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