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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Social psychology'
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1
Warren, Peter E. "Social being: Social psychology in ecological perspective." Thesis, Warren, Peter E. (2001) Social being: Social psychology in ecological perspective. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2001. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/50569/.
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Social psychology has a short history characterized by paradigmatic neglect: The philosophical presumptions upon which it is based lie implicit in the research programme and dictate the analytical agenda. Psychological social psychology produces the predominant analytical perspective, social cognition. Two minor perspectives, sociological symbolic interactionism and postmodernist social constructionism, make a significant historical contribution to research. The three perspectives have divergent topical interests and contrasting analytical styles, yet all three share a common paradigmatic basis: Secular Cartesianism. Secular Cartesianism is Cartesianism without Descartes’s transcendental link to Nature’s truth. In the absence of God, secular Cartesianism relies exclusively on thinking in the unitary conscious (human) mind to provide the source of existential agency in organic existence. Accordingly, cognition is a human phenomenon that arises in the mind as a function of the biological complexity of the brain. The mind is the sole repository of psychological existence. There is neither an existential bond among humans through a direct link to God, nor an existential bond among organisms through a link to organic process. Secular Cartesian cognition abstracts itself from organic process to be Nature’s awareness of itself. To know its secular Cartesian self then the human abstracts itself from Nature as unitary cognition, regulating itself for the sake of the ‘they’ of transcendence. This is the human knowing Being-standing-without-worldhood, engulfed by concern for supremacy fitness. Secular Cartesian social psychology analyses the personified existence of unitary cognition, implicitly constructing sociality as a phenomenological add-on to psychological existence. Sociality pertains to the (abstracted) Other that existentially opposes unitary cognition. Cognition in a social context is personified existence behaving itself in the face of the Other, towards the optimization of unitary self-interest. Social behaviour is (human) conduct in the social contexts of (abstracted) personified existence.
Social psychology in ecological perspective identifies the social nature of psychological phenomena by establishing existential interdependency in organic process. In the absence of secular Cartesianism, cognition manifests itself in ecological confluence with organic interdependency. (Organic) cognition is ecological awareness in organic process. Individual (organic) cognition is the psychological aspect of cognition, and pertains to interdependent systems of individuality in ecological awareness. To know its ecological self then the organism owns itself as an interdependent aspect of (organic) cognition, realizing itself as an ecological issue. This is the organism under-standing Being (i.e., knowing Being-standing-withinworldhood), embodied in concern for environmental fitness. Ecological social psychology analyses personal existence in individual (organic) cognition, and thereby identifies sociality in psychological phenomena. Sociality pertains to the relational existentiality of the organism and its environment. Individual (organic) cognition emerges from the biological sensitivity for existential individuation in organic interdependency. It is psychological phenomena in social process. In (owned) personal existence, the organism realizes itself as ecological awareness in individual existence, towards the optimization of ecological self-interest. Social being is awareness of self-interest in the ecological niche of (owned) personal existence.
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Robertson, Toby Andrew. "The social psychology of contradictions." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.337682.
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Yeo, Tien Ee Dominic. "The psychology of social media." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.609065.
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Sani, Fabio. "The social psychology of schisms." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1996. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.664751.
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Lajoie, Mark (Mark Donald) Carleton University Dissertation Psychology. "The postmodernization of social psychology." Ottawa, 1993.
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Freiman, Christopher Alexander. "Social Justice and Moral Psychology." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195823.
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Emerging work in moral psychology challenges our confidence in our moral judgment. Our moral intuitions have been attributed to automatic, emotionally laden processes and are alleged to be accordingly deficient. Intuitive moral judgments apparently neglect some of the most basic concerns of moral decision-making; for example, they purportedly disregard relevant information, fail to balance competing considerations, and ignore social costs and benefits. Some moral psychologists propose an evolutionary explanation, suggesting that our moral sensibilities track matters of adaptive, rather than moral, significance.These findings are disconcerting and might naturally be taken to unsettle our philosophical practice. An empirically-informed moral psychology seems to discredit moral common sense as well as prevailing accounts of method and justification in moral and political philosophy. In turn, it threatens to undermine substantive conceptions of matters such as virtue, rights, and distributive justice.I argue that contemporary moral psychology does not, as is often supposed, necessitate radical revisions to our conception of morality. Recent research does oblige us to reevaluate many of our views in moral and political philosophy; however, I argue that it also gives us the opportunity to supply these views with new and stronger support.
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Demirhan, Emirhan. "The Social Psychology of Social Media Reactions to Terrorism." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2016. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc955045/.
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Columnists and social media users commonly stated that terrorist attacks resonate differently in the world and they speculated on some potential reasons such as familiarity, number of victims, and the difference in expectations of a country to be a stage for a terrorist attack to explain this difference. An academic perspective, more specifically a sociological one, is needed to bring light to this debate. In this study, I aimed to understand the discourse after terrorist attacks and to find out if there is a difference between reactions to terrorist attack based on where they happened. This paper embraces a text mining approach to uncover what topics are discussed after four cases of terrorist attacks and to reveal if there is a discrepancy in reactions towards terrorist attacks based on the country they happened. The study consists of two parts. In the first part, the determinants of the public interest and support and how public interest differentiates between different cases of terror attacks is explored. In the second part, topic sentiment analysis is conducted to reveal the nature of the discourse on terrorism. Using the insights from social identity theory, realistic conflict theory and integrated threat theory, I argued that social group categorization in the context of terrorism takes place in a dichotomous manner as Western and Non-Western. This argument, social self-identities being based on ‘West vs. the Rest' mentality in the context of terrorism, is supported by the statistical evidence and the topic model. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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Gough, Brendan. "Postmodernism, social psychology and everyday life." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.359068.
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Parker, I. A. "Power, ideology and new social psychology." Thesis, University of Southampton, 1985. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.356696.
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Carslaw, Gregory. "Agent based modelling in social psychology." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2013. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/4068/.
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Agent based modelling is a tool that has been successful in developing theories in a wide range of fields, but its application to social psychology is still in its infancy. This body of work applies the agent based modelling method to areas of social psychology including contact theory, group dynamics, altruistic behaviour and social identity theory. In each of these areas an agent based model is introduced that furthers the relevant theories and taken together these models demonstrate the effectiveness of some of the techniques outlined in existing research as well as producing a unique recommendation for the applications of agent based modelling in social psychology. In the fourth and fifth chapters three existing agent based models are extended in line with multiple identity theory and doing so produces novel results that improve upon the explanations of the original models. Therefore it is concluded that for agent based modelling in social psychology it is important to always consider the impact of multiple identities upon our modelling efforts rather than always simulating the minimum group identities necessary to test a hypothesis.
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Leppmann, Kevin P. (Kevin Paul) Carleton University Dissertation International Affairs. "The social psychology of deterrence theory." Ottawa, 1988.
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Weis, Laura Maria. "Integrating individual psychology and social networks." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2017. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10022681/.
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Using a wide range of methodological and theoretical frameworks this thesis aims to integrate the social network approach with psychological research. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the network perspective and the wide range of theories, concepts and applications. Further, a novel structural framework is offered, integrating the most important measures of network-positioning. Chapter 2 contains four studies examining how an individual’s personality and motivation relates to their perception of, and actual social network positioning. Study 1 shows that personality influences how people perceive themselves in social networks and that this perception moderates the well-researched relationship between personality and subjective wellbeing. The second study demonstrates that (similarity on) the Big Five personality factors affect the likelihood of selecting and attracting social network ties. Yet, effects are small and somewhat inconsistent with previous literature. Results of Study 3 did not support our hypothesis that differences in motivation are associated with the occupation of different social network positions, in an organizational setting. Lastly, study 4 shows how an individual’s political skill relates to his/her preferred and perceived personal networks, and their joint effect on job attitudes. Chapter 3 links SNA with Social Cognition research. Study 1 demonstrates that high self-monitors are perceived as more similar to the self, and that this (partly) accounts for the well-known effect of self-monitoring on popularity in friendship networks. Study 2 examines if, and concludes that perceptions of high popularity negatively affects the quality of a friendship relations. Lastly, Study 3 demonstrates that an individual’s sense of power negatively impacts perceptual accuracy of dyadic relations in a friendship network. Chapter 4 emphasizes qualitative aspects of social network relations. Study 1 suggests that average frequency of tie “activation” as well as advice ties that co-occur with more personal ties, lead to increased levels of employee engagement. Study 2 demonstrates that costs of giving and benefits of receiving advice are more pronounced in informal, compared to formal work networks. Overall, it is concluded that the social network approach provides a powerful research tool for psychologists, yet being fraught with both methodological as well as theoretical challenges.
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Purkhardt, S. Caroline. "Social representations and social psychology : a theoretical critique with reference to the psychology of groups 1960s-1980s." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1991. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1155/.
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For the past fifty years social psychologists have attempted to understand inherently social phenomena within an individualistic and static conceptual framework afforded by the Cartesian paradigm. In contrast, contemporary traditions of social psychology, especially in Europe, reflect the cultural and evolutionary principles of the Hegelian paradigm. According to this approach, social phenomena are constructed through the coordinated activities of inherently social individuals in relationship both with each other and with their cultural and physical environments. I use this perspective to develop Moscovici's theory of social representations and our understanding of the dynamics and transformation of social knowledge. Drawing on recent developments in both the philosophy of science and the sociology of knowledge I reject Moscovici's distinction between the reified universe of science, which, he claims, is devoid of social representations, and the consensual universe of common-sense, which is impregnated with them. A programme of historical research is reported in which I trace the evolution and diffusion of Tajfel's theory of intergroup relations and the emergence of a social dimension in the social psychology of groups. This study demonstrates the dynamics by which scientific knowledge is transformed. These dynamics involve the social processes of interaction and communication and are characterized both by a delicate balance between tradition and innovation, and by an interdependence among individual scientists, the community of scientists to which they belong and the wider society in which the community is embedded. The thesis as a whole has important implications for understanding the processes of science and for the conduct of research in the social sciences.
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Painter, Desmond William. "The social in social psychology : cognitive, postmodern and discursive alternatives to individualism." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52025.
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Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study evaluates the development of a discursive approach to social psychology in terms of this discipline's most pressing metatheoretical question: what is the relation between the individual and the social in social psychology? This question is illuminated through a discussion of traditional cognitive approaches to social psychology as well as postmodern critiques of the discipline, after which the discursive approach is introduced to address shortcomings in both these perspectives. The discursive approach incorporates a key insight of recent developments in the philosophy of language, namely that language is not primarily referential, but constructive of our experiences and relationship to reality. By taking seriously both the performative or rhetorical and the abstract-systemic characteristics of language, discursive social psychology addresses the traditional issues of individualism and the reduction of the social on two levels: first, as it is revealed in especially traditional cognitive approaches to social psychology; and secondly, as it supports a set of specifically Western cultural values that reproduce cultural and political practices and power imbalances. Discursive social psychology is subsequently presented as a definite advance with regard to providing richer conceptions of social-cognitive processes and the socio-cultural foundations of psychological phenomena. Despite this there are also important limitations that should be taken into account before discursive social psychology is imported to South Africa as a critical alternative: the focus on language goes along with a negation of the materiality and embodied nature of experience. Because experience cannot be pre-reflexively psychological meaningful, discursive social psychology remains to develop a theory of agency that indicates how criticism, resistance and change is possible.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie evalueer die ontwikkeling van 'n diskursiewe benadering tot die sosiale sielkunde in terme van hierdie dissipline se mees knellende metateoretiese vraag: wat is die verhouding tussen die individuele en die sosiale in sosiale sielkunde? Hierdie vraag word aangespreek deur eers te kyk na tradisioneel kognitiewe benaderings tot en postmodernistiese kritiek op die sosiale sielkunde, waarna die diskursiewe benadering bekendgestel word soos dit die tekortkominge in hierdie twee perspektiewe aanspreek. Die diskursiewe benadering inkorporeer 'n sleutel-insig van onlangse ontwikkelinge in die taalfilosofie, naamlik dat taal nie primêr referensieel is nie, maar konstruktief en medebepalend van ons ervaring van en verhouding tot die werklikheid. Deur beide die performatiewe of retoriese en die meer abstrak-sistemiese kenmerke van taal ernstig op te neem, spreek die diskursiewe sosiale sielkunde die tradisionele knelpunte van individualisme en reduksie van die sosiale op twee vlakke aan: eerstens, soos dit onthul word in veral tradisioneel kognitiewe benaderings tot sosiale sielkunde; en tweedens, soos dit 'n stel spesifiek Westers-kulturele waardes onderhou wat bydra tot die reproduksie van kulturele en politieke praktyke en mags-wanbalanse. Diskursiewe sosiale sielkunde word gevolglik aangetoon as 'n definitiewe vooruitgang wat betref die uiteensetting van ryker konsepsies van sosiaal kognitiewe prosesse en die sosiaal-kulturele grondslae van sielkundige fenomene. Ten spyte hiervan is daar egter ook belangrike gebreke wat in ag geneem moet word voordat diskursiewe sosiale sielkunde as kritiese alternatief na Suid-Afrika ingevoer word: die fokus op taal gaan qepaard met 'n negering van die materialiteit en liggaamlikheid van ervaring. Omdat ervaring nie pre-refleksief sielkundige betekenis kan hê nie, bly hierdie ontwikkeling se verstaan van agentskap in gebreke om te verduidelik hoe kritiek, teenstand en verandering moontlik is.
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Krahé, Barbara. "Personality and social psychology : towards a synthesis." Universität Potsdam, 1992. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2009/3830/.
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Content:
1 Persons and Situations: Cornerstones of Modern Personality Psychology
2 The Issue of Consistency in Personality:Sixty Years of Controversy
3 In Defence of Traits: New (and Revived) Perspectives
4 Modern Interactionism: An Alternative Framework for Personality Research
5 Implementing the Interactionist Programme:Three Exemplary Areas of Research
6 Improving Personality Measurement:The Nomothetic Road to the Study of Consistency
7 Personality Psychology is about Individuals:Rediscovering the Idiographic Legacy
8 The Role of the Situation in Personality Research
9 Personality Psychology in the Nineties: An Outlook
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Novelli, David. "The social psychology of spatiality and crowding." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2010. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/6275/.
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This thesis applies self-categorization theory (SCT) to the behavioural and experiential dimensions of spatiality and crowding. A literature review in Chapter 2 will highlight the study of ‘personal space' as a dominant theoretical approach to understanding variable crowding experiences. Several problems with the conceptualisation of ‘personal space' will be discussed and in Chapter 3, SCT will be introduced as a theoretical framework, which can explain spatiality and crowding in terms of identity and group-level processes. Chapter 4 investigates the impact of group relations on spatiality. In study 1, participants in minimal groups sought closer proximity to an in-group member than to an out-group member. Study 2 used national categories as the basis for identification. Although non-significant, the findings mirrored those of study 1. Additionally, the relationship between perceived difference and physical distance was moderated by the group context of the interaction. Chapter 5 investigates the impact of group context and interaction distance on participants' subjective experience. The hypothesised effect of these two independent variables on participants' experience was not supported. However, participants in studies 3 and 4 expressed a desire for closer proximity to in-group members than to out-group members. Chapter 6 investigates the effect of visualised crowding on subjective affect. In study 5, participants who visualised an in-group crowd reported higher positive affect and lower negative affect than those who visualised an out-group crowd. In study 6, the relationship between imagined ‘crowding' and affect was mediated by social identification. The relationship between physicality, social identity and ‘collective joy' was quantified in a field study (study 7), which also provided suggestive evidence of physical synchrony increasing social identification. A laboratory study (study 8) supported the suggestion that synchronised movement can increase social identification, thus leading to a more positive experience of close proximity. These finding are discussed in terms of a two-way embodiment model of social identity processes in crowds.
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Nicolson, Paula. "The social psychology of 'post natal depression'." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.284215.
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The aim of this thesis has been to reconceptualize 'post natal depression' and challenge the 'clinical' and 'social science' models of explanation. It has focussed on a) whether 'post natal depression' is an objective phenomenon, and b) whether the experience of 'post natal depression' is the same for every women, and C) whether there are any common features of the experience of childbirth and early mothering which enable the construction of 'normal' experience. It begins by suggesting that the 'clinical' and 'social science' models are problematic in that they are based on ideological assumptions and not scientific evidence about what is 'normal' following childbirth. This is explored by examining the previous literature and by using a pre-validated measure of 'post natal depression' in the pilot work alongside semi-structured interviews. The literature demonstrates a history of weak conceptualization and associated poor methodology, with explicit and implicit assumptions about the psychology of women, childbirth and the motherhood role. This thesis therefore sets out to re-examine and re-define 'post natal depression' by analysing detailed accounts of pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood within a framework suggested by Gidden's stratification model of knowledge and other frameworks which take human reflexiveness into account.. The research comprised a small-scale longitiudinal study in which 24 women were interviewed up to four times; during pregnancy, and one, three and six months after delivery. The data comprised indepth verbatim transcriptions (from tape recorded interviews) which were analyzed to consider the meaning of the experience of childbirth, depression and early mothering to the individual respondent, and also to review the common features of the experience in order to suggest a construction of what is 'normal' here. The conclusion identifies certain elements of experience which are likely to lead to 'depression' at various stages after childbirth. These are concerned with physical stress, initial ibsecurities and lack of effective support and loss of former identity. They are not co-terminus with the 'stressors' of the 'social science' model in that their effect is totally subject to the meaning attributed to the events by each woman within the context of her biography.
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Suran, Sandra L. "Evolutionary Psychology, Social Emotions and Social Networking Sites – An Integrative Model." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1265998120.
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Lauri, Mary Ann. "The social psychology of social marketing : promoting organ donation in Malta." Thesis, University of London, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.250175.
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Chauhan, Apurv. "Developing a social psychology of poverty : social objects and dialogical representations." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2016. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3489/.
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This thesis develops a social psychological approach to researching poverty. Critiquing the existing models of poverty research in psychological sciences, it conceptualises poverty as a social object whose meanings are generated socially and dialogically. Using the theory of social representations and a dialogical framework informed by G.H. Mead’s work on the social Self and the thesis of dialogical mind, it examines both content (social representations) and processes (dialogicality) of meaning-making on poverty in the Indian public sphere at two levels. First, in a village in Bihar, India, 41 poor and 25 elite participants were interviewed over a period of six months to understand meaning-making in a local community setting. Second, 424 news stories on poverty in two national newspapers were sampled to explore the broader public sphere of India. The research found that poor participants represented poverty in three domains: their present state of being in poverty, their plans to escape poverty, and the social actors responsible for facilitating their escape. Representations in the first two domains allowed poor people to cope with the harsh realities of poverty whereas representations in the third domain allowed coping with their failure in escaping poverty. Elite representations were also organised in three domains: the descriptions of poverty, the reasons why poverty existed, and the possibility of poverty amelioration through improving healthcare and education provisions for the poor. The primary symbolic coping function of the elites’ representations was of absolving their Selves from any blame for the existence poverty — this was achieved by ascribing the responsibility for poverty on the Government and the poor people themselves. The newspapers represented poverty in four ambivalent domains as: an objective reality, a threat, a barrier, and as a political opportunity. Symbolic coping in the mass-media involved features of both poor and elite groups’ representations. In terms of the ‘processes’ through which these representations are generated, the research synthesises how meanings are developed both in terms of and through the Ego–Alter dialogical interdependence, which is also shown to be the link between the content and the processes of social representations. On the basis of its findings, this thesis demonstrates that the representation of poverty — and by extension, of all social objects — is necessarily contingent on the realisation of the Ego’s relationship with Alters in the social world. In this direction, the role of Social Acts, as conceptualised by Mead, is explored in-depth. Finally, the overall representational field of poverty is presented in terms of its stable thematic core and malleable periphery while demonstrating that the relationship between the core and periphery is dialogically mediated. As a whole, this thesis develops a novel approach to studying social problems like poverty in the discipline. In doing so, it also advances links between the theory of social representations, Mead’s work, and the thesis of dialogical mind.
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Suran, Sandra L. "Evolutionary psychology, social emotions and social networking sites an integrative model /." Cleveland, Ohio : Cleveland State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1265998120.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Cleveland State University, 2010.Abstract. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Feb. 16, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-76). Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center and also available in print.
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Stout, Dale Arthur. "Statistics in American psychology : the social construction of experimental and correlational psychology, 1900-1930." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/26981.
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Overstreet, Belinda G. "Clinical judgments : application of social psychology in counseling." Virtual Press, 1993. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/897472.
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Clinicians are often required to make judgments regarding clients on the basis of relatively limited information. These judgments can have a substantial effect on the client's own self-perception and on the perceptions of others about the client. This study was designed to investigate the effect of demographic information on clinical judgments.A preliminary study was utilized to determine which demographic variables to vary in the demographic combination presented in the case study. A cluster analysis found that undergraduates reported differences in their perceptions of demographic combinations based on the age and socioeconomic status which was included. As only one part of the demographic combination was to be varied, age was selected.In the main study, graduate student clinicians were presented a case study. The gender, race and socioeconomic status of the client presented in the case study remained constant while the age of the client was varied. Half of the students received a case study where the demographic information represented a 74 year old and half received a case study where the demographic information represented a 35 year old. It was hypothesized that graduate student clinicians' ratings would vary based on the age of the client presented.In addition, it was hypothesized that placing demographic information at the beginning of the case study would result in different ratings than when demographic information was placed at the end of the case study. Half of those presented with the 74 year old client demographic information received that information early in the case study and half received that information near the end of the case study. The same manipulation was made for those presented with the demographic information representative of the 35 year old client.It was also hypothesized that those without demographic information would rate clients differently than those with demographic information. None of the hypotheses were supported; however, an effect for the time of rating was found. Later ratings were found to be more lenient than earlier ratings. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services
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Reid, John Campbell. "The social psychology of rural travel mode choice." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.445125.
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Henwood, K. L. "The social psychology of stereotypes : a critical assessment." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.376484.
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Buckenham, M. A. "Reconstructing personal construct psychology : personal and social worlds." Thesis, Manchester Metropolitan University, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.264709.
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Lonsdale, Adam. "The social psychology of music and musical taste." Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10399/2275.
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This thesis is concerned with the social psychology of music and musical taste. It deals with four main research questions: (1) Why do people listen to music? (2) Do stereotypes of musical taste influence how individuals judge other people and themselves? (3) Do people exhibit in-group favouritism towards those who share their musical taste? and (4) Do stereotypes of musical taste influence how individuals perceive other people? The findings of this thesis serve to highlight musical taste as an important socio-cultural construct that is likely to influence social cognition, perception and intergroup behaviour. The thesis also provides further insight as to why people listen to music, and why it is so important to them. This thesis serves to highlight the potential for music psychologists to use well-established theories from mainstream social psychology to understand musical behaviour.
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Lee, N. M. "Stabilising child protection : a social psychology of cooperation." Thesis, University of Reading, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.360064.
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Kinniburgh, James B. "Who networks? The social psychology of virtual communities." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 2004. http://library.nps.navy.mil/uhtbin/hyperion/04Jun%5FKinniburgh.pdf.
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Rizzoli, Valentina. "Rappresentazioni della storia della psicologia sociale in Europa e Nord America attraverso l'analisi della produzione scientifica: European Journal of Social Psychology e Journal of Personality and Social Psychology." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Padova, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11577/3426707.
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If we consider a discipline as a historical product of the dynamics that exist between institutions, scientific communities and their practices (Danziger, 1995), scientific production, as a product of these dynamics, can be considered crucial to outline its history. Studying the history of a discipline starting from its scientific production means understanding how it is built around a specific community, since it contains its theories, methods and fields of application (Trevisani & Tuzzi, 2015, 2018). The aim of the present dissertation is to offer a representation of the history of social psychology in two communities or centres (cf. Danziger, 1996), European and North American, which are historically linked and at the core of debated issues in the field. Thus, we started from the study of the temporal evolution of contents in two central journals in their respective contexts: European Journal of Social Psychology and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In particular, we intend: 1) to offer a reflection on the contribution of the methods used to portray a history of a discipline, 2) to identify the direction of publications by highlighting hegemonic or marginal perspectives and methods and 3) to contribute to a reflection on the discipline itself. Since these journals convey the contents of the articles through keywords, all the titles and the abstracts of the two journals have been collected from their foundation (1971 and 1965 respectively) until the last issue of 2016. By means of a (lexical) correspondence analysis (SPAD software), the existence of a latent temporal pattern in keywords' occurrences has been explored. An overview of the words that characterised each year in each corpus is presented to observe and compare debated themes, processes, and methods covered by the two journals throughout the years. Furthermore, the main debated topics (that are clusters of words with a common meaning) by the journals and their temporal trajectories have been identified and compared by means of Reinert's method (1986) (IRaMuTeQ and R software) and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (Blei, Ng, & Jordan, 2003) (implemented in the R environment). The individual trajectories of the keywords were then tracked and grouped together based on their temporal pattern (Functional Data Analysis and Curve Clustering) in order to identify their "life cycle" (Trevisani & Tuzzi, 2015; 2018). Finally, some interviews with social psychologists were carried out to discuss some of the outcomes of the analyses, they were also invited to highlight methods and perspectives that might remain marginal to the field and to discuss on the overall history and development of the discipline. The results from all the moments of data collection and analysis were discussed a) by making a comparison between the journals and the literature, b) with respect to the methods used and c) reflecting on some questions posed in the beginning of this project - or that have emerged during the course of the work -considered relevant to fully explore the influence the history of the discipline to the field of Social Psychology.Se si considera una disciplina come un prodotto storico delle dinamiche che intercorrono tra istituzioni, comunità scientifiche e le loro pratiche (Danziger, 1995), la produzione scientifica, quale prodotto di queste dinamiche, può essere considerata cruciale per delinearne la storia. Studiare la storia di una disciplina a partire dalla sua produzione scientifica significa cogliere come questa viene costruita attorno a una determinata comunità , dal momento che ne contiene teorie, metodi e ambiti applicativi (Trevisani & Tuzzi, 2015; 2018). L'obiettivo della presente dissertazione è offrire una rappresentazione della storia della psicologia sociale in due comunità o centri (cfr. Danziger, 1996), europeo e nord-americano, storicamente legati e fulcro di questioni dibattute. Per farlo si è partiti dallo studio dell'evoluzione temporale dei contenuti di due riviste centrali nei rispettivi contesti: European Journal of Social Psychology e Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In particolare si intende: 1) offrire una riflessione sul contributo dei metodi usati nel tracciare la storia di una disciplina, 2) individuare la direzione delle pubblicazioni tra prospettive e metodi egemoni e marginali e 3) contribuire a una riflessione sulla disciplina stessa. Dal momento che veicolano attraverso parole chiave i contenuti degli articoli, sono stati raccolti tutti i titoli e gli abstract delle due riviste dalla loro fondazione (rispettivamente 1971 e 1965) fino all'ultimo numero del 2016. Per mezzo dell'analisi delle corrispondenze lessicali (software SPAD), è stata esplorata la presenza di un andamento temporale latente nelle occorrenze delle parole chiave. È stata così proposta una panoramica dei contenuti principali che hanno caratterizzato ogni anno in ciascun corpus al fine di osservare e confrontare temi, processi e metodi discussi e trattati dalle due riviste. Inoltre, sono stati individuati e confrontati i principali argomenti (intesi come gruppi di parole a cui sottostà un significato comune) trattati dalle riviste e le loro traiettorie temporali per mezzo del metodo Reinert (1986) (software IRaMuTeQ e R) e Latent Dirichlet Allocation (Blei, Ng, & Jordan, 2003) (implementata in ambiente R). In seguito sono state tracciate le singole traiettorie delle parole chiave e sono state accomunate in cluster in base al loro andamento temporale (Functional Data Analysis e Curve Clustering) al fine di individuarne il "ciclo di vita" (Trevisani & Tuzzi, 2015; 2018). Infine sono state svolte alcune interviste a psicologi sociali per discutere con loro alcuni dei risultati delle analisi delle riviste e mettere in luce metodi e prospettive che potrebbero rimanere marginali nel campo e discutere sulla storia e lo sviluppo della disciplina. I risultati, nel complesso, sono stati discussi a) ponendo in essere un confronto tra le riviste e con la letteratura, b) riflettendo sui metodi utilizzati e c) a partire da alcuni questioni poste in principio - o emerse in corso d'opera - come salienti.
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Akrami, Nazar. "Prejudice: The Interplay of Personality, Cognition, and Social Psychology." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Psychology, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-5785.
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Three main theoretical approaches to the study of the causation of prejudice can be distinguished within psychological research. The cognitive approach suggests that prejudice is a function of cognitive processes where stereotypic information about social groups, stored in memory, is automatically activated and affects people’s judgements and behavior toward members of the target group. The personality approach suggests that prejudice is a function of people’s personality characteristics. Finally, the social psychological approach emphasizes people’s group membership and group identification as the as major source of causation.
Previous research has almost entirely focused on only one approach of causation at a time. The focus has also shifted periodically – with attention paid to one approach at each period of time. The present thesis is an attempt to integrate these approaches and suggests an integrative model where the relative contribution of each approach could be assessed. The underlying assumption is that all three approaches are meaningful and that prejudice is a complex phenomenon that is best explained by taking into account all approaches jointly.
Examining the cognitive approach, Paper I revealed that people are knowledgeable of the cultural stereotypes and that stereotypic information is automatically activated and affects people’s judgments. Paper II (and Paper III) supported the personality approach and revealed that prejudice is highly related to primary personality characteristics and, in line with a central idea in this approach, different types of prejudice (ethnic prejudice, sexism, homophobia, and prejudice toward disabled people) are highly correlated. The results of Paper III revealed the importance of group membership and group identification, supporting the social psychology approach.
The findings are discussed in relation to previous research and the necessity to integrate various approaches and disciplines to explain psychological phenomena in general and prejudice in particular. Also, implications of the findings for prejudice prevention are discussed.
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Yehoshua, Sagit. "Social-psychology profile of terrorist leaders in Israeli prisons." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2013. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/socialpsychology-profile-of-terrorist-leaders-in-israeli-prisons(4140fcfb-246a-4546-b9d1-91fa7258aa36).html.
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The aim of this study is to investigate the Social-psychology profile of terrorist leaders in Israeli prisons. The research was conducted with the cooperation of the Intelligence Department of the Israeli Prison System. The study is qualitative and was conducted through in-depth interviews with leaders of terrorist organisations in prisons around Israel. A total of 18 Palestinian leaders were interviewed in several prisons around the country. The participants were leaders of major terrorist organisations in Israel: Fatah, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The research focuses on five main themes: 1. Social influence factors: Adolescence, family, social surroundings, the organisation and their influence on the leader's adjustment to imprisonment. 2. Personality profile of the leaders and whether they have symptoms of a psychopathic personality based on Hare psychopathy check list (PCLSV) 3. Mindset: General perspectives such as rationalisations for committing terrorist acts, perceptions towards the victims, Israeli society and their actions in relation to the conflict. 4. Leadership profile: What kind of leaders are they? How do they perceive this position? How do they see their conduct and achievements as leaders? Would they want to continue their leadership position outside of prison? 5. Imprisonment: the effect of the prison experience and their radicalisation or de-radicalisation process. The main findings of this research suggest that the leaders of terrorist groups in Israeli prisons are going through a unique process while incarcerated, that psychopathic personality profile was found among them and their rationalisations for carrying out the terrorist acts are quite varied. Furthermore, the findings of this study highlight the importance of the aspects of social surrounding and culture on the prisoner’s mind-set and conduct, as well as on their adjustment to imprisonment and their radicalisation or deradicalisation process.
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Wood, Michael James. "Connections and contradictions : the social psychology of conspiracy theories." Thesis, University of Kent, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.595790.
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Conspiracy theories are an ever more prominent part of modern social and political discourse. While an increasing amount of psychological research has been devoted to investigating the determinants of conspiracism, there is no overarching theoretical perspective that can unify the field's disparate findings . In the present thesis, we develop and test a novel theoretical framework that we call extended monological belief system theory. The theory, based on well-established models of cognitive consistency and parallel constramt satisfaction, proposes that beliefs in conspiracy theories are best understood as fairly vague outward manifestations of broader underlying beliefs and attitudes which together serve to construct a conspiratorial worldview. In a series often empirical studies we demonstrate that contradictory conspiracy theories are correlated in belief, that these correlations are at least partially explained by higher-order beliefs, and that the correlations are not reliably found for conventional explanations; that conspiracists prefer to make arguments based on refuting official narratives rather than proposing specific alternatives; and that interpersonal suspicion appears to be a natural outcome of reading pro-conspiracist persuasive texts. Moreover, connectionist models built on the architecture of the model accurately predicted behavioural responses to fictitious conspiracy scenarios. The results indicate that the degree to which Someone believes in a conspiracy theory is determined less by the details of the theory and more by the degree to which the theory matches that person's higher-order beliefs. Based on these results and on the current state of the literature on the psychology of conspiracism, we propose that extended monological belief system theory can be used as a framework for understanding the contributions of beliefs, attitudes, individual-difference variables, and various other contributors to beliefs in conspiracy theories.
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Landis, Blaine. "The psychology of social networks : power, emotion and personality." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.707985.
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Morgan, Catherine Amanda. "Strange attractions: Discourse, narrative and subjectivity in social psychology." Thesis, Morgan, Catherine Amanda (1992) Strange attractions: Discourse, narrative and subjectivity in social psychology. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 1992. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/50571/.
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Increasing interest in social constructionism has been expressed in social psychology literature since the mid-eighties. Constructionism has been used in critiques of the scientific practices of social psychology and the v y development of theoretical accounts and research programmes which reconceptualize constructs such as 'attitude'. 'knowledge', 'identity' and 'self' through using the terms 'discourse', 'narrative', and 'subjectivity'. The specific uses to which these terms are put vary, but many constructionist texts cite post-structuralist theories of language, ordinary language philosophies and feminist theories as providing the conceptual resources for their particular approach.
The diversity and scope of constructionist texts in social psychology, and their relationships to constructivist and feminist approaches in other disciplines, create particular difficulties for reviewing this literature. Through reading constructivist and feminist texts from other disciplines and relating these to social psychological knowledges an approach is developed for the purposes of review. This approach uses the notion of morphology and questions concerning the application of feminist theories as points of reference for reviewing constructionist texts published as social psychology.
In review a number of differences between social psychological and other disciplinary applications of constructionism are discussed. These differences highlight particular constraints which operate on constructionist approaches to social psychology because of established epistemological approaches in the discipline. Problems of translating theoretical approaches developed in the humanities into a discipline which is dominantly scientific are discussed. The effect of these constraints on the position of women as practitioners and subjects of the discipline is a particular focus of attention.
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Pond, Richard Shepherd. "Sharing Social Pain: Social Comparison and Affiliation After Social Exclusion." W&M ScholarWorks, 2008. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539626572.
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Klik, Kathleen A., and Stacey L. Williams. "Bridging Social and Clinical Psychology to Understand Mental Illness Stigma." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2014. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/8096.
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This is a systematic review of the literature on the relationship between internalized stigma and treatment adherence among those diagnosed with a mental illness, with a specific emphasis on identifying gaps in the literature. This review brings together one particular topic in social psychology (e.g., internalized stigma) that may inform clinically relevant work (e.g., treatment adherence among those diagnosed with a mental illness). Self-esteem, hope, self-efficacy, quality of life, social support, shame, insight, and coping were identified as mechanisms of internalized stigma. A theoretical model is proposed to examine these psychosocial mechanisms and identify gaps in relation to the relationship between internalized stigma and treatment adherence. This model provides further understanding of how internalized stigma influences treatment adherence among those diagnosed with a mental illness. Additionally, this review may provide an understanding of not only how internalized stigma relates to treatment adherence, but also advance psychological theory, identify directions for future research and point to avenues for future interventions.
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Baistow, Karen Ann. "Behavioural psychology as a social project : from social engineering to the cultivation of competence." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.264393.
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Weaver, Kelli L. "Burnout, stress and social support among doctoral students in psychology." Morgantown, W. Va. : [West Virginia University Libraries], 2000. http://etd.wvu.edu/templates/showETD.cfm?recnum=1591.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2000.Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 172 p. : ill. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 140-151).
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Kelber, Jeanne M. "Using Positive Psychology Interventions to Combat Cyberbullying." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/495.
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The "always on" aspect of social media creates a complex zone of self-expression for children and adolescents. The relentless quality of the potential for interaction encourages impulsive communication and response, a primary feature of what we think of as "bullying" in social media. In addition, social media creates a forum for people to connect within a community larger and more extensive than the physical. Different social media outlets even connect with each other to create an even larger sense of community. Increased understanding of the psychology of these dynamics may contribute to successful interventions to educate and reach out to young social media users. Application of positive psychological principles can help elicit emotions such as empathy in order to help resolve conflicts and curb online bullying. While social media receives a great deal of criticism for the platform it provides bullying, social media outlets can also provide an effective platform for promoting positive social change by playing into the psychology of inclusion to combat exclusion through the internet.
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Bloom, Dorian L. "Social Comparison Transitivity." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1340036626.
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uk, tim kurz@ncl ac, and Timothy Robert Kurz. "A Psychology of Environmentally Sustainable Behaviour." Murdoch University, 2003. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20040428.152013.
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Environmental sustainability has received increasing attention in both scientific and public life over the past 40 years. Almost all problems are the result of the behaviour of people. Hence, successful solutions to environmental problems must be social as well as technological. Psychology has offered a variety of theoretical approaches to understanding environmentally sustainable behaviour (ESB), including rationaleconomic, social dilemmas, attitude and behavioural models. A related psychological literature also exists regarding the ways in which ESBs may be promoted most effectively in the community.
The early chapters of this thesis provide a critical review of the major theoretical approaches in psychology to understanding ESB, as well as the ways in which the psychological literature has conceptualised applied intervention programs to promote ESB.
It is suggested that a more holistic framework for conceptualising ESB is required which allows for the integration of the strengths of the variety of current approaches, and which also helps to understand their potential limitations. As such, a social-ecological framework is detailed that draws upon principles from both social and ecological psychology and has as its central tenet that ESBs should be conceptualised as the result of the ways in which members of a community interact with their environments.
In particular, it is argued that peoples ESBs will be influenced by the extent to which they perceive particular environmentally relevant objects as affording (Gibson, 1979) negative impact on the natural environment.
Two field experiments were conducted (a pilot and a larger main study) which aimed to apply the social-ecological framework to the promotion of water and energy consumption within a local community in the city of Perth, Western Australia.
The results of both field experiments showed significant reductions in water consumption as a result of the installation around the home of labels that aimed to attune residents to the water consumption affordances of various appliances. The same effects were not, however, obtained from energy consumption labels.
In light of these differential effects upon water and energy consumption, a third, qualitative, study was conducted to examine the potential differences in residents representations of these two resources and the ways in which residents constructed the use of these resources in their talk. A series of in-depth interviews was conducted with a sample of residents who had taken part in the main field experiment. These were analysed from the perspectives of social representations theory (Moscovici, 1984) and discursive psychology (Edwards & Potter, 1992; Potter & Wetherell, 1987).
This analysis revealed important differences in the ways in which these two resources were constructed. It also showed the ways in which community members were able to position themselves as responsible users, rather than wasters of resources, the importance of justice and equity in residents resources discourse, and the ways in which truth in the environmental domain is constructed and ascribed to certain groups.
The results of the field experiments and qualitative study together suggest that whilst attuning residents to the environmental impact affordances of relevant objects in their homes does affect their ESBs, this process can not be separated from the influence of the social environment in which these behaviours are embedded. It is also argued that such social environmental influences may be best understood in terms of the linguistic devices that members of a particular society have at their disposal to explain and legitimate their behaviour.
The major conclusion of the thesis is that attempts to investigate and promote environmentally sustainable behaviour should utilise multiple understandings from the social sciences, rather than remaining wedded to any one particular theoretical or methodological approach. The social-ecological framework that has guided the theoretical and practical work contained in this thesis represents an attempt at such integration. The implications of the findings for public policy efforts to promote ESB are also discussed.
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Weinreich-Haste, Helen. "The developmental and social psychology of moral cognition, and its implications for social and political reasoning." Thesis, University of Bath, 1985. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.352173.
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Wilby, Kevin Christopher. "A spanner in the works : a critique of social psychology." Thesis, University of Kent, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.278697.
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Bolam, Bruce Leslie. "Ideologies of health : towards a social psychology of health inequalities." Thesis, University of the West of England, Bristol, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.275831.
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This thesis works towards a social psychology of health inequalities in order to further understanding of the relations between structure and agency (re )producing these inequities. It does so by exploring the ideological construction of health and identities associated with the axes of inequality. Employing a material-discursive methodological standpoint to link work on inequality with that of 'lay health beliefs', it is argued that discourse is the semiotic moment of practices (re )producing health inequalities. Critical discourse analysis thereby provides a means to examine the ideological construction of health and identities associated with health inequalities. The interview and focus group methods used to generate text in interaction with a small, diverse sample of participants living in Bristol are described, paying particular attention to the reflexive issues embedded within the research process. F our competing ideologies within which health and illness were constructed as discursive objects are described: minimalism, associated with health as the absence of illness and medical ideology; psychological constructions of health as wellness or happiness relating to psychological ideology; lifestyle constructions of life ethics pertaining to health promotional ideology; and holism, the interdependency of mind, body and spirit, tied to alternative health ideology. The four interwoven health identities arising from these ideologies of health and respecting the key axes of inequalities in health, namely social class, gender, ethnicity and place, are considered. Resistance to class as prejudice is explored, alongside an examination the politics of class identity and a reading of working class and middle class health identities. Hegemonic gender identities of women as carers and men as uncaring, active agents are then examined. Ethnicity as health identity emerges as a site of solidarity and fragmentation closely linked to place via the concept of community. Finally, constructions of pollution, space and community provide a structural and spacial grounding to health identities associated with place. In conclusion, the usefulness of this social psychological analysis is evaluated in consideration of individualisation in ideologies of health, interpreted as 'internalised oppression', 'methodological product' and 'an assertion of agency' in the context of recent debate about identity in late modem society. In sum, the thesis both examines the social structuring of subjects and foregrounds the ethical and political dimensions of the ideologies of health within which inequalities research must recognise its' reflexive engagement
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Herschbach, Mitchell Albert. "Beyond folk psychology? toward an enriched account of social understanding /." Diss., [La Jolla] : University of California, San Diego, 2010. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3402726.
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Lavelle, Jane Suilin. "Understanding folk psychology : theory, observation & explanation in social cognition." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.543784.
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Sammut, Gordon. "The point of view : towards a social psychology of relativity." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2010. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/96/.
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The explanation of social behaviour requires an understanding of individual orientations to social issues as these exist relative to others. This thesis argues that whilst the attitude concept and social representations have illuminated certain aspects of social behaviour, both are handicapped by a restricted focus. The former’s focus on the evaluation of attitude objects excludes a reference to wider societal processes. The latter provides an account of societal contingencies, but excludes an explanation of individual orientations towards objects and issues in the social environment. This thesis postulates the point of view concept to bridge this gap, that provides an explanation of social behaviour at the situational level. This complements attitude and social representations in a nested, multilevel explanation of social behaviour. The point of view is defined as an outlook towards a social event, expressed as a claim, which can be supported by an argument of opinion based on a system of knowledge from which it derives its logic. It reflects an individual’s orientation towards a social object, relative to others. This thesis has demonstrated, in a series of empirical studies, that the point of view can be typified in three categories. A monological point of view is closed to another’s perspective. A dialogical point of view acknowledges another’s perspective but dismisses it as wrong. A metalogical point of view acknowledges the relativity of its’ perspective, and concedes to an alternative the possibility of being right. These different types were demonstrated to be characterised by differences in positioning and in individuals’ capacity to fit a given social reality. Such relational outcomes accrue as a function of the socio-cognitive structure of points of view in relation with another perspective. This thesis demonstrates that points of view, alongside attitudes and social representations, provides a multilevel explanation of social behaviour
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Howarth, Caroline. ""So, you're from Brixton?" : towards a social psychology of community." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2000. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/72/.
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This thesis examines the social psychological significance of 'community', as it is experienced and talked about in Brixton, a culturally diverse area in South London. There are two points of entry into the social psychology of a community: (1) the negotiation of social representations of the community and (2) the co-construction of community identities. The theoretical perspective that I have developed through this research is grounded in the theory of social representations (Moscovici, 1984, 1988; Farr, 1987) and draws on other theories of representation (Hall, 1997a), community (Cohen, 995), identity and self-consciousness (Hall, 1991a; Tajfel, 1982; Mead, 1934), stigma (Goffman, 1968) and the media (Thompson, 1995). It is an ethnographic study which combines ongoing participant-observation, 7 focus groups with 44 adolescents aged between 12 and 16, 5 in-depth interviews with deputy-heads of Brixton's schools, a media analysis of a documentary set in Brixton, and follow-up discussions. These accounts are woven together to answer the principal research question: how is `community' lived in Brixton? This study shows that communities emerge as sites of struggle in the negotiation of self-identity, belonging and difference. Community identities are constructed through and against social representations of the community, particularly those in the media. Two competing representations of Brixton - 'Brixton as Diverse' and 'Brixton as Bad' — were found in the same representational field. The data illustrate the different ways in which people affirm, manipulate and contest these ambivalent social representations in order to defend their perspective on Brixton, and so either claim or reject community membership. I examine how these representations both reflect and construct the social reality of Brixton. This reveals the potential of social representations to construct, delimit and empower the living of community. The systematic analysis of social representations of community and community identities demonstrates the pressing need for a social psychology of community.
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Woodrow, Jonathan. "The social psychology of digital photography : a process philosophy approach." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2004. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/7724.
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This thesis addresses the nature of the image and its relationship to human perception and memory. Traditionally psychology approaches the relationship between the image and the human in a representationalist register, in which the world represents itself through images to the subjective observer. The thesis questions these assumptions about the representational relationship between the world, the mind and the image through a study of people using digital photographic technologies. It argues that digital images exist as a complex network of technology and activity that manage their incessant movement, production, consumption, convertibility, connectedness and fragility. The digital image exposes the complex nature of the image as more than a simple representation. If this is the case, then human involvement with images as networks occurs in terms of our inclusion in the network rather than as a subjective observer positioned outside of the world. Henri Bergson proposes that we see the image in terms of a distinction between time and space rather than as an intermediary between a subject and the object. The implications of this for the way in which we think about the interaction between people and technology and the nature of perception and memory are explored through some data examples from three settings. These are; amateur photographers using digital technology; families looking through their stocks of digital images and remembering past events together and finally, displays of family member's histories and identities on the internet.