Social Psychology

Q: What is epistemology?

A: A branch of philosophy concerned with truth, knowledge, and belief; asks what knowledge is, how we know, and where knowledge comes from.

Q: Why does epistemology matter in psychology?

A: Epistemology determines research questions → methods → outcomes → publications → career/funding.

Q: What is Empiricism?

A: Knowledge comes from perceptual observation.

Q: What is Positivism?

A: Certain knowledge comes from sensory experience, verified through logic, reason, and scientific methods.

Q: What is ‘Common sense epistemology?’

A: Knowledge comes from unreflective everyday experience.

Q: Constructivism?

A: Knowledge is built from human-made constructions, not discovered objectively.

Q: Cognitive constructivism?

A: Knowledge cannot simply be transmitted; individuals actively construct it.

Q: Phenomenology?

A: Focuses on lived experience and consciousness; values phenomena as experienced.

Q: What is social constructionism?

A: A critical stance arguing that knowledge is socially, culturally, and historically constructed—not objectively discovered.

Q: SC vs positivism?

A: SC rejects the idea of objective, unbiased observation; stands in opposition to positivism and empiricism.

Q: Historical & cultural specificity (SC)?

A: What we know depends on when and where we live.

Q: Knowledge and social processes

A: Knowledge is created and sustained through social interaction, especially language.

Q: Knowledge and social action

A: How we construct the world shapes individual and societal action.

Q: Key assumptions of social constructionism

A:

• Anti-essentialist

• Anti-realist

• Anti-individualist

• Language precedes thought

• Focus on processes.

Q: What is Social cognition?

A: Positivist, quantitative, experimental; applies cognitive psychology to social behaviour.

Q: What is Sociological social psychology

A: Social constructionist, qualitative, postmodern; focuses on meaning and interaction.

Q: What did Jost & Kruglanski (2002) critique of social cognition

A: Accused of scientific arrogance, universalism, and political naïvety.

Q: Criticisms of social constructionism

A:

• Seen as unempirical

• Overly political

• Overly critical

Q: What is Thematic Analysis (TA)?

A: Line-by-line coding of data into meaningful themes; flexible and widely used.

Q: What is an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)?

A: Explores lived experience; idiographic focus; double hermeneutic (the theory and practice of interpretation and understanding)

Q: Rigour in qualitative research

A:

• Researchers argue the concept of rigour has no place in qualitative research (Davies & Dodd, 2002; Rolfe, 2006)

• Replaced by trustworthiness (Lincoln & Guba).

Q: Trustworthiness criteria

A:

• Credibility

• Transferability

• Dependability

• Confirmability.

Q: Reflexivity?

A: Researcher’s position, relationship to topic, participants, and data.

Q: Social representations?

A: Shared, socially constructed systems of meaning that allow groups to understand reality.

Q: Reified vs consensual universe

A:

• Reified = expert/scientific knowledge

• Consensual = everyday common sense.

Q: Anchoring?

A: Making unfamiliar ideas familiar by categorising and naming them

Q: Objectification?

A: Turning abstract ideas into concrete images or metaphors.

Q: Core–periphery model

A: Core elements are stable; peripheral elements adapt to context (proposed by Abric, 1976)

Q: Key critique of Social Representations (SRT)

A:

• Overemphasis on consensus

• Neglects variability and talk-in-interaction.

Q: What is Discursive Psychology (DP)?

A: Studies how language is used to perform actions like blaming or justifying.

Q: Key features of DP

A:

• Action-oriented talk

• Naturalistic data

• Micro-analysis

Q: Discourse Analysis (DA)?

A: Macro-level analysis of power, ideology, and representation in language.

Q: What is Minority influence?

A: Minorities can produce conversion (private change), not just compliance.

Q: Behavioural style of effective minorities

A:

• Consistent (overtime (diachronic) and between members (synchronic))

• Confident (appear assured of the deviant position)

• Unbiased (to have no conflict of interest)

• Committed (minority members resist social pressure and abuse)

Q: What did Moscovici et al. (1969) propose?

A: Consistent minorities can shift private perception, not just public behaviour.

Q: Nemeth’s critique

A:

• Minorities promote divergent thinking (assume minority is wrong)

• Majorities promote convergent thinking (assume majority is correct)

Q: Contingency approaches?

A: Influence depends on processing demands, involvement, and message strength.

Q: SIMCA?

A: Social Identity + Injustice + Efficacy predict collective action (proposed by Van Zomeren et al, 2008)

Q: Egoistic vs Fraternalistic relative deprivation?

A:

• Egoistic (Crosby, 1976) - based on social comparison; a comparison of what I have and what you have; you are my reference

• Fraternalistic - an individual compares themselves as a member of an important reference group to another group and feel group deprived

• Group-based deprivation; strongest predictor of collective action.

Q: Perceived efficacy?

A: Belief that collective action can succeed.

Q: What is Prejudice?

A: A feeling towards an individual based on their group membership (affect) or an attitude towards a social group

Q: What is Discrimination?

A: An action relevant towards an individual based on their group membership

Q: What is Stereotyping?

A: The belief that individuals are different based on their group membership

Q: Prejudice vs discrimination vs stereotyping

A: Affect vs behaviour vs cognition.

Q: Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA)

A: Preference for tradition, authority, and aggression toward norm violators (Altemeyer, 1981)

Q: Social Dominance Orientation (SDO)

A: Preference for hierarchy and group-based inequality (Pratto et al, 1994)

Q: Dual-Process Motivation Model (Duckitt & Sibley, 2010)?

A:

• Proposes that prejudice develops through two distinct but related pathways, each based on different worldviews, personality traits, and motivations

• RWA from threat; SDO from competition.

Q: Implicit vs explicit prejudice?

A: Unconscious automatic bias vs conscious controlled attitudes.

Q: Implicit Association Test (IAT)

A: Measures strength of associations; predictive but imperfect.

Q: Criticisms of IAT

A:

• Reliability issues

• Social desirability

• Unclear unconscious status.