PsicoGDL

Verena Veneeva asked:


The various aspects of social psychology could be examined within the wide concepts of intelligence, gender, advertising, consumer culture, stress and psychological issues that define society. Considering consumer behaviour, social psychology uses convincing theories to explain addictive consumption, the influence of advertising and the phenomenon of purchasing. Advertising is seen as a subtle psychological manipulation as it creates desires and anxiety in the potential consumers (Papers4you.com, 2006). Advertising can have both psychological and commercial aspects including misattribution, bias, suggestibility, and could be studied from global or local perspectives. Organisational consumption is seen as different from individual consumption although generic psychological theories of human motivation such as that of Maslow and Freud can explain consumer behaviour. However consumer behaviour can also be studied in terms of the notion of quality and its relation to customer satisfaction (Silva et al, 2005). The objective measures of customer needs, pricing and expectations of the customers may have to be analysed within Service Quality or Expectations models. Hogg and Garrow (2003) highlighted on the psychological aspects of gender and the influence on consumption of advertising. Advertising has been found to be processed and interpreted differently according to gender schemas and perceptions. This would in turn relate to psychological theories of gender such as the theory of biological determinism, Freudian theory of personality development, cognitive-developmental theory, and feminist theories. Bridging the gap between gender studies and gender differences in consumption could provide us with new insights on social and psychological aspects of consumer behavior. Orth (2005) indicated that consumer behaviour largely depends on consumer personality and susceptibility to interpersonal influence, consumer situational disposition such as risk taking and curiosity, purchasing behaviour and purchasing frequency and demographic variables such as age and gender. Contemporary consumer culture could be studied in relation to an excessive emphasis on beauty and appearance and an obsession with youth, a phenomenon that has seen an increased dependence on cosmetic surgery. The increased importance of the body in the consumer culture could be studied along with the significance of appearance in modern society, the role of marketing and advertising images, and the psychological need for self-expression (Papers4you.com, 2006).

Social psychology is however focused not just on consumption and public attitudes on advertising, but also on group behaviour, general individual and collective attitudes towards various social issues including war, work, violence and quality of life. This would in turn explain how individuals deal with stress, and focus on the psychological consequences of stress. Although psychological disorders may in some cases be a direct result of social stress, deviant behaviour in society could be explained with the help of several theories such as the theory of subcultures by Parker, the structural strain theory by Merton, or the theory of conformity. Social psychology is thus focused on explaining a wide range of issues from advertising and consumer behavior to public attitudes on social issues and antisocial behaviour.

Bibliography

Hogg M.K.; Garrow J. (2003) Gender, identity and the consumption of advertising Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Volume 6, Number 3, June, pp. 160-174(15)

Orth, Ulrich R.(2005) Consumer personality and other factors in situational brand choice variation The Journal of Brand Management, Volume 13, Number 2, November, pp. 115-133(19)

Papers For You (2006) “P/M/510. Advertising: means of psychological manipulation”, Available from http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprtpsy3.htm [22/06/2006]

Papers For You (2006) “P/M/646. Causes of addictive consumption in modern society”, Available from Papers4you.com [21/06/2006]

Silva Jr, Nelson da; Lírio, Daniel Rodrigues (2005) The postmodern re-codification of perversion: On the production of consumer behavior and its libidinal grammar International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Volume 14, Numbers 3-4, Number 3-4/December, pp. 217-223(7)

Payelcoursework asked:


Psychology coursework deals with this very interesting subject. Now a days this subject has become very popular and it has wide spread use in different spheres of life.

Psychology is different from basic sciences like Physics or Chemistry etc. A subject is known as a science due to the use of scientific method in it. The successes of the science are the successes of the scientific method. Sciences are of two types, positive sciences and normative sciences. Positive sciences have been further classified into physical sciences and social sciences. Physical sciences include physics, chemistry, biology, botany, geology etc. Social sciences include sociology, economics, psychology etc. Today physical sciences have achieved spectacular success. Social sciences like psychology, however, have not attained equal amount of success nor their conclusions are supposed to be absolutely definite and reliable. In fact, natural sciences and social sciences are very much different from each other. While scientific method has been most accurately used in physical sciences, it can’t be so easily and successfully used in social sciences. The main reason of this distinction is that whereas the subject matter of Physical sciences is generally material and gross, the subject matter of social sciences is conscious and subtle. Hence scientific method can’t be so rigidly used in different social sciences like psychology. But the psychologists are continuously trying their best to make it more scientific like physical sciences so they can explain every phenomenon through cause effect relationship. The validity, objectivity and reliability of the proper psychological experiments can give them the same status of physical sciences.

The psychology as a subject has taken its knowledge from various other subjects. So for studying psychology we need to have an idea about different other subjects like anthropology, economics, sociology, political science etc. The field of physical sciences is absolutely definite and delimited. The field of psychology on the other hand, is neither definite nor delimited. Besides the subject matter of psychology is much more complex. Each social science is concerned with social relationships and human relationships. These human relationships have multiple aspects such as economic, social, political, psychological and anthropological. Each social science studies man from a particular view point. For example, economics studies the economic aspect of man, while psychology studies the psychological aspect. Again, beside the view point, each social science has a method peculiar to it, which distinguishes it from other sciences. Some social problems are such that they are connected with two or more than two social sciences. In other words, different aspects of these social problems may be studied in different social sciences. The study of such problems therefore requires the use of methods peculiar to several social sciences. This is known as inter disciplinary approach. In this approach the methods peculiar to several sciences are utilized to study a particular psychological problem.

Now a day the psychology subject has got wide spread used in business, education, sports, defense and many other areas of human civilization and its importance is increasing day by day.

Gavin Stone asked:


Psychological research is a vital necessity towards further development within society. Psychology is a varied discipline that covers many areas of study, and as such requires divisional areas of research, along with practical and effective research designs.

First of all we will take a look at areas of psychological research, and then move onto research methods.

Psychobiology

Psychobiology is the biological research of psychology. Psychobiologists study the human brain from cellular level to research possibilities and reasons for mental illness, such as schizophrenia, from a biological standpoint. It is one of the most popular research areas in psychology today. Psychobiology is a study of the brain.

Cognition

Cognition is a research study of how human process information, which importantly leads us to making everyday decisions. Cognition study is very much a research of the mind; how memory works, and how previous events effect future decisions (as per Sigmund Freuds hypotheses).

Human Development

Human development is an area of psychological research which involves the assessment, outcomes and, depending on age, possibilities across a lifetime. We will go through many changes in life from social, physical and cognitive mandates and decisions. Human development research has helped us understand the processes of childbirth (including raising the children), to career paths and outcomes.

Social Psychology

Social Psychology is a discipline in that how we psychologically affect each other as individuals in everyday society, and how opinions, superstitions and stereotypes lay their foundations in this vital area. An example research of social psychology would be a study of the types of writing styles and attitudes on an internet forum, and how it relates to the forum subject area.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is an applied research method in that psychologists evaluate appropriate therapy methods for illness such as Bi Polar, Anxiety and Depression in practical situations.

Psychological research designs can be categorised into three areas: descriptive, predictive, and experimental. Each have their positives and negatives, but are all appropriate depending on the type or subject of study taking place.

Descriptive

Descriptive is an informal research approach which gives a descriptive verbal picture of the current situation. It can be an eye balling naturalistic approach in a natural everyday environment, or a controlled laboratory observation. An individual or group can also be used as an example case study and a description of participants responses to a survey can also be used. The advantage of observational research is that it can validate further research, while the disadvantage is lack of control due to minimal or no facts.

Predictive

Predictive research methods can be categorised into two areas: corelational and quasi-experimental.

Corelational is the assessment of the relationship between two variables. An example would be the relationship between high powered cars and road fatalities (high powered cars being one variable, road fatalities the other). If the study showed the rate of road fatalities goes up when matched with high powered cars then this would show a positive relationship (both variables going in the same direction). Whilst if the study variable of high powered cars was replaced with low powered cars, and the road fatality rate was low, then this would be a negative corelational relationship.

Quasi-experimental predictive research method involves the selection of two identifiable groups. An example of this would be a study conducted on the body fat percentage of a division one soccer team against a division four team. If the division one team were to show lower levels of body fat then we could describe and predict that all higher level soccer players carry a lower body fat percentage than lower levels players. It is important to note that the quasi-experimental method differs from the experimental method in that the groups were naturally occurring.

Experimental

The experimental method could be seen as the most reliable, accurate and valid method of research. The experimental method involves a study where the variables are controlled as much as possible. For example, lets say a researcher was interested in the effect of consuming a No Doz tablet (containing 100mg of caffeine) 30 minutes before a weight training session in terms of levels of intensity.