The Social Area
Cards (7)
- Defining Principles
- Other people and the environment influence our behaviour and thought process
- All human behaviour occurs in a social context (even in the absence of others)
- Our relationship with others influences our behaviours and thought porcess
- Strengths
- Research within social area can help improve our understanding of human behaviour, particularly the extent to which this is effected by other people
- Research within social area can be extremely useful, having practical applications in a range of different settings
- Strengths pt 2
- Often helps to bring psychology to a wider audience given the way in which research often seeks to explain real-world experiences
- Often high in ecological validity, particularly if it makes use of field experiments.
- Weaknesses
- Findings from research may not be true for all the time (as social situations may change over time)
- Given the socially sensitive nature of the social area, it is difficult to stay within the ethical guidelines
- Boundaries can become blurred between social area + cognitive area (particularly when looking at social confrontation)
- Key themes/concepts
- Response to people in authority
- Milgram - obedience
- Bocchiaro - disobedience and whistleblowing
- Responses to people in need
- Piliavin - subway Samaritan - diffusion of responsibility
- Levine - cross-cultural altruism - simpatica
- Similarities between Milgram & Bocchiaro
- Both self-selecting
- Milgram - volunteered from seeing ads in New Haven paper
- Bocchiaro - Volunteered via flyer in uni cafeteria
- No protection from harm
- Milgram - Participants were given a sample shock of 45V; could feel high levels of stress; could be upset they were obedient
- Bocchiaro - participants who were obedient may feel embarrassed or upset
- Differences between Milgram and Bocchiaro
- Location
- Milgram - took place in New Haven USA in Yale
- Took place in Amsterdam uni
- Sample
- 40 men aged 20-50
- 96 females and 53 men - more diverse