Social area (Areas)

Question 1

Defining principle of the area

Answer 1

Human behaviour occurs in a social context (even in absence of others).

Other people & the environment influence behaviour and thought processes.

Relationships with others influence behaviour and thought processes.

Question 2

Concepts within the area

Answer 2

Obedience to authority figures
Diffusion of responsibility
Conformity
Arousal cost reward model

Question 3

Which studies are in the area and why

Answer 3

Milgram’s study falls within the social area because it is revealing the extent to which people’s behaviour can be influenced by other people around them: his participants did not want to administer electric shocks to the learner but in the face of the prods from the experimenter, they went against their desires and behaved in the way that was resequed of them.

Piliavin’s study falls within the social area because they were investigating the impact that other people have on our behaviour and in particular, whether the likelihood of someone helping out in an emergency situation is increased or decreased by a known presence of other witnesses to the event.

Question 4

Strengths of the approach

Answer 4

Can help us understand horrific events (e.g. obedience in WW2)

Has useful practical applications (e.g. for managers wanting compliance from employees)

Research is often high in ecological validity due to field experiments being used

Question 5

Weaknesses of the approach

Answer 5

Research can lack controls on extraneous variables (when field experiments used)

Research can be ethnocentric (i.e. only reflect social behaviour in one culture)

Research can become time locked - it gets out of date (e.g. as social behaviour changes)