Issues and debates: socially sensitive (soc) Flashcards
INTRO
Socially sensitive
Socially sensitive research, while potentially problematic, is important for raising awareness of societal issues and addressing them. Researchers must consider potential misuse, misrepresentation, and discrimination when interpreting and reporting findings.
A01 & A03 (is)
A01:
- Research into obedience and prejudice may create division by highlighting group-specific issues or predicting inevitable conflict.
- Theories like Social Identity Theory (SIT) and Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT) suggest prejudice may arise naturally between social groups, implying prejudice is difficult to avoid.
A03:
- Tajfel and Turner’s minimal groups study showed boys favoured their in-group by allocating more points, even when group membership was meaningless.
- This implies discrimination stems from a basic human need for positive self-esteem, suggesting prejudice could be seen as unavoidable.
- This is socially sensitive because it may excuse discrimination or suggest that global conflicts are inevitable and out of human control.
A01 & A03 (isn’t)
A01:
- However, these theories do allow researchers to understand how human interactions occur and perhaps how to reduce prejudice, when using superordinate goals.
A03:
- These create positive interdependent situations, when different groups in society have to work together in order to achieve a goal.
- This was found in Sherif’s Robbers Cave study field experiment when the two groups of boys (Rattlers and Eagles) displayed reduced prejudice when they worked together to fix the broken water tank on the site.
- Therefore, socially sensitive research does not always produce issues and is in fact necessary in order to learn how to reduce worldwide problems such as racism.
judgement
Overall, social psychology sensitive research is less problematic as it has helped informed us of ways to reduce worldwide problems such as racism.
