Experimental and critical social psychology

Question 1

What was McDougall interested in with regards to social psychology?

Answer 1

• Biological differences

- Combination of behaviourist and Gestalt principles

Question 2

What two methods did Wilhelm Wundt conduct in the first dedicated laboratory to experimental research?

Answer 2

• Self-observation
• Introspection
  To understand subjective experience

Question 3

Name the three types of experimental psychology that became popular in the 20th century

Answer 3

• Behaviourism
• Gestalt psychology
• Social perception approach

Question 4

What is the social perception approach?

Answer 4

• How people make sense of the world

- Main topics are social perception, influence and interaction

Question 5

What are two opposing forms of social psychology and what do they suggest?

Answer 5

• Experimental - Knowledge gained through scientific method

- Critical - Science not the only way and not always best

Question 6

Describe Triplett’s experimental social psychology (ESP) findings

Answer 6

• Looked at social influence
• Got boys and girls to wind a fishing rod
• Found child would wind faster when in a group

Question 7

What did Lewin contribute to ESP?

Answer 7

- Devised a scientific method to test theories of subjectivity (cycle diagram):-
Concrete
Observation/reflection
Forming abstract concepts
Testing

Question 8

What does social cognition relate to?

Answer 8

• The way information is processed
• Focuses on schemas
• Cognitive miser model - schemas reduced need for thinking or effort

Question 9

What do social representations relate to?

Answer 9

• Shared beliefs

- Attributions and attitudes

Question 10

What does Billig propose about the language of social psychology?

Answer 10

Terminology used is fictional e.g. schema’s and deindividuation

Question 11

What were the first forms of sociological (critical) psychology?

Answer 11

• Social constructionism
• Postmodernism
• Discourse Analysis

Question 12

What is social constructionism? (Cycle diagram)

Answer 12

• Reality through social interactions
• Rules and norms internalised
• Knowledge comes from social world
• Life is structures spatially and temporally
• Language is most important sign system

Question 13

What are constructionist achievements in psychology?

Answer 13

• Integration of history and psychological reasoning

- Interpretation of text (discourse analysis)

Question 14

What is modernism and postmodernism?

Answer 14

• Modernism - Democracy, Liberal, Science

- Postmodernism - Knowledge constructed, knowledge and power work together