Introduction to applied social psychology 7
they are treated worse than their colleagues (Geurts, Buunk & Schaufeli, 1994).
A social dilemma perspective may suggest that people are absent from work
because they do not feel responsible for their work, and feel their contribution
to the organizational goals is negligible. According to reciprocity theory, people
will often be absent when they feel they invest more in their work than they obtain
in return. These explanations are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and may all
contribute to the understanding of this or any other problem.
Deductive perspective. A researcher may be particularly interested in examin-
ing the extent to which a specific theory is successful in explaining various types
of social behaviour. For example, the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991)
has been applied to understand a wide range of social behaviours, including low-
fat diet consumption, drug and alcohol use, smoking, safe sex, recycling, mode
choice and driving violations. A meta-analytic review revealed that TPB was
quite successful in explaining this wide range of social behaviour, although the
TPB is less successful in predicting observed behaviour compared to self-reported
behaviour (see Armitage & Conner, 2001).
Of course, many scientists and many studies may be categorized as both basic
and applied. Combining basic and applied work is quite valuable, since it demon-
strates to what extent theories tested in experimental settings are valid in real-life
situations as well. Thus, studies may be both theory oriented and problem ori-
ented. First, so-called applied studies may sometimes lead to major theoretical
breakthroughs. Second, so-called basic studies may be conducted in applied set-
tings and make a major contribution to the insight in an applied problem. Both
kinds of studies are highly valuable, since they reveal how social problems may
be solved while at the same time they contribute to theory testing and building.
Theoretical breakthroughs in applied research. A good example is the work by
Shelley Taylor and her colleagues on social comparison among women with breast
cancer (Wood, Taylor & Lichtman, 1985). This research was undertaken in order
to examine the psychological aspects of the strategies these women were using in
coping with their disease. Unexpectedly, when asked how well they were coping
with their problems compared with other women with breast cancer, 80 per cent
of the women interviewed reported they were doing ‘somewhat’ or ‘much’ better
than other women. Perhaps more important, an analysis of the comments that
were made spontaneously by these women during the interview indicated that
no matter how serious these women’s problems were, they believed that there
were others who were worse off. And if they did not know of any specific person
who had been more seriously afflicted, they imagined others, or even fabricated
a target, that is, they cognitively constructed a comparison target themselves.
This study was of major theoretical importance because it suggested (1) that so-
called downward comparisons (comparisons with others who were worse off)
were very prevalent among people facing a threat; (2) that such comparisons did
not necessarily involve contact with others, but could take the form of cognitively
constructing others; and (3) that these comparisons seemed to help women with
breast cancer cope by allowing them to feel better about themselves and their
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Cambridge University Press
978-0-521-86979-9 - Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Managing Social Problems
Edited by Linda Steg, Abraham P. Buunk and Talib Rothengatter
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