concepts, methods and ethics Flashcards
what is social psychology
scientific study of everyday lives
- attitudes
- relationships
- language
what are the social psychology approaches
observable behaviours e.g walking
unobservable behaviours e.g feelings
why cant intuition or common sense be used to explain daily existence
Epstein 1997 shows flaws with folk wisdom
- its inconsistent
- e.g out of sight out of mind vs distance makes the heart grow fonder are opposing ideas about long distance relationships
describe Bahn’s opposites attract study 2017
-approached pairs of people in street to fill in survey on attitudes and traits
-86% variables statistically sig. with dyads = we select people similar to be our partners/friends
describe Swami’s 2016 study on attractiveness
attractiveness for strangers increased when of same socio economic status, music taste, appearance etc
what are the sources of bias
confirmation bias
availability heuristic
mood effects
what is confirmation bias
Barron and Byrne 2000
-desire to interpret info to fit an opinion
-seeking reinforcing info and ignoring contradictory info
what is availability heuristic
Hogg and Vaughan 2014
-mental shortcut, retrieves easily recalled examples when entering a new situation
what are mood effects
Hogg and Vaughan 2014
- moods influence the way info is interpreted
-good mood = positive appraisal of situation (Forgas 1995)
what does it mean when scientific SP has adopted the empirical method
accuracy: precise and carefully collected data
objectivity: free from bias and preconceptions
open: prepared to update theories in face of contradictory evidence
what is induction
derive theory from observations
what is deduction
test theory by collecting observations
scientific process using induction
observation
hypothesis
theory
evaluation
scientific process using deduction
theory
hypothesis
observation
evaluation
what are the approaches to gathering data in SP
questionnaires
systematic observation
case studies
strength and weakness of questionnaires
+ large no of pp, easy to administer
- cannot infer cause, poor response rate
strength and weaknesses of systematic observation
+ real behaviour, high validity, can collect data impossible to collect with questionnaires e.g young children
- subjective, overt=behaviour may change, demand characteristics, covert=ethically unsound
modern systematic observations can be done online, behaviours permanently recorded online and can be analysed
strength and weaknesses of case studies
+ good detail
- subjective, may be ungeneraliseable
ways to analyse data
-group differences, ANOVA t-test
-linear relationships, regression and correlations
-category membership, chi-square
-advanced approaches, structural equation modelling
ethics
BPS guidlines
-informed consent
-deception
-protection of pp
-right to withdraw
-debriefing
-confidentiality
what are the theories in social psychology
behaviourism
cognitive
personality
collectivist
social neuroscience
behaviourism
reinforcement etc, later incorporates thoughts and feelings (neobehaviourism)
cognitive
behaviourism believes passive interaction with the environment but cognitive sees active interpretation of experiences and planning actions
personality theories
behaviour caused by individual traits e.g authoritarianism (Adorno), optimism/pessimism (Scheier and Carver)
personality not stable throughout life
collectivist
behaviour is the product of social influences, behaviour different in groups, social identity theory (Tajfel 1984)
social neuroscience
processes in brain give rise to behaviour, brain areas linked to certain psychological traits
