Social Psychology Exam One Notes
- Created by: gabriellagranger
- Created on: 16-02-19 17:10
Methods Guiding Social Psychology
- Quantitative Research
- Survey Methods
- Experimental Methods
- Existing/Secondary data
- Qualitative Research
- Interview Methods
- Participant Observation
- Content Analysis
- Ethics
- Harm/benefits
- Deception
- Confidentiality
Theoretical Perspectives
- Sociological (Three Faces)
- Symbolic Interaction
- We act towards things on the basis of their meanings.
- Meanings are not inherent but are negotiated in interaction with others.
- Meanings can be modified and changed through interaction.
- Favors qualitative methods and survey research.
- Symbolic Interaction
Negotiating meaning: humans are proactive and goal seeking; interaction requires a shared understanding/definition of the situation. (meanings can change over time and situations.)
Situated Identity: the identity one has in relation to the others in the situation; shared understanding makes for smoother interaction.
The Self: is a dynamic object from which we act towards and from (looking glass self and role taking); significant others will matter in how the self is constructed and evaluated. the self evaluation is called the reflexive self.
Group Processes
- How individuals act in groups/how groups shape individual behavior.
- Influence, groupthink, conformity.
- Favors experimental methods.
Social Exchange: there are 1) actors who exchange 2) resources using 3) an exchange process while situated in a 4) exchange structure; assumes that actors have freedom of choice and often face social situations where they must make these choices; individuals are hedonistic (people are more likely to engage in a behavior if they can recieve a reward and less likely if the outcome produces discomfort); can be unconcious choices via conditioning; some exchanges may produce feelings of equity if the actor recieves a reward they belive to be proportional to the cost (e.g., being comfortable with lower pay relative to more qualified individuals).
Status: how one's prestige and status confer social and psychological rewards on the individual (and maintain inequality systems); group work and status demonstrates this.
Social Structure and Personality
- Each individual is uniquely situated in the social structure.
- Position in the structure will produce personality and behavioral differences.
- Melvin Kohn and child rearing
- Annette Lareau and social class practices
- Current examples of police brutality and African American men
Cognitive Processes
Mental activities of the individual are important determinants of social behavior.
Gestalt movement: principle that people respond to configurations of stimuli, rather than to a single, discrete stimulus. People only understand the meaning of a stimulus only by viewing it in the context of an entire system of elements (the chess player).
Human are active in selecting stimuli.
Cognitive Structure and Schemas
- Any form of organization among…
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