Psychology
DD307 - TMA 01
Outline and assess the use of experiments in social psychology drawing on the cognitive social perspective and one of the other three perspectives in the module (discursive psychological, phenomenological or social psychoanalytic).
This essay will provide a description of the experimental method for both the cognitive social perspective and social psychoanalytic perspective. A compare and contrast will be given for the two perspectives in a critical evaluation as an approach to doing research in social psychology.
The cognitive social perspective ontology is that, researchers view the person as a thinker in society. Thought processes are believed to have been shaped by and help create the world in which they live in. This perspective has to offer two approaches in the mainstream, social cognition and social identity. Social cognition views the person to be a cognitive miser thereby, being a social thinker and information processing. As a result forms limited opinions based on categorizing and prejudices. Social identity traditions gives emphasis to the socialised thinker whereby, ones’ cognitions are structured by group memberships located in a particular social system. The cognitive social approach follows a statistical methodology by which, researchers gather their results in the form of quantitative data to analyse. This is an experimental, social psychometric method. Researchers conduct studies in which they collect quantitative data and test theory based hypothesis using standard statistical techniques. The researcher’s primary tool is the laboratory – based experiment not confined to the field, such as, the classroom, work place, the crowd. The various techniques include, survey, questionnaires, case studies, and observational methods. As psychology takes part within the individual, this is the primary unit of analysis. The individual’s psychology is significantly affected by the social context. For example, attention to group
Outline and assess the use of experiments in social psychology drawing on the cognitive social perspective and one of the other three perspectives in the module (discursive psychological, phenomenological or social psychoanalytic).
This essay will provide a description of the experimental method for both the cognitive social perspective and social psychoanalytic perspective. A compare and contrast will be given for the two perspectives in a critical evaluation as an approach to doing research in social psychology.
The cognitive social perspective ontology is that, researchers view the person as a thinker in society. Thought processes are believed to have been shaped by and help create the world in which they live in. This perspective has to offer two approaches in the mainstream, social cognition and social identity. Social cognition views the person to be a cognitive miser thereby, being a social thinker and information processing. As a result forms limited opinions based on categorizing and prejudices. Social identity traditions gives emphasis to the socialised thinker whereby, ones’ cognitions are structured by group memberships located in a particular social system. The cognitive social approach follows a statistical methodology by which, researchers gather their results in the form of quantitative data to analyse. This is an experimental, social psychometric method. Researchers conduct studies in which they collect quantitative data and test theory based hypothesis using standard statistical techniques. The researcher’s primary tool is the laboratory – based experiment not confined to the field, such as, the classroom, work place, the crowd. The various techniques include, survey, questionnaires, case studies, and observational methods. As psychology takes part within the individual, this is the primary unit of analysis. The individual’s psychology is significantly affected by the social context. For example, attention to group