concepts, methods and ethics

Question 1

what is social psychology

Answer 1

scientific study of everyday lives
- attitudes
- relationships
- language

Question 2

what are the social psychology approaches

Answer 2

observable behaviours e.g walking
unobservable behaviours e.g feelings

Question 3

why cant intuition or common sense be used to explain daily existence

Answer 3

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

Question 4

describe Bahn’s opposites attract study 2017

Answer 4

-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

Question 5

describe Swami’s 2016 study on attractiveness

Answer 5

attractiveness for strangers increased when of same socio economic status, music taste, appearance etc

Question 6

what are the sources of bias

Answer 6

confirmation bias
availability heuristic
mood effects

Question 7

what is confirmation bias

Answer 7

Barron and Byrne 2000
-desire to interpret info to fit an opinion
-seeking reinforcing info and ignoring contradictory info

Question 8

what is availability heuristic

Answer 8

Hogg and Vaughan 2014
-mental shortcut, retrieves easily recalled examples when entering a new situation

Question 9

what are mood effects

Answer 9

Hogg and Vaughan 2014
- moods influence the way info is interpreted
-good mood = positive appraisal of situation (Forgas 1995)

Question 10

what does it mean when scientific SP has adopted the empirical method

Answer 10

accuracy: precise and carefully collected data
objectivity: free from bias and preconceptions
open: prepared to update theories in face of contradictory evidence

Question 11

what is induction

Answer 11

derive theory from observations

Question 12

what is deduction

Answer 12

test theory by collecting observations

Question 13

scientific process using induction

Answer 13

observation
hypothesis
theory
evaluation

Question 14

scientific process using deduction

Answer 14

theory
hypothesis
observation
evaluation

Question 15

what are the approaches to gathering data in SP

Answer 15

questionnaires
systematic observation
case studies

Question 16

strength and weakness of questionnaires

Answer 16

+ large no of pp, easy to administer
- cannot infer cause, poor response rate

Question 17

strength and weaknesses of systematic observation

Answer 17

+ 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

Question 18

strength and weaknesses of case studies

Answer 18

+ good detail
- subjective, may be ungeneraliseable

Question 19

ways to analyse data

Answer 19

-group differences, ANOVA t-test
-linear relationships, regression and correlations
-category membership, chi-square
-advanced approaches, structural equation modelling

Question 20

ethics

Answer 20

BPS guidlines
-informed consent
-deception
-protection of pp
-right to withdraw
-debriefing
-confidentiality

Question 21

what are the theories in social psychology

Answer 21

behaviourism
cognitive
personality
collectivist
social neuroscience

Question 22

behaviourism

Answer 22

reinforcement etc, later incorporates thoughts and feelings (neobehaviourism)

Question 23

cognitive

Answer 23

behaviourism believes passive interaction with the environment but cognitive sees active interpretation of experiences and planning actions

Question 24

personality theories

Answer 24

behaviour caused by individual traits e.g authoritarianism (Adorno), optimism/pessimism (Scheier and Carver)
personality not stable throughout life

Question 25

collectivist

Answer 25

behaviour is the product of social influences, behaviour different in groups, social identity theory (Tajfel 1984)

Question 26

social neuroscience

Answer 26

processes in brain give rise to behaviour, brain areas linked to certain psychological traits