ASSUMPTIONS of the Social Approach:
EVALUATION of the Social Approach:
- **Other people and the surrounding environment are major influences on an individual’s behaviour, thought processes and emotions
- THE SITUATION WE ARE IN HAS AN EFFECT ON OUR BEHAVIOUR, WE DON'T ALWAYS ACT ACCORDINGLY TO OUR FREE WILL. (This means that the environment DETERMINES our behaviour. You may act in a way that is deemed acceptable in society. Milgram- ps obey the authority figure as it is the accepted behaviour and people typically don't go against that).
- ALL HUMAN BEHAVIOUR OCCURS IN A SOCIAL CONTEXT, even when no one else is present (How we act depends on the situation we are in).
- OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER PEOPLE IS A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON AN INDIVIDUALS BEHAVIOUR, THOUGHT PROCESSES AND EMOTIONS. (We take on different roles when we are with different people).
EVALUATION of the Social Approach:
Strengths:
1) I- Can provide info to explain how other people (such as authority figures or people we see as being in the same group as ourselves) have an effect on our behaviour. E- This means studies from the social approach are useful as they explain the causes of social behaviour and further our understanding of how situational factors and social settings affect our behaviour. C- Milgram: the ps had an obvious inner conflict going on. They had to decide either to:
2) I- The social approach often uses FIELD exp, which enables researchers to study how people behave in naturalistic situations. E- It makes the study have high ecol validity, so can explain how people behave in real life. C- Piliavin: staged a real life emergency situation of someone collapsing which is something that people may see in every day life. 3) I- Can provide useful info to explain how social cognition influences our social behaviour. (How we think about a social situation affects how we behave). E- The social approach makes an important contribution to psychology as a discipline as it shows how what we think will affect how we respond in a situation. C- Piliavin: cost- benefit arousal: the ps would analyse their situation in terms of the pros and cons of helping the victim. The drunk victim received less help as the cost of helping them would be than the ill victim. E.g the drunk victim could be sick on them or be abusive. The ps place in society was also considered- women may have helped the victim less as they felt it was not their place in society to interfere in something that seemed like a mans duty. |
Weaknesses:
1) I- Ethical concerns may be raised. E- In order to prevent DCs, deception is often needed in social approach studies. C- Milgram: a cover story of the aim being on learning and punishment was used so that the real aim of his investigation was not discovered. Piliavin: ps deceived by who they thought were fellow passengers, who were actually studying their behaviour. 2) I- The use of field exp make it difficult to study social behaviour as extraneous variables that come with a field setting are hard to control. E- The study may lack validity as we don't know whether the extraneous variables have become confounding variables. C- Piliavin: as the study takes place on a carriage anyone can get on, it is possible people would have seen the study before due to its repetitious nature and therefore DCs would have resulted. |
OCR Exam Q & A:
Q: With reference to Piliavins study, describe how the social approach can be used to explain helping behaviour.
A: The environment and situation we are in are major influences on whether or not individuals will help another person. Piliavin’s study showed that when in a closed area individuals tend not to diffuse responsibility and that the more people there were present when the incident occurred, the more people went to help the victim. They also found that if a victim is ill, people are more likely to help than if the victim is drunk. Also, if a victim is the same race as a potential helper they are more likely to help them.
Q: With reference to Piliavins study, describe how the social approach can be used to explain helping behaviour.
A: The environment and situation we are in are major influences on whether or not individuals will help another person. Piliavin’s study showed that when in a closed area individuals tend not to diffuse responsibility and that the more people there were present when the incident occurred, the more people went to help the victim. They also found that if a victim is ill, people are more likely to help than if the victim is drunk. Also, if a victim is the same race as a potential helper they are more likely to help them.
Similarities & Differences between the Social Approach studies summarised below in the Venn diagram: