Introduction

Question 1

What is social psychology?

Answer 1

Explains how the thought, feeling and behaviour of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others - Alport

looks at social influences on people’s psychology - social explanations of behaviour

Question 2

What does explain mean?

Answer 2

To make clear
Questions which are framed in terms of why something happens
Scientific explanation - looks at causal connections and casual processes

Question 3

Are there a variety of explanations?

Answer 3

There is always a number of explanations, never a single cause

social psych want to provide social explanations

Question 4

Levels of explanations Doise

Answer 4

The intrapersonal level - within the persons head

The inter-personal / situational - relationships between people

The positional level - social hierchachy can explain things

The ideological level - systems of beliefs and ideas

Question 5

Ross and Nisbett - the tripod on which social psychology rests

Answer 5

The principle of situationism - importance of the social context and situation

The principle of construal - not the situation, the meaning people attach to the situation

The concept of tension systems - different systems in a state of tension

+20 years later - importance of self-related processes, the way people view themselves