Research in Social Psychology

Research in Social Psychology

Social Problem

Little has been studied and investigated to recognize the social effects of Attitude Heterogeneity and Disputes. It is important to conduct research on this social problem to explore the manners in which social networks influence the attitudes of people in particular conditions.

This research paper will explore the social problem regarding the social problem of 'Societal Effects of Attitude Heterogeneity'. This research will gather qualitative data through interpretative phenomenological analysis which is a method for carrying psychological qualitative research having an idiographic emphasis; which is aimed at providing imminence into the way a specific person makes sense of a specific phenomenon in a specific context (www.socialresearchmethods.net). Thus, this approach will assist in acquiring an in-depth detail on the impact of social network heterogeneity on individual's behavior.

Research Rationales

The purpose of this research is to explore the ways in which social networks create an impact on the attitudes of people under specific conditions. Attitudes can be defined as favorable or unfavorable evaluations that people make related to an attitude object. It is essential to understand attitudes as they are (directly or indirectly) related to our behavior.

Therefore, the research will be mainly aimed at developing an understanding of four strength related dimensions of attitude, which is to ascertain the extent to which people consider their attitude to be correct (attitude correctness), the certainty they have regarding their attitudes (attitude certainty), how strongly people hold their attitude (attitude strength) and lastly the extent to which people have mixed feelings about an attitude object. This particular research is conducted to understand the social network contexts that are different in terms of the similarity of other members' attitudes, as well as the content of information shared within social networks.

This study would contribute towards assisting the organizations in realizing the way various sorts of messages can be received in the context of online social networking, especially amongst the social networks which differ in position, attitude, and also in the sort of the information that is shared.

Research Aims

To understand the impact of social networks heterogeneity on human behavior

To determine the significance of being a part of heterogeneous social network

To understand the ways in which attitude are influenced by social networks

Assess the extent to which other network members' attitudes on a particular topic

Literature Review

An essential to phenomenon of social influence is to ascertain the impact of homogeneity (attitude agreement) or heterogeneity (attitude disagreement) on the individual behavior. Although the literature has provided evidence that consensus information a plays a significant role in transforming an individual behavior; however, simultaneously there is also an equal impact of heterogeneity on individual attitudes. According to Friedkin (1994) “without heterogeneity, or disagreement, there would not be an attitude discrepancy to suggest the possible need for attitude changes to take place”.

Heterogeneity in Social Networks

Homogenous social networks are likely to create a relatively attitude-conforming effect on individual's attitudes. However, it is important to understand that members of heterogeneous networks would not simply be ...