Midterm Exam Flashcards
Based on lectures 2-6
Definition of social psychology
Scientific attempt to understand how thoughts, behavior, & feelings of individuals are influenced by the presence of others
The 5 Historical foundation
- Auguste Comte, positivism
- Carlo Cattaneo coined term social psych
- Norman Triplett & theory of Dynamogenisis
- 2 textbooks published: sociology and psych
- Floyd Allport solidifies definition of social psych with his book
Auguste Comte & positivism
- Research should be done the same way as natural sciences, thought to of legitimize social psych
- We should only study what we can observe via our senses
Carlo Cattaneo coined what term
social psych
Norman Triplett & theory of Dynamogenisis
○ Used imperial research to understand how ppl interact via Cyclists
○ His theory: cyclists bike faster when competing with others
what did the 2 published textbooks indicate?
Good indicator that sociology and psych made it/ was official
Floyd Allport solidifies definition of social psych with his book
○ Looks at group influence, group experiments
○ Social facilitation try’s to explain the observation that when others are present our performance is enhanced
The Golden Age of Social Psychology
- Boom in post war America
○ How social psych can help war - Interest & funding from branches of America
- Migration of Jewish scholars out of Europe to America
Historical foundation- 3 Criticism
- Factors that contribute to widespread criticism
- Experimenters expectations were influencing the results, effecting data/ getting the results they want
2, Relevance
-Not relevant to the real world
-Norms were changing fast
- The problem with theory
-Since theory was based on experiments, the were thought to be too small
difference between Psychological social psych & Sociological social psych
Sociological social psych:
○ Focus on group & group behaviour, the effect of social environment on behaviour, how interactions shape social structure
Psychological social psych:
○ Focus on what/ how individuals think
○ Attribution therapy: how ppl attribute behaviour
What is Theory?
-Imperially tested idea
-“A theory is a set of interrelated concepts, definitions, and propositions that explains or predicts events or situations by specifying relations among variables”
the 3 Level of theory
1.Grand theory- Paradigms
○ Frameworks, larger perspectives
-What we will talk about the next few weeks
○ Umbrella ideas of other theory
○ Abstract/ overarching ideas
2.Middle range theory
○ Integrate imperial research and its ideas
○ Develop therapy off of research
3.Case specific/ mini theories
○ small
what is Grand theory- Paradigms
-1st big level of theory
-larger perspective
-What we mostly talked about in class
what is middle range theory
-2nd level of theory
-Integrate imperial research and its ideas
-Develop therapy off of research
the 3 functions of social psych theory
- Organization
○ Theory organizes observations
○ Like a blue print - Direction
○ Theory has the potential to pin you into a direction you have not considered - Intervention
○ We should develop therapy to help in some way
○ Should have some real world applicability
7 things to make a good theory
- Usefulness
- Parsimony : easy to understand
- Scope - good theory goes beyond its case
- Logical consistency - does it make sense?
- Testability - can you ground it?
- Empirical validity
- was my idea supported by the evidence gathers?
- MOST IMPORTANT - Policy implications
- can this theory create change in so way/shape/form?
having a good theory is difficult
What is symbolic interactionalism?
- Society is created, maintained, & changed via repeated & meaningful interactions between people
- Without these interactions we have no society
-We create meaning/ norms via interactions, not often intentional actions
Key Theorists in Symbolic Interactionism
- George Herbert Mead
- Charles Horton Cooley
- William Isaac Thomas
- Herbert Blumer
Core ideas in Symbolic Interactionism
- It is via interactions that we create the symbols that construct our social reality
- Symbols: culturally derived objects with shared meaning
- Could be physical, a gesture, anything really
What is Anti-determinism in Symbolic Interactionism
- Developed during social Darwinism
-the idea that social traits are genetic and class was apart of that
- i.e. women who were seen as ‘crazy’ were sterilized so they could no reproduce
What is Field studies in Symbolic Interactionism
- Going out into the world to study: lab experiments
- Personal observation is important
- Start to see the relations between method and theory
Blumer’s 3 premises
- Humans act towards things on the basis of the meaning that things have for them
- The meaning of things are derived from social interactions
- These meanings are dependent on, and modified by an interpretative process of the people who interact with one another
core ideas of Blumer’s 3 premises
- Perspective is key: we act towards something/ someone based on the meanings we have for them
- Its a learned process, very interpretive, can change overtime
The Thomas Theorem
- “if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”
- The idea of perception
core ideas of The Thomas Theorem
- Groundwork for social constructionism
History of social interactionist thoughts quote
“we didn’t think symbolic interaction was a perspective in sociology, we thought it was sociology”
3 Early Influence of social interactionist
- Neo-Kantian Relativism
- Pragmatism
- American psych and sociology
Neo-Kantian Relativism
- early influence of social interactionist
- Ppl need to create conceptual categories to make sense of the chaotic world
Pragmatism
- early influence of social interactionist
-Pragmatism is actually doing something with the ideas, actually imperially grounding the ideas
-Theory and philosophy is only valid if it is useful
American psych and sociology
- early influence of social interactionist
-society is important to a persons development nature
James Mark Baldwin as an early influence of social interactionist
-Society as a component in the development of a persons human nature
-We cant develop consciousness without others: need a ‘I’ and ‘me’
-American psychology
William James as an early influence of social interactionist
-Emphasis on the functions of the streams of conscious
-American psychology
Cooley & the looking glass self
- We imagine how we appear to others
-Our self acceptance is based on the appraisal of others (impacts you more with people you care about), more explicit
-American sociology