Social Psychology Essay

Social psychology is an empirical science that studies how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. This field focuses on how individuals view and affect one another. Social psychology also produces the idea of construals which represent how a person perceives, comprehends or interprets the environment. Construals introduce the idea that people want to make themselves look good to others and they want to be seen as right. It is also said that the social setting in which people interact impacts behavior, which brings up the idea of behaviorism. Behaviorism is the idea that behavior is a function of the person and the environment.

Case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observations are a few research methods used by psychologists to facilitate the understanding of behavior. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages that are used in particular research scenarios. Techniques like observation or interactions between the researcher and the subject(s) such as extensive interviews to restrained experiments are what some research methods heavily rely on to be validated.

Research methods are “the various specific tools or ways data can be collected and analysed, e.g. a questionnaire, interview, etc.” (Neville, C, 2007).

Methods used in psychological research are used to obtain quantitative or qualitative data. Quantitative data is more often than not derived from methods such as experiments and statistics analysing data using surveys, questionnaires and interviews. Qualitative data tends not to be aimed at finding exact measurements in its findings, but is more concerned with evidence collection and analysis through practices such as observation and ethnography (using observations through involvement in activities over a period of time) (Brownlow 2011).

Philip (2009) to try and see what was being said about prison treatment was true, this was called the Stanford prison experiment. This experiment only lasted 6 days due to the circumstances versus 6 weeks. Zimbardo had to find out whether the prisons were brutal due to the guards or due to the environment. It was clear that the role of the guards was the issue and not the environment. This was discovered when a sample was chosen from the population. Each induvial was set up to be a guard or a prisoner at random. In this study researchers got see the unfortunate power of social situations. Once prisoner and guard roles were assigned each group were told that they were being watched by the researcher and his colleagues, the guards were to not hit the prisoners, and debriefed about the experiment. Although all this was told the guards took situations into their own hands and the power took over. The guards began simply viewing them as prisoners and the prisoners began to fear the guards. It is important to note the researcher did not intervene but continued to observe when the hitting was taking place. This is particularly important because not only are the guards fitting the rod but the researcher is at fault for the fundamental attribution error but viewing the situation for what it

Human beings are defined as ''social animals'' because in every aspects of life they live together, they form a variety of groups and improve relationships with each other. Interaction with others is a natural result of living in society. In the process of interaction, society and its rules has a social impact on each individual. If people face with any kind of social impact such as group pressure, great part of them show conformity by changing their behaviors, ideas, decisions in expected way. A person conforms if he or she chooses a course of action that a majority favors or that is socially acceptable. Some kind of conformity is natural and socially healthy but obeying all the norms, ideas, and decisions without thinking or accepting

According to our text, social psychology is a science that studies the impact of our

The experiment was used to make people aware of racism and how the individuals affected might have to go

The first type of research that is used in the field of sociology is experiment research. Experiment research involves creating an experiment based off an hypothesis to answer an question. The scientific method is used to keep the experiment on track and follow a set of guidelines. This experiment is done in a controlled setting in which the design of the experiment is to answer the hypothesis. Data is gathered based on what the participants do or act during the experiment. The data gathered is quantitative, in which the data gathered is expressed in numbers. There are both benefits and limitations of

The psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané (1968) were interested in the Genovese incident and sought to find the answer to this psychological phenomenon. In their experiment, Darley and Latané hypothesized that the higher number of bystanders would decrease helping behavior and vice versa. The two manipulated the number of confederates during each trial and recorded the time it took for the participants to report the simulated seizure. Their results confirmed that if were more confederates, each participant would feel less pressured to help, leading to the discovery of the bystander effect.

A case study is defined as a full, detailed picture of a participant or a small group of other participants. While a correlational study can suggest that both variables have a relationship that exists. An experiment is where the experimenter’s hypothesis is tested to see whether it works. Typically, the experimenter has an independent variable (the cause) where they can manipulate the variable and as well as the dependent variable (the effect).

your paper. If relevant, describe the sample or population used in the study (e.g., children,

2.) Review the various research techniques (i.e. experimental research, surveys, case studies, and participant-observer research) found in Chapter Two. Scenario--- If you were going to conduct research on the sexual activity of suburban teens, which two (2) techniques do you feel would be most successful and why?:

Calhan (1962) conducted an animal experiment into crowding leading to aggression. He placed an expanding rat population into a small area, and observed that they soon began sexually assaulting and killing each other, which confirms a link between crowding and aggression. Research into crowding in Australian clubs done by Macintyre and Hamel (1997) showed that the level of crowding in each nightclub was related to the number of observed aggressive incidents. This is a field experiment, meaning it has ecological validity and is not artificial and so can be applied to real life. However, they did not get participant consent for observations, which raise ethical issues.

There are many explanations for the origins of modern social psychology. It is therefore important to consider that social psychology cannot be traced back to one single source of origin (Burr, 2003). Hence, this is the reason why there are debates of what social psychology is. Allport (1985) described social psychology as the study an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours which are influenced by the actual, imagines, or implied presence of others. As seen from this definition there is a direct link between social science and the individual psychology (Sewell, 1989). Social psychology cannot be seen as a linear phenomenon. This is because social psychology has been derived from a combination of influences. The development of