Intro to Social Psychology Flashcards
What is social psychology?
study of how interactions with other individuals affect an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
What is social influence?
how behavior is influenced by others and how we interact with others
What is a social contagion?
the rapid spread of emotions or behaviors through a crowd
- compulsion to conform to big crowds 1. example: mass hysteria (suicide, gun violence, fake news)
What is conformity?
tendency for individuals in a group to behave like others in that group
What are the causes of conformity?
informational influence = people accept evidence about reality provided by others
normative influence - a person’s desire to fulfill others’ expectations and gain acceptance
What was Asch’s Study of Group Pressure?
results:
1. 75% conform at least once
- some never give the wrong answer and some always give the wrong answer
2. individual difference in pressure to conform
- overall: wrong answer was give 32% of the time
What are the variations of Asch’s Study of Group Pressure and the results?
- unanimity of majority
- conformity fell to 1/4 of previous levels
- unanimous majority of 3 > majority of 8 + 1 dissenter
- devil’s advocate utilized
= some yield to majority even with a difference in conformity lines by 7 in
What is obedience?
complying with instructions given by an authority figure
What was Milgram’s experiment?
it was a “study of memory”
set up:
1. roles assigned = (1) participant = teacher (2) confederate = leader
2. shocked at different scales -> The amount of shock willing to be received correlates to level of obedience
results:
1. 68% of participants went over severe shocks
evaluation:
1. bad explanations for results
- abnormal group -> numerous replications
- sadistic -> showed extreme distress
- better explanations
- confident and prestigious authoritative figures
- distance from learner/ authority
- unusual situation and no role models
- diffusion of responsibility
