effort will result in successful performance to obtain the reward.
- Organisational behaviour results from conscious choices, which are shaped by expectations of various outcomes.

Question 7

Adam’s equity theory

Answer 7

▪ We are concerned with what investments we’ve made (e.g. time, effort, money) and what we get out as a result (e.g. friendship, pay, affection). People are motivated to work when they feel they are being treated fairly in terms of inputs and outputs; and in comparison with others.
▪ Perceptions of being treated fairly increase the motivation to engage in the task.

Question 8

Distributive justice

Answer 8

Where the distribution of rewards are fair and perceived to be based on merit.

Question 9

Procedural justice

Answer 9

Where the processes by which decisions are made are perceived to be fair.

Question 10

Transactional leadership

Answer 10

The quality of the interaction between leader and follower in achieving a common desired goal and a successful relationship.

Question 11

Transformational leadership

Answer 11

Leadership, that enabled by a leader’s inspiration and vision, exert significant influence.

Question 12

Glass cliff in leadership

Answer 12

Women who do make it to leadership levels, but are appointed when the organisation over which they preside is in trouble. In other words, women leaders can be set up to fail.

Question 13

Loneliness

Answer 13

Loneliness is an awareness that our social relationships are less numerous or meaningful than we desire. It coexisted with a decrease in the protective influences of social networks on health.

Question 14

Social isolation and health

Answer 14

Social isolation is closely related to poor mental and physical health.
The poor quantity and quality of social networks led to feelings of social isolation and loneliness, which in turn led to depression.

Question 15

Social psychology approaches to treatment and therapy

Answer 15

Our actions affect our attitudes. Consistent with this attitudes-follow-behaviour principle, several psychotherapy techniques prescribe action.
Behaviour therapists
Assertiveness training
Self-help groups

Question 16

Behavioural therapy

Answer 16

Behaviour therapists try to shape behaviour on the theory that the client’s inner disposition will also change after the behaviour changes.

Question 17

Assertiveness training

Answer 17

In assertiveness training, the individual may first role-play assertiveness in a supportive context, then gradually implement assertive behaviours into everyday life.

Question 18

Self-help groups

Answer 18

Self-help groups subtly induce participants to behave in new ways in front of the group - to express anger, cry, act with high self-esteem, express positive feelings.

Question 19

The 6-step framework of intervention mapping

Answer 19

1. Needs assessment
   
   2. State change objectives
   3. Design the program
   4. Produce the program
   5. Plan the implementation of the program
   6. Evaluation

Question 20

Nudge theory

Answer 20

A desired behaviour can be achieved by making small but significant changes to someone’s environment. Cannot solve all problems but can make good changes.

Question 21

Motivational factors influencing environmental behaviour

Answer 21

Costs and benefits -> Theory of planned behaviour
Moral and normative concerns - values, moral obligation, environmental concerns, social norms

Question 22

Contextual factors influencing environmental behaviour

Answer 22

Context may directly affect behaviour
The relationship between context and behaviour may be mediated by motivational factors such as attitudes or norms.
Context may moderate the relationship between motivational factors.

Question 23

Social psychology studies on plant-based diets and reduction of animal products focuses on four main themes

Answer 23

1. Vegans as a disadvantaged/stigmatised group.
   
   2. The role of ideology in negative attitudes toward vegans.
   3. The role of moral and ethical beliefs in changing or sustaining dietary preferences.
   4. Veganism as a social movement and vegan activism

Question 24

Disaster myths

Answer 24

Mass panic
Helplessness
Civil disorder

Question 25

Mass panic

Answer 25

People show panic responses. Based on impulsivity, irrationality and selfishness.

Question 26

Helplessness

Answer 26

Freese and can’t act based on this. Most people freeze.

Question 27

Civil disorder

Answer 27

Crowds bring out the worst in people and disaster exaggerates this. People show a lot of negative and collective behaviours.

Question 28

Recent scientific evidence challenges these disaster myths

Answer 28

▪ Panic is a rare response in disaster emergencies. Some communities are more prone to panic responses.
▪ Overwhelming individual competitiveness is also found to be a myth; most survivors show cooperation and help -> the emergence of mutual aid as a result of a sense of common fate and shared social identity. All experiencing the same awful thing - common fate. Leads to mutual aid.

Question 29

Social identity model of collective psychosocial resilience in emergent groups (Drury et al., 2019)

Answer 29

This model is based on common fate, shared social identity, and community resilience.
Start to show social support due to shared social identity. Also start to expect social support. Creates a mutuality in that identity. Creates coordination in the group. Allowing for resilience.
Growing from shared trauma.