Historical and Cultural Conditions That Gave Rise to the Social Perspective

HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONDITIONS THAT GAVE RISE TO THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE

a)  View of social psychology as a science

·  Le Bon (1895) presents a systematic theory of crowd behavior

·  Triplett (1897-98) conducts first experiment on “social facilitation” effect

·  1908: Ross (a sociologist) and McDougall coincidentally write first textbook (s) of social psychology.

b)  Theoretical split from general psychology

·  Behaviorism vs. Cognition

c)  Role of Nazism

·  Researchers fled/ Gestaltists come together in US.

·  WW II posed new questions (origins of hatred; propaganda and persuasion; leadership; social comparison).

KEY CONCEPTS OF THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE

a)  Norms and Roles

b)  Obedience

c)  Gender roles and power/attitudes

d)  Attribution theory

e)  Conformity

f)  Prejudice/stereotype/ingroup/outgroup/ingroup bias

g)  Scapegoat theory/ just-world phenomenon/ aggression/ frustration-aggression theory/conflict/ altruism/ bystander effect

h)  Bystander Effect/ Deindividuation/ Diffusion of responsibility

i)  Ingratiation/ foot in the door/ Door in the face/ That’s-Not-All”

ASSUMPTIONS ON WHICH KEY CONCEPTS OF THE SOCIAL APPROACH ARE BASED

a) People construct their own reality

·  Influenced by cognitive and social factors

b) Behavior is largely shaped by our constrals of the world around us.

c) Behavior is shaped by the interaction between person and environment.

d) Social psychological theories should be applied to social problems.

METHOD OF STUDY USED BY THE SOCIAL APPROACH

a)  Observational- involves the systematic observation and measurement of behavior (systematic/ participant observation/ archival).

b)  Correlational Research- relationship between two or more variables (surveys).

c)  Experimental

CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE SOCIAL APPROACH TO PSYCHOLOGY

a)  Gives us insights into some of the most serious of human problems (i.e. misuses of intelligence test, knowledge is very culture specific-lack of knowledge does not mean lack of intelligence).

b)  Explains origins of behavior rather than labeling what’s “good” or “bad.”

CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE SOCIAL APPROACH TO SOCIETY

a)  Introduced the idea of family and marital therapy.

b)  Introduced the idea of culture to better assess diagnosis of mental illness.

c)  Expounded on imperative issues such as prejudice to help eliminate conflict between human beings.

EVALUATIONS:

(-) oversimplistic ignoring the huge complexity of human functioning.

(+) Provided industries with solutions for employee output improvement (Hawthorne effect).

(-) Introduced ethical issues of deception and subjection of participants to unnecessary pain and duress.

(+) Classic studies in Social Psychology employed psychological realism.

(+) Focuses on individual behavioral outcomes.

(+) Incorporated group dynamics and the function of culture on psychological processes.

(-) The idea of schemas tend to be self-preserving, so prejudice is hard to modify.

CLASSIC STUDIES IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

S. Asch (1956): Conformity

Leon Festinger (1957): Justifying Behavior

Latane & Darley (1970): Behavior in a crisis situation

Stanley Milgram (1963): Obedience to authority

P. Zimbardo (1973): Taking on social roles.