SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT & BEHAVIOUR
A SUMMARY BY KIMMYLEE DE LAET
This summary contains both lecture notes and all of the chapters of the book ‘applied social psychology’ .
, CHAPTER 1
Introduction to applied social psychology |
Lecture 1
There are several important social psychological aspects such as behaviour, problem
awareness, attitudes, norms and values. These aspects can be focus points for an
intervention.
Attitude is more an evaluation of a specific behaviour and is more flexible,
values are more stable over lifetime.
Applied social psychology = the systematic application of social psychological
constructs, principles, theories, intervention techniques, research methods, and
research findings to understand or solve social problems.
Using and actually applying knowledge from social psychology!
Social psychology = science that aims at understanding the nature and causes of
human behaviour and cognitions in social situations
Constructs, principles and theories
I. Construct: latent individual characteristic (not directly observable)
i. Attitude
ii. Value
iii. Social norm
iv. Performance motivation
II. Principle: statement of how a psychological process works
i. Applies to many things, e.g. cognitive dissonance, commitment, foot-in-
the-door technique
III. Theory: integrated set of principles that describes, explains and predicts
observed events
Difference between fundamental and applied social psychology
Table 1.1: Fundamental versus applied social psychology
Fundamental Applied
Focus on developmental and testing of Focus on understanding and solving
theories social problems; changing the world
Deductive; you start with a theory Inductive; you start with a problem
and then you apply it to a certain and you use multiple theories to get
problem. To test if the theory is to the solution. Which theory gets you
correct yes or no. Very narrow there doesn’t matter. Broach
approach. approach.
Similarities between fundamental and applied social psychology
- Development and testing of theories;
i. Fundamental approach in applied research
ii. Applied research leading to fundamental research
- Scientific methods: accuracy, objectivity, scepticism, open-mindedness
i. Similarity is in the scientific methods
- Other similarities;
i. Motivated by description, prediction, causality, explanation
ii. Focus on same cause of cognitions and behavior: individual, social,
situational, cultural and biological factors
,It’s important to be as accurate and objective as you can. Scepticism is also important,
because you need to look critically at the results coming in and, if needed, try to come
up with other explanations. This is a critical element! Social psychological aspects are:
behavior, problem awareness, attitudes, norms and values.
Factors influencing cognitions and behavior
- Individual: attitude, value
- Social: opinions and behavior of others
- Situational: physical environment
- Cultural: shared opinions, perceptions, norms
- Biological: genetic factors
Characteristics of applied social psychology
1. Problem focused
i. Several theories, methods, interventions
2. Value oriented (!); you have a clear objective (e.g. decrease the effects of
something), it is not trying to get the right results, it’s rather trying to get a
solution.
3. Socially usable
i. Strong effects
ii. Long term effects
4. Generalizable
i. E.g.: there is an overfocus on first year students
5. Interdisciplinary; working with different fields
6. Field; problems in society vary in different fields, e.g. education, health, media
etc.
7. Client; adjust research to your client, for example sometimes the client might
prefer quick and understandable results -> depends on type of client.
8. Cost-profit calculation; not something you think about when working in
fundamental social psychology, but is in applied social psychology: what is more
effective for a single euro?
i. E.g.: mass media or customized information
9. Political realizable; the solution should be politically realizable.
10.‘Output’; science vs. society, also how you write about it. Change your language
with regard to the audience you’re targeting.
i. E.g.: healthy ageing
Research and media
- Input for public debate
- Research fact vs. opinion; to what extent are these data or findings, generated
by scientific methods, more valuable compared to opinions on a certain matter.
- Disqualify or twist results to support a certain opinion
Social problems and social psychology
Ask yourself the following questions:
1. What is the problem?
i. You can get a lot of different answers on this questions
2. Which behaviour causes the problem?
3. Which aspects determine behaviour?
i. This is where theory kicks in; e.g. theory of normative conduct (behaviour
is caused by your perception of what the social norm is)
4. Which interventions are suitable?
i. Target main determinants; e.g. the determinants of normative conducts
are your perceptions of what other people approve of
, 5. Is the intervention effective?
i. Evaluation:
a. Results; pre-test/post-test, or control group
b. Process
CHAPTER 2
The use of theories in applied social psychology
| Lecture 1
Theory = an organized set of principles that describes, explains, and predicts
observed events.
Theories are not necessarily true or untrue, they only exist by their level of
support and how applicable they are.
Principle = describes a specific process, and they are often integrated into theories.
E.g. cognitive dissonance
Hypothesis = a testable prediction derived from a theory.
They are specific
Model = a framework that integrates theories and principles. Models typically
describe multiple processes, each linked through some type of causal sequence
Construct = refers to the inferred affective, cognitive, or motivational aspects of
human behavior.
E.g. attitude
Theories are useful in three ways (USE):
1. They help make sense of social behavior (understand)
2. They guide and inform the development of interventions
intended to address a social problem (solve)
3. They can be tested for practicality and usefulness in the
real world (evaluate)
Table 2.1: Summary of focus, examples, and application of social-psychological theories
Social thinking Social influence Social
relationships
Focus of theories To describe how To describe how the To describe what
people appraise social environment makes people relate
themselves and changes an to each other
their social world individual’s positively or
thoughts, feelings negatively
and/or behaviors
Types of theories Attributions, Obedience, Ingroup/outgroup
cognitive compliance, biases, stereotypes,
dissonance theory, elaboration prejudice,
theory of planned likelihood model discrimination,
behavior contact theory,
prosocial behavior
Application of To design tools o To design To design
theories r interventions that interventions that interventions that
