Week 1-Principles and Applications Flashcards
What is social psychology?
-The scientific study of social behaviour
-Motivations for behaviour can be uninformed and incomplete (i.e., could vary)
-Feelings, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, intentions and goals must be inferred from behaviour to relate to processes such as the influence of culture or evolution
What % of social research is qualitative?
20%
What’s psycho-analysis?
Our unconscious drives (which derives from Freud’s work)
What’s anthropology?
The study of human culture (specific to areas and cultures whereas social psychologists look at cultures more universally but they do interact quite often)
What’s sociology?
The study of society and social institutions
Give examples of humanities
1.History (looks at patterns to see if some universal assumptions can be obtained e.g., war)
2.English Lit (themes of human nature e.g., greed may resonate for some readers)
3.Human Geography
Where did psychology originally emerge from?
A scientific medical basis
What’s the unspoken philosophical clash within Academies i.e., Universities?
post-modern view of reality (since the 60s) VS scientific/rationalist view of reality
What’s the post-modern view of reality?
The truth is constructed by the people who are usually powerful (i.e., in relation to society/media) so the scientific method only plays a part in these social construction processes (i.e., is at the side instead of the main)
What’s the rationalist view of reality?
The truth of things can be discovered in the world via means of logical reasoning + the scientific method
What’s the scientific method?
-A powerful tool for thinking about reality
-formulates a hypothesis or prediction about the nature of reality
-operationalises valid, reliable and discrete measures to test the hypothesis
-the IV isn’t confounded with other variables
-either disproves or supports the hypothesis
Define Valid and Reliable
V-It actually tests what we think it’s testing
R-It always tests successfully
Why can’t we prove the hypothesis?
because new info can always be learnt so it’s not set in stone
Why is it difficult to avoid confounding variables in social psychology?
social settings can be complex (i.e., it’s harder to isolate variables involved)
Why is it important to replicate studies?
may be due to chance (1 in 20) so if same result seen more frequently, you can have greater confidence in it (results can differ in cultures so very important to do so as media often reports from single studies)
What are non-experimental methods?
-richer and more subjective than experiments (helps interpret experiment results)
-qualitative research
Give 3 examples of non-experimental methods
1.archival research (pre-existing data unmanipulated variables e.g., government institutions like the NHS)
2.case studies (unusual people e.g., mass murderer)
3.surveys (gathering data by yourself no variables manipulated and must be valid + reliable)
Why do social psychology studies usually require a large N?
Social psychological effects tend to be complex – part of a wider context of variables and effects
What stats are used in social psychology?
-Most psychology studies use number data and statistical analysis (quantitative)
-Social psychology tends to make more use of correlations than other areas (tends to be real life setting=observations/surveys which can be correlational)
Why are social psychologists limited in getting informed consent and debriefing?
-people observed in ‘real world’ social contexts
-deception e.g., Milgram’s electric shock
-BUT deception promotes suspicion and unnatural behaviour
Define Meta-theories and give 5 examples
when psychologists set their theories about human nature within broader theoretical views
1.behaviourism
2.cognitive theories
3.social neuroscience
4.evolutionary theories
5.personality theories
What’s behaviourism?
observes behaviour in response to external stimuli as individuals cannot report their own psychology (i.e., actions>words)
What are cognitive theories?
-Social cognition is very influential in places e.g., America
-individuals categorise and stereotype in an attempt to simplify a complex social world
What’s social neuroscience?
seeks to locate cognitive processes within the brain with a desire to reduce behaviour to biological brain processes
What are evolutionary theories?
The attempt to explain and link present behaviours to behaviours useful for fitness in the environment of evolutionary adaptation thousands of years ago
What are personality theories?
Behaviour is a matter of stable personality types. e.g., Charismatic people make good leaders. By measuring a person’s personality profile, we can know all about them and predict behaviour
Critiques: How is social psychology (especially neuroscience) overly reductionist?
Human behaviour must be understood at its relevant level – e.g., group behaviour can only be understood at the group level, not reduced to brain functioning. The whole is more than the sum of its parts
Critiques: How is social psychology overly positivist?
Too much emphasis on science; should be complemented with other research methods. Can we be objective about human nature, as a chemist is objective about chemicals? Also, Flaws and biases in human nature undermine the scientific process since the flawed human mind is at the centre of this process.
What are 3 ways we can defend an empirical approach to psychology?
1)Compliment empirical studies (experiments) with other methods (e.g. qualitative methods – interviews and focus groups)
2)Conduct multiple replications – especially across different cultural contexts. Helps overcome the subjective expectations of the researchers
3)Precision with research measures and concept definitions. Vague definitions and measures open the door to subjective interpretations of the data
What’s the history of social psychology?
-originated in Germany (Volkerpsychologie)
o Impact of social and cultural norms on the individual
o The emergence of a collective mind in groups
-Gustav le Bon (1896) – the irrational crowd (explains crowd violence due to loss of rationality)
-William McDougall (1920) –the inherited group mind, but this was only vaguely outlined
-Freud (1921) – Group psychology – influence of the unconscious
-Mead (1934) – Contrasts with Freud – the dramaturgical self (conscious e.g., norms we’re all aware of)
How did experimentation arise?
General psychology experiments in Germany in the late 19th century (e.g., on memory and perception) conducted by Wilhelm Wundt
Social psychology joined with more general experimental psychology as the focus shifted to America
First social psychology experiment was Tripplett’s 1898 fishing reel study
Floyd Allport (1924) argued that social psychology had to become an experimental science if it was to be taken seriously as a discipline
What was social psychology like in the 1930s?
-attitude scales developed
-methods refined to establish the validity and reliability of scales
-The first Handbook of Social Psychology (Murchison, 1935)
-Textbooks and journals helped to establish social psychology in the academy
Give 4 famous experiments which helped to establish social psychology in the public mind
1.Sherif (1965) Robber’s cave
2.Asch (1951) – line study
3.Milgram (1963) obedience study
4.Zimbardo (1971) Stanford prison study
