Social psychology

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strengths of social psychology

>Makes a contribution to understanding behaviour in a social context

>Supports for situational explanations of behaviour as social influences have been shown to have a stronger effect than dispositional factors.

>Supports nurture side of nature-nurture argument.

>Practical applications with social policy.

>Well controlled research can be conducted=reliable and valid.

>Social phenomenom is important to everyday life.

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Weaknesses of social psychology

>Focuses on social factors and may ignore other explanations of behaviour.

>Many studies provide only superficial snapshots of behaviour and ignores the development of behaviour over time.

>hard to test many areas in a valid way.

>tightly controlled studies lack ecological validity

>conclusions may be ethnocentric

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How do core studies apply to the strengths

  • Milgrim And Bocchiarios study both support the situational hypothesis.
  • Both studies have practical applications within social policy.
  • Both well controlled studies.
  • They both look into how external factors influence us.
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How do core studies apply to the weaknesses

  • Both Milgrim and Bocchiarios studies lack validty due to the use of deceit.
  • Both studies were in lab conditions therefore lack ecological validity.
  • Conclusions in both were ethnocentric as participants in both studies were from one area.
  • Bocchiarios study Bocchiarios study tried to eliminate the idea of looking at just social factors by using personality inventories (HEXACO P-I-R and Decomposed Games.)
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