Nature, Scope and Levels of Analysis in Social Psychology

25 min

Thirty-eight witnesses, or a story that grew?

In March 1964 a young woman, Kitty Genovese, was murdered in New York. A newspaper reported that 38 neighbours had watched and done nothing, and the story became a famous example of uncaring city life. It also started a research programme. John Darley and Bibb Latané (1968) showed in laboratory experiments that a person who believes others are also present is less likely to help, because responsibility feels shared: the bystander effect.

Later research corrected the story. Historians found that the "38 witnesses" claim was exaggerated: few people saw the attack, and at least one neighbour did call the police (Manning, Levine and Collins, 2007). And when Richard Philpot and colleagues (2020) studied 219 real public arguments and fights filmed by security cameras in Lancaster, Amsterdam and Cape Town, at least one bystander intervened in about 90% of them, and the more bystanders there were, the more likely it was that somebody helped.

This short history shows what social psychology is: a science that tests everyday beliefs about social life, and keeps correcting its own conclusions.

Definition

Nature of a discipline: what kind of knowledge it produces and how. Social psychology is a social science that uses the scientific method to study individuals in social situations.

Scope: the range of topics and settings a discipline covers.

Level of analysis: the scale at which an explanation is pitched, from processes inside one person's mind to the beliefs of a whole society.

Bystander effect: the finding that, in some situations, an individual is less likely to help a person in need when other people are present.

1. The nature of social psychology

It is scientific. Social psychologists turn questions into testable hypotheses, collect data and accept that a well-designed study can prove an idea wrong. Common sense often predicts both a result and its opposite ("birds of a feather flock together" and "opposites attract"); research decides between them.
It studies the individual in context. Its unit of study is the person, but always as affected by others, real or imagined.
It uses many methods. Laboratory experiments give control (Asch, Darley and Latané); field experiments test effects in real settings; surveys and correlational studies measure attitudes across many people; observation, including of camera footage, records what people actually do; cross-cultural studies test whether findings hold beyond Western samples.
It is bound by ethics. Modern codes require informed consent, the right to withdraw, protection from harm, confidentiality and a full debriefing whenever deception is used. Several classic studies, such as Milgram's (Unit 2), would not be approved in their original form today.
It is cumulative and self-correcting. Findings are replicated, revised or abandoned, as the Genovese story shows.

2. Its place among the social sciences

Discipline	Main focus	How it might study bystanders
General psychology	The individual's mind, brain and behaviour	Attention and perception: did the person notice the emergency?
Social psychology	The individual as influenced by others	How the presence and behaviour of others changes the decision to help
Sociology	Groups, institutions and whole societies	How urbanisation, policing or inequality relate to helping rates
Anthropology	Cultures and ways of life	Cultural rules about whose duty it is to help a stranger

3. Scope: what social psychology covers

David Myers groups the field into three areas: social thinking (social cognition, the self, attitudes, attribution), social influence (conformity, compliance, obedience, persuasion, group processes) and social relations (prejudice, aggression, helping, attraction, conflict and peacemaking). It is applied in education, health, law, work, the environment, media and reconciliation.

4. Levels of analysis

The Swiss social psychologist Willem Doise (1986) argued that social behaviour can be explained at four levels, and that the best explanations connect them. Figure 1 applies his levels to helping in an emergency.

Level III is well illustrated by Mark Levine and colleagues (2005). Football fans of Manchester United were more likely to help an injured stranger who wore a Manchester United shirt than one in a rival Liverpool shirt; but when the fans had first been reminded that they were football fans in general, they helped strangers in either team's shirt. Who counts as "one of us" shapes who gets help.

CrashCourse: "Psychological Research: Crash Course Psychology #2" (about 10 minutes). Watch for why psychologists distrust "hindsight" and common sense, and for the difference between case studies, surveys, correlations and experiments.

Warning

One level is rarely enough. A common weak answer explains a social event only at Level I ("the bystanders were selfish people"). A strong answer shows how situation, group membership and social norms combine with individual processes.

Tip

"Me, us here, us as groups, us as a society." The four phrases follow Doise's four levels from the inside out: intrapersonal, interpersonal and situational, positional, ideological.

Important

Discuss. A minibus passenger collapses at a busy stop and several people stand watching. Explain, at each of Doise's four levels, why someone might or might not step forward.

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Practice

State four features of the nature of social psychology.
Distinguish social psychology from sociology, with one example.
Name Myers's three areas of social psychology and give one topic in each.
Name Doise's four levels of analysis in order, from the individual outwards.
Explain what the Levine and colleagues (2005) football-shirt study shows about helping.
Explain how Philpot and colleagues' (2020) findings challenge a simple reading of the bystander effect.
"Social psychology is just common sense." Evaluate this statement.

Show answersHide answers

Any four: it is scientific (testable hypotheses, evidence); it studies the individual in social context; it uses many methods; it is bound by ethical rules; it is cumulative and self-correcting.
Social psychology studies how individuals are influenced by others; sociology studies groups, institutions and societies. Example: social psychology asks how a crowd changes one person's decision to help; sociology asks how city size relates to helping rates across a country.
Social thinking (e.g. attribution), social influence (e.g. conformity), social relations (e.g. prejudice or helping).
Intrapersonal; interpersonal and situational; positional; ideological.
Helping depends on shared group identity (Level III): fans helped a stranger from their own group more, and widening the identity to "football fans" widened who they helped.
In real conflicts caught on camera, someone intervened in about 90% of cases, and more bystanders made intervention more likely, not less. So the presence of others does not stop help in real emergencies; the laboratory effect concerns each individual's chance of acting, not whether anyone acts.
For: some findings feel obvious once known. Against: common sense contains contradictory sayings and cannot decide between them; research has overturned popular beliefs (the Genovese story, the size of the bystander effect); results such as Asch's surprised people beforehand. Judgement: social psychology tests common sense and keeps what survives.

Sources and credits

Studies described: Darley, J. M. and Latané, B. (1968), "Bystander intervention in emergencies: diffusion of responsibility", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8; Manning, R., Levine, M. and Collins, A. (2007), "The Kitty Genovese murder and the social psychology of helping: the parable of the 38 witnesses", American Psychologist 62; Levine, M., Prosser, A., Evans, D. and Reicher, S. (2005), Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 31; Philpot, R., Liebst, L. S., Levine, M., Bernasco, W. and Lindegaard, M. R. (2020), "Would I be helped? Cross-national CCTV footage shows that intervention is the norm in public conflicts", American Psychologist 75; Doise, W. (1986), Levels of Explanation in Social Psychology, Cambridge University Press; Myers, D. G. and Twenge, J. M., Social Psychology, McGraw-Hill.
Video: "Psychological Research: Crash Course Psychology #2", CrashCourse, embedded from YouTube.

Written by Ganzaa: the text, the diagram (Figure 1), the table and the exercises.

1Thirty-eight witnesses, or a story that grew?

21. The nature of social psychology

32. Its place among the social sciences

43. Scope: what social psychology covers

54. Levels of analysis

Thirty-eight witnesses, or a story that grew?

1. The nature of social psychology

2. Its place among the social sciences

3. Scope: what social psychology covers

4. Levels of analysis