Social Area

• Social approach - studying people in groups, no person is truly individual
• Socual area - a major influence on peoples thoughts, emotions and behaviour are other people and society

  Behaviour occurs in a social context even when they are alone

  Behaviour is affected by situational factors

  Social psychologists use field experiments to test theories developed in a lab experiment
• Social area strengths - it helps us to understand how behaviour is influenced by other people and socual situations. This is a strength because it allows us to see reasons for changes in behaviour in different social settings.

  It can explain behaviour that at first appearance, is hard to understand and is often harmful to others. This is a strength because understanding causes of behaviour is a vital step in changing it.
• Social area weaknesses - it understands the influence of individual differences on behaviour. This is a weakness because it doesn't take into account factors such as biological reasons for behaviour.

  It involves ethical concerns as social psychologists often study the more harmful areas of human behaviour. This is a weakness because it may not take into account an individuals hustory so many find some experiences traumatic.
• Defining principles and concepts - Behaviour is strongly influence by the social environment - society/culture

  Behaviour is the product of the situation and other people - The social context. This true even when we are alone.
• Main research methods - Observation, Lab experiment, Field experiments
• Justification for these methods - Can see how people interact with things when they are around other people and when they are alone (observation). Build up the theory further (lab experiment). Doesn't influence the participants (field experiments).
• Key research - Milgram, Bocchiaro, Piliavin, Levine
• Strength one - It explains behaviour including behaviour which is hard to understand, in a wide range of social settings and contexts.
• Strength two - it supports the nurture side of the nature-nurture debate showing the impact of social environment on behaviour.
• Weakness one - It causes increased ethical considerations due to the darker areas of human behaviour that are often of interest to social pyschologists.
• Weakness two - It is reductionist as it ignores the influence of nature on behaviour. Underestimates individual differences.
• Application - Use of authorative figures to deliver public health announcements. This was seen throughout covid as figures of authority such as Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered people to follow new covid rules and laws such as social distancing and staying at home. The vast majority of the UK public complied as predicted by the results of studies such as Milgram and Bocchiaro.