PYC3701 – GLOSSARY & RESEARCH SUMMARY 2021

PYC3701 – GLOSSARY & RESEARCH STUDY GUIDE Applied competence: apply general social psychological knowledge to everyday life in the family, health and work arenas Attainment of sound individual values and social skills: be aware of cultural diversity and tolerance and citizenship responsibilities Communication skills: be able to effectively communicate social psychological principles and key terms Foundational competence: consider various viewpoints and debates between theorists – knowledge and understanding of material Macro vision: be able to demonstrate a more coherent understanding of the complexity of human behaviour and relationships in a social context Problem-solving skills: develop an awareness of social problems such as aggression and prejudice – be aware of possible solutions to these problems Reflective competence: apply theoretical knowledge appropriately and responsibly and learn and adapt through self-reflection and self-enrichment – can knowledge be appropriately applied Real-life situation: whether knowledge can be contextualised Research skills: be able to analyse, organise and critically evaluate social psychological data Self-responsibility skills: an interactive self-teaching and evaluating course, enabling you to organise your activities responsibly and effectively CHAPTER 1 – SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (recommend reading as important introduction) Confounding of variables: a fatal flaw in experimentation. I.e. in a hypothetical experiment designed to investigate the effects of handling a gun or a toy on aggression, the independent variable is confounded with another variable, the behaviour of the assistants conducting the study: one assistant is kind and polite and the other is rude and surly – we can’t tell whether the result of handling the gun or the assistant’ rude treatment caused participants to be more aggressive Correlational method: a method of research in which a scientist systematically observes two or more variables to determine whether changes in one are accompanied by changed in the other Page 2 of 68 Debriefing: procedures at the conclusion of a research session in which participants are given full information about the nature of the research and the hypothesis or hypotheses under investigation Deception: a technique whereby researchers withhold information about the purposes or procedures of a study from people participating in it Dependent variable: the variable that is measured in an experiment Evolutionary psychology: a new branch of psychology that seeks to investigate the potential role of genetic factors in various aspects of human behaviour Experimentation (experimental method): a method of research in which one or more facts (the independent variables) are systematically changed to determine whether such variations affect one or more other factors (dependent variables) External validity: the extent to which findings of an experiment can be generalized to real-life social situations and perhaps to people different from those who participated in the research Hypothesis: an as yet unverified prediction concerning some aspects of social behaviour or social thought Independent variable: the variable that is systematically changed in an experiment Informed consent: a procedure in which research participants are provided with as much information as possible about a research project before deciding whether to participate in it Mediating variable: a variable that is affected by an independent variable and then influences a dependent variable. Mediating variables help explain why or how specific variables influence social behaviour or thought in certain ways Multiple perspective: a focus on understanding the cultural and ethnic factors that influence social behaviour Parent-child resemblance: an evolutionary perspective that may be more important to males. Men never enjoy same amount of certainty as women that the new baby is theirs. Random assignment of participants to experimental conditions: a basic requirement for conducting valid experiments. According to this principle, research participants must have an equal chance of being exposed to each level of the independent variable Social neuroscience: an area of research in social psychology that seeks knowledge about the neural and biological bases of social processes Social psychology: the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behaviour and thought in social situations Survey method: a method of research in which a large number of people answer questions about their attitudes or behaviour