Exploring Atypical Behaviour

Issues and Debates – Approaches in Context

In this course, Dr Ayoub Bouguettaya (University of Birmingham) explores context-based approaches in psychology. In the first lecture, we think about an unusual social interaction and the ways in which a psychological researcher might approach understanding it. In the second lecture, we think about idiographic and nomothetic approaches to investigation, and how these tie into personal and social factors. In the third lecture, we think about individual and social research methods, including the role of attributions and circumstances. Next, we think about attribution models, focusing on Jones and Davies’ theory and Kelly’s covariation model. In the fifth lecture, we think about biases, including gender bias (within which are alpha and beta biases) and culture biases. In the sixth and final lecture, we think about some conclusions and controversies within this field, including the importance of psychology pursuing both scientific methodologies and compassion.

Exploring Atypical Behaviour

In this lecture, we think about an atypical behavioural scenario and how we might explore why it has occurred, focusing in particular on: (i) the scenario whereby a person’s date behaves very unpredictably and seemingly contradicts themselves in what they do and what they say; (ii) questions that could be posed to explore why this happened, including why the person acted the way they did, how we would find out those reasons, and why the other person interpreted those actions as unexpected; (iii) the range of levels at which you can consider these issues, including individual (micro), social (middle), culture (macro) and general trends; (iv) why this matters as a psychology researcher, including a focus on the replication crisis and cultural differences.