Current issues in Psychology Flashcards
what is social psychology?
“The scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others”
what is Human behaviour?
- Overt (e.g. driving, fighting) and more subtle (e.g. non verbal
behaviour).
– Meaning attached to behaviour a matter of perspective.
what is social behaviour?
- Feelings, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, intentions and goals
-Underlying processes -> cognitive processes -> neuro-chemical processes in the brain.
Historical social psychological trends?
- Folk psychology (latter part 1800s) – collective mind (Le Bon,1895)
- Societal way of thinking and group mind(e.g.crowds). - Tarde (1898) – Bottom up approach.
– Durkheim – Social laws determined by society (Jones, 2013).
– Allport (1924) – Experimental social psychology
Social Psychology tends US leaders in the field
Political drivers (fascism in Europe)
– European centers reestablished (cold war) Dr. Alexander Coles
– European focus on groups and inter-group behaviour
what is the psychological strand of social psychology?
- philosophical origin: logical empiricism
- prevailing process: social cognition
- methodological approach: hypothetico-deductive (e.g. experimental)
what is the sociological strand of social psychology?
- philosophical origin: social constructionist/humanistic
- prevailing process: language and culture
- methodological approach: qualitative/inductive (e.g. discursive)
what is ABC?
Attitudes, Behaviour and choice
criticisms of ABC
- models and concepts of social change restrictive:
Focus on individuals and behavioural choices.
– Ignores context: Policy makers have no guidance on policy.
– Does not consider societal transformation - maintains status quo.
– Practice theory (take actions as central focus of their theorising)
Methodological issues
- Scientific methods used to study social behaviour.
- Hx formed on the basis of: theory; social phenomenon;
event: - Empirical tests can falsify, but not prove, hypotheses
- Methodological pluralism important – minimises possibility that finding an artifact of method.
- Experimental, lab based:
Avoids confounds – other factors vary in line with IV. Low in external validity, high in internal validity. - Field experiments:
– Less control over variables, random assignment difficult. - Focus groups; interviews; surveys:
– Response set – purposeful or unintentional. - Archival research / Secondary analysis of data: l Case studies:
– Unusual or rare phenomena – hypothesis development. Dr. Alexander Coles
what are the 3 types of sensitivity? (sensitive questions)
– Threat of disclosure: Costs of potential disclosure.
– Social desirability: Adhere to social norms.
– Intrusiveness: Topics perceived as private or taboo.
what are the types of sensitivity due to?
– Impression management.
– Likelihood of truth.
– Self-deception.
what to do about sensitive questions?
Adjust research setting,
– e.g. no others present; anonymous; minimise presence of
interviewer.
- Validation studies – objective data.
- Non-threatening question wording.
- Assurance of data protection and confidentiality.
- ‘Bogus pipeline’ procedure (False self reports will be revealed)
- Anonymous response techniques.
- Sometimes not trusted(.Tourangeau & Yan, 2007)
research ethics required for sensitive questions
- Need approval from local ethics committee.
- Risk (primarily welfare of participant):
– Harmful procedures, long-term effects. - Valid Consent:
– Study info, written consent, withdraw at any point. - Rewards should be appropriate.
- Hawthorne(observer)Effect.
- Confidentiality: anonymity, reporting, destruction of data.
Breaching research ethics
- giving advice
- deception: natural behaviour, naive pps →50-75% of exp some degree
- debriefing: Explain rationale/context, justify deception, leave without effects
behaviourism
- behaviour associated with positive situations of outcome is increased. originated from Classical conditioning, operant conditioning
neo-behaviourism
includes feelings, beliefs and motives
social modelling
we imitate behaviour that is reinforced is reinforced in others (Bandura and Walters)
cognitive psychology
- we actively interpret and change our environment through our thought’ cognitive process; representations
origins in gestalt theory
perception is different from what it is
social cognition currently dominant
- how cognitive processes and representations are constructed and influence behaviour
- e.g. attitudes, dual process models, schemas
evolutionary social psychology
- based on general evolutionary psychology and Darwinian theory
- useful traits are adaptations that have developed through natural selection
- same for complex social behaviours: those that have survival value, e.g. cooperative, aggression, will be passed on
- can our genes account sufficiently account for the complexity of human behaviour
personality (individualistic)
- our behaviour depends upon enduring individual differences and characteristics
- people behave differently situations
- if personality is behaviourally consistent, then how does it develop? How some do personalities interpret situations differently from others?
Collectivist approaches
- people internally represent socially constructed group norms that influence behaviour
- contrast with personality theories as top down group to individual
- social identity perspective
Neuroscience
psychological processes happen in the brain and therefore must be associated with electro-chemical brain activity
critique of behaviourism
exaggerates extent to which people are passive to the situation
Critique of cognitivism
but may struggle to account for irrational or automatic behaviour
critique of evolutionary psychology
can it really account of the complexity of social behaviour
critique of personality theory
but people behave differently in different situations
critique of collectivist approah
difficult to predict which groups people might identify with
critique of neuroscience
does locating processes help us understand them
what is positivism
treats science as a religion
issues with reductionism
- overly reduces the complexity of an issue
- breaking problem down useful in analysis but must return to problem to be useful
- can leave original question unanswered
critiques of positivism
- devalues and ignores subjective and introspective data
- study of humans (ourselves) - therefore biased
what is data sharing?
depositing anonymised data sets in shared repositories
what are pre-registered studies?
- indicate analysis in advance
- centre for open science
