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Amity Institute Of Psychology and Allied Sciences

Research in Applied Social Psychology

Dr. Neelam Pandey

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Personal knowledge is the most precious gift in the life of a (wo)man.

Polanyi (1958, 1975)

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Triplett (1898) Social Influence Triplett (1897-1898) conducted what has been considered by many the 1st social psychology experiment Observed that cyclists go faster when racing against others or in front of a crowd

AIPS Theory <-> Research

Theory

Research

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A Model of the Scientific Method Employed by Psychologists
Predictions confirmed

Confidence in theory increased

Hunches Based on Background Knowledge personal experiences , casual observation

Theory about social behavior

Predictions derived from theoryhypothesis

Empirical research to test predictions

Confidence in theory reduced Predictions disconfirmed

Theory is modified

Theory is rejected

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Scientific Research Methods in Social Psychology
Methods used in social psychology often depend on the research question. Experimental Laboratory Field Non-experimental methods Survey Case study Archival Observational Quantitative vs. Qualitative

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Experimental Method
The

experimental method flourished within social psychology 1930s-1970s Manipulate one or more variables (independent variable) & look at effect on other variable(s) (dependent variable), control extraneous variables Still the most popular method in social psychology today

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Laboratory Experiments
Typical Advantages Internal Validity controlled environment means that results obtained are due to manipulation of IV & causality can be inferred?

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Field Experiments Like lab experiments we still manipulate an IV and measure its effect on a DV. e.g., Sherifs summer camp studies.

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Non-Experimental Methods
Often used when it is impossible to perform an experiment: Archival Research e.g., look at media reports & how they change over time this type of data may be biased. Case Study e.g., major events, such as genocide, tsunami Survey Research (usually co relational) e.g., look at the relationship between attitudes & intentions to behave a certain way Observational Field Studies (observe behavior in natural setting) e.g., observe aggression in childrens play this type of research tends to be less reactive.

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Action Research

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Action Research
An iterative approach to research Developed by Kurt Lewin (1940s) (who is known as the founder of modern social psychology) Lewin conducted systematic, dynamic experiments with real groups Pioneered use of action research, in which what is learnt is applied again, within the experiment, in a cyclical, dynamic fashion

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Action Research
Action Research is the process by which practitioners attempt to study their problems scientifically in order to guide, correct, and evaluate their decisions and actions. -Kurt Lewin (1947)

Reflect

Plan

Observe

Act

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Kurt Lewin is credited as the person who coined the term action research. His approach involves a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action The basic cycle involves

AIPS Carr and Kemmis [1986] define AR as follows: "Action Research is a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by the participants [teachers, students or principals, for example] in social [including educational] situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of [a] their own social or educational practices, [b] their understanding of these practices, and [c] the situations [and institutions] in which these practices are carried out."

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Professor John Elliott, (at the time of writing) Dean of the School of Education at UEA, and a very influential figure, has defined AR as: "the study of a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it." [Elliott, 1982]
Bridget Somekh [in McBride, 1989] has built upon this definition to derive a more inclusive one. She sees AR as: "The study of a social situation, involving the participants themselves as researchers, with a view to improving the quality of action within it."

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What is Action Research?

Practitioner based research
Systematic enquiry made public Improving student learning Developing teacher as learner Enquiry made public Values/criteria in Action Research

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DOING ACTION RESEARCH - THE PROCESS

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Why do Action Research? Living our values/criteria in our professional practice you need to be clear about what you are doing and why your are doing it.
Empowering us as teachers to bring about improvement. Teaching as a form of enquiry, leading to knowledge and understanding of practice.

Developing awareness of practice by being critical of practice.

Helping to bring about a more anticipatory/collaborative view of teaching and learning.

AIPS Basic steps in action research

Review current practice Identify aspect worth investigating Imagine a way forward Try it out Take stock Modify in light of what we find Monitor Review Evaluate

AIPS Kemmis model

Cyclical model of action research

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Research in Professional and Public Life

Action research is a collaborative approach to inquiry or investigation that provides people with the means to take systematic action to resolve specific problems. Action research is not a panacea for all ills and does not resolve all problems but provides a means for people to get a handle on their situations and formulate effective solutions to problems they face in their public and professional lives. The basic action research routine provides a simple yet powerful frameworklook, think, act

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Research in Professional and Public Life Look
Gather relevant information (Gather data) Build a picture: Describe the situation (Define and describe)

Think Explore and analyze: What is happening here? (Analyze)

Interpret and explain: How/why are things as they are? (Theorize)

Act Plan (Report) Implement Evaluate

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Action Research Interacting Spiral

LOOK ACT

LOOK

LOOK ACT

ACT

THINK

THINK

THINK

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How to do Action Research? Whitehead Living Educational Theory Whitehead (1989 ) formulated action reflections cycles into these statements: What am I concerned about/what do I want to improve; What am I going to do about it; What data will I need to collect to enable me to make a judgement on my effectiveness; Act and gather data; Evaluation of effectiveness; Modification of concerns, ideas and actions in the light of evaluations; Submission of descriptions and explanation of my learning in the educational enquiry, How do I improve my practice? to w validation group.

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Living Educational Theory

Two processes involved in following these steps:
Systematic actions as you work through steps Your actions embody your learning and your learning is informed by your reflections on your actions.

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Living form of Action Research

Questions of the type; What am I doing? Why am I doing it? Give a living form to an educational enquiry. How do I improve what I am doing? How do I live my values more fully in my practice?
(Whitehead, 1993)

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Action Research Advantages
Relatively natural more mundane realism / external validity Better construct validity because the situations are less artificial and multiple measures are used Ethical Empowering e.g., research is combined with education

AIPS Action Research Disadvantages

Internal Validity Lack of scientific control - cant infer causality

Demand Characteristics e.g., wording effects in surveys. Participant Effects May guess the purpose of a survey, may have social desirability effects. Researcher-Dependent

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The Crisis in Social Psychology: Who Cares? (The Relevance Crisis) 1970s: Limits of the scientific method become clear and the social constructionist viewpoint became more accepted. Criticism of experimental social psychology as obsessed with arcane theory and conducting clever experiments without any social relevance (Ring) vs. Criticisms of social constructionism for being too concerned with relevance (McQuire)

AIPS The Crisis in Social Psychology: Empiricist vs. Constructionist Debate Major criticisms of social psychology (late 1960s)

reductionist positivistic demand characteristics experimenter effects ethical issues lack of social context

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Reductionism
Reducing behavior to the individual, ignoring social context

e.g. studying stereotyping in the lab by looking at individual cognitive processes

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Positivism
Non-critical

acceptance of science and its methods

Is the scientific method & especially the experiment suitable for social psychology? Science as religion
Is objectivity possible?

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Informed

consent

Protect participants from harm & discomfort Avoid excessive use of deception Confidentiality Fully debrief participants

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Social Constructionism
1. Culturally Embedded: Social psychology experiments dis-embed events from the cultural context e.g., body language, spitting. 2. Sequentially Embedded: Experiments only consider very short sequences of events so are they appropriate for explaining phenomena like attraction? 3. Openly Competitive: In the real world, a no. of stimuli compete isolated in the lab. 4. Final Common Pathways: Multiply determined; naturally confound each other. 5. Complexly Determined: Difficult to manipulate greater than 3 IVs in the lab. 6. Social Psychology as History: Meanings change over time e.g., racism/language change from negroes/coloured to Black to African Americans (back to Black?

AIPS Social Psychology as History

Interpretation of the meaning of events & behavior change across cultural history

Therefore, there are no general laws of behavior

all hypotheses contain some truth for some persons at some time

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Research Methods in Social Constructionism - 1
Social constructionism (social world is product of socially & historically situated practices)

Research findings do not have meaning until interpreted No knowledge is transhistorical & transcultural (i.e., all knowledge is culturally situated

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Research Methods in Social Constructionism - 2

Importance of reflexivity (researchers awareness of own biases, assumptions etc.)

Critical social psychology (value-laden & political) Research methods focus on analysis of language, discourse & use of rhetoric Observations, interviews, records of naturally occurring events

AIPS Summary
The application of scientific methods distinguished psychology as a unique and respected field during the 20th century.

Social psychology has been a hot-bed of development and debate with regard to research methods in social science. Research methods in psychology have exhibited a waxing & waning paradigmatic debate between specific, controlled experimental studies and larger, more complex, naturally occurring social psychological studies

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Questions
Which research method is best? Is the experiment still useful? Methodological pluralism?