Do psychologists study behaviour?

Authors

  • Dariusz Doliński SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Wroclaw

Keywords:

methodology, social psychology, health psychology, science of psychology

Abstract

Although social psychology is defined as the science that explores the social behaviour of people, today’s research, which is devoted to this matter, is primarily (or almost exclusively) focused on highly specific behaviours that Baumeister, Vohs and Funder wittily called “finger movements”. The point is that psychologists most often ask people to fill in various scales and questionnaires and/or to imagine that they found themselves in some situation and answer how they would behave in it. The author of the article asks a question about the reasons for this state of affairs, and also claims that psychology should return to examining real human reactions, and not only verbal declarations about how a person would react in a particular situation.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., & Funder, D. C. (2007). Psychology as the science of self-reports and finger movements: Whatever happened to actual behaviour? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 396– 403. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2007.00051.x.

Cramer, J. A. (1998). Enhancing patient compliance in the elderly. Role of packaging aids and monitoring. Drugs & Aging, 12, 7–15. https://doi. org/10.2165/00002512-199812010-00002.

Deutsche Bank (2014). Financial report of Poles 2014. Plans for 2015. Retrieved from https://www.deutschebank.pl/raport-portret-finansowy-polakow-2014.pdf.

Doliński, D. (2010). Touch, compliance, and homophobia. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 34, 179-192. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-010-0090-1.

Doliński, D. (2018a). Is psychology still a science of behaviour? Social Psychological Bulletin, 13, article e25025. https://doi.org/10.5964/spb.v13i2.5205.

Doliński, D. (2018b). Social psychology should be a science of feelings, thoughts and behaviour. Social Psychological Bulletin, 13, article e26133. https://doi. org/10.5964/spb.v13i2.26133.

Erceau, D., & Gueguen, N. (2007). Tactile contact and evaluation of the toucher. Journal of Social Psychology, 147, 441–444. https://doi.org/10.3200/ SOCP.147.4.441-444.

Goldman, M., Kiyohara, O., & Pfannensteil, D. A. (1985). Interpersonal touch, social labeling, and the foot-in-the-door effect. Journal of Social Psychology, 125, 143–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/0022 4545.1985.9922866.

Grzyb, T. (2016). Why can’t we just ask? The influence of research methods on results. The case of “bystander effect”. Polish Psychological Bulletin, 47, 233–235. https://doi.org/10.1515/ppb-2016-0027.

Grzyb, T., & Doliński, D. (2017). Beliefs about obedience levels in studies conducted within the Milgram paradigm: Better than average effect and comparisons of typical behaviors by residents of different countries. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1632. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01632.

Haynes, R. B., Taylor, D. W., & Sackett, D. L. (1979). Compliance in health care. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Heisenberg, W. (1927) Ueber den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik [About the descriptive content of quantum theoretical kinematics and mechanics]. Zeitschrift für Physik, 43, 172–198. https://doi.org/10.1007/ BF01397280.

Hornik, J. (1987). The effect of touch and gaze upon compliance and interest of interviewees. Journal of Social Psychology, 127, 681–683. Kaplan, H. R. (1987). Lottery winners: The myth and reality. Journal of Gambling Behavior, 3, 168–178. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01367438.

Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority: an experimental view. New York: Harper and Row. Motyl, M., Demos, A. P., Carsel, T. S., Hanson, B. E., Melton, Z. J., Mueller, A. B., Prims, J. P., Sun, J., Washburn, A. N., Wong, K. M., Yantis, C., & Skitka, L. J. (2017). The state of social and personality science: Rotten to the core, not so bad, getting better, or getting worse? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113, 34–58. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000084.

Ossowski, S. (1962/1967). O osobliwościach nauk społecznych [About the peculiarities of social sciences]. In S. Ossowski (Ed.), Dzieła [Works] (Vol. 4, pp. 125–316). Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.

Peng, K., Nisbett, R. E., & Wong, N. Y. C. (1997). Validity problems comparing values across cultures and possible solutions. Psychological Methods, 2, 329-344. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.2.4.329.

Sabate, E. (2003). Adherence to long-term therapies. Evidence for action. Geneva: World Health Organization.

Downloads

Published

2020-10-01

How to Cite

Doliński, D. . (2020). Do psychologists study behaviour?. Health Psychology Report, 8(4), 385–390. Retrieved from https://czasopisma.bg.ug.edu.pl/index.php/HPR/article/view/5412

Issue

Section

Reviews

Most read articles by the same author(s)