Social - created from Mind Map

AssumptionThis approach assumes that behaviour is determined by social forces that are present or imagined.

Implicationan implication of the approach is that field studies are often used and social behaviour can change and be unpredictable in unnatural settings

Strengths A main strength of the social approach is the attempt to use real life situations when studying behaviour. Another strength of the social approach is the contributions it makes about understanding behaviour. For example, Piliavin conducted a study on a real life subway in New York, and passengers were unaware they were being observed and that the victim collapsing (drunk/ cane) was fake. However, while this means that there would be few demand characteristics in the procedure, and passengers would have acted naturally, Piliavin broke ethical guidelines by not getting informed consent. For example, Reicher and Haslam demonstrate how the breakdown of groups can lead to conditions under which tyranny can flourish - because the guards were not effective guards, this meant social groups broke down and the prisoner revolted ultimately creating a tyranny. Understanding social behaviour means that we can help stop create negative/evil situations occurring, and perhaps stop tyranny becoming created or people abusing their power

Weaknesses A further problem with the social approach is related to the generalizability of the findings , as to keep social variables controlled the approach often uses restricted samples. A weakness of the approach is that studies which measure social behaviour may be specific to the time they were done, and not be generalised to other era's. Both the Milgram study and the study by Reicher and Haslam were carried out on male participants (40 males and 15 males)and therefore we would have to be careful generalising these findings to females. Furthur more both of these studies used a self-selected sampling technique (both in newspapers) which may mean that participants who volunteer may not be representative of the targeted population for a number of reasons. For example, obedience rates in the 190's might be different rates in 2014, (i.e. not 24/40) people are more aware of psychological studies and perhaps more likely to refuse an authority figure. This means that to ensure social research is still valid in modern times, we would replicate and repeat research and check the findings to check research has not gone past it's 'shelf life'.

Studies Piliavin Background Sample Sample Method Experimental method IV DV Technique Results Conclusion Procedure

Social