Social psychology methods Flashcards
the scientific investigation of how thoughts/feelings/behaviours are influenced by actual, imagined or implied presence of others =
social psychology
what does social psychology focus on?
- effects of social and cognitive processes on the way people perceive and interact with others
- explains human behaviour
what can’t we prove no matter how much evidence we generate?
theory
we can only ______, _______ or _______ a theory
support, modify, reject
benefits of lab assessment?
- establish cause and effect
- control over extraneous variables
- objectively assesses behaviour
- high internal validity, high experimental realism
disadvantages of a lab experiment?
- low external validity/mundame realism
- demand characteristics
- difficult to assess long term behaviour
- experimenter effects
how is a lab study low in external validity and mundane realism?
artificial setting and highly controlled
how are experimenter effects minimised?
using a double blind procedure
benefits of field assessment?
- manipulate a variable in a real world context
2. high external validity
disadvantages of field assessment?
- less control over extraneous variables
2. difficult to obtain accurate measures
manipulate an independent variable (IV) and observe the effect on the DV = experimental or non-experimental?
experimental
correlation between variables (no manipulation of an IV) = experimental or non-experimental?
non-experimental
what are different types of experimental methods?
lab experiment
field experiment
RTC
what are different types of non-experimental methods?
- archival
- case studies
- qualitative research
- surveys
- field studies
the type of method chosen depends on what 3 things?
- nature of hypothesis
- resources available
- ethics
what type of method is the main approach used?
experimental
how is confidence in the validity of a hypothesis enhanced?
if researchers confide in the hypothesis a number of times using different methods > avoids confirmation bias
must common as allows us to identify the causes of events =
causal experimentation
intervention in the form of manipulation of 1 or more IVs and then measurement of the manipulation =
systematic experimentation
how are thoughts/feelings/behaviours measured in social psychology?
self report, objectively assess behaviour in a lap
mental structure that organises and collects info about something =
schema
what type of tasks assess or influence the accessibility of schemas?
implicit tasks
what does the accessibility of a schema mean?
the ease of retrieving/accessing a schema
______ accessible schemas are more likely to influence cognitive processes and behaviour
highly
responses are within conscious control and provided deliberately =
explicit measures
what type of measures can cause social desirability?
explicit measures
responses are outside of conscious control and are provided automatically =
implicit measures
what do implicit tasks typically measure as an indicator of accessibility?
reaction times
what are 3 implicit measures used in social psychology?
- implicit association test
- priming
- lexical decision tasks
what are the 3 types of reviews used in social psychology?
- narrative
- systematic
- meta-analysis
provides overview of knowledge on a topic, includes intro then separate sub headings to discuss different themes/topic areas, what studies are included is based on researchers judgement, no new analysis = what type of review?
narrative
what does a systematic review do?
reviews evidence for well defined and precise research Q, strict inclusion/exclusion criteria for articles that could be reproduced, assesses quality of studies, no new analysis
meta-analysis is the same as a systematic review but _______ the overall effect found across all studies
quantifies
assesses the magnitude of the effects from all the studies to show the overall effect, no new analysis =
meta-analysis
which type of review provides the strongest and most reliable evidence?
meta-analysis
what are the strengths of social psychological methods?
used to explain behaviour, theories/empirical findings can be applied to solve real world issues, develop interventions to promote desired thoughts/feelings/behaviours
what are the limitations of social psychological methods?
generalisability is largely limited to WEIRD (can evidence be seen in different cultures/contexts?), no method is perfect and replications need to be done to increase confidence
what is a WEIRD sample?
studies disproportionately involve ppts who are Western Educated from Industrialised Rick Democracies
