L1 - 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 or implied presence of others (Allport, 1935)
How is social psychology linked to human behaviour ?
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
How is social psychology linked to social behaviour ?
Feelings, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, intentions and goals
Underlying processes, cognitive processes, and neuro-chemical processes in the brain
What is the history of social psychology ?
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
What is the US approach to social psychology ?
Political drivers
European focuses on groups and inter-group behaviour
Differs from US approach
What is the psychological strand of social psychology ?
Philosophical origin - Logical empiricism
Social cognition
Quantitative / hypothetico-deductive approach
What is the sociological strand of psychology ?
Philosophical origin - Social constructionist / humanistic
Language and culture
Qualitative / inductive approach
What is an action theory ?
Doing research in an environment that you are planning on changing whilst doing the experiment
What are some of the disciplinary disputes ?
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
What are the disciplinary disputes for the ABC model ?
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
What are some methodological issues ?
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)
What are methodological issues for different types of experiments ?
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
What are demand characteristics ?
Participants try to figure out what the hypothesis it
Try to give the results that they think the experimenter wants
How can you prevent demand characteristics ?
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
What are sensitive questions ?
Questions that can produce false information due to social desirability
Threat disclosure
Social desirability
Intrusiveness
Due to - impression, likelihood, self-deception
Maximise social approval
What are research ethics ?
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
When do people breach research ethics ?
Deception
Debriefing
What is a meta-theory ?
An explanation for an explanation e.g. personality theory explains other theories
What is behaviourism ?
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
What is evolutionary social psychology ?
Based on Darwin theory
Useful traits have developed through natural selection
Social behaviours have survival value
What is personality as a meta-theory ?
Our behaviour depends on enduring individual differences
People behave differently in different situations
What is the collective approach as a meta-theory ?
People internally represent socially constructed group norms that influence behaviour
What is neuroscience and biochemistry as a meta-theory ?
Psychological processes happen in the brain and therefore must be associated with electro-chemical brain activity
Mirror neurons
What is a mirror neuron ?
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
What is reductionism ?
Low level analysis and explanation
Can be useful to break down problem but must return to problem
Leaves original question unanswered
What is positivism ?
Uncritical acceptance of scientific method
Devalues subjective and introspective data
Study of humans - biased, cannot be objective
Employs rigorous scientific methods
What is logical empiricism ?
The focus on scientific methodology
What is the main critique for social psychology ?
It ignores context
