Recent History of Social Psychology

Question 1

Main discoveries in 1960s?

Answer 1

Group behaviour experiments. Milgram, self-perception theory (Bem).
Cognitive dissonance and insufficient justification experiment - Festinger & Carlsmith.

Question 2

Main discoveries in 1970s?

Answer 2

Social cognition.
Attribution theory.
Judgment and decision making.
Social identity theory.
Heuristics, errors and biases. - conjunction fallacy, representativeness heuristic.
Stereotyping and prototypically.
Psychophysical curve to gains and losses. Losses always loom over gains.

Question 3

What did Henry Tajfel do?

Answer 3

Social identity theory - minimal groups experiment.

Question 4

How is collective action formed?

Answer 4

By seeing that things can change.
System must feel impermeable.
Must be seen as an unjust system.

Question 5

Give two studies which were critiqued in the USA by the UK due to their individualistic view.

Answer 5

Milgram - shifting identification of the subject with the experimenter’s leadership?
Kitty Genovese - they weren’t all silent people! Made to look like the perfect victim - was actually a lesbian!

Question 6

Name one issue in Zimbardo’s prison study that decreased the validity of the experiment.

Answer 6

Zimbardo had two roles - experiment and chief guard.

Question 7

Main discoveries in the 1980s?

Answer 7

Health Psychology.
Emergence of AIDS - mostly in stigmatised groups.
Funding for behaviour-change solutions.
Theory of reasoned action (Azjen & Fishbein).
Theory of planned behaviour (Azjen).

Question 8

Main discoveries in the 1990s regarding cultural psychology?

Answer 8

Focus on the self.
Cross-cultural differences in attribution biases such as the fundamental attribution error.
Very focused on individualistic nations.

Question 9

Main discoveries in the 1990s regarding evolutionary psychology?

Answer 9

Sex differences.
Darwinian explanations return.
Sex differences in human mating preferences - very sexist!
Modern prejudice theories - don’t address negative attitudes towards the group but rather the pace of change towards equality for the group.

Question 10

Main discoveries in the 2000s?

Answer 10

Social neuroscience & embodied cognition.
Corridor study - Bargh, Chen & Burrows.
Replication crisis! False positives. Corridor study and Festinger & Carlsmith’s study was subject to this criticism.
Mass replication - 100 replications and less than 1/3 replicated results.