Social Area Flashcards
What is the social approach?
The social approach assumes that the main influences on our behaviour , thought processes and emotions are due to our environment, the wider society and people around us.
What are dispositional and situational factors?
When we explain the behaviour of people, is it down to something inside them? (such as personality?) (dispositional) or the situation they find themselves in? (situational).
Such as, is good behaviour done by good people or ordinary people where good behaviour is easy to do?
What is social influence?
Social influence is the process by which an individual’s attitudes, beliefs or behaviour are modified by the presence or action of others. Four areas of social influence are conformity, compliance and obedience, and minority influence.
Social influence can take many forms such as pressure from friends, instructions from teachers and the impact of role models.
What is social perception?
Social perception refers to the ability to make accurate interpretations and inferences about other people from their general physical appearance, verbal, and nonverbal patterns of communication.
What is self-perception?
Self-Perception is the view we have about ourselves, our characteristics, and the judgments we make about the traits we have. Self-perception includes our self-concept (the image we have in our heads of who we are) and our self-esteem (how we judge the characteristics we possess).
What is social interaction?
Any process that involves reciprocal stimulation or response between two or more individuals.” This could be through family relationships such as between parent and child; personal relationships between friends; or work relationships between colleagues. These kinds of interactions between two people are referred to as dyads. If the interaction is between three people, it is referred to as a triad. Social groups are made up of any number of people higher than three.
What is reductionism?
Behaviour can be broken into individual components - single cause of behaviour (deterministic).
Strengths of reductionism?
Scientific, establish cause and effect, objective, practical application.
Weaknesses of reductionism?
Limited explanation, ignores other factors, fails to fully explain complex behaviour.
Applications of reductionism?
Therapy - eg, drugs.
What is Holism?
Behaviour is complex. Focus on the individual as a whole, multiple causes of behaviour.
What are the strengths of holism?
Explains for complex behaviour, high face validity (makes sense for their to be multiple reasons).
What are the weaknesses of holism?
Hard to measure, hard to treat disorders, subjective.
Applications of holism?
Collaborative therapy, CBT.
Link the social area to this debate.
Holism: can be considered holistic as it looks at how different social factors/ environmental factors interact to influence behaviour e.g. Milgram suggested how factors such as the authority figure, prestige of Yale university, that they were paid and that the could not see the learner they were shocking, all contributed to the participants blind obedience. Also, Piliavin looked at how race, gender, the type of model and the number of people in the situation impacted peoples helping behaviour. Levine also looked at how population size, economic wellbeing, pace of life and cultural factors impacted helping behaviour. Bocchiaro looked at how the authority figure and personality would impact whether an individual would obey, disobey or whistleblow.
Reductionism: can be considered reductionist as it often neglects the influence of dispositional, biological and cognitive factors e.g. Milgram and Bocchiaro neglected the idea of innate predisposition of people to being more likely to obey or disobey. Also, ignored the influence of biological factors such as differences in hormones and neurotransmission that would impact behaviour in these types of scenarios. Piliavin’s study neglects factors of personality i.e. kindness altruistic desire to help.
