Issues and debates: how psychological understanding developed over time (social)

Question 1

INTRO

how psychological understanding developed over time?

Answer 1

Scientific processes evolve over time. This means that new psychological theories build on ones that came before it. Psychology has developed alongside science and in turn become more advanced and accurate, using more empirical evidence, sometimes to verify or debunk previous theories. It also adds more components and variables that can affect certain behaviours aside from science, that seem to expand our knowledge of influences on behaviour.

Question 2

A01 & A03 (has)

Answer 2

A01:
- A trend for social psychology research grew in the1960’s, inspired by a desire to explain some of the horrifying behaviour seen in WW2 and the Holocaust. - The areas investigated such as obedience and prejudice sometimes involved the use of what would today be considered as unethical techniques and therefore different ways of testing these behaviours have been developed.

A03:
- e.g. Migrams original experiment in 1963, not very ethical due to P not protected from psychological harm
- However, Burger replicated in 2009, more ethical considerations as P given extensive care after experiment, offered support whenever required, minimising psyhological harm

therefore, psychological understanding of obedience has developed over time through repeated testing in variety of research settings with more ethical considerations made in newer research

Question 3

A01 & A03 (hasn’t)

Answer 3

A01:
- Although our knowledge of how and why people obey hasn’t developed over time, with people still displaying same levels of obedience to authority figures today as 1960s, so theories of obedience have not changed much over time.

A03:
- Burger found blind obedience to authority is still similar to that of milgrams reseacrch in the 1960s which shows individuals are still willing to blindly obey authority figures + commit harmful acts as suggested by agency theory which states that people act as agents for others and shift responsibility for their actions to those figures
- However, Latane developed social impact theory in 1970s to show that the concepts of obedience were more complex than milgram originally suggested tht individuals would obey only when an instruction was given by a perceived authority figure

Question 4

Judgment

Answer 4

Therefore, the understanding of obedience and social psychology has not developed over time + largely remained constant, but the ways in which we investigate this human behaviour has developed over time becoming more ethical