Social Psychology

Question 1

What are individual differences?

Answer 1

Aims to explain differences between individuals in terms of underlying psychological differences

Question 2

What are examples of topics in individual differences?

Answer 2

Personality, intelligence (ability), emotional intelligence, attitudes, cognitive abilities, applications (ageing, wellbeing and health)

Question 3

Define self-report

Answer 3

Answering a series of questions, usually on a scale or yes/no
- Assumes people generally know their behaviours, thoughts and feelings and are able to report them
- Open to interpretation

Question 4

Define observation (strengths and weaknesses)

Answer 4

Asking someone else about people’s behaviours, thoughts and feelings
+ May be less influenced by personal biases
+ May be inclined to present the person in a particular way
- Assumes people are the same around different people
- May not know their internal thoughts or feelings well

Question 5

Define direct observations (and weaknesses)

Answer 5

Observe behaviour directly (e.g. how sociable a person is) - watch how they interact and frequency of questions asked, how many people spoke to, etc.
- Time-intensive and expensive
- Only focused on observable behaviour, not internal states

Question 6

Define objective measures

Answer 6

Biodata (e.g. average achievement on work, heart rate, sweat response, phone use)
- Not always clear it’s assessing the criteria of focus

Question 7

Define interviews

Answer 7

Ask people to talk about an experience

Question 8

Experimentation

Answer 8

Factors are manipulated in a lab by the researcher and responses recorded (can use a range of the other data sources)

Question 9

Timing of different types of data collection (cross-sectional, longitudinal, experimental, meta-analysis)

Answer 9

Cross sectional - a single timetable, capturing a bunch of responses, compare usually between natural groups/trends
Longitudinal - long-term following of participants to watch trends, compared start versus finish
Experimental - control versus experimental group, assumption of matched samples
Meta-analysis - a review of other studies

Question 10

Define factor analysis

Answer 10

Statistical process involved in the development of measures that assess individual differences (data reduction tool, looks at patterns of intercorrelations, allows researcher to identify common patterns of associations between groups of variables, determines the importance of each variable in each factor…

Question 11

Define reliability (assessing quality in quantitative research)

Answer 11

Do you get the same results?
Same results with different researchers on different populations, replications increase the reliability, ensure the measures have internal consistency, if appropriate inter-rater reliability

Question 12

Define validity (internal/content and construct as well) (assessing quality in quantitative research)

Answer 12

Measures what it intends to measure
Internal/content - does it measure what it means to (e.g. not another third variable)
Construct - is the thing you want to measure tangible, is it measurable
Criterion: does the measure predict the outcome (e.g. sugar consumption - sweet tooth versus type 2 diabetes)

Question 13

Define generalisability (assessing quality in quantitative research)

Answer 13

Findings that can be applied to other contexts
The more generalisable the findings, the more they explain about phenomena

Question 14

What do experimental/traditional approaches prioritise, versus critical approaches?

Answer 14

Experimental/tradition - prioritise the scientific method as the valid way to understand the social world
Critical - prioritise qualitative methods as understanding the social world

Question 15

Explain the roots of qualitative methods (early movements in social psychology)

Answer 15

William James - seen as father of psychology, critical of introspection, didn’t address the “connectedness” of human thought
Völkerpsychologie (‘folk psychology’ or ‘psychology of the people’) - early movement in social psychology, originating from Germany, link between culture and language

Question 16

Define ethnography

Answer 16

Embedding yourself in the community of which you’re studying, can produce audio, field notes and photographs

Question 17

Define interviews

Answer 17

A one-to-one purposeful discussion exploring the research topic, can be conducted in-person, online, on the phone, usually produces audio but can also include video and images provided by the participants (photo-elicitation)

Question 18

Define focus groups

Answer 18

A purposeful group conversation, similar to focus groups, but also addresses interactional aspects and explore concepts in more depth

Question 19

Define diaries

Answer 19

Participants encouraged to write and document parts of their lives, this can be done based on specific intervals or more reactionary to events/emotions, usually written but can be done through an app and include pictures/video/audio

Question 20

Define documents

Answer 20

These are usually pre-existing documents, analysis focused on key messages in this data source, can include newspapers, guidelines or advertisements

Question 21

Define internet

Answer 21

These can be created for the purposes of research or existent content can be analysed, can be blogs, chat rooms, websites, message board, social media sites, etc.

Question 22

Define story completion

Answer 22

A type of projective test wherein participants complete a story stem, in doing so it’s hoped to ‘tap into’ ways of thinking and override barriers of admission, useful for looking at a range of assumptions of a given topic

Question 23

Define sensitivity (assessing quality in qualitative research)

Answer 23

Embedding the data in context (literature, participants’ perspectives and socio-cultural context, ethical issues, taking an inductive approach to data interpretation)

Question 24

Define commitment and rigour (assessing quality in qualitative research)

Answer 24

Remaining faithful to the participants’ stories (appropriate data collection, depth/breadth of analysis, methodological competence and awareness, engagement with the topic)

Question 25

Define transparency (assessing quality in qualitative research)

Answer 25

Documenting and demonstrating interpretation (retain and outline analytical process, use appropriate quotes, refer back to the research question, methodological transparency, reflexivity)

Question 26

Define impact (assessing quality in qualitative research)

Answer 26

Reaching influence (applied settings (does it inform or develop current practices), theoretical considerations (does it advance theoretical approaches), can it be used politically to help that population)

Question 27

What are the two main approaches of social psychology?

Answer 27

Traditional social psychology and critical social psychology

Question 28

What are the fundamental axioms of social psychology?

Answer 28

Construction of reality and pervasiveness of social influence

Question 29

Explain the assumptions of individual differences (on people)

Answer 29

People vary, we can measure these variations, the variations can help predict behaviour, important to have consistency and stability

Question 30

Explain the research methods for traditional social and differential psychology (history, data collection, quality criteria)

Answer 30

History - movement towards natural science in response to psychoanalysis (non-falsifiable), focus on objectivity and measurement
Data collection - varied but usually self-report and experimentation, focus on identifying personal or social factors that help to understand the phenomenon in question, can be conducted at different time points, measures created through factor analysis
Quality criteria in quantitative research - reliability, validity and generalisability

Question 31

Explain the research methods for critical social psychology (history, data collection, quality criteria)

Answer 31

History - arising from earlier movements in psychology (focus on the utility of language), turn back to language and a reconnection with Europe
Data collection - prioritising qualitative methods, varied (largely using interviews and focus groups), focus on prioritising language, multiple forms of data analytic techniques
Quality criteria in qualitative research - sensitivity, commitment and rigour, transparency and impact

Question 32

What is personality?

Answer 32

Refers to an individual’s characteristic patterns of thought, emotion and behaviour together with the psychological mechanisms, hidden or not, between those patterns
Can be defined as consistent behaviour patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within the individual
‘Personality’ comes from the Latin ‘persona’, meaning ‘mask’

Question 33

Aims of personality research

Answer 33

To capture or summarise an individual’s ‘essence’ (something intrinsic in them) which is consistent across situations and over time

Question 34

What are the paradigm/approaches to personality?

Answer 34

Psychoanalytic, phenomenological/humanistic, trait, learning, and cognitive

Question 35

Explain psychoanalytic approach

Answer 35

Unconscious mind and motivations, resolution of internal conflicts, Neo-Freudian approach (focus on childhood and adult relationships, and the link with motivations)

Question 36

Explain phenomenological/humanistic approach

Answer 36

Conscious experience of the world, personal responsibility and self-acceptance

Question 37

Explain the trait approach

Answer 37

How people differ, conceptualising and measuring differences, continuum of traits and behaviours

Question 38

Explain the learning approach

Answer 38

Behaviourism, social learning theory, cognitive personality theory; learning supports adaptive behaviour; role of rewards and punishments

Question 39

Explain cognitive approach

Answer 39

Role of perception and memory, different ways in which people process information

Question 40

Explain the Forer/Barnum effect

Answer 40

People tend to accept vague and general personality descriptions as uniquely applicable to themselves
People tend to accept questionable, even false, statements about themselves, if they are deemed positive or flattering enough

Question 41

Define intelligence, and the two different ‘types’ of models

Answer 41

Intelligence is a very general mental capacity that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experiment
Two different ‘types’ of models for intelligence - two factor and multiple factors

Question 42

Explain two-factor models, fluid intelligence, and crystallised intelligence

Answer 42

There are two factors that influence levels of intelligence

Spearman:
Argued that a large proportion of variance in intelligence testing could be explaining by ‘g’ (general intelligence factor (‘g’) underlies all intelligence performance, specific factors (‘s’) to the intelligence test)
Found that scoring near the top of the class for one subject meant that people would score near the top of the class for all others

Horn, Cattell, and Carroll:
Fluid intelligence (gf) - not reliant on prior experience and knowledge (this should be a largely heritable characteristic)

Crystallised intelligence (gc) - education and experience, which increases over time and is more amendable to the effects of the environment (e.g. education and family)

Question 43

Explain multiple factors

Answer 43

Thurston:
Examined students’ performance on 56 tests, 7 of which were mental abilities (e.g. verbal comprehension)
Proposed that there were more than two factors that predicted intelligence, however other researchers have analysed Thurston’s data and identified that those who scores high in one category often did well in others (suggests there is an underlying factor influencing them and thins harks back to the two-factor models)

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence:
Proposes that intelligence comes from a balance between analytical, creative and practical domains
Analytical - focus on knowledge acquisition, performance and meta-cognitive abilities
Creative - focuses on the ability to complete novel and automated tasks (draws on skills like invention and discovery)
Practical - ties everything together to apply learning: adaptation to situations, selection of information, shaping the environment
To be successful in life, the individual must make best use of their analytical, creating and practical strengths, while at the same time compensating for any weaknesses in any of those areas
Gardner:
Gould argued that IQ was too limited in the Mismeasure of Man
Gardner proposed these 8 intelligences soon after
Intelligence falls into 7 categories (e.g. musical, body/kinetic/kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, etc.)

Question 44

Explain emotional intelligence

Answer 44

The capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships
The ability to express and control our emotions AND our ability to understand, interpret, and respond to the emotions of others
Salovey and Mayer - emotional intelligence involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to regulate emotion, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions

Question 45

Explain the two key models of emotional intelligence

Answer 45

Ability - emotional intelligence as a cognitive ability focusing on the processing of information, conceptualised and assessed similarly to IQ
Trait - emotional intelligence as a dispositional tendency, conceptualised and assessed similarly to trait personality theories

Question 46

Introduce personality - give a brief overview of the different theories of personality (psychodynamic, phenomenological/humanistic, trait, learning, cognitive)

Answer 46

Psychodynamic - unconscious mind, internal drives, and resolution of internal conflicts
Phenomenological/humanistic - conscious experience of the world, personal responsibility and self-acceptance
Trait - how people differ along a continuum of traits/behaviours
Learning - informed by behaviourism, reward/punishment of behaviour and observation
Cognitive - the different ways that people process information

Question 47

Introduce intelligence - give a brief overview of two factor models, multiple factor models, and emotional intelligence

Answer 47

Two factor models - two factors that influence intelligence, ‘g’ as a pervasive critique of later multiple factor models
Multiple factor models - two factors is too reductionist, more factors at play
Emotional intelligence - capacity to recognise own and others emotions and respond
~ Ability emotional intelligence - cognitive ability, similar to IQ, processing of information
~ Trait emotional intelligence - dispositional tendency, similar to personality

Question 48

Explain the person-situation debate

Answer 48

Issue - which is more important in determining what people do: the person or the situation?
Situational variables are best suited to predict behaviour in specific situations, personality traits are more able to predict patterns of behaviour that persist across situations and time
Person-situation interaction - effects of the personality variable depends on the situation the person is in, effect of the situation depends on the kind of person who is in it

Question 49

Explain the doctrine of traits and doctrine of situationism

Answer 49

Doctrine of traits - social behaviour varies as a function of internal behavioural dispositions that render it coherent, stable, consistent and predictable
Doctrine of situationism - social behaviour varies as a function of features of the external environment, particularly the social situation, that elicit behaviour directly, or that communicate social expectations, demands and incentives

Question 50

Explain trait activation theory

Answer 50

Tett and Gutterman:
The behavioural expression of a trait requires arousal of that trait by trait-relevant situational cues, traits become activated by the situational factors at play
Judge and Zapata:
Traits are more predictive when situations are weak (e.g. less structured), traits are more predictive when situations activate them (e.g. extraversion in a social situation)

Question 51

Explain interactionism

Answer 51

Behaviour is influenced by interactions between individual and social interactions
Interactionism has largely been theorised from a personality approach, but has more recently broadened

Question 52

Explain interactionism in personality and social psychology

Answer 52

Reynolds et al.:
Movement away from mechanical interactionism - interaction between person (stable individual characteristics) and situation (environment outside of the person), a way to bridge the two
Towards dynamic interactionism - outcome of continuous and reciprocal interaction between the person and situations they encounter - greater reflects a stronger connection with social psychology, responsive to other related areas (e.g. neuroscience, epigenetics, and social cognition)

Question 53

Summarise the difference between cognitive theory and learning approach

Answer 53

Cognitive theory - focus is on thoughts and perceptions (not genetics), role of perception and memory, different ways in which people process information
Learning approach - behaviourism, social learning theory, cognitive personality theory, learning supports adaptive behaviour, role of rewards and punishments

Question 54

Summarise the Forer/Barnum effect

Answer 54

People tend to accept vague/general statements of personality to be unique to them
People accept questionable statements about themselves if they are positive/flattering (e.g. “You are a diligent student, but you have a tendency to worry/overthink”)
Issue - if people accept positive/flattering comments about themselves, it calls into question whether people are able to accurately identify personal characteristics; this also related to whether people can accurately complete personality measures

Question 55

Summarise Spearman’s two-factor model

Answer 55

Intelligence has two factors:
G: general intelligence - this underpins all intelligence performance
S: specific intelligence - how successful/capable you are at completing a specific task, your ability to apply your intelligence to specific/particular activities (e.g. numerical reasoning (s1), verbal reasoning (s2))

Question 56

Summarise models of emotional intelligence

Answer 56

Ability:
Ability focused on processing of information, similar to IQ tests
Captures maximum performance: tests that assess an individual’s ability to perform under standardised conditions
Trait:
ID, like personality, are clusters of dispositional traits
Captures typical performance: measures that assess along dimensions
No right/wrong choices/preferences

Question 57

Define personality

Answer 57

Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psycho-physical systems that determine our unique adjustment to our environment
Distinctive patterns of behaviour, thoughts and emotions that characterise each adaptation to situations
Personality is relatively stable/enduring but also changeable, adaptive to situations/contexts, multifaceted, measurable and unique (to some extent)

Question 58

Explain what Friedman and Rosenman did, and the different types of personality they came up with

Answer 58

Observed differences in how people respond to stress, developed a basic personality theory (important to remember that most people fall somewhere on a continuum of these categories)
Type A - competitive, self-critical, intolerant, poor work-life balance, wound up, sense of urgency, impatient, hostile, aggressive, prone to heart-disease and stress related illness
Type B - relaxed, patient, easy-going, tolerant, reflective, imaginative, creative, versatile, slow to anger, forgiving
Type C - sensitive to others’ emotions/needs, difficulty expression own emotion (especially negative), avoids conflict, high social desirability, over complaint, over patient, ‘pathological niceness’, difficulty managing pressures on time and resources

Question 59

Explain Eysenck’s Three Factor Model (PEN personality)

Answer 59

Introversion - Extraversion
Stability - Neuroticism
Self-control - Psychoticism
Argued that temperament/personality is genetic/inherited
Traits identified using a statistical technique called Factor Analysis on large data (factor analysis allows researchers to identify which questions in a questionnaire cluster together (e.g. measure the same underlying trait))

Question 60

Explain Eysenck’s Three Factor Model (PEN personality)

Answer 60

Introversion - Extraversion
Stability - Neuroticism
Self-control - Psychoticism
Argued that temperament/personality is genetic/inherited
Traits identified using a statistical technique called Factor Analysis on large data (factor analysis allows researchers to identify which questions in a questionnaire cluster together (e.g. measure the same underlying trait))
Also relied on observation, his psychological knowledge and research to interpret and label the factors (factor analysis isn’t just statistical)

Question 61

Explain the Big Five Model (OCEAN)

Answer 61

Openness - insightful, creative, curious, receptive to new experiences, sensations and thoughts VS resistant to change, closed off from new experiences, distrusts new ideas, tends to think concretely and in absolutes
Conscientiousness - impulse control, planning, hard-working, attention to detail, methodical, think before doing and likes structure and schedules VS impulsive, disorganised, procrastinates, doesn’t complete tasks on time, disruptive and doesn’t like structure or schedules
Extraversion - energy from social interactions, likes being centre of attention, talkative, don’t always think before speaking, often have lots of acquaintances but not many close friends VS social interactions drain, comfortable being alone, tend to have a few close friends but not a lot of acquaintances, think carefully before speaking
Agreeableness - friendly, approachable, caring, empathetic, cooperative, very trusting, willing to compromise VS competitive, self-interest, uncompromising, stubborn, distrustful, aloof
Neuroticism - mood fluctuation, anxious, worrying depression, sadness, paranoia, irritability, frustration, unstable, quick to anger VS less likely to worry, it takes more to upset them, stable-steady, relaxed

Question 62

How is personality measured? (projective versus objective)

Answer 62

Projective (answers up to interpretation):
Rorschach Test - participants asked what inkblots look like (interpretation is complex and training is needed, requires a broad knowledge about personality)
Thematic Apperception Test - participants required to tell the test administrator a story about the pictures (cards with ambiguous drawings), including the background and thoughts/feelings about the characters, most common scoring method is the Social Cognition and Objects Relations Scales (SCORS)

Objective (answers structured):
Usually self-report questionnaires, e.g.
EPQ-R (based on Eysenck’s three factor model) - yes/no questions on extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism, also measures dissimulation tendencies (e.g. social desirability/lying) (high levels of reliability for E and
Neo Pi-R (based on big five model) - openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

Question 63

Explain Boult’s research (personality predicting wellbeing in the workplace)

Answer 63

All participants reported positive levels of workplace wellbeing
Highest level of workplace wellbeing for ENFP’s (people with a preference for extraversion, intuition, feeling and perceiving from the four categories)
Extraverts generally reported higher levels of workplace wellbeing compared to introverts

Question 64

Explain Friedman and Rosenman’s study (personality predicting wellbeing)

Answer 64

Longitudinal study (8 years) of non-smoking and generally healthy men aged 39-49
70% of those who developed coronary heart disease were Type A’s, meaning Type A’s may be more prone to stress-related illnesses than Type B’s
Johnson - argued that this difference is due to the hostility of Type A’s

Question 65

Explain Francis, Quigley, Robbins and Lewis’ study (personality predicting wellbeing)

Answer 65

Short EPQ-R and General Health questionnaire
Significant negative relationship between psychological distress and extraversion (as extraversion increased, distress decreased)
Significant positive relationship between psychological distress and neuroticism (as neuroticism increased, so did distress)
No significant relationship between distress and psychoticism (however Hamid and Steward found significant positive relationships between psychological distress and psychoticism with larger samples)

Question 66

What can influence wellbeing?

Answer 66

Personality influences wellbeing, but so do:
Other individual differences - age, gender, IQ, attitudes, beliefs, socioeconomic status, education, level, occupation, etc.
Social/environmental factors - upbringing, social learning/observation, social norms, intergroup relationships, social inequality, harmful environments, big life events, etc.
Biological factors - pre-existing health conditions, genetics, physiology, classical conditioning, etc.

Question 67

What are the strengths and limitations of personality predicting health-related behaviour and wellbeing (isn’t the ONLY predictor)?

Answer 67

Can be measured/quantified, and so can wellbeing - however both change and can be measured in various different ways
Wellbeing means different things to different people - our personal circumstances can influence this, but personality scales can’t capture this nuanced information
Risks of being deterministic and reductionist - if personality determines health behaviour and wellbeing, where is personal accountability and agency; responses to attitude scales and total scores on traits can’t capture everything that makes you who you are

Question 68

Explain the link between culture and personality (etic and emic approach)

Answer 68

Ideas about personality often have a Western Bias
Cultural-Comparative approach (etic approach) - seeks to test Western ideas about personality in other cultures (e.g. people living in certain continents are more/less likely to be…)
However, this is trying to enforce an idea of what personality is (different countries and cultures have different concepts of personality)
Indigenous approach (emic approach) - seeks to develop new personality assessments that focus on personality constructs/traits which are relevant to the culture being studied (it’s possible that some traits are culturally specific)

Question 69

What are the differences in wellbeing?

Answer 69

Wellbeing generally means being comfortable, healthy and happy, but people set different targets depending on their personal circumstances
Dimensions of wellbeing - physical, emotional/ psychological, spiritual, social, intellectual, economic

Question 70

What are attitudes?

Answer 70

Attitudes are relatively stable predispositions towards (or evaluations of) socially significant ideas, people, events, objects, institutions, etc.
Attitudes are generally considered to have 3 components: emotional, behavioural, and cognitive (including values and beliefs)
Attitudes can be explicit (conscious) or implicit (unconscious), but both guide our behaviour and decision-making
There is some degree of generalisability, however remember that although people may have similar attitudes, the origin, strength, accessibility and manifestation vary from person to person

Question 71

How are attitudes formed?

Answer 71

Initially learnt during early socialisation
Developed through the following :
Direct experience (e.g. positive/negative encounters)
Observational learning (e.g. modelling parents/peers)
Classical conditioning (positive/negative association)
Operant conditioning (positive reinforcement)
Social roles, norms, culture, mass media, etc.

Question 72

How do we measure attitudes? (Thurston approach and Likert approach)

Answer 72

Attitude scales are the most common way of measuring attitudes

Thurston approach:
Participants sort hundreds of statements into categories ranging from favourable to unfavourable, statements with the highest level of agreement can be used to form a scale to give to other participants, this is very time-consuming and reliability isn’t guaranteed (e.g. wording and sample)

Likert approach:
Participants respond to statements based on a 5 (or 7) point scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree, an attitude score is then calculated from the total, some questions may need to be reverse scored (wording), so a high score always means the same thing, researchers must beware of acquiescence response set (tendency to agree), social desirability and issues relating to wording, lying and attention

Guttman:
Argued that neither of these approaches capture unique meaning because people can obtain the same overall score but actually endorse different questions, Guttman suggests measuring a single unidimensional trait instead, statements are ordered along a continuum ranging from least to most extreme, participants indicate the most extreme statement they accept, it’s then assumed that participants accept all items which are less extreme than this one, it’s very difficult to design a reliable and valid scale which captures this full range and it assumes that someone holds an attitude to begin with

Question 73

Explain alternative tools and measures for measuring attitudes (bias in language, Attitude Priming and Implicit Association Tasks)

Answer 73

Bias in language - people tend to use more concrete language when speaking about socially desirable attitudes, and more abstract language when speaking about socially undesirable attitudes; discourse analysis can be used to explore attitudes in transcripts; this is a qualitative approach and allows for open questions to be used, so it’s especially useful when exploring sensitive topics

Attitude Priming (and Implicit Association Tasks) - we tend to make judgements quicker if they are consistent with our own attitude (e.g. stimuli are presented on a screen and participants are asked to indicate if it was ‘good’ or ‘bad’, reaction times are recorded, faster responses = consistent with our own attitude, longer responses = inconsistent with our own attitude), this is often used to explore socially undesirable or controversial attitudes, however a longer response could mean other things too (e.g. distraction or difficulty understanding)

Question 74

Why do we use Health Behaviour Models?

Answer 74

To explain, predict and change attitudes and behaviour; offer hypotheses about what influences behaviour; to develop effective interventions; to reduce health risk behaviour; to encourage health promotion behaviour

Question 75

Explain attitudinal models of behaviour in terms of public health intervention

Answer 75

Information on health risk ->
Beliefs around messages and behaviour; motivation change (internal, e.g. enjoyment of activity; or external, e.g. reward) is essential for attitude and behaviour change, mobiliation of skills and resources ->
Behaviour change

Question 76

Give an example of Protection Motivation Theory - social cognition model

Answer 76

Protection Motivation: I plan to get the flu jab
Threat appraisal:
Perceived susceptibility - I am fairly likely to get flu this winter
Perceived severity - flu is a severe illness
Coping appraisal:
Response efficacy - having the flu jab will reduce my risk of getting flu
Self-efficacy - I am confident I can get myself vaccinated
Coping Response:
Adaptive - making an appointment for the flu jab
Maladaptive - I will wait to see if any of my friends get the flu this winter

Question 77

Explain the strengths and weaknesses of Protection Motivation Theory

Answer 77

Strengths - offers hypotheses about relationships between health beliefs and intention (but not necessarily behaviour), offers good prediction of motivation, has been successfully applied to various health behaviours (smoking, safe-sun behaviours)
Weaknesses - ignores social pressures/motivations, what if fear isn’t motivation enough to initiate the protection motivation process, is fear an ethical tool for behaviour change

Question 78

Explain Theory of Planned Behaviour

Answer 78

Beliefs about outcome, outcome evaluation -> behavioural attitude
Beliefs about others’ attitude to behaviour, motivation to comply -> subjective norms
Internal control factors, external control factors -> perceived behavioural control
Behavioural attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control -> behaviour intention
Perceived behavioural control, behavioural intention -> behaviour
(Hence, attitudes, norms and perceived control influence intentions and behaviour. However, there are gaps in this model)
(Important: There is more chance of predicting behaviour from an attitude measure if people believe they have control over that behaviour)
(Intention-Behaviour Gap - gap between behavioural intention and behaviour: does an intention ALWAYS lead to a behaviour? No! How do we reduce this gap or ensure our intentions lead to a desired behaviour? Implementation intentions - a solid plan of action)

Question 79

Explain the strengths and weaknesses of Theory of Planned Behaviour

Answer 79

Strengths - is useful for assessing a variety of health-related behaviours (e.g. condom use, blood donation, smoking, and exercise), proposes that the person has the necessary resources to complete the behaviour
Weaknesses - doesn’t explicitly account for factors such as fear, threat, mood, or past experience (these are all encompassed in the “attitude” component), it assumes linear decision making and instant behavioural change, it doesn’t assess the timeframe between intent and action

Question 80

Use an example to explain the Stages of Change Model (a stage model)

Answer 80

Example: trying to quite smoking
Pre-contemplation - the stage in which people aren’t intending to take action in the foreseeable future (usually those in this stage are uninformed of the consequences of their behaviours) (e.g. not thinking about quitting)
Contemplation - the stage in which people are intending to change in the next 6 months and are becoming aware of the pros and cons of behavioural change (e.g. thinking about quitting in the next 6 months)
Preparation - the stage in which people are prepared to take action in the near future (e.g. thinking about quitting in the next 30 days)
Action - the stage in which there has been an overt, purposeful behavioural modification in the last 6 months (e.g. 0-6 months of abstinence)
Maintenance - the prevention of relapse and increase of confidence of the behaviour (e.g. 6+ months of abstinence)
(Termination) - describes zero (or close to zero) temptation and near 100% self-efficacy in the new adopted behaviour (e.g. complete absence of temptation)

Question 81

Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the Stages of Change Model

Answer 81

Strengths - has been successfully applied to health-related behaviours (including smoking, alcohol use, exercise), focuses on process of change, divides the population into groups and tailors interventions for these groups, versions of it are frequently applied to health interventions (e.g. NHS), used with some success in research to test for differences in health behaviours
Weaknesses - oversimplifies the complex process of behaviour change (assumes linearity), it’s difficult to determine whether behaviour change occurs according to discrete stages or along a continuum, not really a theory but a collection of strategies for use in different situations, it assumes people make stable and coherent plans for change, is highly individual-centred with no modelling of external factors

Question 82

Explain the types of Public Health Intervention (who are we targeting?)

Answer 82

Primary - pre “at risk” - education settings
Secondary - “at risk” - prevention aimed at risky group, 16 to 24 year olds/students
Tertiary - the “problem” group - people engaging in the risky behaviour possibly identified by help-seeking or hospital admissions, etc.

Question 83

Explain the origin of attitudes

Answer 83

Attitudes play a large role in your behaviour, but are just one of many factors
Factors that can change your attitudes - personality, upbringing, social influences, romantic influences

Question 84

Explain the functions of attitudes

Answer 84

(sort later)

Question 85

What are the pitfalls of question design?

Answer 85

~ Language which is too complex for your participants
~ Long questions - loose train of thought, confusion
~ Double barrelled questions - asking two things in one question which might each have a different response
~ Leading questions - encouraging participants to respond how you want, not how they think/feel
~ Negatives of double negatives - confusing participants with positive/negative or negative/negative wording
~ Questions participants can’t answer (e.g. requires a level of knowledge they can’t/don’t have)
~ Word which have several meanings or words which have been used incorrectly
~ Prestige bias - questions which lead participants to respond in a certain way to fit in with peer group
~ Ambiguity (e.g. if several responses could be correct)
~ Unclear contexts - when it’s unclear why you’re asking what you’re asking
~ Questions which create opinions (e.g. presenting divisive opinion as factual)
~ Offence - questions which might be offensive, especially if discriminatory or provoking
~ Low response rate (e.g. sensitive, confusing, long)

Question 86

Explain ageing and facts about it

Answer 86

Over the last century, a variety of factors have increased lifespan in rapid fashion
Lifespan does not equal healthspan
Research identifying strategies for maintenance of cognitive and brain health in older age has become increasingly important
Today, almost 1 in 10 people are over 60 years old
By 2050, 1 in 5 people will be over 60
People aged over 60 will outnumber children aged 0-40 by 2050
Women tend to live longer than men

Question 87

Explain the conclusions of individual differences and ageing

Answer 87

~ Increased lifespan poses healthcare, economical and societal challenge - has lead to a surge in research on ageing
~ Healthy ageing involves cognitive decline across different aspects of cognition
~ Individual variability in brain ageing and cognitive ageing
~ “Age is just a number”
~ Lifestyle factors modulate cognitive ageing
~ Psychological research can play a positive role here

Question 88

State the lifestyle factors that have an impact on brain health and cognition throughout the lifespan

Answer 88

~ Sleep
~ Diet
~ Exercise
~ Cognitive training

Question 89

Explain Theory of Mind (ToM)

Answer 89

Understanding that other people have their own beliefs, intentions, and knowledge states
Crucially, understanding that their beliefs and knowledge states may differ from our own, any may differ from is ‘true’ in reality
Two ToM ‘domains’:
Cognitive - understanding others’ thoughts and intentions
Affective - understanding others’ feelings and emotional states

Question 90

How do we measure ToM?

Answer 90

First-ever experiment looking into ToM was conducted on a chimpanzee
First test of ToM in humans - conducted on children
‘Object-displacement’ task; Measure of False Belief - refers to holding in mind another person’s belief state that we know is false
Famously adopted by Baron-Cohen et al. who studies typically-developing children, ASD, and children with Down’s Syndrome
TD children pass ToM test around age 4-6; but disruption in ASD

Question 91

Explain the problems with early measures of Theory of Mind

Answer 91

Early tasks were categorical - responses were classified as either ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’
Relatively straightforward - most participants score near-perfect
‘Ceiling’ effects
Need more sensitive (and more difficult) measures

Question 92

Explain the development of Theory of Mind tasks

Answer 92

Proliferation of more difficult (continuous) ToM tasks - verbal/non-verbal, picture-based/movies, virtual reality
Increased variability in performance, even in adults

Question 93

Explain Theory of Mind disruption

Answer 93

Learning/developmental conditions (e.g. Autism Spectrum Disorder)
Mental health conditons (e.g. schizophrenia, psychosis)
Physiological (neurological) conditions (e.g. Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s)
Natural, healthy ageing

Question 94

Explain Theory of Mind and Executive Function

Answer 94

Set of cognitive skills that drive cognitive control in behaviour (e.g. working memory, inhibitory control, attention (flexibility))
Close link between EF and ToM; different EF’s needed for a successful ToM (especially inhibition and attention switching)
EF (like ToM) declines with age - sometimes difficult to disentangle ToM decline from general EF decline

Question 95

Explain the lifespan perspective of ToM

Answer 95

Downward trajectory overall
Cognitive ToM more susceptible to ageing effects, compared to affective ToM

Question 96

Explain ToM decline in ageing

Answer 96

Conflicting early literature in ageing:
Happe et al. reported intact or even improved performance on ToM task in older compared to younger adults
Confound -> vocabulary, processing speed, and EF’s not accounted for
Consensus in the literature since:
Maylor et al. - using a stories task where participants have to think about the mental states and intentions of the characters, the authors found that older adults had poorer ToM relative to younger adults
Meta-analysis of 23 studies with sub-analyses on task types/modalities:
Found age-related ToM decay irrespective of task parameters

Question 97

Give an overall summary of individual differences and ageing

Answer 97

ToM refers to our ability to understand and infer others’ thoughts
Classic studies showed that children aged 4-6 pass tests of ToM
Evidence for ToM decline in ageing (some of this related to EF decline)
Can ‘train’ older adults on measures of ToM

Question 98

What is aggression and what are the different theories?

Answer 98

Human aggression is any behaviour directed toward another individual that is carried out with the proximate (immediate) intent to cause harm. In addition, the perpetrator must believe that the behaviour will harm the target, and that the target is motivated to avoid the behaviour
Consequences, intentions, problems
Theories of aggression - biological, individual, situational, social, General Aggression Model

Question 99

How can we measure aggression?

Answer 99

Difficult to manipulate physical aggression (ethical issues)
~ Analogues of behaviour (e.g. hitting a plastic doll, pressing a button that delivers a shock)
~ Signal of intention (e.g. verbal expression of willingness to use violence)
~ Ratings by self/others (e.g. relational aggression - spreading rumours/gossiping)

Question 100

Explain aggression in terms of biological theories

Answer 100

Psychodynamic (Freud) - stems from conflict between death instinct (Thanos) and life instinct (Eros), Thanos: movement from self-destruction to outward hostility, Neo-Freudians: aggression builds up and must be released

Evolutionary - behaviour evolves over time, aggression safeguards survival, particularly pronounced around offspring, leads to social and economic advantage

Genes (Pavlov) - genetic behaviour is estimated to explain 40-50% of aggression behaviour, MAO-A (warrior gene) is important to the functioning of the peripheral nervous system, diminishing function of the MAO-A gene associated with increase in aggression in animals, but also good genetic representation of MAO-A gene have lower levels of aggression, strongly evidenced in male participants, results for female participants are weaker, more pronounced when combined with other genetic and environmental factors

Question 101

Explain aggression in terms of individual theories

Answer 101

Personality - evidence to suggest that aggressive tendencies are relatively stable across the lifespan (e.g. children who are aggression at age 8 are more likely to be aggressive in later years, Guerra), may suggest that personalities may be aligned with a higher propensity for aggression
Personality traits have been shown to be related to aggressive tendencies (Hyatt) - meta-analysis of lab aggression and personality traits (Big Five): aggression and openness (small negative relationship with lab aggression), psychopathy, narcissism and sadism (small to moderate positive relationship with lab aggression), neuroticism not a good predictor of lab aggression
~ Issues - 41% of studies only used male participants, likely to be issues with publication bias, can’t speak to facet level only factor-level trends
Alcohol - lower inhibitions that regulate ‘normal’ behaviour, alcohol tends to increase instances of aggressive behaviour, “Taylor paradigm” (Gustafson): […]

Question 102

Explain aggression in terms of external factors

Answer 102

Crowding - more crowing = more aggression, neighbourhood and household density = increase in feelings of aggression, feeling crowded in prison made inmate perceive acts to be more aggressive and protagonists more hostile
Heat - relationships found in crime statistics that hotter days have higher numbers of aggressive acts, follows an inverted U pattern (as temperature increases, so does aggression, and then declines as it gets hotter)

Question 103

Explain aggression in terms of social theories

Answer 103

Frustration-aggression hypotheses - Dollard: aggression arises from frustration, target of aggression not necessarily the source of frustration, Berkowitz: aggression can arise from frustration but there is more complexity, there can also be effective rather than instrumental aggression, aggression can occur when expectations of gratification aren’t met rather than just deprivation

Excitation transfer hypothesis - Zillmann: aggression relies on the following elements - aggression is a learnt behaviour, arousal/excitation comes from another source, arousal/excitation interpreted in such a way to lead to aggressive response

Social learning theory - aggressive behaviour is a learnt behaviour and rewards or punishments of that behaviour direct its maintenance, roots in behaviourism (e.g. Skinner - behaviour is directed through rewards and punishments, this can be direct or vicarious)
~ Bobo doll study (Bandura, 1963) - 4 and 5 year old children observed an adult behaving aggressively towards a bobo doll (e.g. kicking, hitting, throwing), conditions: live - in same room, video - filmed and showed to child, cartoon - adult dressed as cat and room set up like cartoon, control - child not exposed to any models and just left alone with bobo doll
~ Bandura, 1965 - children observed aggressive behaviour and then one of following options: reward group - model rewarded for aggressive behaviour (“well done”, sweets), punishment group - model punished for aggressive behaviour (told off and not to do it again), control group - model had no feedback, rewards or punishment for aggressive behaviour, video cut off after adult that finished playing with bobo doll, little difference between reward and control group, but decrease in punishment group, perhaps punishments decrease the expression of aggression, not necessarily the learned behaviour
~ Ward and Carlson - watching aggressive reality TV associated with higher levels of aggression
~ Umar - participants in online commenting platform, exposure to higher levels of aggressive content from peers = increase in mocking of peers

Question 104

Explain aggression in terms of the General Aggression Model

Answer 104

Anderson and Bushman
Integrated framework that draws several factors together to explain aggressive behaviour:
Inputs (e.g. personality, provocation)
Routes (e.g. arousal, feelings, thoughts)
Outcomes (e.g. appraisal leading to automatic and thoughtful acts)
This then results in the social encounter and feeds back into the inputs

Question 105

Explain aggression and the group (disinhibition, dehumanisation, deindividuation)

Answer 105

Disinhibition - breakdown of learnt social controls then usually prevent aggressive behaviour (e.g. alcohol)
Dehumanisation - stripping people of their humanity = feel freer to act aggressively towards them, as it disrupts how easily they can see the pain caused and decreases shame and guilt (e.g. dehumanising cyclists associated with self-reported aggression towards them)
Deindividuation - people lose their sense of self and adopt the group identity = more likely to commit acts they wouldn’t normally do (e.g. trick or treat - stealing was observed more with those who were masked and in a group; bystanders engage in cyberbullying due to deindividuation created through a) anonymity and b) stronger sense of group identity, leading to moral disengagement

Question 106

Explain intra and inter-group conflict

Answer 106

Groups have been known to demonstrate more aggressive behaviour
Sherif’s ‘Robbers Cave’ study:
~ Ingroup formation - opportunity to develop friendships, engaged in activities that require interaction and achieving shared goals (e.g. canoeing), groups differentiated themselves into roles of leadership hierarchies and strong group norms
~ Intergroup conflict - explore negative intergroup attitudes and behaviour (groups weren’t aware of other’s existence), held pejorative views towards the other group upon being told about them, groups competed in competitive activities (e.g. tug-of-war), verbal to physical negative intergroup attitudes were expressed
~ Reduction of intergroup conflict - tried positive all group activities (e.g. watching films together) but this didn’t and led to more opportunities for aggression, co-operation to achieve a desired goal (e.g. pool money together to watch a film) led to a decrease in intergroup hostility

Question 107

Explain the theoretical explanations for intergroup conflict (realistic conflict theory and relative deprivation theory)

Answer 107

Realistic conflict theory:
~ Intergroup hostility arises from competition for material resources (usually scarce and valuable)
~ Robbers Cave - competition over possessions, playing territories, and competitions to win prizes (pocket knife)
~ Gain or loss of resources = intergroup conflict

Relative deprivation theory:
~ Discontent from social comparison that other people/groups are better off
Egoistic relative deprivation - comparison at the individual level (e.g. this person/group has more than me)
Fraternal relative deprivation - comparison at group-level (e.g. that group has more than my group) and is more likely to lead to intergroup conflict

Question 108

Explain social identity theory

Answer 108

Tajfel and Turner
Identity is constituted through group membership (self categorisation, adopt group norms)
Creation of a shared self-definition
Social comparison with other groups (“in” and “out” groups
Being part of a group may have influenced how the boys thought about themselves, their group, and the other group

Question 109

How do we obtain intergroup harmony?

Answer 109

Education - in intergroup aggression/conflict is a result of lacking understanding = equal intervention (e.g. education and obesity via a) traditional lecture or b) dramatic reading with healthcare students lead to greater empathy (lecture and reading), decreased explicit fat bias (dramatic reading)

Intergroup contact - if intergroup aggression/conflict is a result of low contact -> increased contact to identify similarities and positive exemplars within the group (e.g. Obama’s presidential campaign decreased implicit anti-black prejudice)

Superordinate goals - if intergroup aggression/conflict is a result of discrete intragroup goals = create superordinate intergroup goals (e.g. superordinate goals in the Robber’s Cave experiment)

Question 110

Define aggression and how to measure it

Answer 110

Definition - behaviour intended to cause harm, with a belief that it will cause harm, and the target would wish to avoid this
Ways to measure aggression - analogues of aggression (e.g. shocks/hitting a doll), rating by self and others

Question 111

Give a brief explanation of the General Aggression Model

Answer 111

Developed by Anderson and Bushman
Integrated framework that draws several factors together to explain aggressive behaviour
1. Inputs (e.g. personality, provocation)
2. Routes (e.g. arousal, feelings, thoughts)
3. Outcomes (e.g. appraisal leading to automatic and thoughtful acts)
This then results in the social encounter and feeds back into the inputs

Question 112

Give a brief explanation of aggression and groups (disinhibition, dehumanisation, deindividuation)

Answer 112

Disinhibition - breakdown of social controls (e.g. alcohol)
Dehumanisation - stripping people of their humanity, makes it less likely to see pain (e.g. dehumanising cyclists)
Deindividuation - adoption of group identity and group norms (e.g. trick or treaters)

Question 113

What is a group?

Answer 113

A collection of people
Interaction with other memberships of the group
Structured through roles/expectations
Shared association (spaces/beliefs)
Huge variation in what you could consider a group to look like

Question 114

Explain Kelley’s types of groups (incidental, membership, identity reference)

Answer 114

Incidental groups - people brought together for a short period of time who don’t otherwise know each other, minimal involvement and commitment to each other (e.g. strangers at a concert)
Membership groups - being a member means you get to know each other, shared commitment to group’s common goals, members may join and leave the group, typically long-lasting (e.g. hobby clubs)
Identity reference groups - membership reliance on identification with the group, group provides a frame of reference for their own sense of identity, shared values and norms, long-term commitment, could be informed by ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, nationalities, subcultures (e.g. being Amish)

Variation in commitment and cohesiveness - but not as simple as people can be in multiple types of groups at the same time, so not as easy to identify if people are in membership or identity-reference groups
How distinct do groups need to be - entitativity: properties of a group that makes it distinct and bounded
~ High: clear boundaries, well structured, homogenous
~ Low: fuzzy boundaries, heterogeneous

Question 115

Explain group socialisation (investigation, socialisation, maintenance, resocialisation, remembrance)

Answer 115

Moreland and Levine

Investigation - group recruits potential members, can be formed (e.g. interview) or information (e.g. being friends with a member of the group), success = new member

Socialisation - group integrates new member into their norms, individual wants their views recognised, can be informal or formal (e.g. induction to an organisation), success = acceptance by group

Maintenance - role negotiation within group roles can change both unexpected and expected (e.g. graduation)

Resocialisation - expected change in role = unlikely resocialisation, unexpected = member is seen as deviant, if successful at resocialisation = membership reinstated, if not = leave the group

Remembrance - after leaving the individual and group reminisce about each other (positive and negative)

Question 116

Explain motivational (social) explanations for group membership

Answer 116

Sociometer theory (self-esteem motivates) - people are motivated to be included, group membership is integral to self-esteem, self-esteem acts as a meter for inclusion, the higher the self-esteem, the more valued they see themselves and the greater the social connection with others

Terror management theory (fear of death motivates) - people are motivated by a fear of death = feelings of terror (existential anxiety), group membership validation of their world view = increase in self-esteem = decrease in feelings of terror (symbolic immortality)

Uncertainty-identity theory (self-uncertainty motivates) - group membership helps define identity, we experience uncertainty in identity = motivation to alleviate excessive uncertainty, entativity (entitativity) is influential in how useful a gorup is in providing an identity

Question 117

Explain group structure (roles, status, leaders)

Answer 117

Roles - patterns of behaviour to help distinguish different group activities, differentiate between people within the group for the greater good of the group, implicit (e.g. groups of friends) and explicit (e.g. football team), provide division of labour, expectations of self and others, self-definition and placement in group, but there can be confusion between performed behaviour and dispositional traits (correspondence bias)

Status - not all roles are equal, some are more values and respected
~ High status role-holders will have consensual prestige (especially when multiple people have gone for the role), tendency to initiative ideas
~ Hierarchies aren’t fixed, the change over time and situations
~ Consequence of social comparisons made within the group

Why are particular people expected to/do take on status-laden roles?
Expectation states theory
~ Role as a consequence of status-based expectations
Specific status characteristics: useful attributes to complete a group task (e.g. high jumper in athletics team)
~ Diffuse status characteristics: attributes not specific to a task, but widely positively regarded (e.g. race, gender, occupation, wealth)
~ Diffuse traits generalised across situations, even when not relevant

Leaders - someone who takes a pivotal role within a group, mobilises and organises the group to achieve common goals, different groups require different types of leaders

Question 118

Explain group membership and prototypes

Answer 118

Group has normative expectations of attitudes and behaviours, they have similarity to each other
Prototype - ideal representation of the category, used to evaluate others, could be the ‘average’ or more extreme example of the group, highly prototypical members often have significant influence over the group and may occupy leadership roles

Question 119

Explain leadership using social explanations

Answer 119

Social identity theory
(Identity built through group membership, group norms, and comparison to other groups)
~ Leader is a group member, and leaders and followers have a shared (group) identity
Most effective leaders are prototypical of the group and represent that group well
~ Meta-analysis of social identity and leadership
~ Findings - leadership prototypically successful when: they were aspirational (mobilising and motivating towards aspirational goals), the group had longevity (stable basis for leadership), they also shaped the group identity, effects more pronounced in formal leadership positions; no influence of intergroup comparison

Question 120

Explain leadership using individual explanations

Answer 120

There are particular personality traits that are associated with leadership
~ Meta-analysis of articles looking at the Big Five personality and leadership, extraversion most consistent correlate of leadership, followed by conscientiousness and openness to experience, neuroticism was negatively correlated with leadership, agreeableness was the least relevant trait
~ Big Five predictors of leader emergence rather than effectiveness
~ Bigg Five better predictors of student leadership, better than governmental - perhaps because they’re more unstructured

Question 121

Explain leadership and subordinate personalities

Answer 121

Leadership success isn’t solely reliant on their characteristics, the characteristics of their superordinate’s matter
~ Hetland explored relationship between leadership ratings and subordinates’ personality characteristics by having participants rate their immediate superior and Big Five personality measure
~ High agreeableness and low neuroticism in subordinates associated with transformational leadership (higher warmth, lower tension)
~ High neuroticism and openness to experience in subordinates related to passive-avoidant leadership (laissez-faire approach)
~ Extraversion not related to any ratings of superior
~ No subordinates’ personality trait predicted transactional leadership ratings (exchange of rewards between leader and subordinate) - perhaps this style is neutral and doesn’t induce strong emotional responses

Question 122

Explain peer relationships

Answer 122

Affiliation between individuals with shared characteristics (e.g. age, occupation, interest, education) fostered through social interactions
~ They covered a range of social relationships (friendships, romantic relationships, cliques, peer groups)
~ Variance across the lifespan, peer groups serve different functions
~ Influential in several outcomes including educational, addictive behaviours, mental health symptoms, adult disease risk

Question 123

Explain friendships

Answer 123

~ Peer relationships vary from weak ties to close ones
~ Friendship is a special form of peer relation; dyadic voluntary close relationship
~ Friends are more likely similar to self, and adolescent behaviour correlates with the behaviour of close friends
~ Friendships can act as a proxy for assessments of social skills and have developmental outcomes
~ Hierarchies and structure within and across friendships (e.g. best friends)

Question 124

Explain peer relationships over the life course

Answer 124

Groups of peers - children interact in the classroom and on the playground, activities are supervised in early childhood

Peer groups - from early childhood to middle childhood, peer groups start to form; preferences for same-sex members

Cliques - during childhood, cliques are prevalent; small intimate group of friends

Crowds - decline in cliques for participation in crowds in adolescence; reputation based, larger collection of individuals who share the same status

Less defined peer groups - by late adolescence, peer groups become less defined; mixed-sex cliques emerge and romantic relationships develop

Question 125

Explain the function of peer relationships

Answer 125

Social, emotional, behavioural functioning - social behaviour and school performance, peer networks are predictors of individual academic motivation, peer groups contribute to academic achievement and social functioning

Reinforce Identity Development - Social Identity Development Theory, basic need to belong, association with peers allows the development of a sense of identity

Develop Skills (Fine) - learn how to engage in cooperative activities, learn about social structures within and across, learn the skills for leading and following, learn to mobilise aggression

Question 126

Explain how to measure peer relationships

Answer 126

~ Reports of self and others
~ Observations
~ Scales (e.g. Child Behaviour Scale - teacher report instrument (5-13 years old))
~ Peer ratings (e.g. social preference and social status - children rate others in the group)
~ Sociograms - visual representation of interpersonal relationships within a group; help to identify function, connections and structure; informed through questioning children (e.g. “Who do you most like to play with?, “Who do you least like to play with?”)
~ Helpful for identifying peer acceptance and rejection

Question 127

Explain the individual theories of peer relationships

Answer 127

Personality traits influence peer relationships
~ Wrzus found that extraversion, agreeableness and self-esteem most strongly affected both the number and quality of friendship
Higher extraversion associated with - more friends and easier to make friends (perhaps explained through smiling/confidence), more contact with friends, greater emotional closeness and support, higher self-esteem and narcissism associated with being liked at first sight, agreeableness is less well-established as a predictor of friends (possibly gender as a confounding variable in being liked based on agreeableness)

Similarity (homophily)
~ The more similar people are, the more likely they are to connect
~ Similarity in personalities associated with peer group cohesion and success
~ Laakasuo: similarity in individual personality associated with group success (regardless of personality types), similarity in neuroticism and conscientiousness predicted group formation, group performance was higher in those with higher levels of similarity in conscientiousness
Massen and Koski: also applies to chimps; personality homophily a predictor in chimp friendships, especially co-operative and socio-positive behaviours; higher sociability similarity if they stay near each other

Question 128

Explain the social theories of peer relationships

Answer 128

Social learning theory:
~ We learn behaviour through seeing how others (peers) behave and model it, maintenance of behaviour through reward or punishment (directly or vicariously)
~ Norman and Ford: adolescents with favourable attitudes towards substance use tended to have peers who use them and parents and peers who condone their use
~ Rocheleau: higher rates of peers using e-cigarettes related to higher odds of own e-cigarette use

Social identity theory:
~ The group (peers) identity and norms directs the behaviour of the individual if they’re with the group
~ Tarrant: adolescents form positive evaluations of their peers belonging to the same group as them, higher levels of identity with the group was associated with higher favourable ratings of it
~ Duffy and Nesdale: children who belonged to groups who bullied (norms) were more likely to display bullying behaviour;, the more prototypical of the pro-bullying group the children were, the higher the involvement in bullying

Question 129

Explain the situational theories of peer relationships

Answer 129

The propinquity (proximity) effect
~ Those who you see and interact with more are likely to become friends
~ Festinger - those living in an apartment complex (multiple buildings) were asked who their three closest friends in the complex were, and 65% mentioned those in the same building, 41% were next door neighbours
~ Based on mere exposure effect: the more exposure we have to something, we are more likely to like it
~ Back: also applies in university - those sat close together were more likely to become friends

Question 130

Briefly explain groups

Answer 130

~ Collection of people
~ Different types of groups (vary in commitment and cohesiveness)
~ Entitativity-distinctiveness and boundaries
~ Group socialisation

Question 131

Briefly explain group membership

Answer 131

~ Social theories originate from an individual motivation
~ Group identity influenced, in part, by personality (nationhood is related to dispositional traits, so personality may be influential in group identity formation; identification is, in part, a product of personality, but also that different personality types synapse into different types of identity)

Question 132

Briefly explain group structure

Answer 132

~ Group membership are subject to roles
~ Certain roles have different status’ (specific status characteristics, diffuse status characteristics)
~ Leadership and prototypes
~ Explanations of leadership ( SIT (importance of prototypes), individual: especially extraversion, perhaps better at explaining emergence over effectiveness, and unstructured over structured environments, characteristics of followers also matters)

Question 133

Briefly explain peer relationships

Answer 133

~ Peer relationships as a specific type of group
~ Friends as a specific type of peer relationship
~ Peer groups change over time and serve social, cognitive, and developmental functions
~ Sociogram as a specific way to measure peer relationships - extraversion, agreeableness and self-esteem are important traits in friendship formation; drawn to those who share similar personality traits with us; SLT - hold positive views/engage in behaviour if others close to us do (e.g. cigarette use); SIT - hold positive views of group members and can also engage in behaviours if it’s a group norm (e.g. bullying); situational - greater proximity and exposure to people increases relationship building

Question 134

Explain peer pressure (social influence)

Answer 134

~ Peer pressure can be a direct or subtle attempt to influence another person’s behaviour (intentionally or unintentionally)
~ Effects of peer pressure is found in 4-year-old children (Haun and Tomasello)
~ Peers can influence each other towards deviant behaviours and away from deviant behaviours
~ Adolescents are more likely to be susceptible to peer pressure (boys more susceptible than girls across culture) (become more resistant to peer pressure as they get older)

Question 135

Explain social influence

Answer 135

~ Attitudes or behaviours are influenced by the (real or implied) presence of others
~ Conformity: change in attitude or behaviour is a consequence of group pressure/norms
~ Asch’s line judgement studies: examine why people change their mind when the authority or majority didn’t agree

Question 136

Explain Asch’s line-judgement study (social influence)

Answer 136

~ Participants arrived at the lab with 7-9 other participants (confederates)
~Participants told they were taking part in a visual judgement task (lie)
~ Experimental task: compare line lengths (one reference line and identify the correct line from three comparison lines)
~ Other “participants” called out their lined ahead of the participants (correct line is called out for first few trials, but then the (obviously) incorrect answer is called out by all other “participants”
~ Participant then had to identify the correct length
~ Found that 76% conformed at least once to an incorrect answer
~ Compared to a non-confederate study, hardly anyone identified an incorrect line (therefore is explained by the pressure of the group; Asch also notes physical demeanour changes when they read out the incorrect answer - e.g. fidgeting, whispering to their neighbour)

~ Only one confederate was included, when they said the wrong line they were ridiculed
~ When the answer was much more obviously wrong, conformity was lower
~ Number of confederates stating wrong answer:
1 incorrect confederate = only 3% gave incorrect response
2 incorrect confederates = 14% gave incorrect response
3 incorrect confederates = 32% gave incorrect response
No substantial increase beyond 3 confederates
~ It only took one other person saying the correct answer to disrupt conformity
~ When a confederate gave a different incorrect answer to the majority, only 9% of participants gave incorrect answer
~ Young children (aged 7-10) were more likely to conform than children aged 10 and over

Question 137

Explain peer influence in terms of achievement and success

Answer 137

Peer influence isn’t all bad
~ Studies support that peer relationships are related to children’s motivational and academic achievement
~ Children in positive peer relationships tend to be more motivated and have higher academic achievement
~ Sociometrically rejected children experience academic difficulty
~ University students: Catling, Mason and Jones, and Berthelon found that peer support and networks predicted student success

How might peer relationships promote academic achievement?
~ Communicating goals and expectations performance (Wentzel, Looney and Battle)
~ Providing help and assistance
~ Providing emotional support and security

Question 138

What is prosocial behaviour?

Answer 138

Acts that are positively valued socially, with positive social consequences and which benefit the wellbeing of others; the opposite of anti-social behaviour
Helping behaviour - intentionally helpful/beneficial acts towards others/another person
Altruism - specific form of helping behaviour that benefits another person, performed without expectation of personal gain and which can be costly/risky to the helper; ‘true’ altruism is debated as it should be entirely selfless (e..g with no internal reward)

Question 139

Explain evolution and prosocial behaviour

Answer 139

Prosocial behaviour as an innate adaptive trait that increases genetic survival chances; links to communication and cooperation - seen in animals and humans
Two key explanations:
~ Mutualism/reciprocity - cooperative behaviour benefits more than non-cooperation (Roberts; Trivers)
~ Kin selection - biased to help those with whom we share our genes (Maner and Galloit)
Or (extended to Inclusive Fitness) those whom we have an evolved similarity to or ‘nurturant’ disposition to (e.g. the ‘vulnerable’, Baston; Burnstein, Crandall and Kitayama)

Question 140

Explain the complexity of evolutionary accounts of prosocial behaviour

Answer 140

Evolutionary theory can contribute to some explanations of certain aspects of prosocial behaviour but not all - especially in humans
Humans can seemingly act altruistically in ways contrary to evolutionary principles (e.g. self-sacrifice for a stranger - no reciprocity or inclusive fitness (the ability of an individual organism to pass on its genes to the next generation, e.g. Maximillian Kobe sacrificed himself whilst in Auschwitz for a man who was a stranger to him)) or in ways that are hard to explain with evolution (e.g. bystander apathy)
~ Humans have consciousness, cognitive capacities, emotions, language, social connection, morality, culture - all also interact
Largely agreed prosocial behaviour is a multidimensional construct (Decety)
~ Because the situation and person have to interact - thoughts, emotions, situation, social contexts, etc.
In thinking about prosocial behaviour, it’s better to think of where the explanation locates the motive of prosocial behaviour
~ In the individual helping
~ In the social and cultural context

Question 141

Explain arousal and empathy

Answer 141

~ Biological negative arousal response (e.g. wincing or covering your eyes whilst watching a horror film) to witnessing suffering - humans (adults and infants) and animals
~ Mechanism predispose action - but doesn’t guarantee prosocial (e.g. can avoid negative feeling and look/run away - stress response; context and individual factors influence how you act)
~ Empathy - affective/emotional ability to associate with another person’s experiences, to ‘feel’ their perspective (typically associated with humans due to phenomenology, but debate if in animals too)
~ Can engage it or avoid it - impacts prosocial behaviour

Question 142

Explain the Bystander-Calculus model

Answer 142

Physiological arousal -> label arousal -> evaluate the consequences (empathy costs: failing to help -> distress; personal costs: failing to help -> feeling blame)
~ Resolve distress at lowest cost-egoist concept
~ Personal or empathy costs of not helping have to be high
~ Similarity/association increases empathy cost - why help friend more than stranger
~ Situation informs calculation and interpretation of costs
~ Bystander-calculus model - motivated by EGOISM - relive negative emotion to make self feel better, gain not cost

~ Weigh up consequences of helping versus not helping in order to make a decision
~ Higher empathy costs and personal costs makes it more likely for the person to help
~ There will be a higher empathy cost of not helping a friend than not helping a stranger, thus people are more likely to help their friend

Question 143

Explain Empathy-Altruism theory (Baston)

Answer 143

~ Empathy-Altruism hypothesis - feel empathy towards another person you will help regardless of what you can gain from it - ALTRUISM
~ Baston - manipulated empathy and exposed to a person in distress (2 x 2 design) (observe the victim’s reactions - low empathy; imagine the victim’s feelings - high empathy; ease of escape without helping - easy versus difficult)
~ Found:
Low empathy - helped less when escape easy - egoistic (can decrease own distress)
High empathy - high rate of helping even when escape easy - altruistic (can decrease distress of person in need)
Self-reported emotional response - feeling a predominance of empathy rather than distress on witnessing someone in need can evoke altruistic motivation

Explanation of diagram:
~ Observe someone in need of help
~ Do you feel empathy for this person?
Yes = you will help regardless of whether it’s in your self-interest to do so (that is, even if costs outweigh rewards)
No = you will help only if it’s in your self-interest to do so (that is, if rewards outweigh costs)

Question 144

Explain Prosocial/Altruistic personality

Answer 144

Goal - to identify if individual differences explain helping behaviour
~ Bierhoff; Einhoff - studies exploring ‘helpers’ and non-helpers’ prosocial personality seems to involve:
Emphasise social responsibility, high internal locus of control (how much you feel you can influence situations based on your own actions), greater dispositional empathy (more empathetic people, think and feel more about other people’s perspectives), and extensivity (commitment to others)
~ Habashi Graziano and Hoover
Empirical exploration of Big Five and prosocial via 3x charitable giving experiments
Found agreeableness was the dominant factor in helping
BUT also concluded that personality was only one aspect of the multidimensional model of prosocial behaviour - integrate with situation and other attributes

Question 145

Explain mood

Answer 145

Good moods - multiple studies associated with increased helping behaviour
~ e.g. told they’d done well on a task - more likely to help
~ Consistent finding - BUT can be short lived and ‘in the moment’
Bad moods - typically less likely to help others; with one exception - guilt
~ Regan, Williams and Sparling (broken camera) - those who felt responsible were more likely to help another person who dropped groceries than control participants were who had no guilt manipulation around the broken camera
~ Why when not linked to their guilt (why would we want to alleviate guilt that’s not their fault, why did they decide to help more often)
~ Negative relief state model (Cialdini and Kenrick) - guilt leads to negative affective state, seek to feel better - doing good elevates mood, relieves negative affect

Question 146

Explain competence

Answer 146

People with helping skills or competences - more likely to help
~ Cramer - registered nurses (high competence) versus non-medical students (low competence) field experiment with confederate - rigged accident workman apparently fallen off a ladder moaning as if in pain
The confederate didn’t offer to help, Cramer and colleagues found that the nurses were much more likely to help due to skills
~ Perception of competence increases likelihood of helping (perceiving yourself as competent even when you aren’t makes you more likely to help)
Pantin and Carver - showed participants first aid emergency response films, found participants who had seen the films were more likely to help a confederate who appeared to be choking than participants who hadn’t
~ Assigned leadership roles too can help people feel more personally responsible - even if randomly assigned

Question 147

Explain the issues to consider with traditionally social psychology accounts of prosocial behaviour

Answer 147

Older studies
~ Often key examples due to limited replication studies - good to try and find more recent triangulating studies if possible and look to meta-analysis
~ Ecological validity - field experiments are constructed environments, may lack aspects of real-world contexts requiring prosocial behaviour (real-world charity giving)
~ Some theoretical models not always directly supported with evidence
~ Prosocial behaviour typically seen as ‘interpersonal’ (between persons)

Question 148

Define individual explanations and social explanations

Answer 148

Individual explanations - explanations that locate the dominant factor seeking to explain prosocial behaviour within the individual person

Social explanations - explanations that locate the dominant factor seeking to explain prosocial behaviour within the social context (e.g. groups) or as a result of society and culture

Question 149

Explain social norms

Answer 149

Norms - attitudinal and behaviour expectation that defines a group and determines what is ‘normal’ and correct
~ Prosocial norms are common cross-culturally and develop in children - selfishness is bad, helping others/sharing is good (House); social rewards for helping
~ Exclusively human aspect of prosocial behaviour

Two key general norms:
1. Reciprocity norm/principle - we should help those who help us - either in the past or in the future
2. Social responsibility norm - we have a duty to help those in need without expectation of future help, and regardless of if they have helped us (but sometimes selective on who is needy)
~ e.g. just world hypothesis - might feel less socially responsible for someone we perceive as being at fault for their situation of need rather than someone who we perceive to be innocent of it (e.g. more likely to help someone who we see fall over because of an accident, because that’s not their fault, rather than someone who falls over due to drunkenness, as we see their need as less because they’re responsible for their own situation)

~ Norms not always followed - but offer possible social explanation
~ Have to be learned

Question 150

Explain social learning theory and modelling

Answer 150

Prosocial behaviour due to learning it from observation of others
~ Bryan and Test - motorist with flat tire - prosocial model increased helping by 50%
Bandura - social learning theory
~ Seeing successful prosocial behaviour modelled should increase self-efficacy in helping
~ BUT modelling influences prosocial behaviour only if there is a positive outcome
Hornstein
~ Participants observed another person returning a lost wallet
~ Person returning the wallet either a) pleased to help or b) displeased at effort to help (displeases that they had to help)
~ Result - participants came across another lost wallet, those who had observed the positive reaction were more likely to help than those who observed the negative reaction
Jung - meta-analysis - found prosocial modelling to be consistent and supported, but has variants

Question 151

Explain media and prosocial behaviour

Answer 151

Media with prosocial content suggested as a form of modelling and social contributor to prosocial behaviour
~ Meta-analysis (Coyne) - consistently finding prosocial media to have strong effects on prosocial thought and behaviour towards strangers (but less so donating or volunteering)
~ Music (Greitemeyer) - participants to listen to prosocial song or neutral song: 2 studies - rate empathy or donate study fee (in prosocial - more empathetic and more likely to donate)
~ Video games - some debate but seems that prosocial games typically increase prosocial thought and possible action (Greitemeyer) (typically split between violent and prosocial - but seems game context is important - e.g. prosocial action in a violent game)

Question 152

Explain the emergence of the Bystander Effect

Answer 152

Murder of Kitty Genovese
~ Stabbed, raped and murdered in Kew Gardens, New York City, March 1964
~ New York Times article - Police Commissioner claims that 37 witnesses had refused to intervene
~ The lack of response from bystanders sparked research interest

Cherry
~ ‘Culturally embedded theorising’ - Why was the focus on explaining the lack of bystander help and not the crime itself?

Manning, Levine and Collins
~ Historical documents don’t support previous assumptions
~ Modern parable, damaging research and interventions in helping behaviour
~ Establishes a bystander deficit model of theorising - assumes people ‘don’t help’ and tests that

Question 153

Explain the Bystander Effect

Answer 153

~ Explore when and why people do and don’t help in an emergency and in everyday life
~ Concern with prosocial and helping behaviour in the presence of other people - a situational explanation (social aspect - the presence of others)
~ Bystander effect states - a bystander (person witnessing the need for help) is less likely to help in an emergency in the presence of other people than when alone (e.g. Kitty Genovese) (increased number of bystanders reduces the likelihood of helping, seems counter intuitive - would assume that more people would mean more help)
~ Latane and Darley (1968-1980’s) - studied phenomena in series of experiments (developed cognitive decision-based model affected by situation)

Question 154

Give examples of experiments that show the Bystander Effect

Answer 154

Darley and Latane (1968) - The ‘seizure experiment’
~ Deception and design: personal problems of students at university, participants seated in individual rooms (maintain anonymity), could hear ‘discussants’ (pre-recorded), communicate via intercom, told experimenter won’t listen in
~ Emergency event: one ‘discussant’ admits to being prone to seizer (expresses distress, chokes, then quiet)
~ Findings: the more people there were, the less likely they were to intervene, and of those who did, the longer it took them

Latane and Rodin (1968) - A lady in distress
~ Deception and design: male participants sat in a room to fill out a survey
~ Emergency situation: overheard a woman struggling with a cabinet, then a crash followed by cries of pain, moans and groans
~ Findings - people were less likely to respond if the participants were in pairs, or there was a passive confederate; interestingly, if the participants were with friends, they were less likely to respond as if they were on their own

Latane and Darley (1970) - The ‘smoke filled room’
~ Deception and design: problems involved in life at an urban university and were asked to sit in a ‘waiting room’ and fill in a survey
~ Emergency event: room begins to fill with a (initially invisible) ‘harmless; white smoke
~ Findings: the more people there were, the less likely they were to seek help, and of those who did, the longer it took them

Question 155

Why don’t people help others? (Bystander Effect)

Answer 155

Emergency situation lone bystander typical intervention
~ Group reduces likelihood of intervention - why?

Audience inhibition - presence of others decreases perception of an emergency, fear of social blunders reduces likelihood to act
~ Linked: social influence - model what others are doing in emergency

Diffusion of responsibility - assume others will take responsibility, as a result no one does; responsibility located just on individual when alone

Latane and Darley (1976) - 3 in 1 experiment - tested interaction of factors, found diffusion responsibility most salient (important) but cumulative effect of all

Question 156

Is the Bystander Effect social or individual?

Answer 156

Bystander Effect strongest when a mixed anonymous group of strangers - greatest inhibition
~ If likely to meet each other again, if already friends, or if share some other social identity (Levine and Manning), decreases effect
~ Social norms can also influence - e.g. if the victim is a child rather than an adult
All of this suggests a potentially social element to the bystander effect (it can be mitigated by social factors such as friendship, perceptions of other people’s and shared social identity and social norms)

Complicated if individual or social
~ Latane and Darley - social, as despite cognitive, focus is about social context - presence of others
~ Hortensias and de Gelder - neuropsychology view - more individual - emotional, motivational, and dispositional aspects; in the presence of other bystanders, personal distress is enhanced, and fixed action patterns of avoidance and freezing dominate
~ Can it be both? - back to the multidimensional issue of prosocial behaviour

Question 157

What are the limitations of social explanations? (norms, modelling, Bystander Effect)

Answer 157

Older studies
~ Often key examples due to limited replication studies - good to try and find more recent triangulating studies if possible and look to meta-analysis
Ecological validity - field experiments are constructed environments, may lack aspects of real-world contexts requiring prosocial behaviour
~ Reality of an emergency - Philpot
Equally social norms are ideals, but are they enacted in practice?
~ Just world hypothesis - Piliavin, Rodin and Piliavin
Whether explanations are social (situational, learned, or cultural) or individual (cognitive, dispositional, within the person) often depends on how researchers define it

Question 158

Explain altruism

Answer 158

Definition:
~ Disinterested and selfless concern for the wellbeing of others
~ Behaviour of an organism that benefits another of its own expense

Altruism? - small self-sacrifice and volunteering
~ Volunteering - important prosocial act (small) self-sacrifices - time, money, emotional labour, etc.
~ Seemingly altruistic - but possible selfish oriented motives?
~ Baston, Ahmed and Tsang - 4 key motives of community involvement:
Egoism (self), Altruism (others), Collectivism (group), Principlism (morals)
Strengths and weaknesses to all - balance to achieve motivation for community involvement
~ Van Der Vilert Huang and Levine - cross cultural comparisons of motives for volunteers:
33 countries - explored egoism and altruism as motives for volunteers
Complex combination of motives - too simplistic to separate
Contextual factors - climate and economics - to affect altruism egoism relationship

Altruism? - big self-sacrifice and martyrdom
~ (Big) self-sacrifice - risk loss of own life to save another
Pure altruism? More multidimensionality of prosocial explanation
FeldmanHall (2015) ‘costly altruism’ - empathy, norms, personality, attachment, reciprocity and situation leading to action with strong outcome
~ Belanger (2014) Martyrdom as altruism? No - distinct
Martyrdom - self-sacrifice for a cause focused on self-effacement
e.g. Maximillian Kolbe - devout Catholic friar - self-sacrifice due to religion
Martyrdom ideological (political or religious, etc.) not altruistic act as can be prosocial or destructive

Question 159

Explain altruism

Answer 159

Definition:
~ Disinterested and selfless concern for the wellbeing of others
~ Behaviour of an organism that benefits another of its own expense

Altruism? - small self-sacrifice and volunteering
~ Volunteering - important prosocial act (small) self-sacrifices - time, money, emotional labour, etc.
~ Seemingly altruistic - but possible selfish oriented motives?
~ Baston, Ahmed and Tsang - 4 key motives of community involvement:
Egoism (self), Altruism (others), Collectivism (group), Principlism (morals)
Strengths and weaknesses to all - balance to achieve motivation for community involvement
~ Van Der Vilert Huang and Levine - cross cultural comparisons of motives for volunteers:
33 countries - explored egoism and altruism as motives for volunteers
Complex combination of motives - too simplistic to separate
Contextual factors - climate and economics - to affect altruism egoism relationship

Altruism? - big self-sacrifice and martyrdom
~ (Big) self-sacrifice - risk loss of own life to save another
Pure altruism? More multidimensionality of prosocial explanation
FeldmanHall (2015) ‘costly altruism’ - empathy, norms, personality, attachment, reciprocity and situation leading to action with strong outcome
~ Belanger (2014) Martyrdom as altruism? No - distinct
Martyrdom - self-sacrifice for a cause focused on self-effacement
e.g. Maximillian Kolbe - devout Catholic friar - self-sacrifice due to religion
Martyrdom ideological (political or religious, etc.) not altruistic act as can be prosocial or destructive

Altruism? - Real world example: Medical Donation
~ Ferguson (2008) - Benevolence not altruism for blood donation
Move beyond altruism to recognition of mutually beneficial aspects for recipient and donor - feels good morally to give blood - egoism? No necessarily as mutually beneficial
~ Bolt (2010) - post-mortem human body donation to medical science in Netherlands
More than altruism from registered donors - help other and personal benefits too (usefulness, contribute to medical science/education, post-mortem fears, dislike of funerals and graves, gratitude)
~ Organ and tissue donation - research suggests people donate for reasons beyond altruism: solidarity, reciprocity, beneficence, save/aid loved one
Shaw (2019) - live kidney donation
Pennings (2015) - gamete donation

Does altruism exist or is prosocial behaviour pure egoism?
~ Multiple anecdotal examples of people risking selves in prosocial behaviour
Difficult to reconcile with idea, always act of egoism
~ Philosophically - pure egoism seductive but can be tautological and non-falsifiable
Assume always rewarded even in cases of ultimate self-sacrifice - how do we know?
~ Prosocial researchers careful to define altruism and to take a more pragmatic view on it
When costs outweigh rewards
Altruism and egoism - pluralism in how the two interact, neither one ‘pure’/’true’
~ Key thing in prosocial behaviour - the apparent real-world existence of it

Question 160

Give examples of the Bystander Effect in real life

Answer 160

Bystander in real-life emergencies
Philpot (2020)
~219 CCTV clips of real publicly violent/argumentative incidents in 3 countries (UK, Denmark, South Africa)
~ Criteria of organic incidents, no police present, watched until resolved or authorities intervene
~ Bystanders categorised as people not involved in original dispute/incident
~ Possible interventions (pacifying gesturing, calming touches, blocking contact, holding, pushing or pulling an aggressor away, consoling victim, providing practical help)

~ In 91% of cases, bystanders intervened
~ 3 bystanders on average intervene - additional bystanders seemed to increase the likelihood of helping behaviour
~ Explantion:
Suggests bystanders apathy mitigated by real-life aggressive context - increased situational likelihood of intervention
Suggests bystanders less passive than assumed - tend to respond prosocially
~ Limitations
Didn’t truly test bystander effect, just apathy
Can’t account for individual motives with this research as observational

Real-world research and the bystander effect - explanation and application
~ What other considerations might be at play in this research?
Link to possible mitigating effects on bystander apathy
~ Levine Philpot and Kolavenko (2020)
In real world, social relations between bystanders are important - pairs/groups of friends (social identity - in-group status, gender, football fandom, etc.)
Suggests bystanders could bolster intervention in real-world violent situations successfully
~ Levine Philpot and Kolavenko (2020) - 5 recommendations for violence reduction programmes
1. Intervention norm not rare
2. Positive messages about de-escalation intervention
3. Reassurance intervention safer than seems
4. Use the power of social identity
5. Training in situ

Question 161

Explain psychology and ontological invariance

Answer 161

Fancy way of saying a psychological trait(s) or psychological phenomenon is:
1. ‘real’ (ontological) - it exists as a ‘thing’
2. that it doesn’t change across times, places and contexts (invariant)
Concept drawn from natural sciences (e.g. chemical reaction will be the same every time in all equal contexts)
In psychology - suggests it’s possible to find universal truths of mind and behaviour applying to all people irrespective of culture

Question 162

Explain the philosophical challenge for psychology

Answer 162

~ Mind and behaviour are both individual and social
~ Social and individual, and individual and social, interact (as do the biological aspects of being human too - humans are ‘biopsychosocial’ beings)
~ Human beings are shaped by culture and shape culture (internal external loop)
~ Example - human capacity for language acquisition
~ Question - how do we account for the cultural in studying mind and behaviour?

Question 163

What is culture?

Answer 163

~ Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behaviour and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups
~ Enduring product of and influence on humans
~ As such, want to avoid conducting research and developing theories that are culture-bound or culture-blind
~ Can take two key approaches to explore culture:
Emic perspectives - within a culture and cultural similarities
Etic perspectives - from outside of a culture and cultural differences

Question 164

How is the importance of culture considered?

Answer 164

Psychology and culture:
~ Humans have psychological capacities as a result of biology and inheritance
~ Culture ‘fits into’ these capacities and variation can be seen between human societies
~ e.g. language - all share hardware for acquiring language, what language you acquire is irrelevant
~ Culture - social and influential; but not formative
~ Cross-cultural psychology

Culture and psychology:
~ Human social creatures shaped strongly by culture and society they are in
~ Psychological capacities are shaped by culture - not just different content, different form
~ e.g. language - the language you’re raised with shaped your psychological experiences of the world (e.g. effect of on space and colour perception)
~ Culture - formative but constrained by biology
~ Cultural psychology

Question 165

Explain the individualistic versus collectivist concepts of culture

Answer 165

Individualistic cultures:
~ Emphasise the needs of the individual over the needs of the group
~ People are seen as independent and autonomous
~ Social behaviour tends to be dictated by the attitudes and preferences of individuals
~ Cultures in North America and Western Europe tend to be individualistic

Collectivist cultures:
~ Emphasise the needs of the group over the individual
~ Relationships and interconnectedness central to identity
~ Social behaviour more conscious of presence of others and collectivism
~ Cultures in Asia, Central America, South America, and Africa tend to be more collectivistic

Tendencies and norms rather than dictated ways of being - current research seeks to keep ‘unique’ intracultural and transcultural heterogeneity that don’t stereotype the whole culture as either individualistic or collectivist

Question 166

Explain psychology and culture using a historical context

Answer 166

~ Founding ‘fathers’ of psychology initially uninterested in culture due to experimental and philosophical interest in the ‘inside of mind’ (e.g. Freud applied biologically deterministic psychodynamic theory to explain culture in Totem and Taboo (1918)
~ Natural sciences and neurology influence on discipline
~ Wundt - saw culture as important but not scientifically measurable
~ e.g. behaviourism - culture just a set of learned behaviours
~ Culture is still an often overlooked aspect of psychology despite its importance

Question 167

Explain the influence of anthropology

Answer 167

~ Anthropology - contemporary discipline to psychology - scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behaviour, human biology, and societies, in both the present and past, including past human species (social anthropology studies patterns of behaviour; cultural anthropology studies cultural meaning, including norms and values)
~ Early anthologists interested in mind and culture and how culture shapes what people think
~ Primary research through ethnographic studies of non-Western people
~ BUT - 19th and 20th century height of COLONIALISM - policy of a county seeking to extend or retain authority over other people or territories, generally with the aim of economic dominance
~ In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their religion, language, economics, and other cultural practices on indigenous people
~ Historical research consciously or non-consciously informed by erroneous idea of racial and cultural ‘superiority’ of Europeans

Question 168

Give an example of culture in psychology (Bartlett’s 1932 ‘War of the Ghosts’ study)

Answer 168

~ Critical of the way that North American and European culture was considered to be ‘superior’ and ‘advanced’ compared to indigenous peoples
~ English participants read Native American Folklore story, “War of the Ghosts”, didn’t fit with English story-telling traditions
~ Participants told to remember the story at different time periods
~ Increased intervals between reading and recalling participants were less accurate and had less detail
~ Stories were altered, participants omitted or added detail to ‘fit’ with English (more culturally familiar) forms of storytelling, e.g. remembering “canoes” from the story as “boats”
~ Meaning that the constructive nature of memory was influenced by subject’s own cultural schema

Question 169

Explain culture and intelligence testing

Answer 169

~ Ignorance of culture and assumption that Western psychology as ontological invariance has contributed to oppression
Dudgeon (2014)
- Historical review of psychology treatment of Indigenous Australians
- Perform poorly on Western intelligence tests (QT) and Piagetian tests of child development
- Results used to justify prejudice and racist claim of a ‘need for civilising’ - partial justification of forced separation mid 20th century
BUT
- Indigenous Australians educated in “Westernised” schools and culture perform at normal rates to Caucasian Australians
- NOT the fault of the participants - fault of the mesures
- Cultural biases and cultural construction
- Modify tests for cultural contest - no difference

Question 170

Explain Galton’s influence on culture and intelligence

Answer 170

Cultural beliefs can seep into ‘objective’ research
Galton:
~ Founder of psychometrics, pioneer in statistics, primarily interested in the heritability of intelligence
~ BUT was interested in the heritability of traits because of cultural adherence to racist and classist biological theories of time
~ An advocate for Eugenics, and biological interventions in human selective breeding
“The continued influence of eugenics in Western psychology is traced to biologising human differences while minimising the role of social context as well as to dividing individuals intodgroups according to their supposedly innate fitness levels (such as intelligence and optimism) - Yakusho (2019)

Question 171

Explain intelligence and socio-economic inequality

Answer 171

~ Those from higher socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds tend to attain higher marks (e.g. Brooks-Gunn and Duncan: family income related to child outcome)
~ Croziet and Dutrevis: test situation (who identified as an IQ test) that discriminated against those from lower SES backgrounds; questions the validity of standardised intelligence tests
~ Especially pertinent, when the relationship between intelligence and wellbeing is mediated by socioeconomic status

Question 172

Explain WEIRD people

Answer 172

~ Since 2010, increased attention to continuing historical issue of using WEIRD participants in majority of psychology experiments
~ WEIRD societies:
Western
Educated
Industrialised
Rich
Democratic

~ Surprising number of historical and current experiments conducted on university students; findings from these studies then generalised to all human beings
~ “WEIRD subjects are particularly unusual compared with the rest of the species - frequent outliers [in]…visual perception, fairness, cooperation, spatial reasoning, categorisation and inferential induction, moral reasoning, reasoning styles, self-concepts and related motivations, and the heritability of IQ” (Henrich, 2010)

~ WEIRD participants make up:
80% psychology research subjects
12% world’s population
(67% of all US studies use university students aged 18-21)
~ Evidence WEIRD can be outliers (example: visual perception)
~ 1966 - US college students perceive some visual illusions to a much greater degree than people from many cultures, including the San foragers of the Kalahari
~ Some cultures were completely unaffected by certain illusions (why? Environment raised in - built vs natural)

WEIRD populations and personality
~ Focus on the Big Five (Costa and McCrae)
Personality as measure on a continuum in a given factor, e.g. extraversion-introversion
Established with WEIRD participants
~ However - the Big Five (OCEAN) has relative cross-cultural stability (McCrae, 2002)
Some slight variations at the facet-factor level (Rolland, 2002)

~ Some debate about cross-cultural applicability of Big Five - research conflicted
It has been suggested that an additional factor for ‘honest-humility’ exists in some cultures -> HEXCAO model (e.g. Lee and Ashton, 2008) (not evident in all cultures, OCEAN and HEXACO work as effectively as each other (Ion, 2017)
~ BUT cross-cultural research mainly on urban literature populations
~ Gurven (2013) tested on small-scale indigenous people in Bolivia
Some factors mixed together (e.g. extraversion and agreeableness)
Can be better conceptualised as two factors, pro-sociality and industriousness (in the context of subsistence labour)
Results not explained by educational level, Spanish fluency, sex, or age
Authors argue that this may be because of deeply embedded traditional cultural practices - suggests the Big Five may not be a truly universal structure or personality

Question 173

Explain culture, psychology, and explaining things

Answer 173

~ Human beings have a need to explain things - especially big things (death, illness, misfortunate, origins)
Culture provides means to explain (in conjunction with cognitive reasoning)
Assumption ‘folk beliefs’ are ‘ignorant’ and must be superseded by scientific knowledge - shade of colonialism
~ Psychological research
Range of developmental and priming reasoning experiments looking at how people explain things
~ Explanatory coexistence
Human beings in diverse cultures can integrate multiple ways of explaining things
Natural and supernatural (e.g. illness can be both biological and witchcraft (Haiti, South Africa) (Legare and Gelman, 2008)

Question 174

Apply culture to mental health and illness

Answer 174

~ Culture is important - need to avoid cultural blindness in how we classify and treat mental illness
Historical tendency to apply Western research and models (biological model imposed insensitivity)
Need to avoid colonialism and ‘othering’ cultures - ‘Western’ cultures are cultures too!
Multiculturalism and Globalisation
~ Some debate on ‘ontological variance’ in mental health and disorders
~ Extent to which psychological disorders are universal and ‘real’
Cross-Cultural Psychology - specific localised expression of core biopsychosocial disorder
Cultural Psychology - mental health disorders is a specific product of the culture they arise in
~ Agree upon - considering cultural differences in approaches can help improve diagnosis and treatment

Question 175

Considering culture in mental health

Answer 175

e.g. Jinn possession
~ Islamic cultures - Jinn invisible spirits
~ Perception and attribution of psychosis and other MH illnesses to Jinn possession
Mismatched in Western biomedical explanation and patients’ metaphysical explanation
~ Can mean practitioners attributes Jinn explanations as delusions - product of disorder
~ Can delay and affect treatment - if patient lacks trust in science solution for metaphysical problem
Consider the transcultural and include appropriately trained religious counsellors to avoid misunderstanding
Cheng, 2017 - case study - 25-year-old woman from Bangladesh
~ Patient responds well to non-dismissal of Jinn explanation, supportive counselling, normalisation of experiences, and psychoeducation from a Bengali-speaking case worker
~ Demonstrates value of transcultural approach and consideration of individual, biopsychosocial, and cultural

Question 176

Cross-cultural psychology highlighting assumptions

Answer 176

~ Culture can also highlight assumptions inherent in Western mental health practices
~ Examples: Hoffman (2019) - Mindfulness in Haiti
Effort to bring mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) to 48 Haitian mental health practitioners
Ethnographic and reflective qualitative study
Belief that the core concepts of mindfulness were universal (would fit with any culture that it was applied to)
~ Findings:
Haitian practitioners very different conception of personhood
Critiques: individualism, secularism, choice, amorality
Adapted mindfulness to fit their culture: socio-centric, religious moral
~ Demonstrates - individualist cultural assumptions in MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction)
~ Raises questions of adaption to local context

Question 177

Explain culture bound syndromes (Ventriglio, Ayondride, and Bhugra, 2016)

Answer 177

~ Premise: certain psychiatric syndromes are confined to specific cultures - debated!
~ No doubt that cultures influence how symptoms are perceived, explained and from where help is sought
~ DSM 5-TR: emphasises all mental distress culturally framed
Shifts from culture bound syndromes of past - cultural concepts of distress - 10 listed
‘ways cultural groups experience, understand, and communicate suffering, behavioural problems, or troubling thoughts and emotions’
~ 3 cultural concepts in categorisation
‘syndromes’ - clusters of symptoms and attributions occurring among individuals in specific cultures
‘idioms of distress’ - shared ways of communicating, expressing or sharing distress
‘explanations’ - labels, attributions suggesting causation of symptoms or distress
~ ICD-10-12 culture-specific disorders
They aren’t easily accommodated in established international diagnostic categories
Their initial description is in a particular population or cultural area and their subsequent association is with this community or culture

Question 178

21st century culture bound syndromes? Globalisation

Answer 178

Example - Hikkikomori (Japanese: pulling inward, being confined), acute and social withdrawal, involves total withdrawal from society and seeking profound social isolation and confinement within one’s home of 6 months or more
~ 2010 - Culture bound syndrome - socio-economic and technological changes, no co-morbidity (in some cases); Japan - Haji (shame) and Amae (overdependence)
~ 2015 - Identified in other countries: cross-cultural - India, Japan, Korea, United States, Oman, Spain
~ 2019 - hypothesised as ‘Modern-Society Syndrome’ - globalisation and IT changes - culture that crosses boundaries; not a culture bound syndrome as culture not so isolated as in past-transcultural

Question 179

Explain experimental (traditional) and Critical Social Psychology

Answer 179

Two approaches to social psychology
Critical Social Psychology:
~ Scientific method is one way of coming to understand social phenomenon, processes, and events, but there are many other ways to do this
~ Knowledge isn’t inert
~ Social world produces by those within it - it’s made meaningful through interactions
~ e.g. James - critical of introspection and argued that how we understand our world is far more complex than can be deduced through experimental methods

Question 180

How is the person conceptualised in Social Psychology?

Answer 180

Experimental Social Psychology:
~ The image of the person as a produce of innate instinct, moulded by social and cultural forces, lacking free will
~ We can therefore use scientific enquiry to determine universal laws of human nature

Critical Social Psychology:
~ The image of the personal as an intentional actor within their social world, has the capacity for free will
~ The scientific enquiry, therefore, may not be the most appropriate means to explore human nature, indeed, it’s more complicated than

Question 181

What is Critical Social Psychology?

Answer 181

Theoretical Approach:
~ A way of conceptualising the person and their experiences of the social world
~ Critical perspectives informed through ‘thought’ (philosophical) movements

Deconstructive Tool:
~ Useful in evaluating and thinking differently about knowledge, research, and assumptions we make of our social world, ourselves, and other people
~ Helpful in developing critical thinking for this and future assessments

What is it, in brief?
~ A theoretically-informed way of questioning what we know, why we know it, and the consequences that knowledge systems have in the real world
~ Taking an often, sceptical approach to what we are told is ‘truth’, ‘natural’ or taken-for-granted
~ Ways of thinking about people, phenomenon, and populations is built through social interactions
~ One example is social constructionism

Question 182

Explain ‘The Social Construction of Reality’ (Berger and Luckmann)

Answer 182

~ Associated with the roots of social constructionist thought
~ Social reality is constructed through three ‘moments’, and these moments constantly interplay with each other

Objectification:
~ How constructs are perceived as ‘real’
~ ‘Thingification’: the process through which ideas get turned into a ‘thing’, something that matters socially

Internalisation
~ Objectified world because knowing, understood, and adopted by individuals
~ Achieved through socialisation and enculturation

Externalisation
~ The way that cultures make sense of their social world
~ Informed by social institutions and constructs

Question 183

What is Social Constructionist Psychology?

Answer 183

~ An interpretative approach to understanding how and why people make sense of their social worlds in the way that they do
~ Questioning of tacit, or taken-for-granted knowledge - knowledge that is assumed to ‘just exist’
“It is the knowledge that ‘everybody knows’ but, because it is so familiar, nobody puts into words”
~ It is a means through which we can question what we assume to be ‘truth’, and question the motives of people who would have us ‘believe’ their account
~ We are also complicit in the (re)production of these social ‘norms’

Question 184

Explain developments in Critical Social Psychology

Answer 184

Postcolonial Psychology
~ A focus on how social knowledge, and subsequently power, is influenced by colonisation and its aftermath
~ Psychology, as a disciple, has a very problematic history with researchers who brough with them prejudicial assumptions and views on people based on race (as well as other protected characteristics) which still have power today
~ Postcolonial Psychology aims to specifically question and disrupt existent frames of power that still exist within the discipline
~ e.g. MacLeod and Bhatia - who want to disrupt the position of researcher as the ‘steward’ of knowledge of those they are researching (new aims to identify and challenge what is conscolonial imperatives)

Question 185

Explain Critical Social Psychology and Concepts in Psychology

Answer 185

~ Critical Social Psychologists would argue that social behaviour and phenomena, like aggression/personality, aren’t things that exist in of themselves, they are always a produce of the social context and interaction, situated in a social context in which they are acted out and made meaningful (e.g. can you be an aggressive person if you’re alone, on a desert island)
~ Therefore, in using the ethos of Critical Social Psychology we can come to question, problematise, and trouble existing theories and research

Question 186

Deconstructing Personality (individual differences, Critical Social Psychology, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Big Five)

Answer 186

~ Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psycho-physical systems that determine our unique adjustment to our environment

Individual differences researchers would argue that:
~ Aim is to explain observable differences between individuals in terms of underlying psychological differences
~ There is one unified self that can be measured and understood (usually on a spectrum of dichotomies)
~ There is a relative stability in those assessments
~ Measures of personality are value-free and objective

Critical Social Psychologists would argue that:
~ ‘Personality’ is a construct that is used to categorise people that doesn’t reflect who they are as ‘people’ - indeed, there may not be ‘one’ self
~ These categories have argued to be informed through sexist, ableist, classist, and racist lenses which are still present in the measures today
~ This particularly problematic when these measures are used in hiring, access, or promotion contexts - exacerbates and enhances systems of disadvantage

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI):
~ Developed by non-Psychologists (informed by the principles of Jung) in the 1950’s
~ Wanted to develop a ‘positive’ approach to personality
~ Informed through those who are already ‘successful’ (particularly scientists and CEO’s)
Nobody with an IQ under 100 was included, and women were measured on different scales
MBTI was constructed mainly on the ‘personalities’ of white, middle-class men
~ Taken up and used in hiring and educational contexts

Big Five:
~ Used in hiring decisions to identify and replicate ‘good’ employees
~ Illegal to discriminate based on disability (e.g. mental health)
~ Certain traits in the Big Five have been shown to predict the presence of mental health conditions
e.g. increased scores in neuroticism associated with depression and anxiety
e.g. increased scores in neuroticism, low scores in extraversion associated with social anxiety
~ Meta-analysis suggested that Autism Spectrum Disorder also has patterns of responses (lower scores on all five traits)

Question 187

Explain Alternative Approaches to Personhood (‘personality’)

Answer 187

The Relational Being (Gergen and Gergen)
~ The ‘self’ (personality) isn’t fixed
~ (Re)produce socially constructed understandings through interactions and language that help us to shape our sense of self
~ We come to understand ourselves and our experiences through interactions, those we hold relationships with provide us with the language we use to make sense of our experiences

Question 188

Explain Goffman’s Dramaturgical Approach

Answer 188

We perform who we are; this is informed by:
~ Those around us (the audience)
~ The social outcome we want to achieve (e.g. friendship, job)
~ What performance ‘tools’ we have to hand
Front stage
~ What you present to others
~ Masks and prompts
~ Actioned - get where you want to be
Back stage
~ Where people can shed their public role
~ Not necessarily a ‘true’ self

Question 189

Deconstructing Aggression

Answer 189

Aggression is a behaviour intended to harm another individual

~ Hostile aggression: aggressive behaviour performed with the primary goal of intentional injury or destruction
~ Proactive aggression or instrumental aggression: aggressive behaviour whereby harm is inflicted as a means to a desired end
~ Reactive aggression or emotional (affective) aggression: aggressive behaviour where the means and the end coincide; harm is inflicted for its own sake

Harm from aggression can result in consequences including (but not limited to) immediate pain, psychological trauma, anxiety self-blame, collateral damage or death

Question 190

Gender and Aggression

Answer 190

Traditionally…
~ Men are largely considered to be more aggressive than women
~ “The male gender role allows the freedom to express aggression openly, and males are even expected to behave in an aggressive manner. However, other dimensions of the male gender role allow males to behave in a different fashion, for example, chivalrous behaviour is sometimes part of the male gender role “

However…
~ Conceptualisations of aggression largely follow male-orientated behaviour
~ Aggression tends to be considered problematic when the acts are physical

What about non-physical forms of aggression?
~ Covert and overt acts to do social harm
~ Verbal and non-verbal
~ Preferred by women
~ Has a larger impact on women
~ Leads to anxiety, loss of self-esteem and depression

Gender and the construction of aggression
Assumptions of traditional explanations of sex differences:
~ Men are naturally more aggressive than women
However…
~ Methodologically we have adhered to masculinised forms of aggression
~ We have accepted and reinforced this difference
~ Leads to an accepted understanding of aggression as predominantly a male enterprise

What happens when women are physically aggressive?
~ Assumption that women tend to be more peaceful than men
~ Pathologisation of their behaviour
~ Associated with character flaws or changes in menstrual cycle