week 3 slides Flashcards
empirical research
- the systematic investigation of observable phenomena (behaviour, events) in the world
- relies on observable and measurable phenomena
what are the 4 research methods in social psych?
- surveys
- field studies
- content analyis
- experiments
surveys
- popular source of data collection
- set of questions geared toward collecting info about a certain group
- relies on self reporting
- ex. public opinion polls
strengths and weaknesses of surveys
strengths:
-generally inexpensive
-potential clear picture of the phenomena under study
-glimpse into infrequent or private behaviours
weaknesses:
-problems with self reporting
field studies
- observation of everyday life in action
- unobtrusive measures
- participant observation
ethnography
researcher becomes part of the group being studied
strengths and weaknesses of field studies
strengths:
- real world behaviour
- study private and sensitive matters (unibtrusive)
- in depth understandings
weaknesses:
- significant affect of data recording method chosen
- the issue of consent
- time consuming
archival research
- the analysis of data that has already been collected by others
- sources of data archival research data (government, universities, formal organziations)
content analysis
- the systematic study of documents to identify themes and make inferences based on these themes
- ex. prof’s content analysis of legal documents, newspaper documents, and on line discussions
strengths and weaknesses of archival research
strengths:
- inexpensive
- less time consuming
- socio-historical analyses
weaknesses:
- level of control over quality of info
- difficulty creating a reliable and valid study
- inconsistent or missing info in archives
experiments
- high level of control
- composed of two characteristics (independent variables that must be manipulated, and participants that must be assigned randomly)
lab experiment
- researchers have more control
- can control the physical space
field experiement
- less control
- more generalizable (to the real world)
- mitigation of reactivity (become aware of ourselves beinf studied)
strengths and weaknesses of lab experiments
strengths:
- high level of internal validity
- more research control
weaknesses:
- limits to what can be studied
- ethical concerns
- costly
- subject effects (interpret subtle cues as wanting a certain result) and experimenter effects (expects participants to behave in a certain way)
- low external validity
ethics
- protecting and respecting research participants
- ethics approval is required for any research involving human subjects
how can we protect participants
- volunteer
- informed consent
- avoding harm
- ensuring confidntiality
sources of harm in experiments
- physical
- psychological
- breach of confidentiality
the stanford prison experiment
- 1971
- randomly assigned male college students to the roles of “prison guard” and “prisoner”
- a number of ethical issues (violation of the harm principle, issues of consent
what is socialization?
- the ways in which individuals learn and re-create skills, knowledge, values, motives and roles appropriate to their positions in a group or society
- the process by which we are taught society’s values, norms, and values
four components of socialization
- an agent (someone who is socialized)
- a learning process
- a target (person being socialized)
- an outcome (what is learned)
perspectives of socialization
- developmental perspective
- social learning perspective
- interpretative perspective
- impact of social structure
nature vs nurture
- combatitive notion
- nature: genetic quality, innate, genetic
- nurture: environmental processes/influences, learning process
developmental perspective
- emphasis on nature
- developmental of social behaviours physical and neurological
- many social behaviours are physical (learn to recognize when to go to the bathroom)
social learning perspective
- emphasis on nurture
- process of learning the shared meanings of those in the child’s respective group
- adaptive nature of socialization
interpretive perspective
- socialization occurs primarily through social interaction
- cultural routines (reccurent and predictable activities like greeting rituals)
- children as active agents (participation in construction of own understanding)
impact of social structure
- socialization influenced and shaped by social structure
- socialization as a product of group life
- we learn what to expecf of others and what others can expect of us
agents of socialization
-people and groups that influence our self concepts and our understanding of society as a whole (religion, family, peers, school, mass media)
family as agent of socialization
- most important agent
- first intro to a system of values, norms, and roles
- attachment (proper attachment to mother/primary caregiver is necessary
peers as agent of socialization
- form relationships on their own terms (choose their own friends)
- interactions without direct adult supervision
- less of a power dynamic than family
schools as agent of socialization
- function of school is to socialize
- exposure to a different set of skills and expectations
- public evaluation and social comparison
- learning to improve, learning about fairness, and impacts the sense of self
mass media as agent of socialization
- become more influential in recent years
- shapes our perception and our ‘scripts’
what is a script?
- a sequence of behaviours, actions, and consequences that are expected in a particular situation
- scripts rely on our prior knowledge to help us navigte our social situations and include behaviours, roles and props
processes of socialization
- instrumental conditioning
- observational learning
- internalization
instrumental conditioning
- aka operant conditioning
- a process wherein a person learns what response to make in a situation in ordee to obtain a positive reinforcement or avoid a negative reinforcement
- entrinsic (explicitly be rewarded or punished) and intrinsic (ex. getting good grades) motivation
- self efficacy (belief in ability to succeed)
observational learning
- aka modelling
- children learn rituals, roles, and behaviours from watching adults
- might not use what they have learned right away or at all
internalization
- the individual has accepted the values, norms, ideologies, and no longer requires external rewards
- leads to self control
gender socialization
- the role of parents (gender typing child, mothers are nurturing, fathers enagage in rough and tumble)
- parents “breaking the rules” (break the gender script)
feral children
- feral child- a child who is isolated from human contact
- genie spent almost 12 years isolated by her father
- became a research subject when rescued
- emphasizes nurture
