Content: The sociocultural approach
Content: The cognitive approach
Content: The biological approach
Concepts=your toolbox for critical thinking
Psychology books, films and podcasts
The foundation of modern psychology lies within 3 broader approaches in investigating human behaviour, these 3 approaches are biological psychology, cognitive psychology and sociocultural psychology. IB chooses to call these perspectives CONTENT. Each perspective has its own focus of investigation, its own prefered methods to study behaviour and it unique basic assumptions about human behaviour. If we want to understand why Messi or Neymar is such a good football player it will not be enough to attribute his success to genetics (biological appraoch), to his mindset or memory (cognitive approach) or his family, friends and wider society (sociocultural approach). We need all 3 perspectives to understand someone’s behaviour and all three perspectives influence each other, this is also important to remember. Your genes influence what environment you choose. Your social groups influence your interests and how you see the world. Each perspective contributes with its own knowledge of human behaviour but also with its own biases.
<aside> 💡 Basic assumptions:
We have a social identity, based on group memberships, as well as an personal identity.
Social and cultural factors affect behaviour
Human beings are social animals with a need to belong
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Social Psychology Every psychological perspective has its basic assumptions, preferred methods, and its own explanations for human behavior.Social psychologists try to explain human behavior and cognition by studying how we are influenced by the people around us, the roles we have, and the groups we belong to. Social psychology is a relatively new field within psychology. One could say that it emerged after the Second World War, when many psychologists wanted to understand the atrocities and acts of violence that had occurred in connection with Nazism in Germany. Previously, researchers had tried to explain why people harm others by focusing on personality factors or conflict. Psychologists then began to look instead at how situations themselves can strongly influence human behavior and thinking. Social psychologists began to show through research that there does not need to be conflict between groups for individuals to start discriminating against others and seeing their own group as superior. Researchers showed that individuals want to be members of groups and that we humans can quickly change our opinions and behavior to fit into a group. Social psychologists often use experiments and observations to systematically study human behavior in groups.
Cognitive dissonance theory
compliance techniques
conformity
cultural dimensions
emic and etic approach
enculturation and acculturation with models of acculturation
social identity theory
social learning theory
Social psychological theories ignore the individual as a potential explanation for behavior. Researchers such as Asch and Milgram argue that situations control behavior, but they do not take into account that personality factors or similar traits (for example, temperament) can reasonably influence behavior. When trying to understand why we behave the way we do we can refer to dispositional factors (factors within the individual) and situational factors (contextual factors such as culture and environment), and social psychologists focus entirely on situational factors. Social psychologists try to explain behavior based on the situation rather than disposition. One example is the researcher Asch, who studied conformity. Several of Asch’s participants did not answer incorrectly—that is, they did not follow the group—but Asch did not explain why they went against the group. It is clear from research that individual behavior is difficult to predict.