... individual in a social context (Wetherell, 1996, p.16). For much social psychological research, the experiment is the favoured method of investigation. Experimental social psychology is more associated with a scientific approach as it purposefully adopts intellectually rigorous methods for understanding human social behaviour. One of the great strengths of this method is that it enables a systematic exploration of an effect and of what its cause might be. The basis for this premise is largely dependent on three assumptions. Firstly that social behaviour is describable and measurable. Secondly it doesn't occur spontaneously or randomly, but is caused by a range of internal and external factors. Thirdly, the relationship between these factors and behaviour are regular. These relationships are only to be discovered through carefully controlled empirical investigations and experiments (McGhee, 1996, p.7). The opponents of scientific psychological study would argue that the problem with such rigid investigations is that people are ...

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