social psyc 1

Question 1

describe social psychology

Answer 1

the discipline where people attempt to understand, explain and predict how the thoughts, feelings and actions of others

Question 1

the nature of human kind - dialogues/ debates

Answer 1

Rosseau: by nature is good - institutions make him bad

Hobbes: man is by nature solitary, poore, nasty

Question 2

Cognitive perspective

Answer 2

emphasis on how perception affects behaviour and how you interpret behaviour impacts feelings

Question 3

Learning Perspective

Answer 3

emphasis on principles of reinforcement and imitations - tendency to focus on observable behaviour and ignore cognition

Question 4

Motivational perspective

Answer 4

emphasis on basic human needs, as we have biological needs = we have psychological needs

Question 4

Biological Perspective

Answer 4

emphasis on evolutionary past and genetic disposition

Question 5

Cultural Perspective

Answer 5

emphasis on how culture affects social behaviour - cultural differences

Question 6

4 levels of explanation/ analysis in Social Psyc

Answer 6

1) Intrapersonal (inside person)
2) Interpersonal (interactions between 2 ppl)
3) Intergroup (group level behaviour - men violent when rejected but actually need to work their way back to ppl)
4) Societal (cultural effects on behaviour)

Question 7

Freud

Answer 7

first to draw attention to the study of the unconscious
- impulses are driven by sexual desires. impulses can be denied but will always return to reassert themselves, as a consequence conflict between instincts and demands of society.

Question 8

ID

Answer 8

most primitive part of the psyche
- basic urges - wants to gain sexual pleasure
(pleasure principle)
- demands satisfaction now regardless of consequence

Question 9

Ego

Answer 9

works on the reality principle
- tries to satisfy the ID in accordance with societal norms

Question 10

SuperEgo

Answer 10

moral policeman
- represents internalised rules of parents and society = hands out punishment - leading to anxiety/ guilt

Question 11

why are defense mechanisms bought in?

Answer 11

because the demands of the superego are powerful and if met the impulses of the ID must be repressed. ID impulses will always reappear though. As they reemerge, so too does intense anxiety = defense mechanisms

Question 12

Displacement

Answer 12

impulses redirected into a safer course

Question 13

Reaction Formation

Answer 13

original wish is replaced with the opposite

Question 14

Projection

Answer 14

urges projected onto others

Question 15

Isolation

Answer 15

awareness of memories, not emotions

Question 16

Origins of unconscious conflict.. and how pleasure is achieved

Answer 16

origins: childhood experiences

as the child grows, pleasure is achieved through the stimulation of certain body zones

• oral stage 0-2
• anal stage 2-4
• phallic stage 4-6
• latency stage 6-12
• genital stage -12+

Question 17

Phallic Stage

Answer 17

boys develop an oedipus complex (sex w his mum)

eventually identifies with his father, in hopes to find a partner - like his mum

Question 18

Electra Complex

Answer 18

girls find out they do not have a penis = penis envy

eventually identifies with her mum

Question 19

Difficulties at stages, leading to later problems

Answer 19

-oral: oral fixation, smoking, thumb sucking
- anal: anal retentiveness, money wont spend, obstinate
- phallic: gay

Question 20

Problems with Freud

Answer 20

• never actually studied children
• ideas not falsified
• little experimental evidence

Question 21

Experimental Evidence

Answer 21

1. data more appropriately explained through other processes
2. experiments supporting freud are often flawed

Question 22

Freud claimed that children whose parents treat them harshly would redirect aggressive instincts to those with less power…

Answer 22

BUT - evidence suggests that authoritarian aggression is not caused by the redirection of repressed impulses but b y observational learning (Bandura/ bob dolls)