Social Psychology

Question 0

Name two strengths of Social Identity Theory

Answer 0

1. Can explain real world behaviour such as football hooliganism - opposing fans in-groups and out-groups.
   E.g. dress in same clothes - social identification
   Put other team’s fans down - social comparison
2. Supporting evidence for theory from Robbers cave study. Found that boys from summer camp showed prejudice when put in groups.
   Also showed in-group favouritism before competition introduced.

Question 1

Name two weaknesses of the Hofling et al experiment

Answer 1

Ethical issues - nurses observed without consent. Some clearly distressed and felt guilt after incident. Ethical guidelines of informed consent and protection from psychological harm broken.

Question 2

What is an agentic state?

Answer 2

State where individuals feel as though they are not responsible for their actions. They act as agents of another person and in doing so, give up their free will.

Question 3

How can Zimbardo’s theories be applied to the issue of Abu Ghraib?

Answer 3

Zimbardo’s would state that the prisoners were deindividuated. They lost their own identity because they were wearing uniforms. For this reason, they acted as they might not have otherwise acted.
The uniforms would have increased their in-group identity making prejudice and discrimination against the Iraqi prisoners more prominent.

Question 4

What was the procedure of meets and Raiijmakers’ experiment?

Answer 4

39 Dutch pps volunteered through newspaper advertisements. They were asked to interview applicants for a job.
24 pps in the experimental group told to make a series of 15 comments to job applicant (confederate). Comments ranged from mild to harsh during test to see how they handled stress.
Applicant objected to comments while showing increasing signs of distress throughout.
Experimenter (was in room) gave verbal prods to pp if they stopped making comments.
15 pps in control group told to stop making negative comments at any time during test. Experimenter not in room.

Question 5

What are the ethical guidelines that must be adhered to?

Answer 5

Deception -
Right to withdraw - pps must be aware that they are able to withdraw from the study at any time. Even right at the end and also refuse their data to be used.
Protection from harm - researcher must make sure that pps are protected from harm, both physical and psychological.
Debrief - pps must be explained to at the end of the study the general idea of the study
Informed consent - researcher must ask permission from the researcher