week 1. What is social psychology Flashcards
<p>How is social psychology defined, and how is it similar/different to other research areas?</p>
<p>Social Psychology is the scientific investigation into how the thoughts, feelings & behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.
<br></br>Social Psychology differs from other areas of social science, and other areas of psychology, in focus. In particular, sociologists focus on eg how prejudice varies as a function of class, and they focus mainly on groups. Personality psychologists focus on individual differences. social psychologists though focus on individuals within groups eg manipulate contacts b/n individuals and groups and see how these eg effect degree of prejudice or behaviour etc etc.</p>
<p>What are levels of analysis (or explanation) and why is it important to social psychology?</p>
<p>Levels of explanation are different ways of interpreting the same event.There are multiple levels of social understandings which influence social interactions. Social psychologists may focus on different levels at different times.
<br></br>Some different levels of explanation include:
<br></br>1. Intra-personal (within individual) eg how one makes hostile attributions about another
<br></br>2.Inter-personal & situational-between people within a given situation eg how people react when insulted by a stranger
<br></br>3.Positional-b/n people in a specific situation , but also with consideration re individuals' position outside of the situation. eg how a person of high and low status reacts when insulted by a stranger.
<br></br>4.Ideological eg b/n people in regards social beliefs and relationships b/n groups. eg how wider societal norms influence how someone reacts when insulted by a stranger.
<br></br>When conducting social psychological research, the explanation and social phenomenon should match. ie research into groups will use group-based theories of explanation.</p>
<p>What is the person-situation interaction, and why is it important to social psychology?</p>
how characteristics of the person (often, their personality) and characteristics of the social situation interact to determine behaviour. This view is called Interactionist.Lynch-pin premis of social psychology. Kurt Lewin presented the idea in formula; Behaviour = f (person X social situation).
<p>How does social psychology differentiate between cognition, affect, and behaviour?</p>
Social psychology is also based on the ABCs of affect, behaviour, and cognition. In order to effectively maintain and enhance our own lives through successful interaction with others, we rely on these three basic and interrelated human capacities:
Affect (emotions, feelings)
Behaviour (interactions, actions)
Cognition (thought).
But social psychologists do tend to focus on the social aspects of behaviours and less interested in an individual’s private thoughts etc.
<p>What is the belonging hypothesis, and what role does it play in social psychology?</p>
our need or basic motive to be with, and be accepted by, others. The belonging hypothesis proposes that all humans share a fundamental motive to seek and maintain social contact with others, specifically that we have a “persuasive drive to form and maintain at least a minimum quantity of lasting, positive, and significant interpersonal relationships. In a study of the most and least happy people, the differentiating factor was not gender, income, or religion; it was having high-quality relationships. People who are less socially connected and feel lonely or isolated are more vulnerable to depression and problems with physical health. People also tend to get very distressed when they are rejected, excluded, stigmatised, ostracised, or neglected by others, especially those who they view as very important to them.
Plays a very important part in social psychology as one of the major subscribed to explanations for behaviours and feelings.
<p>How is ostracism defined, and what are the major findings regarding this concept?</p>
The deliberate exclusion from groups.For instance, the experience of ostracism is highly stressful and can lead to depression, confused thinking, and even aggression. People who were left out of a group activity displayed heightened cortical activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula. These areas of the brain are associated with the experience of physical pain sensations. Research has also shown that everyone can be adversely affected by feeling ostracised, but that those who are socially vulnerable, take much longer to recover from the generated feelings of anxiety/hurt etc.
<p>What are currently the major perspectives of social psychology?</p>
The perspective (eg level of explanation) often changes for each social psychologist at different times. And many social psychologists will disagree on answers to particular questions. One main focus has been what are people’s attitudes? and, how can these attitudes be changed? Also, what are group behaviours , plus, how to change people’s behaviours.
Norm
attitudinal/behavioural uniformity which defines a group.
Reductionism
explanation is at a level too far away from the original question. Explanations of the subcomponents do not necessarily entail an explanation of the whole.
Concepts explaining phenomena in social psychology
Include (but not limited to), dissonance, attitude categorisation, identity…
confoundation
where 2 or more independent variables change together, thus impossible to know cause and effect…
ceiling effect
where a high level of measure occurs
floor effect
where a low level of measure occurs
external validity
(mundane realism).similarity b/n circumstances of experiment and real life.
internal validity
(experimental realism). The impact (psychological) of the manipulations within an experiment. This should always be high. ie a manipulation leads to an impactful effect. (has meaning for participant).
