Name and define the four major perspectives of social psychology. What are two views of social behavior that all four perspectives have in common?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: The sociocultural perspective is the theoretical approach that searches for the causes of social behavior in influences from larger social groups, such as nationality and social class. The evolutionary perspective is a theoretical viewpoint in social psychology that searches for the causes of social behavior in the physical and psychological predispositions that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce. The social learning perspective focuses on past learning experiences as determinants of a person's social behavior, including both direct and indirect learning experiences. The social cognitive perspective locates the causes of social behavior in the mental processes involved in paying attention to, interpreting, and remembering social experiences.
The two common views are that: a) Social behavior is goal-oriented; and b) Social behavior represents a continual interaction between the person and the situation.
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a. emotional b. episodic c. semantic d. procedural
Compared to a comparison group of children with low socioeconomic status who did not attend Head Start, those children who did ____________________
a. showed a boost in IQ and achievement from elementary school until the end of high school b. had higher grades, but lower self-esteem because of the pressure to achieve c. were less likely to be placed in special education classes d. improved their academic performance, but were still more likely to repeat at least one grade