Social Psychology, Core Social Motives - Research Paper Example

?Annotated Bibliography on Social Psychology Research Core Social Motives Dion, K. (2002). The Social Psychology of Perceived Prejudice and Discrimination. Canadian Psychology, 43(1), 1+ The article suggested that, besides stereotypic ideas, prejudice is rooted in symbolic ideas— ideas that common members of a social group disobey valued beliefs, principles, and traditions—and in experiences and sentiments that are related to the out-group. The author discovered in the existing literature that even though connected, experiences, sentiments, symbolic ideas, and stereotypes are never outmoded, and each variable is, in fact, a major determinant of prejudicial behaviors. Hence, there would seem to be other factors or phenomena surrounding prejudicial behaviors than stereotypic ideas. The article strongly shows, through a descriptive discussion, that social psychologists have thought there is a direct relationship between stereotypes and prejudice. Several have suggested that prejudicial behaviors are rooted in, or are the outcome of, stereotypes. There are those who proposed that stereotypes give reason for, or validate, prejudicial behaviors. This perspective, particularly the concept that prejudice is rooted in stereotypes, is in agreement with the manner behavior, generally, have been viewed recently by social psychologists. The author added some new knowledge to the issue. According to him, in recent years, a number of attitude theorists have proposed a somewhat amended perspective of the attitude theory. For instance, the author suggested that evaluative and emotional reactions should not be regarded unidentified anymore and that attitudes should be seen as assessments rooted in, or derived from, three wide-ranging groups of knowledge: (1) knowledge about previous attitudes or attitudinal purpose, (2) cognitive knowledge or the ideas related to the attitude point, and (3) emotional knowledge relation to the attitude point. Thus, the author qualitatively examined the features of prejudice in view of the above premises and to find out whether the roots of prejudice differ between individuals or groups inclined or not to hold prejudicial attitudes. (2) Copp, D. & Sobel, D. (2002). Desires, Motives, and Reasons: Scanlon’s Rationalistic Moral Psychology. Social Theory and Practice, 28, 243-76. This article examined the rationalistic moral psychology of Scanlon and his assumption about the connection between reasons and desire. He claims that ideas about reasons can stimulate individuals to act without any further stimulating components. He argues that a longing for the commonplace intuitive feeling is in part comprised by assuming reason, where these ‘assumptions’ are cognitive symbolic forms similar to ideas. To be certain, Scanlon hesitates whether to view these assumptions as symbolic forms similar to ideas. Even though Scanlon believes that desires in the commonplace form can stimulate action, he claims that desires can do so simply for they are somewhat comprised by these assumptions. Nevertheless, in his rationalistic psychology, the concept of ‘reason’ is viewed as ‘primeval’, and reason is vital to rationalizing and stimulating action. Nevertheless, there are some weaknesses with Scanlon’s ideas. It is acceptable that reasons can motivate individuals to act without any further stimulating component, but it should be interpreted in a manner that is consistent with the psychological theories of Hume. Scanlon was not able to give sufficient explanation for embracing his theory of desire, or, more particularly, he was not able to endorse his theory that desires cannot stimulate unless they are somewhat comprised by assumptions about the presence of reason; and he was not able to demonstrate that desires are simply not the root of reasons. But in spite of the weaknesses of this rationalistic psychology, Scanlon was able to recognize important deficiencies of Hume’s perspectives of action and desire. Individualism vs. Collectivism (3) Gire, J. (1997). The Varying Effect of Individualism-Collectivism on Preference for Methods of Conflict Resolution. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 29(1), 38+ Current developments like economic globalization, growing international mergers and agreements, and heightened workforce diversity, emphasize the necessity to explore conflict at a global arena. The author warns against the submissive application and diffusion of Western management styles across the globe. As a result, researchers are ever more exploring organizational or business trend such as conflict resolution at a global arena either empirically or theoretically. Available studies indicate that cultural diversities are present in the explanation of conflict, its handling, and the resolution techniques used by people from various societies. The article puts emphasis on the penchant for conflict management theories and styles. Thus, the discussion emphasizes conflict resolution as a concept entangled in the cultural norms of a society. The author also emphasizes the essence of exploring conflict resolution strategies in a cross-national setting. The article has a number of repercussions for management theory and practice. The findings of the study support the inclusion of social concerns to the scientifically based business fields because the findings suggest that values differ among the respondents. Therefore, the article definitely supports those who try to positively transform management theory and practice, possibly formulating learning plans that allow students and professionals alike find out for themselves the drawbacks of the individualism/collectivism debate. (4) Bond, M.H. & Smith, P.B. (1996). Cross-Cultural Social and Organizational Psychology. Annual Review of Psychology, 47, 205+ The article provides an important instrument for explaining the underlying relationships among various stages of phenomena establishing the influence of social system and culture on national variations in attitudes and values. Attempting to determine the underlying relationships among individual, social system, and cultural stage phenomena would be highly complex if the range of studies assessed were not restricted to quantitative sociological studies. The aim of determining the influences of social system and culture would become increasingly difficult if the remarkable sociological historical research is also taken into account. In fact, even though majority of cross-national studies carried out by psychologists have a tendency to disregard social-structural factors, studies akin to this article may well be conducted analyzing comparative empirical research of social system and culture in the discipline of social psychology. In spite the difficult task of what is left unresolved in the individualism/collectivism debate, explaining the assumptions that social system and culture function in cross-national variations is still a task that should be pursued. An excellent theoretical perspective and statistical modeling techniques are available. Even though it should be verified methodologically, the idea of an inclination to higher change conflict or opposition to change as research move from individual to cultural to the social system stage should be helpful as well. Although it is unlikely to gain an inclusive, completely acceptable knowledge of how societies’ social systems, cultures, and individual psychology are fundamentally connected, we still gain something. Cognitive Dissonance (5) Williams, J.K. et al. (2007). When Dissonance Intervenes: Effects of Perceived Moral Weight and Issue Opinion on Self-Enhancement of Opinion Objectivity. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 26(3), 227+ The objective of the article is to explore whether ordinary self-enhancement consequences can be curbed by providing students capably dissonance-stimulating topics. Additional studies must be aimed at more thoroughly and decisively explaining this phenomenon. For example, if it may be proven that other students that have an inclination to attach higher moral value to a particular cluster of concerns will continue to produce the same patterns of reaction that Christian students expressed in the article, this would give additional substantiation to the function of cognitive dissonance in generating self-criticism of opinion impartiality. Further studies could also try to integrate behavioral instruments. For instance, could the frequency of sharing ideas or knowledge over the Internet affect how individuals view a conflicting opinion of others? Ultimately, additional studies could also examine the comparative success of different dissonance-stimulating methods and consequent change in attitudes. (6) Scott-Kakures, D. (2009). Unsettling Questions: Cognitive Dissonance in Self-Deception. Social Theory and Practice, 35(1), 73+ In this article, the author uses the cognitive dissonance theory in his attempts to elaborate the occurrence of self-deception. Further than this, particular motivational forms, like desires, rest greatly on individuals’ cognitive-motivational points of view, involving numerous of their hopes about the future. Hence, it may be assumed that an individual engaged in the attempt to resolve issues does have a desire that is apparently or inferentially involved in a solution to that issue. At this point, it is definitely psychologically impossible to claim that expectations are such as to be associated with accurate and decisive probabilities. Yet, it definitely is not impossible to consider individuals as holding perspectives about the relative possibility of different future situations. However, apparently, an explanation of the motivational attribute of self-deceptive analysis should allow individuals to understand the occurrence of ‘twisted self-deception’. In fact, it is a remarkable reality that particular individuals, in particular situations, believe things they do not expect. Still, a dissonance-oriented theory can clarify twisted self-deception. Furthermore, demonstrating how this will continue in the future can itself elaborate how self-deceptive inquiry adopts the path exemplified by empirical frameworks of hypothesis-testing. Attraction and Relationship (7) Perlman, D. (2007). The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: the Place of Close Relationships in Psychology and Our Daily Lives. Canadian Psychology, 48(1), 7+ According to this article, psychology is usually characterized as the discipline of behavior and mental mechanisms. The interest in mental mechanisms puts emphasis on what takes place within a person. Thus, the author places his discussion in the broader historical setting of close relationship. The particular question that the author tries to answer is: “Why a social psychological model of understanding close relationships in our daily lives?” The notion that previous experiences are programmed and amassed in terms of cognitive concepts is an underlying belief in current psychology. The analysis of close relationships is involved. In fact, these cognitive concepts serve a critical function in the growth of current close relationship models. Nevertheless, this agreement disappears when the diversity of assumptions and notions applied by relationship practitioners is explored at a more thorough way. For instance, there is a proliferation of cognitive concepts in general phenomena, such as mental frameworks, patterns of evaluation, schemas, etc. Thus, the choice of the author to restrict the discussion to a social psychological model is rooted in two hypotheses: (1) relationship theories and studies are diffused across a number of disciplines, each with its particular theories, practices, and favored techniques; and (2) the social psychological model embodies a remarkably productive one. This is both the success and the failure of the close relationship field. Its success rests on the promotion of hypothetical reduction of empirical sexism. Its failure is the complicatedness of formulation close relationship models from the jumble of scientific findings, emerging from varied foundations. (8) Erwin, P. (1982). The Role of Attitudinal Similarity and Direct Acceptance Evaluations in Attraction. Journal of Psychology, 111, 97. This article, which is about interpersonal communication, embodies a lively arena of social scientific research. As could be anticipated in a field devoted to the analysis of the indications and confusions of social research, the intricacy of the relational concerns inherent in the interpersonal setting is both controversial and puzzling. Scholars engaged in methodologically exploring the vibrancy of social life should deal with growing concerns, such as why and how people are drawn to or attracted to others, or how and why people use tactical meanings to attain relational results. Apparently, the number of ‘core’ concerns is too many and the existing literature gives a list of the discourses between scholars and researchers looking for support for different stances on that lengthy record. This article concerns such discourses. Scholars carry out their tasks from different points of view and with many techniques. Nevertheless, everyone shares the dedication to determine credible conclusions about interpersonal communication in manners that can be appropriately characterized as ‘empirical’. Social psychologists continue to look for impartial, common, and stable conclusions that work within evidently characterized interpersonal limits. Establishing impartial, common, and stable conclusions has been difficult by the fragmenting of the underlying sphere of interpersonal communication into components or sub-units that share similar or different attributes. Issues of group solidarity, communication proficiency, conflict, and gender confuse the over-generalized assumptions and compel scholars to widely take into account the ‘lengthy record’ as they examine the ways our communication works interpersonally. Thus, the author aims for conclusions that bring together and explain the interpersonal setting. Altruism (9) Street, D. & Crossman, J. (2006). Altruism or Self-Interest? Social Spending and the Life Course. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 33(3), 73+ The author claims that interest development for age-oriented social agendas is clear-cut, that is, Medicare and Social Security programs generate political and material excuses for aged individuals to take action in self-interest to sustain or boost their benefit entitlements, but due to the fact that education expenditure does not confer good to them in a direct way, they would choose not to. The political underpinnings of politics, or results of political competitions greatly affected by aged individuals, are in agreement with the notions of individualist moral economy. Self-interest and age in benefit agendas, like Medicare and Social Security, establish political individuality, involving shared age concerns in agreement with a welfare state for aged people, mostly established by these aged people. However, one possible difficulty with putting emphasis on the special requirements or demands of aged individuals is that doing so could heighten the importance of ‘old age’ as a social group that separates younger ones from older recipients. An effort that places emphasis of the need of aged individuals to have age-oriented benefits could support the public’s idea of ‘elderly’ and ‘infirmity’, and even boost discrimination regardless of government statutes against age-oriented discrimination. The article provides several prospects for future social psychological research in terms of policy formulation and implementation. For instance, does facilitating political movement for social benefits that will reallocate funds or resources to a specific social or demographic group, set off self-centered resistance from people who view themselves as outside the mainstream group? (10) Stebbins, R.A. (1981). The Social Psychology of Selfishness. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 18(1), 82. This article discusses a wide-ranging theory of aggression, with regard to altruism, claiming that aggression must be interpreted as a type of social influence. Rather than an acquired reaction, or a response to disappointment, or an outburst of natural impulses, the author proposed, aggression is mostly a means by which individuals attempt to change the attitude of others in order to allow the aggressors to overpower others. This theory emphasizes the social instead of the disruptive or unsociable attribute of aggressors for it describes aggression as a channel where in individuals interact with others. So, when do individuals turn to aggression to overpower other people or get what they want? The author enumerates a number of factors. Above all are incentives or rewards. Individuals are more expected to turn to aggression when they think they will gain from it. In addition, according to the author, holding others responsible for unjust behaviors can result in aggressive reprisal. The most widely mentioned unjust actions that individuals perpetrate involve hostility, treachery, unfaithfulness, rudeness, etc. Individuals employ numerous ways to retaliate or castigate someone who has insulted or wronged them. Therefore, simply put, aggression is a technique that numerous social beings employ to help them overpower others. The article ultimately concludes that human culture could create moral norms and laws to attempt to help individuals resolve their conflicts through peaceful methods. Aggression (11) Ostrov, J.M. & Crick, N. (2007). Forms and Functions of Aggression during Early Childhood: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study. School Psychology Review, 36(1), 22+ This article provides school professionals an instrument to the evaluation and rehabilitation of aggressive individuals. The simple observational instrument employed in the article was formulated for accessibility, convenience, and has been optimistically assessed by social psychologies for application in playground and early childhood education settings. The observational strategies in the article present an analysis method that teacher report techniques and screening tools normally do not reach. Thus, the findings of the study promote the discipline of social psychology in a number of ways. Primarily, the findings indicate some use for the differentiation between school-directed negative and positive aggression throughout early childhood. Such attitudes, throughout early children, seem to be accurately diagnosed, constant, only somewhat interrelated, and in a number of instances diversely prognostic of adjustment difficulties. Generally, this multifaceted, school-oriented research indicates that negative and positive roles of physical and relational aggression components could be destructive and capably prognostic of heightened possibility of developing psychopathological syndromes for both genders during early childhood, which additionally suggests the requirement for scientifically oriented pre-emptive measures for aggression throughout developmental stages. Therefore, understanding of relational aggression is in its formative years when evaluated against the understanding of physical aggression. Studies have demonstrated that both relational and physical aggression can result in future psychopathology or social defect. The formation of precise and feasible solutions to physical and relational aggression will assist families and school personnel in giving better diagnosis, deterrence, and intervention techniques for early childhood education. (12) Cullerton-Sen, C. & Crick, N. (2005). Understanding the Effects of Physical and Relational Victimization: The Utility of Multiple Perspectives in Predicting Social-Emotional Adjustment. School Psychology Review, 34(2), 147+ According to the authors, because relational and obvious aggression has been identified as having an unfavorable effect on a child’s education, there is a growing concern for using pre-emptive agendas starting with younger pupils. As stated by the authors, these two types of aggression can be viewed in the behavior and attitudes of students as young as kindergarten. Such aggressive attitudes normally increase as children mature, which normally results in improper attitude and unfavorable experiences for both aggressors and victims. Thus, the authors promote the essence of putting into practice intervention agendas at early childhood education to stop the phase of aggression before pupils go to higher academic levels. Several of the intervention agendas that have been formulated have mainly aimed at regulating aggressive actions. The necessity to boost socially proper attitude has also been identified as a major prevention objective. In general, almost all social inadequacies among pupils have been dealt with by direct treatment of individual pupils, such as sessions with school counselors; nevertheless, more currently, a stress has been on formulating deterrence initiatives to all pupils in an effort to boost school-based social abilities and academic achievement. This article has crucial repercussions for school counselors or psychologists. The findings decisively prove the significance of evaluating the relational and physical types of victimization so as to make sense of the experiences of children of victimization and social-psychological health. Furthermore, it is vital to employ a multifaceted model to completely and accurately explain the occurrence of school victimization. Additional studies are required to additionally formulate and improve strategies of victimization in order that tools or methods can be used to diagnose at-risk children, formulate and implement interventions, and assess outcomes. Ethics in Social Research (13) Clark, J.J. (2009). Why Social Work Practitioners Need Research Ethics Knowledge. Social Work, 54(1), 5+ As stated by the author, the knowledge of social workers, as well as social psychologists, of ethics and professional principles has developed substantially recently. Throughout the formative period of the development of these professions, the focus of social workers and psychologists has been mainly on facilitating a group of principles upon which the task of social work and social psychology may be oriented. As time goes by, both professions has cultivated and improved a group of principles that has provided significance and objective to current social work and social psychology professions. However, the perspective through which social psychologists and social workers treat ethics and principles has evolved throughout time. Maybe it is more precise to claim that both professions currently explore these concerns through a number of perspectives, not merely one, and that the inclinations of such perspectives regularly change in reaction to social and cultural changes and patterns. Thus, this article has been written with a special objective in mind. This article is written to offer social psychologists and social workers a brief and inclusive summary of the most crucial and important concerns associated with ethics and professional principles. The author includes an overview of debates, issues, and understanding that have surfaced throughout the development of social sciences, stressing the topics that are most crucial in current practice. Ultimately, the author informs readers of the fundamental ideas they have to recognize and explore with regard to interesting concerns about ethics and principle in today’s social psychology and social work. (14) Marsh, J. (2003). To Thine Own Ethics Code be True. Social Work, 48(1), 5+ The primary objective of the article was to explore the NASW Code of Ethics and the difficulties it gives to social psychologists. According to the author, the findings of his study show that social psychologists trust the code and act in harmony with the code. Even though there is modest discrepancy, its occurrence does not suggest severe deficits in the Code of Ethics. Because the study was a national assessment, it would be more helpful to look at qualitative studies on the difficulties that social psychologists come across with regard to Code of Ethics or moral or ethical problems. Since there are several tools available, scholars and researchers alike should be motivated to formulate new tools that assess social psychologists’ behavior, principles, and outlooks. Additional studies may also involve examining whether the length of experience in the discipline associates with discrepancy, attitude, and outlooks. Studies should be carried out about the teaching of professional ethics. Ultimately, professionals should determine whether they are generating only discrepancy with the various instruments for teaching professional ethics, with the idea of regulating the pressure that comes out from attempting to meet the requirements of a code of ethics. (15) Gibelman, M. & Gelman, S. (2001). Learning from the Mistakes of Others: A Look at Scientific Misconduct in Research. Journal of Social Work Education, 37(2), 241. According to the authors, new ethical problems surface in research everyday because of the drastic and fast paced developments in technology, particularly in biomedicine (e.g. gene therapy, genetic engineering, stem cell research, in vitro fertilization, human genome mapping, etc.). Such developments pose critical political, religious, and ethical issues for scholars, researchers, and practitioners, and for the community. Therefore, in order to make sense of the issues and difficulties in social research ethics, we should gain knowledge of the philosophical, political, cultural, economic, and historical features of research, because these components serve a critical function in shaping and legalizing research values. Hence, the article inserts an introductory overview of such contextual and social attributes of social research. The authors inserted such overview to help readers better understand the ethical concerns in social research. Nevertheless, the article has several limitations. The authors presented materials that could be regarded too basic or one-dimensional by social scientists, philosophers, historians, and other scholars of the social science discipline. Read More