L1 - Current Issues in Psychology

Question 1

What is social psychology ?

Answer 1

The scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual or implied presence of others (Allport, 1935)

Question 2

How is social psychology linked to human behaviour ?

Answer 2

Can be overt (e.g. driving, fighting) and can be more subtle (e.g. non-verbal behaviour)
Meaning attached to behaviour is a matter of perspective

Question 3

How is social psychology linked to social behaviour ?

Answer 3

Feelings, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, intentions and goals
Underlying processes, cognitive processes, and neuro-chemical processes in the brain

Question 4

What is the history of social psychology ?

Answer 4

Folk psychology (1800s) - societal way of thinking and group minds (the mind easily influenced by others)
Tarde (1898) - bottom-up approach
Durkheim - social laws determined by society
Allport (1924) - experimental social psychology

Question 5

What is the US approach to social psychology ?

Answer 5

Political drivers
European focuses on groups and inter-group behaviour
Differs from US approach

Question 6

What is the psychological strand of social psychology ?

Answer 6

Philosophical origin - Logical empiricism
Social cognition
Quantitative / hypothetico-deductive approach

Question 7

What is the sociological strand of psychology ?

Answer 7

Philosophical origin - Social constructionist / humanistic
Language and culture
Qualitative / inductive approach

Question 8

What is an action theory ?

Answer 8

Doing research in an environment that you are planning on changing whilst doing the experiment

Question 9

What are some of the disciplinary disputes ?

Answer 9

Models and concepts of social change are restrictive (focus too much on the individual)
Ignores context
Does not consider societal transformation - maintains status quo
Practice theory

Question 10

What are the disciplinary disputes for the ABC model ?

Answer 10

Overly simplistic of social psychological models
Sociological approach not useful for practical solutions
Separation of disciplinary perspectives is unhelpful
Individuals should be a part of the solution

Question 11

What are some methodological issues ?

Answer 11

Scientific methods are used for social behaviour
Empirical tests can falsify but not prove (we can’t prove anything because it’s not quantifiable)
Methodological pluralism is important (multiple methods minimise false positives)

Question 12

What are methodological issues for different types of experiments ?

Answer 12

Lab based - avoids cofounds, low in external validity, high in internal validity
Field experiments - less control over variables
Focus groups, interviews, surveys - response set
Case studies - unusual phenomenon

Question 13

What are demand characteristics ?

Answer 13

Participants try to figure out what the hypothesis it
Try to give the results that they think the experimenter wants

Question 14

How can you prevent demand characteristics ?

Answer 14

Double-blind studies - conditions of experiment are unknown to participants and experimenter
Blind study - conditions of experiment are unknown to participant
Funnel debrief - let them know what it is after the experiment
Quasi controls

Question 15

What are sensitive questions ?

Answer 15

Questions that can produce false information due to social desirability
Threat disclosure
Social desirability
Intrusiveness
Due to - impression, likelihood, self-deception
Maximise social approval

Question 16

What are research ethics ?

Answer 16

Need approval from ethics communities
Risk - long term effect or harm
Valid consent - written consent, withdraw at any point
Confidentiality - anonymous, reporting, destruction of data

Question 17

When do people breach research ethics ?

Answer 17

Deception
Debriefing

Question 18

What is a meta-theory ?

Answer 18

An explanation for an explanation e.g. personality theory explains other theories

Question 19

What is behaviourism ?

Answer 19

Behaviour associated with positive situations
(classical conditioning, operant conditioning)
Neo-behaviourism - beliefs, feelings, motives
Social modelling - imitate behaviour that is reinforced in others
Cognitive psychology
Gestalt theory - perception is different to what it is
Social cognition - How cognitive processes are constructed

Question 20

What is evolutionary social psychology ?

Answer 20

Based on Darwin theory
Useful traits have developed through natural selection
Social behaviours have survival value

Question 21

What is personality as a meta-theory ?

Answer 21

Our behaviour depends on enduring individual differences
People behave differently in different situations

Question 22

What is the collective approach as a meta-theory ?

Answer 22

People internally represent socially constructed group norms that influence behaviour

Question 23

What is neuroscience and biochemistry as a meta-theory ?

Answer 23

Psychological processes happen in the brain and therefore must be associated with electro-chemical brain activity
Mirror neurons

Question 24

What is a mirror neuron ?

Answer 24

These neurons are activated in your own brain when watching someone else perform an action
For example, when you watch someone yawn, you have a neuron in charge of yawning in your brain that is activated

Question 25

What is reductionism ?

Answer 25

Low level analysis and explanation
Can be useful to break down problem but must return to problem
Leaves original question unanswered

Question 26

What is positivism ?

Answer 26

Uncritical acceptance of scientific method
Devalues subjective and introspective data
Study of humans - biased, cannot be objective
Employs rigorous scientific methods

Question 27

What is logical empiricism ?

Answer 27

The focus on scientific methodology

Question 28

What is the main critique for social psychology ?

Answer 28

It ignores context