...Observational Research and its Components Social Psychology Dr. Deborah Harris-Sims July 9, 2011 Observational Research and its Components Social psychology has three well renowned scientific methods for research. These are observational, correlational, and experimental techniques. This paper will explain that the true goal of observational research is description. To understand behavior so that it can be predicted, controlled, or explained, a scientist must describe it accurately (Franzoi, 2009) which I will explain. Observational research is a social technique that involves direct observation of a subject in it natural setting. It involves the recording test results and not manipulating any of the variables, while being able to be broken down into three categories, naturalistic observation, participant observation, and archival research. Naturalistic observation involves the examination of a subject and its behavior in its natural environment. Participant observation involves the examination of a subject and its behavior in its natural environment as a member of the study group. Example, a test is conducted on underage drinking and the observer is a party guest where alcohol is being served. The third and final type of observational research is archival research. Archival research involves the examination of pre-existing records of a group, individual, or culture. It is mainly used to study the beliefs and norms of a specific culture. Naturalistic...
Words: 388 - Pages: 2
...Organizational Psychology Paper Cherrise Smith University of Phoenix October 25, 2010 Wanda Moore Define organizational psychology The definition of organizational psychology is simple; it involves settings that are based on workplace or office psychology. These settings are applied to different types of groups, which take research, intervention, theories, and communication strategies to a whole different level in both non-workplaces and workplaces. Groups of people in this area get with each other and work together to accomplish important task and assist them to understand there connections. Organizational psychologists work with different types of people from middle executive to those of lower rank and management teams. Some workplaces want the employees to be as creative as possible. All in all, this means making sure everyone is communicating with each other and ensuring their bodies and minds are doing the same. Organizational psychology also focuses on individual behavior. Although it is focused on groups, individual behavior has become common in the setting to obtain information about the individual’s influences. Unlike groups and organizations, people behave. You derive a person’s sense of humor, taste and other behavioral elements from them, not the group or organization they are affiliated with. The focus on how individual’s influence and are influenced explain organizational processes that are not like social science disciplines, which do not...
Words: 812 - Pages: 4
...Organizational Psychology Paper Dana Martinez Organizational Psychology /428 August 9, 2010 Antonio Borrello Abstract Everything we in life has a tremendous impact on the way we behave, from the kind of foods we eat, the cars we drive, to the roof over our heads. Organizational psychology is described as a field that utilizes scientific methodology to better understand individuals working in organizational settings (University of Phoenix 2008). The use of organizational psychologist is designed to help the organization function more effectively. There are several benefits from an effective organization. This paper will not only define organizational psychology, but will also explore the role of research and statistics in organizational psychology and describe how organizational psychology can be used in organizations. Organizational Psychology Organizational psychology is the scientific study of individual and group behavior in formal organizational settings (University of Phoenix 2008).To further this definition, psychology alone focuses on individual behavior. Organizations will fall apart if they would allow its employees to do their own thing and not have structure. Organizational psychology is a must in all organizations. Without organizational psychology, employees will be allowed to do their own thing without being aware of the behavior of their co-workers. Organizational psychology is mostly focused on group-type settings, most commonly in offices and workplace...
Words: 864 - Pages: 4
...Final Exam Social Psychology Professor Anderson-Woodard Alfreda Leonard June 17, 2011 Cognitive dissonance - was originally based on the concept of cognitive consistency, but is now more related to self-concept theory. When people do something that violates their view of themselves, this causes an uncomfortable state of dissonance that motivates a change in either attitudes or behavior. Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions.[2] Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying. It is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology. Observational learning (social learning) - suggests that behavior can be acquired by observation and imitation of others, unlike traditional learning theories which require reinforcement or punishment for learning to occur. Self-perception theory - emphasizes that we observe ourselves in the same manner that we observe others, and draw conclusions about our likes and dislikes. Extrinsic self-perceptions can lead to the overjustification effect. Self-verification theory - focuses on people’s desire to be known and understood by others. The key assumption is that once people develop firmly held beliefs about themselves, they come to prefer that others see them as they...
Words: 1003 - Pages: 5
...Social Psychology 11.30am – 1.00pm Throughout this essay I am going to discuss main aims and procedures of psychology from academic perspective, what psychology is, the founding fathers of psychology, main issues concerning psychologist, different branches of psychology and why psychology is form of science. The purposes of psychology is focusing on research and theories and understanding psychological area. While some psychologists work on applied psychology to gain knowledge. Psychologist involved in research applies psychology during some point in their career. Clinical psychology is among various principles of psychology aims at developing knowledge and research method which they continue to build up and treat with psychological issues. Psychology is the science discipline to understand behaviours of a person. The goal is to understand people by establishing general principles and researching cases. The four goals of psychology are description, explanation, prediction and influence. Description is identifying behaviours. Explanation is the reason for mental behaviour. Prediction is offering hypothesis about sets of conditions produces manner of behaving and mental processes. Influence is using the results of research to solve practical problems that involves behaviour. The specialised meanings in psychology are behaviourism, functionalism, individualism, ethnocentrism, introspection and pragmatism. Determinism is the argument that the person doesn’t have...
Words: 2531 - Pages: 11
...An observation study is the recording of behaviours or events and the gathering of data that proves or disproves a hypothesis. There are five different types of observational study which can be covert meaning secretive or overt meaning open to all involved. Observational studies are not usually experimental as there are no independent or dependant variables as this method is a more natural type of study in psychology. Participant observation is when the researcher takes part in their own observation with the participants. A non-participant study is where the researcher keeps his or her distance while observing the participants behaviours during the study. Unlike the others the structured observation method is a semi-experimental observational study. It is a planned observation and recording of behaviours as they happen in a controlled environment. The unstructured observation is a spontaneous observation of behaviours or events while they are happening in their natural environment. The naturalistic observation is a planned observation of natural behaviours in their environment. A participant observational study can be beneficial as the researcher is part of the environment of the study allowing an insider view of their own study. Non participant observational studies can be seen as a good way of researching the study, as the researcher avoids contact with the participants and this could be because the observer could cause the participants to act in an unnatural...
Words: 975 - Pages: 4
...Psychology is a science since it takes the experimental strategy. The logical status of any undertaking is dictated by its technique for examination, not what it ponders, or when the exploration was done, and unquestionably not by who did the examination. All sciences utilize the observational strategy. Experimentation stresses objective and exact estimation. Psychology and the other behavioral or sociologies (humanism, human sciences, financial aspects, political science) are not as exact in their estimations as are science, science or material science, yet to the degree that analysts utilize observational proof, their discoveries might be alluded to as logical. It is this accentuation on the observationally noticeable that made it important...
Words: 365 - Pages: 2
...Homework Week 3 September 22, 2013 DeVry University Online Operant conditioning sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. A good example of Operant conditioning is: employees finishing projects to receive praise or promotions (Cherry, 2013). Observational learning occurs when one observes another’s behaviors, which enables one to reenact those behaviors. In the workplace observational learning is used in a few ways. For example: whenever a manager started to train an employee they used instructional videos, so that the new employees could observe the job functions they were to undertake. Next, normally the manager would take the new employees into the actual work area that they would occupy and allow them to observe someone performing the job task. After that, the manager would pair a new employee with an employee that performed their job title well enough to train another employee. This allowed the new employee to observe the other employee, which enabled the new employee to learn though observing the other employees behaviors (Whitaker, 2012). The social learning theory, a system of learning most commonly associated with behaviorist Albert Bandura, is most commonly applied in educational settings. You can also apply this theory, which argues that people learn from each other...
Words: 965 - Pages: 4
...TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Plagiarism Declaration 2 2 Assignment Table 3 3 References 5 Plagiarism Declaration |I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is using another’s work and pretending that it is one’s own work. | | | |I have used the American Psychological Association (APA) as the convention for citation and referencing. Each significant | |contribution to, and quoted in, this assignment from the work, or works of other people has been attributed and has been | |cited and referenced. | | | |This assignment is my own work. | | | |I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing it off as his or her own work.| | | |I acknowledge that copying someone else’s assignment, or part...
Words: 1753 - Pages: 8
...An Observational study to investigate gender differences in touching behaviour in a social situation Name: Institution: Course: Tutor: Date: Abstract The aim of this study was to conduct an investigative observational study into gender differences in touch behavior in a social situation. A study by Henley (1973) concluded existence of gender asymmetry – a tendency for men to be significantly more likely to touch women than vice versa. The investigation was conducted within a shopping precinct in Washington Metropolis, following a naturalistic observational methodology. It uses independent design and random sampling of 10 young couples of opposite sex aged between 13 and 19 years. The study excludes same sex couples so as to enable testing of the hypothesis: tendency of adolescent males to touch adolescent girls in public is greater than the reverse. Findings reveal greater overall touch tendency for adolescent males to touch females than vice versa; a tendency for adolescent males to initiate touch than females. It also shows a tendency for greater adolescent female same-gender compared to adolescent male same-gender touch. The study results also show greater tendency for adolescent fema.les to react more positively to touch relative to their male counterparts. The findings support the hypothesis and Henley’s (1973) touching behavior model. Thus, the alternative hypothesis is accepted while the null hypothesis is rejected. Introduction ‘Touch’ is a basic behavioral...
Words: 2687 - Pages: 11
...Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY Organizational Psychology Paper June Forbes-Nixon PSY 428 21st March 2011 Facilitator - Maria Cuddy-Casey Defining Organizational Psychology Organizational psychology is a field that utilizes scientific methodology to better understand the behavior of individuals working in organizational settings. In principle, organizational psychology focuses on workplace, including its workers, and organizations that employ them. Organizational psychology gives hiring tests, study the best ways to train employees, investigate how to improve work conditions, and analyze how management and employees can get along better. Organizational psychology should be viewed as a science; it is based on scientific studies of behavior in both organization and laboratory settings. Organizational psychology is part of a broader field of study in its own right; however, it is actually part of the broader field of industrial/organizational psychology, (Jex & Britt, 2008). Industrial psychology is defined as the application of methods and principles of psychology to the workplace using scientific methods to study behavior in organizations. Industrial psychology deals with recruitment, selection, classification, compensation, performance appraisal and training of employees. Whereas, organizational psychology is concerned with socialization, motivation, occupational stress, leadership, group performance and organization development. Historically...
Words: 973 - Pages: 4
...|Conceptual |Applied | | |Type | | | | | |Multiple Choice |1 |2 | | |Introduction | | | | | | |Essay | | | | | |Multiple Choice |6,19,21 |9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,18 |3,4,5,7,8,17,20 | |Social Psychology: An | | | | | |Empirical Science | | | | | | |Essay |240 | | | | |Multiple Choice |24,28,36,41,54,59,73,74,75, |27,29,31,33,34,35,42,43,44, |22,23,25,26,30,32,37, | |Research Designs | |78,82,83,86,89,106,111,112, |46,47,48,49,50,55,56,66,67, |38,39,40,45,51,55,53, | | | |119,120,121,127,132,141, |68...
Words: 19309 - Pages: 78
...RUNNING HEAD: Observational Observational Learning: More then Trial-and-Error Calvin Smith, Jr. Middlesex County College PSY-123 3/6/2012 Introduction Observational: based on observation or experience. Merriam-Webster (2012) Learning: A systematic, relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience. King, L. A. (2010). But what is Observational Learning? According to Albert Bandura, observational learning, also called imitation or modeling, is learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates behavior. King, L. A. (2010). This process, in theory, simplifies learning and eliminates the potentially hazardous and tedious trial-and-error periods in other forms of learning. I have found this to be very true in my own life in the constant teachings of my 8-year-old son. Summary of Theory Bandura’s Model of Observational Learning applies 4 elements to effectively achieve learning; Attention, Retention, Motor Reproduction and Reinforcement. The belief here is that through these elements a person can essentially be given the experience step by step and hence learn from observing someone else’s actions and advice. The first process that must occur is attention. In order for a person to be able to imitate an action they must attend to what the model is saying or doing. For example, if you attend a cooking class and find yourself texting through the beginning instructions you are likely to miss...
Words: 889 - Pages: 4
...SEXUAL Strategies Theory: An Evolutionary Perspective on Human Mating Winifred Gordon Southern New Hampshire University Sexual Strategies Theory: An Evolutionary Perspective on Human Mating Summary Because of the lower level of minimum parental investment incurred by men, short-term mating will represent a larger component of men’s sexual strategies than women’s sexual strategies (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). An Evolutionary Perspective on Human Mating by Buss & Schmitt examines the background on evolutionary theory when it relates to the human mating strategies. The article expands on how both men and women have particular psychological mechanism that triggers which relationships, short term or long term will help them choose a partner for life, when it relates to mating relationships. The article discussed the effects on long-term relationships and how these types of relationships, compares to the short term, which are known to be called brief affairs, one stand, or temporary liaison time lengths. “Long temporal durations, however, mating relationships can last for a few months, a few days, a few hours, or even a few minutes” (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). The article described key hypotheses and predictions that give an outlined summary on theories that were empirically tested that identify sensitive problem in relations with sexual accessibility fertility, commitment seeking and avoidance, paternity certainty, male and females value, and parental investment. In comparison...
Words: 3302 - Pages: 14
...University of Phoenix Material Week 1 Assignment Worksheet Matching Match the following descriptions to the correct perspective: 1. ___B.___ perspective focuses on how learning experiences affect behavior, and focuses on behavior that is observable. 2. __E___ perspective focuses on the effect of unresolved conflicts from childhood, and how those conflicts unconsciously shape behavior. 3. __D___ perspective focuses on free will, conscious choices, and self-awareness, and views humans as distinct individuals with unique characteristics. 4. ___C__ perspective examines the mental processes used to obtain knowledge, and focuses on how information is processed, stored, retrieved, and manipulated. 5. __A___ perspective focuses on how factors like age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and income level influence behavior, attitudes, and mental processes. A. Sociocultural B. Behavioral C. Cognitive D. Humanistic E. Psychodynamic Table Provide a description of the function of the structures or hormones listed. |Structure |Hormone(s) released (if applicable) |Description or function | |Frontal lobe |CRH Corticotropin-releasing hormone |Helps with decision making | |Somatosensory cortex |CRH |Sensory receptive area for the sense of touch...
Words: 2066 - Pages: 9
