Week 1-Principles and Applications

Question 1

What is social psychology?

Answer 1

-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

Question 2

What % of social research is qualitative?

Answer 2

20%

Question 3

What’s psycho-analysis?

Answer 3

Our unconscious drives (which derives from Freud’s work)

Question 4

What’s anthropology?

Answer 4

The study of human culture (specific to areas and cultures whereas social psychologists look at cultures more universally but they do interact quite often)

Question 5

What’s sociology?

Answer 5

The study of society and social institutions

Question 6

Give examples of humanities

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Where did psychology originally emerge from?

Answer 7

A scientific medical basis

Question 8

What’s the unspoken philosophical clash within Academies i.e., Universities?

Answer 8

post-modern view of reality (since the 60s) VS scientific/rationalist view of reality

Question 9

What’s the post-modern view of reality?

Answer 9

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)

Question 10

What’s the rationalist view of reality?

Answer 10

The truth of things can be discovered in the world via means of logical reasoning + the scientific method

Question 11

What’s the scientific method?

Answer 11

-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

Question 12

Define Valid and Reliable

Answer 12

V-It actually tests what we think it’s testing
R-It always tests successfully

Question 13

Why can’t we prove the hypothesis?

Answer 13

because new info can always be learnt so it’s not set in stone

Question 14

Why is it difficult to avoid confounding variables in social psychology?

Answer 14

social settings can be complex (i.e., it’s harder to isolate variables involved)

Question 15

Why is it important to replicate studies?

Answer 15

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)

Question 16

What are non-experimental methods?

Answer 16

-richer and more subjective than experiments (helps interpret experiment results)
-qualitative research

Question 17

Give 3 examples of non-experimental methods

Answer 17

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)

Question 18

Why do social psychology studies usually require a large N?

Answer 18

Social psychological effects tend to be complex – part of a wider context of variables and effects

Question 19

What stats are used in social psychology?

Answer 19

-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)

Question 20

Why are social psychologists limited in getting informed consent and debriefing?

Answer 20

-people observed in ‘real world’ social contexts
-deception e.g., Milgram’s electric shock
-BUT deception promotes suspicion and unnatural behaviour

Question 21

Define Meta-theories and give 5 examples

Answer 21

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

Question 22

What’s behaviourism?

Answer 22

observes behaviour in response to external stimuli as individuals cannot report their own psychology (i.e., actions>words)

Question 23

What are cognitive theories?

Answer 23

-Social cognition is very influential in places e.g., America
-individuals categorise and stereotype in an attempt to simplify a complex social world

Question 24

What’s social neuroscience?

Answer 24

seeks to locate cognitive processes within the brain with a desire to reduce behaviour to biological brain processes

Question 25

What are evolutionary theories?

Answer 25

The attempt to explain and link present behaviours to behaviours useful for fitness in the environment of evolutionary adaptation thousands of years ago

Question 26

What are personality theories?

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Critiques: How is social psychology (especially neuroscience) overly reductionist?

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Critiques: How is social psychology overly positivist?

Answer 28

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.

Question 29

What are 3 ways we can defend an empirical approach to psychology?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

What’s the history of social psychology?

Answer 30

-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)

Question 31

How did experimentation arise?

Answer 31

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

Question 32

What was social psychology like in the 1930s?

Answer 32

-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

Question 33

Give 4 famous experiments which helped to establish social psychology in the public mind

Answer 33

1.Sherif (1965) Robber’s cave
2.Asch (1951) – line study
3.Milgram (1963) obedience study
4.Zimbardo (1971) Stanford prison study