Social Psychology - Essay Example

Social Psychology week 6 Assignment A recent example of a situation that I witnessed in which I observed a person who got engaged in pro-social behaviour was when I saw an old lady getting her groceries out of her car and she accidently happened to drop some of her load. This was when a young man passing by happened to stop by and help her assemble the groceries and carry the bags back inside. When you look at the event by keeping in mind what Baron, Branscombe & Byrne (2008) call the ‘five crucial steps’ to pro-social behaviour (p.312) the first factor that leaded to the altruistic behaviour by the young man was when he noticed that the old lady was struggling with her groceries. Then as she dropped her bags right when he was passing by he perceived the situation as requiring his immediate attention hence avoiding aspects of pluralistic ignorance. The third step was the fact that he fell responsible enough to render it his duty to be of assistance to the old lady when diffusion of responsibility could have been the reason for him passing her by without helping her; As was seen in the ‘Kitty Genovese case’ where the main reason for the killer being able to stab the woman to death and getting away before the police got there, despite the presence of thirty eight witnesses, was diffusion of responsibility (Gansberg, 1964). Helping assemble grocery bags and carrying them inside is a process that does not require any sort of unique expertise and so knowing how to be of help eased the entire process for the young man. To assess the cost of helping can vary from person to person, hence the young man could have been in a rush to go somewhere or perhaps he had other pressing things on his mind which required his complete attention. However the individual assessed the cost of helping being minor and therefore offered his assistance to the lady. A theory that applies to this situation is the Social exchange theory where an individual examines the costs and rewards of helping and not helping and then chose an appropriate course of action (Zafirovski, 2003). Based on several incidents that I have witnessed and the many times that I have indulged in pro-social behaviour I believe that the intentions of an individual can be entirely selfless and altruistic. References Baron, R., Branscombe, N., Byrne, D. (2009). Social Psychology (12th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.  Gansberg, M. (1964).Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didnt Call the Police. New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www2.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/scraig/gansberg.html Zafirvoski, M. (2003). Some Amendments to Social Exchange Theory: A Sociological Perspective. ISSN: 1527-5558. Retrieved from: http://theoryandscience.icaap.org/content/vol004.002/01_zafirovski.html Assignment 2 While going through a few articles I came across one that was relevant to the aspect of prosocial behaviour. The study conducted was called ‘The Effects of Prosocial Video Games on Prosocial Behaviors: International Evidence From Correlational, Longitudinal, and Experimental Studies’ by Gentile et al. (2009). It aimed to document the relationship that existed between prosocial games and its impact on prosocial behaviour. The basic working assumption was that theoretically if the characters in games behave in supportive and helpful ways towards each towards each other it should increase the short term as well as long term prosocial behaviour of the players. To test this hypothesis three studies were conducted in three different countries with three different age groups. This correlational study that was carried out in Singapore’s middle school students showed that children who played more prosocial games were seen to behave more prosocially. Then there were two longitudinal studies conducted on Japanese children which resulted in showing that playing prosocial games would increase prosocial behaviour n the long run. Similarly the study conducted on U.S undergraduates randomly selected showed that playing prosocial games resulted in the behaving more prosocially towards each other. Looking at the similarity of these results and how they are carried out across different cultures, countries and age groups we can successfully conclude that playing prosocial games results in an increase in prosocial behaviour. Reference Gentile,D., Anderson,C., Yukawa,S., Ilhori,N., Saleem,M., Ming,L., Sibuya,A., Liau,A., Khoo,A., Bushman, B., Sakamoto, A. (2009). The Effects of Prosocial Video Games on Prosocial Behaviors: International Evidence From Correlational, Longitudinal, and Experimental Studies. Pers Soc Psychol Bull March 25, 2009. doi: 10.1177/0146167209333045. Assignment 3 The social problem that I would like to focus my research paper on will be that of violence and aggression in teenagers. Aggression that can be depicted through kicking, fighting and biting is growing into a major concern today especially when the physical, social, cognitive and emotional consequences associated with violence are growing more serious, grave and long term. A recent opinion poll shows the rising concern that aggression and violence causes in the way 32% of the respondents were more concerned by youth violence. Furthermore the most frequent age bracket that was picked by respondents which showed most amount of physical aggression was between the ages 12 and 17 for both boys and girls (WHO, 2002). However my focus is going to be on the impact of the media that contributes to teenage aggression and violence. Violence that is depicted by mass media, that is music, films, video games and tv, has flagged public attention as new forms of mass media entertainment emerge. This brings forth concerns about the media’s harmful effects on children that are backed up by a lot of research that provides evidence of potential harm that is inflicted on children (Bushman & Cantor, 2003). The impact of media is such that it leads to playing a critical part in the formulation of cultural orientations, beliefs, perceptions and the development of values (Groebel, 2001). Similarly I would like to look at the social aspects of violence and aggression. What are the reasons that result in violence and aggressive behavior? My research would mostly focus on the aspects of media influences and aggression that is caused by a number of social variables. In short what role does social learning play which leads to the development of aggression behaviors and actions in an individual? To incorporate the media in a study about aggression and violence in the youth today is mainly because of the advancement of technology and the rapid and intensive exposure that the media has on the youth today through the internet, video games, television and movies. This makes it imperative that the learnt behavior from such overexposing media be studied. The research method used for the study would be mainly experimental. This would aim to examine, analyze and judge the intensity of the relationship between the dependant variable, behavior of the youth, and the independent variable, exposure of the media. Hence the research would look at how media violence and aggression exposure can result in behavioral changes in teenage boys and girls. Some theories that are applicable to the issue at hand can be divided into four main categories. The first of these is derived from Sigmund Freud who believes that the behavior of humans is motivated by sexual and instinctive drives or libidos. And hence aggression is a consequence of a libidinal repression of urges. An example of this expression of aggression is given by Freud in his work on childhood aggression and the Oedipus complex. Moving on Konrad Lorenz built on Freud’s theory and shifted focus onto the death instinct as being the main root of aggression. He analyzed aggression as a product of evolution. So basically what he did was make a theory by combining Freud’s theory of aggression and Darwin’s theory of natural selection. So what he implied was that aggressive nature is beneficial in the way the stronger species prevail while the weak perish resulting in a ultimate healthier population. The third category comprises of drive theories, which believe aggression is an impulsive out burst created by an innate need. John Dollard and some researchers at Yale suggest a strong theory in which frustration and aggression are related in a cause and effect way; in which frustration is caused by aggression and aggression results due to frustration. The final category holds the most well defined approaches to aggression; this is the social learning theory which does not link aggression to an internal mechanism. The pivotal principle of this theory is that aggression is a learnt behavior from one’s environment and it is maintained due to other prevailing conditions (Smith, 2008). This is the theory that will be applicable to my proposed study. References World Health Organization. World Report on Violence and Health. Geneva : World Health Organization; 2002. Groebel, J. (2001). Media violence in cross-cultural perspective. In D. Singer & J. Singer (Eds.), Handbook of children in the media (pp.255-268). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Bushman, B.J., & Cantor, J. (2003). Media ratings for violence and sex. Implications for policymakers and parents. American Psychological Association, 52(2), 130-141 Smith,K,A. (2008). Theories of aggression. Web. Retrieved from: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1809 Read More