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Interaction effect

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Different causes may interact with each other to produce changes in dependent variable A) and B interact to bring about changes in C).

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Moderation

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This occurs when the relationship between two variables depends on a third variable (A causes C, but is also dependent on levels of B)

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Example of moderation and interaction effect

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The relationship between an individuals poverty and the likelihood they would participate in rioting depends on (is moderated) by their family upbringing.

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Mediation

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This occurs when the relationship between two variables is explanied by a third variable (A causes B and B causes C) like dominoes falling on eachother

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Example of mediation

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long term poverty and disadvantage may mean that a disproportionate number of poorer parents are forced to wokr long hours, or are beset with social and psychological problems such as addiction and lack of wider family support. Thus disadvantage and despair far from being an alternative explanation for the rioting may actually help explain why so many young people are ill disciplined.

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What is social psychology?

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A branch os psychology dedicated to the study of how people think about, influence and relate to eachother

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What are the social psychology sub topics?

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Thinking and feeling Relating Belonging Applying

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what is the study of thinking and feeling?

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The social self: understanding ourselves The social perceiver: understanding the social world The social judge: attitudes, emotions and behaviour -Focusing on how people understand themselves and others and how they judge the social world

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What is the study of relating?

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Communication persuasion close relationships

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What is the study of belonging?

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The social group social influence group behaviour intergroup relations -studying how groups influence who we are and how they influence our behaviour

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What is the study of Applying?

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Improving intergroup relations understanding and controlling aggression altruism and justice -Address societal issues in areas such as business, education and health

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What ties the sub disciplines of social psychology together?

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the general aim to further knowledge about the relationships between people and the social world, the focus on how people are affected by the actual or implied presence of others is what makes this branch of psychology social.

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Scientific discipline?

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A brach of study that involves the gathering of data to test hypotheses that are derived from theories

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Theory

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a set of principles that aim to explain a phenomenon

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Why do social psychologists put theories to the test?

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to make discoveries, draw conclusions and refine theories for further investigations, they test what are thought to be more or less universal laws of human nature.

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What are critical social psychologists?

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an alternative to mainstream social psychology arguing that mainstream social psychology is limited by its focus on 'universals' of human nature which do not exist

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What do critical social psychologists argue about the universals of human nature?

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when contexts change (time and place) so do social rules and conventions, according to this perspective it is impossible to explain human behaviour using theories of universal principles because these principles constantly change depending on the context

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Early social Psychology: David Hume and Adam Smith?

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these social psychologists wrote about matters related to social psychology.

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What did David Hume write about?

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wrote about how people learn to explain events in their lives by observing what causes tend to correspond with what effect, beginning of the "attribution theory"

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What did Adam Smith write about?

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wrote about emotions and morality, and their influence on how people trade and exchange goods with eachother, writings influential in the study of emotions

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Where does social psychology have early origins?

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British, German and French scholars of the 18th century

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Who are the "fathers" of social psychology?

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Herbart and Comte

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What did Herbart and Comte argue?

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Comte argued that social processes could be examined using the same methods as those in the natural sciences, Herbart argued that society was a vital aspect of human existence

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What is Volkerpsychologie?

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Late 19th century precursor to social psychology, the study of the "collective" mind, specifically people who belong to the same social group or groups tend to think in the same way, have the same values and observe the same norms

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When was social psychology first established as a distinct discipline?

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the beginning of the 20th century, with the publication of Floyd Allport's 1924 book Social Psychology

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What is behaviourism?

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Approach based on explaining behaviours in relation to reinforcement, focusing on the positive and negative events on behaviour

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What did behaviourists argue?

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Behaviour that was followed with a reward would continue, where as behaviour followed by a punishment would not.

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What is Behaviourism criticized for?

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being to simplistic, it is difficult to reconcile some more complex social phenomena (thoughts, attitudes, emotions) with the simplicity of the social learning approach.

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Gestalt Psychology

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emerged from the limitations of behaviourism. Approach proposing that objects are viewed in a hollistic sense. Emphasizing the importance of looking at a whole object and how it appears to people, rather than focusing on specific aspects of the object.

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What do Gestalt psychologists argue?

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perception was important in determining attitudes and behaviours

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Force field analysis?

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Gestalt framework developed by Kurt Lewin to explain human dynamics, expressed human dynamics in the form of a map, the map consists of a persons needs, desires, and goals and arrows indicate the directions and strengths of these forces.

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What were William Mcdougalls arguments based on?

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based on evolutionary theory, were often ideologically driven and supremacist. Specifically his social scientific explanations and others at the time were motivated by the desire to explain the differences between "civilized" or evoled (western people) and uncivilized or not yet evolved (non western) people.

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How did the atrocities of nazi germany have an impact on social psychology?

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much of the theory and research in social psychology has been inspired by the holocaust. For example, the early work on social influence and conformity was largely a result of researchers wanting to explain why people so readily complied with the requests of their superiors and what processes could explain the atrocities that occurred. -Bystander intervention

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What is positive social psychology?

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Branch of social psychology that focuses on what makes people happy and what contributes to life satisfaction

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What is the hindsight bias?

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the tendency for people to see an outcome as inevitable once the actual outcome is known

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Why is the hindsight bias relevant to social psychology?

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much of the research done in social psychology deals with everyday, ordinary aspects of human thinking and behaviour, therefore when a person reads about a social psychological finding in the news paper they are likely to see it as something that was obvious and easy to predict

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Hypotheses?

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predictions that are tested empirically

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Research question?

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A question that guides the research is conducted

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Scientific method?

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A method that involves the formulation of hypotheses based on theory and research and the testing of those hypotheses

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What is discursive psychology?

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Language is viewed as social action through which people construct their social world

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Social constructionism?

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approach emphasizing the way social phonomena develops in social contexts

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Postmodernism?

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An intentional departure from previously dominant approaches of enquiry emphasizing that apparent realities are only social constructs and therefore subject to change

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Social representations?

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socially shared beliefs or widely shared ideas and values associated with cultures

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how does critical social psychology challenge mainstream social psychologists?

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this research challenges the assumption that people all share a common view because they often come from radically different cultures with different shared assumptions

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Methodology

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Research methods and their underlying assumptions, general approach taken to provide evidence for a research question

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Qualitative methods

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Research approach based on interpretations of data generally obtained by observation, use or archives, or interviews. Data are typically verbal (spoken or written words) but interpretations of pictures, movement and other behaviours may feature in qualitative research.

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Quantitative methods

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Research approach based on the systematic measurement of events or phnomena and the statistical analysis of data

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Data

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Information, observations, measurements or responses that are collected, scientifically analysed and interpreted

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Surveys and Questionnaires (Quantitative method)

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among the most common research methods used in social psych. These tools involve simply asking people a series of questions that the researcher has carefully designed and put together to address a specific research question or questions. Surveys are typically in the form of an interview, or a questionnaire which the participant records their own responses. researchers can collect a large amount of data

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Disadvantages to survey and questionnaires?

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The investigator chooses the question, question choice may be subject to bias, in that the experimenter chooses a set of questions favouring a particular approach

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Demand characteristics?

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Aspects of a study that participants may interpret as demanding a particular response. Responding with how they think the researcher would want them to respond.

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Correlational research?

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examines the natural association between two or more variables, such associations differ in their strength some variables are strongly correlated with eachother and others are not. Some variables are positively correlated: values on one variable increase values on another variable also increase. some variables are negatively correlated: as valuables on one variable increase, values on the other decrease

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Experiments

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To inquire causality, to be sure about which variable causes which, social psychologists conduct experiments in which they control factors in order to measure the direct effect of one variable on another.

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Independent variable (IV)

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In an experiment the IV is the variable that is manipulated and is hypothesized to cause a specific outcome in the dependent variable

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Dependent Variable (DV)

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In an experiment the DV is the variable that is measured and hypothesized to be influenced by the IV which the experimenter measures

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external validity?

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The similarity between the situation of the experiment and the situation in which the phenomenon/phenomena of interest occur in every day life, when an experiment is so tightly controlled in a lab some would argue that it cannot tell us a great deal about human nature in general.

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Internal validity?

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The extent to which a researcher can be confident that the variable of interest produced the results

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manipulation checks?

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in an experiment the researcher takes an additional measure to ensure that the manipulation of an iv has had the desired effect

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field experiment?

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An experiment that is set up in the 'real world' participants are typically unaware that they are participating in an experiment

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Random assignment

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in an experiment participants are allocated randomly to groups to avoid any potential effects of participant characteristics (age and gender) being overrepresented in one group influencing the results

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Cofounding

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when one or more IVs are related to another causal variable so it is impossible to tell which variable is having an effect (something which experimenters want to avoid)

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control condition?

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in an experiment the control group is similar to a condition in which the IV is manipulated except that the 'ingredient' that is hypothesized to influence the DV is missing

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double-blind procedure?

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Procedure in which neither experimenter nor participant have knowledge of the experimental conditions

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Participant observation?

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Research technique in which researchers observe natural behaviour without intervening. "Field study method"

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Field study?

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A type of observational study where the researchers goes into the field to observe naturalistic behaviour

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Case studies?

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allow a researcher to analyse a specific event, individual or group in depth. They involved a range of tools such as observations, surveys, interviews and questionnaires, Have quantitative and qualitative aspects, and allow for detailed examination.

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Archival studies?

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involve going back to the "archives" and examining evidence for a hypothesis among existing data. Can be many things such as newspaper reports, political speeches, statistical records, and court proceedings which already exist and can be gathered over a long period of time.

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Thematic analysis? Qaulitative

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identifies themes in a set of data usually derived from an interview. Consists of two phases: first researchers identifies, analyses and describes patterns or themes within the data and second the researches uses the themes to make further interpretations.

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Conversational analysis

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focuses closely on conversational interactions producing a detailed analysis, classification and notification of the talk. The aim is to examine what people are doing with the language they use as well as what they are hoping to achieve.

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Narrative analysis?

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focuses on how people understand the world through the stories they tell to others. Based on the idea that telling stories helps people to make meaning out of complex and often chaotic situations.

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Studying text: Discourse analysis?

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advocates of discourse analysis in social psych argue that 'text' and 'talk' ought to be the principal focus of social psych. Language is by means the way people create their social world, discourse analysis therefore studies language-language obtained from conversations, interviews and text. The text is analyzed and interpreted within the context in which it was produced, researcher can then draw conclusions about what the person is communicating about their thoughts, feelings and experiences

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Micro-discourse analysis?

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examines text and talk in fine detail with aim of understanding what is occurring in particular interactions

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Macro-discourse analysis?

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aims to identify different discourses that occur surrounding a particular event or topic (riot) understanding the broad societal currents that influence the text being studied

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Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA)

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Based on the principal of phenomenology. This philosophy emphasizes the relationship between the world inside the mind and the greater world outside. It considers how peoples conscious experience of existing within the world is made up of their feelings, relationships and experiences. Consists of extracting peoples descriptions of concrete experiences or narratives about these experiences.

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Sampling

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the process of selecting participants for a study

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Random sampling

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taking a random group of participants from a population (e.g giving every british adult the chance to participate in a study of british attitudes towards the government)

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self selection

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a problem arising when results in a study become difficult to interpret because participants with certain attitudes or characteristics disporportionately select themselves to participate in the research

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convenience sampling

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taking a group of participants from an available subgroup (e.g. undergrad students)

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Reliability

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is the extent to which the way a variable is measured, usually in a scale (e.g. extraversion) is likely to bring out consistent results

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construct validity

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refers to the relationship between a measure and a particular outcome that the measure is designed to predict example: scores on a scale of extraversion should be related to scores on outcomes such as the number of friends the person has, or how often they go out

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statistical significance?

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the measure of probability that a given finding could have occurred by chance

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Basic research?

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focuses on fundamental questions about peoples thoughts feelings and behaviours example: why do people help others?

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applied research?

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applies basic research to problems or social issues, takes information that is with the aim of enhancing everyday life, focuses on areas such as health, business, law, the environment and politics

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Interventions?

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used in applied social psych these are efforts to change peoples behaviour

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Individualistic culture?

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Cultures where people see themselves as independent entities with independent characteristics and voluntary social bonds

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collectivist culture?

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cultures where people see themselves as dependent on others with characteristics that respond to social situations and important involuntary bonds

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informed consent

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participants need to indicate their willingness to participate in research after being fully informed about what the research involves

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deception

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in social psych deception is a case where participants are misled about the purpose of the research or some aspect of the research, does not make the research unethical

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confederates?

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a member of the research team who poses as a real participant and is instructed to interact or respond in a predetermined way

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Deception can be deemed appropriate if the following conditions are met:

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1. a on deceptive method to study the same phenomenon does not exist 2. the study has the possibility of making significant contribution to scientific knowledge 3. the deception is not expected to cause the participant any harm or significant emotional stress

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Ethics committee

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a committee that evaluates the ethicality of research proposals and judges whether they are appropriate to investigate

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debrief?

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participants are informed about the purpose, aims and hypotheses of the research

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social Psych and links to other disciplines:

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1. Personality psychology-referred to as the study of how people come to be who they are 2.Clinical Psychology- attempt to understand, prevent and relieve psychologically based problems and promote well being 3. Cognitive Psychology- concerned with the study of mental processes 4.Forensic Psychology- a sub discipline that deals with both psychology and the legal system 5.Cyberpsychology- deals with the psychological phenomena associated with emerging technology and human technology interaction 6. Biology and Neuroscience- examine the nature, function and evolution of living things, and examine how genetic factors influence people and what they do 7.anthropology 8. Economics-concerned with how people make trade offs

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fMRI?

answer

a type of neuro-imaging scan used by social psychologists to measure the change in blood flow that occurs in the brain during social tasks

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social cognitive neuroscience?

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study of the processes in the brain that allow people to understand others and themselves and to successfully navigate the social world

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