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THE SOCIAL APPROACH TO PSYCHOLOGY
WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
Social Psychology can be defined as the scientific investigation
of how the thoughts, feelingsand behaviours of individuals are
influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence
ofothers.(Allport 1935) Social psychology is therefore about how
people influence each other.
Peoples behaviour is affected by the social situation they are
in it is normal to be naked on a nudistbeach, but its not normal to
be naked whilst shopping in Morrisons! Social psychologists
aretherefore particularly interested in the effects that
environments (situations) have on peoplesbehaviour.
Social behaviour occurs when two or more people interact.
Individuals however interact differentlydepending on the situation
e.g. you may act differently with a parent, a friend, a stranger,
or when ina group. Whenever we are not alone we are influenced by
the people around us.
Social psychology also considers how individuals think about
other people. This is known as socialcognition and it can involve
such things as stereotyping, prejudice, helping behaviour and
aggression.
The influence of others can cause individuals to change their
behaviour. Social psychologists haveconducted numerous studies of
why people conform (change their behaviour to fit in with that
ofothers) e.g. Asch, Zimbardo; and why they obey authority figures
e.g. Milgram, Hofling.
KEY STUDIES TOBE CONSIDERED THROUGH THIS APPROACH
MILGRAM (1963): BEHAVIOURAL STUDY OF OBEDIENCE
REICHER & HASLAM (2006): RETHINKING THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
TYRANNY: THE BBCPRISON STUDY
PILIAVIN, RODIN & PILIAVIN (1969): GOOD SAMARITANISM: AN
UNDERGROUNDPHENOMENON?
ORIGINS AND HISTORY OF THE APPROACH
Social psychology has a long history within scientific
psychology. Like most psychological research,social psychologists
began by investigating social processes and influences as they
applied to theindividual. Most of this research came form America
though gradually a more European approachwas incorporated to take
more account of social, historical and political contexts
andcollective/shared representations and identities.
Famous social psychological studies include:
Triplett
Triplett looked at competitive cycling records andnoted that
paced times were 35 seconds per milefaster than unpaced times and
competitive timeswere even faster. This was followed up by
acontrolled study looking at children windingfishing reels. He
found that the children woundthe reels in faster in pairs than when
alone,
suggesting that the presence of others can havea significant
effect on performance.
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Ringelmann found that when two people werepulling on a rope,
their effort was 93% of theaverage of the individuals performance,
thisdropped to 85% of the individuals performancewhen three people
were pulling and theperformance slipped to only 49% when
eightpeople were pulling, suggesting that as groupsize increases,
performance decreases. This
reduction in individual effort that occurs whenpeople work
collectively is known as socialloafing.
Ringelmann
Asch
Asch designed an experiment to see whetherpeople would conform
to a majoritys incorrectanswer in an unambiguous task (one where
theanswer is obvious) involving matching of lines.He found people
will conform towards a groupnorm so they dont stand out, even when
theythink the rest of the group is wrong.
Milgrams famous study was concerned with thenature of obedience
to authority. In hisexperiment he asked participants to give,
whatthey believed to be genuine electric shocks to alearner if they
answered a question wrongly.Most of his participants carried on
giving shocks,even when they thought they were causing harm.He
concluded that, in extreme situations, mostpeople will follow
orders even if it means doingsomething they dont think is
right.
Milgram
ASSUMPTIONS OF THE SOCIAL APPROACH
Social psychologists assume that, for anyone who has been raised
in a society:
All behaviour occurs in a social context, even when nobody else
is physically present.
A major influence on peoples behaviour, thought processes and
emotions are other peopleand the society they have created.
STRENGTHS OF THE SOCIAL APPROACH
Social influences have been shown to be involved in, and have a
strong effect upon, peoples
behaviour, thinking and emotions often stronger than
dispositional influences e.g. Piliavin, Milgram. The approach has
many practical applications in a wide range of areas e.g.
conformity, obedience,
helping behaviour, performance levels.
The approach has provided explanations for a great many
phenomena e.g. obedience +Nazis,
Conformity/non conformity + peers, helping behaviour +
race/gender.
LIMITATIONS OF THE SOCIAL APPROACH
The approach tends to underestimate what people bring with them
into social situations individualdifferences (whether inherited or
learnt) do affect the results of social psychological studies but
areoften explored less.
Social psychological studies are often superficial snapshots of
social processes (Hates, 1995) and soignore their development over
time and the broader social, political, historical and cultural
context inwhich the research takes place.
The approach shows considerable support for the NURTURE side of
the nature/nurture debate so can
be seen as reductionist since it minimises or ignores the
influence of biological factors on behaviour.
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