Final Exam Week 1 PDF

**FINAL EXAM WEEK 1** - **Social Psychology Definition:** - " The scientific attempt to explain the ways in which the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings " - ***Gordon Allport (1954)*** -...

**FINAL EXAM WEEK 1** - **Social Psychology Definition:** - " The scientific attempt to explain the ways in which the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings " - ***Gordon Allport (1954)*** - How thoughts feelings and behaviors are influenced by other human beings - The study of individuals in a society - It is through other people and the media that we develop attitudes about the world and everything in it. - 5 volunteers in a windowless room with only food, water and entertainment - Results: 80% of people felt uncomfortable with no human contact, and this had psychological impacts - Most people can't last long without human contact - 1 person lasted two days - 1 showed signs of psychological stress ( anxiety and depression) - 1 person lasted 8 days with no adverse effects - All 5 volunteers endured different amounts of time in the room **Limitations:** - Small number of participants - Lack of cultural representation - The small group leads to outliners - Impact of windowless room: lack of natural environment not accounted for - Impact of types of food and entertainment on motivation - Measurement tools? - Who measured the psychological impact - No control groups - How long did the impacts last? - Everyone will need different items to remain entertained and other situational characteristics. - Didn't look at how an introverted person would react vs extroverted - **Ethics:** - Freedom to withdraw - Informed consent - Debriefing and resources post - Recruitment - Benefit to participants - Any payment or coercion **Hawthorn 2006 Holt-Lunstad 2015 Shanker 2015** - **Impacts of Social Isolation** - High blood pressure - Mental Illness - Physical inactivity - Dementia - Emotional distress - Poorer immune functioning - Smoking - Poor sleep - Decreased feelings of wellbeing - Poor Health behaviour - Premature death **Milgram 1967 6 Degrees of separation** - **6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon** - **Small World Phenomenon** - Any one individual can be connected to any other individual through at most 5 other people **Environmental Factors** **Explain why the same person may act differently in different situations** 1. Other people 2. Objects 3. Information 4. Social Systems 5. Events - **Dispositional Factors** **Explain why different people react differently to the same situation** 1. Personality 2. Demographic factors: 3. age 4. gender 5. Mood 6. Culture 7. Prior beliefs 8. Genetic predisposition 9. Skills 10. Educational Level 11. Political Preference **Brindal 2021 COVID Study** - Life satisfaction study before during and after COVID - Dispositional ( individual factors) influenced how people felt about their life satisfaction during and after COVID - Dispositional Factors impact life satisfaction - - **More life satisfaction:** 1. Working from home 2. More children living at home 3. More time for hobbies 4. Open minded people 5. Concerned about getting COVID - **Less life satisfaction:** 1. Unhealthy eating got worse 2. Screentime got worse 3. If you are extraverted 4. Agreeable 5. Concerned about how COVID is affecting society 6. If COVID has directly impacted their current lifestyle **Strengths:** - They recruited over 4000 participants, strong numbers - They measured a lot of different dispositional factors - **Limitation:** Self-reported, subjective, after the event Participants were asked to report how they felt refection after COVID How do you know people are being honest when they answer a questionnaire The participants might have thought the researchers believed their life satisfaction declined so they answers accordingly Had ot answer questions about something that happened 6 months ago Could the answers be inaccurate and be more related to how they feel now **Community Psychology & Collectivism** - Considers environmental factors and political systems and how they influence behaviour. - Considers all aspects of society and community that contribute to an individual\'s behaviour and the conditions of their lives. - Seeks second-order change to improve individuals\' lives. - Rejects individualism and first-order change. - Accepts collectivism: attends to societal problems and second-order change. - Society, media, and environmental factors contribute to how a person lives their life. - Like social psychology, it has an explicit collectivist perspective. - Focus on the collectivist perspective, while the individualistic perspective focuses on the individual as the cause of their own behaviour. - **Second Order Change:** - Empowers community problem-solving - Preventative measures - **Kelly 2019** - **Social Enterprise In Scotland**