Social Psychology Flashcards

Question

Define transparency (assessing quality in qualitative research)

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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)

Answer 3

Traditional social psychology and critical social psychology

Answer 4

Construction of reality and pervasiveness of social influence

Answer 5

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

Answer 6

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

Answer 7

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

Answer 8

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'

Answer 9

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

Answer 10

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

Answer 11

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

Answer 12

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

Answer 13

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

Answer 14

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

Answer 15

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

Answer 16

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

Answer 17

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

Answer 18

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)

Answer 19

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.)

Answer 20

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

Answer 21

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

Answer 22

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

Answer 23

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

Answer 24

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

Answer 25

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

Answer 26

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)

Answer 27

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

Answer 28

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)

Answer 29

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

Answer 30

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

Answer 31

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))

Answer 32

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

Answer 33

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)

Answer 34

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

Answer 35

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))

Answer 36

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)

Answer 37

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

Answer 38

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

Answer 39

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

Answer 40

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

Answer 41

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)

Answer 42

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.

Answer 43

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

Answer 44

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)

Answer 45

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

Answer 46

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

Answer 47

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.

Answer 48

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

Answer 49

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)

Answer 50

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

Answer 51

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

Answer 52

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

Answer 53

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

Answer 54

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)

Answer 55

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

Answer 56

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)

Answer 57

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

Answer 58

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.

Answer 59

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

Answer 60

(sort later)

Answer 61

~ 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)

Answer 62

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

Answer 63

~ 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

Answer 64

~ Sleep ~ Diet ~ Exercise ~ Cognitive training

Answer 65

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

Answer 66

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

Answer 67

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

Answer 68

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

Answer 69

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

Answer 70

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

Answer 71

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

Answer 72

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

Answer 73

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

Answer 74

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

Answer 75

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)

Answer 76

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

Answer 77

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): [...]

Answer 78

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)

Answer 79

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

Answer 80

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

Answer 81

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

Answer 82

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

Answer 83

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

Answer 84

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

Answer 85

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)

Answer 86

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

Answer 87

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

Answer 88

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)

Answer 89

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

Answer 90

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

Answer 91

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)

Answer 92

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

Answer 93

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

Answer 94

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

Answer 95

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

Answer 96

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

Answer 97

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

Answer 98

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

Answer 99

~ 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)

Answer 100

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

Answer 101

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

Answer 102

~ 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

Answer 103

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

Answer 104

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

Answer 105

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

Answer 106

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

Answer 107

~ 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)

Answer 108

~ 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)

Answer 109

~ 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

Answer 110

~ 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)

Answer 111

~ 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

Answer 112

~ 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

Answer 113

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

Answer 114

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)

Answer 115

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)

Answer 116

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

Answer 117

~ 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

Answer 118

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

Answer 119

~ 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)

Answer 120

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

Answer 121

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

Answer 122

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

Answer 123

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)

Answer 124

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

Answer 125

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

Answer 126

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

Answer 127

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)

Answer 128

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

Answer 129

~ 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)

Answer 130

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

Answer 131

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

Answer 132

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

Answer 133

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

Answer 134

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

Answer 135

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

Answer 136

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

Answer 137

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

Answer 138

~ 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?

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~ 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

Answer 140

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

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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

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~ 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

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~ 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

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~ 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

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~ 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

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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)

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~ 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

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~ 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

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~ 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)

Answer 150

~ 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

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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

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~ 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

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~ 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

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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

Answer 155

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

Answer 156

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

Answer 157

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

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~ 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

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~ 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'

Answer 160

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)

Answer 161

~ 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

Answer 162

~ 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)

Answer 163

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

Answer 164

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

Answer 165

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

Answer 166

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