week 1 Flashcards
Neanderthals
had similar sized brains
Had superior visual- motor skills
Were stronger than homo-sapiens
Homo-sapien brains
Had larger cerebellum in Homo-sapien brains has been associated with increased social abilities:
Form larger groups
Share resources more effectively
Enhanced tool making through more sophisticated communication
Questions of social psychology
Where does identity come from and how does it shape our behaviour.
What makes us do good/bad things to others
How are we shaped by culture
How can we be persuaded
How do we be persuaded
How do we measure social relationships
What causes us to act collectively in society
What biases shape how we perceive the world and others
Structure of knowledge
Evidence level: the findings of studies we examine
Rationale level: historical and ideological social psychology context
Key theories
Ontology and epitemology level: Positivsm versus social constructionism
Quantitative
Numerical, Many cases, few variables
Breadth
Quant research measures reality
Quant includes structured surveys, statistical analysis of secondary qualitative data, qualitative content analysis, structured observation
Qualitative
Words/meanings
Few cases, many variables
Depth
Qual research explores or interprets reality
Qual includes semi-or un-structured interviews, focus group discussions, ethnography and participant observation, biographical
3 main principles
Grounded in interpretivism
Uses methods that are flexible and sensitive to social context rather than standardised or structured
Used techniques of analysis that focus on explanations and argument building
Positivism vs interpretivism
Positivism: Nature of reality- objective, tangible, single. Goal of research- explanation, strong prediction. Focus of interest: what is general, average and representative. Knowledge generated: laws absolute rules. Subject/researcher relationship: rigid separation
Interpretivism: Nature of reality: socially constructed multiple. Goal of research: understanding weak prediction. Focus of interest: What is specific, unique, deviant. Knowledge generated: meanings relative rules. Subject/researcher relationship: interactive cooperative participatory
Definition of social psychology by Allport
the study of Cognition, emotion, action on the level of analysis is the individual caused by causality not only physically co-present others
Areas of application
Counselling, Clinical, Sport, Forensic, Health, Educational, Work
Psychology
History
General consensus: social psychology as a sub-field of psychology can be traced back 120 years. Social psychology in it’s modern form is a post world war 2 phenomenon
1880-1920S history
The first social psychology experiment was carried out by Triplett on social facilitation. Why do cyclists go faster when racing alone than when riding alone. Two groups of children had to complete a task to operate a pully system to move a flag four times around a circuit. Faster children= aroused by competitive instincts and the idea of faster movement
slower children became overwhelmed by the competition of the task
Triplett-people try harder when they have the real or imagined presence of others
1880-1920s part 2
Famous textbooks helped consolidate field
William McDougall 1908 principal instincts, structure of character, primary emotions, not social psychology as currently understood
Edward Ross 1908 expanding on sociological work of Gabriel Trade
Floyd Allport 1924: consolidates more social psychological evidence but emphasises social psychology as the study of individual minds
Cartwright
said most important person in history is Adolf Hitler
1930s-1950s History
Impact of WW2
Displacement of influential European researchers to USA.
Research on group processes and communication stemming from studies conducted by the US army
Research on prejudice, racism, authoritarianism, fascism stems from historical shock of Nazism and Holocaust. Also interest in public health and propaganda
Is the social world bad for us
A great deal of post-WW2 research has demonstrated the dangers of the loss of individual rationality, judgement and morality when placed in certain social situation
The need to be cautious
To understand why this type of research was so ground breaking, we need to understand what alternatives it was to refute
Adorno et al 1950 the authoritarian personality: could Nazi Germany really be explained by personality types
Individualism and Social psychology
However this arguably led social psychology to create a model of the moral, rational individual forces let loose by the group: Group mind, Lost in the crowd, going along with the norm
This is ideological- arising from a particular way of viewing the world
Context of 1950s USA- McCarthyism, the dangers of collectivism and the cold war
1970s-2000s
Embracing pluralism in a number of ways
Pluralism: not just one reality but multiple ways in which people render the world meaningful
Moving beyond lab experiments to explore field studies and correlational research
Investigations within and across cultures
Embracing new ethical standards
Critical social psychology
Ideology is inescapable
But claiming that we are uncovering objective truth is dangerous
Not seeking objective truth, but how culture shapes our psychology
The crisis in social psychology- late 1960/70s
The problem with past social psychology
For too long research has focused on what is rather what could be
For too long we have conceptualised a static world
Over-reliance on experimentation gives you a snapshot of human life
Experimental method are disconnected from psychological conceptualisations, historical and suture manifestations ant the aspirations of the discipline with the impact it creates
The two crises in psychological science
Replication crisis
WEIRD problem
Contributes to bad-world making
World-making
A difference between the study of people making worlds
The role of social psychology in contributing to this world
How does social psychology world-make
Social psychology has theories, ethics, and methods to study people as world-makers, with the resultant knowledge not only describing the world but also contributing to the transformation societies, social relations and cognition
Bad world making
Is the process by which systematically distorted and therefore inaccurate research generates knowledge that informs everyday understandings of phenomena, economic decisions and political, educational and legal policies that are self interested, incomplete and do not feed forward into just and empowering world-making
Key contributions of world-making social psychology
Ontologically the world is always changing
Epistemologically, social psychologists are not separated from the world, but rather they use interventions and imagination to learn about the world by participating in it
Ethically: researchers have a responsibility to critically consider how people/social psychologists are involved in world making
Methodologically: social psychology needs metrological pluralism to engage with dynamic social phenomena
Social psychology question for the future
Ontological-does the research foreground things or processes
Epistemological- what is the research basis for these findings
Ethical- who might be impacted by this knowledge
Methodological- is the finding evident in both quantitative and qualitative data
