Lecture 1 - Introduction

Question 1

What is social psychology?

Answer 1

“The scientific attempt to explain how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other human-beings.” (Allport, 1954, P. 5)

Question 2

Who was Wilhelm Wundt?

Answer 2

Created the first dedicated laboratory for experimental psychological research.

Question 3

What was Freud the first to create?

Answer 3

The first psychoanalytic school of psychology

Question 4

In what period saw a rapid growth of laboratory research in the USA?

Answer 4

Early 1900s

Question 5

What did Allport (1924) say social psychology would need to become in order to flourish?

Answer 5

Experimental science

Question 6

What was the title of the book published by Murphy and Murphy (1931-1937)?

Answer 6

Experimental Social Psychology

Question 7

What is positivism?

Answer 7

The non-critical acceptance of scientific method as the only way to arrive at true knowledge. Because they are studying themselves they cannot truly be objective and thus objectivity can never be attained it is not a true science

Question 8

What is reductionism?

Answer 8

Explanation of a phenomenon in terms of the language and concepts of a lower level of analysis, usually with the loss of explanatory power

Question 9

What did Doise (1986) suggest?

Answer 9

We should accept the existence of different levels of explanation but to make a special effort to construct theories that formally integrate, or “articulate”, concepts from different levels in social psychology

Question 10

What were Triplett’s possible explanations for why cyclists stay together in races?

Answer 10

• The front rider provided suction that pulled the cyclist along, helping to conserve energy
• The front rider provided shelter from the wind
• Solo cyclists worry that they are not going fast enough and this exhausts their brain and muscles which inhibits performance
• Friends usually rode as pacers and this helped to keep the cyclist’s spirits up
• The cyclist is hypnotised by the wheels in front and rides automatically which leaves more energy for a final burst
• The presence of another arouses a ‘competitive instinct’ that releases ‘nervous energy’

Question 11

Outline Triplett’s study (1898)

Answer 11

Perhaps Triplett’s study was the first social psychology laboratory experiments ever undertaken. It was a study on social facilitation, these concern the extent to which a given piece of an individual’s behaviour is affected by the real, imagined or implied presence of others. Social facilitation can be defined as a difference in performance produced by the mere presence of others. There are two types of social facilitation: co-action effects and audience effect.

Question 12

Describe social facilitation

Answer 12

When in the presence of others the most dominant response will be shown (response most likely to occur). In the context of a presentation, if you practised for hours on end and make very few mistakes then the presence of others will lead you to perform very well, giving you an edge and are motivated to do well. However, with little practise the presence of others will cause you to perform more poorly than usual, exacerbating the mistakes.

The presence of others causes an increase in arousal (nervous energy) increasing the likelihood of the dominant response occurring. The presence of others will likely improve your performance on simple or well-rehearsed tasks whereas, it will likely worsen your performance in difficult or unrehearsed tasks.

Question 13

Describe social loafing

Answer 13

A tendency to put forth less effort when working on a group task if the individual contributions of the task aren’t evaluated. This can be reduced by making the task more difficult, separating the performance of individuals or making each individual’s performance essential for success.

Question 14

What is the Yerkes-Dodson law?

Answer 14

The Yerkes – Dodson Law suggests that performance and arousal are directly related. Once the arousal crosses the optimal level, performance of the individual starts to diminish.

Question 15

Describe the studies that support social loafing

Answer 15

Max Ringlemann (1913) investigated this by measuring the force of people pulling on a rope alone and in groups of eight. He found that people on average 139lbs alone compared to just 68lbs in an eight-person group. This study was replicated by Allan Ingham et al. (1974) however, the other participants were confederates who pretended to pull on the rope. The individuals who thought the others were helping them pull on the rope reduced their effort and pulled with less force.

Question 16

Detail the methods of Triplett’s study

Answer 16

In his research on the speed records of cyclists, he noticed that racing against each other rather than against the clock alone increased the cyclists’ speeds. He attempted to duplicate this under laboratory conditions using children and fishing reels. There were two conditions: the child alone and children in pairs but working alone. Their task was to wind in a given amount of fishing line and Triplett reports that many children worked faster in the presence of a partner doing the same task. The apparatus for this study consisted of two fishing reels whose cranks turned in circles of one and three-fourths inches diameter. These were arranged on a Y shaped frame work clamped to the top of a heavy table, as shown in the cut. The sides of this frame work were spread sufficiently far apart to permit of two persons turning side by side. Bands of twisted silk cord ran over the well lacquered axes of the reels and were supported at C and D, two meters distant, by two small pulleys. The records were taken from the course A D. The other course B C being used merely for pacing or competition purposes. The wheel on the side from which the records were taken communicated the movement made to a recorder, the stylus of which traced a curve on the drum of a kymograph. The direction of this curve corresponded to the rate of turning, as the greater the speed the shorter and straighter the resulting line..

Question 17

What were the results of Triplett’s study?

Answer 17

Some small differences were found in the motor rate between the sexes, corresponding in general to the results exhibited. Triplett concluded that the bodily presence of another contestant participating simultaneously in the race serves to liberate latent energy not ordinarily available. This inference is further justified by the difference in time between the paced competition races and the paced races against time, amounting to an average of 5.15 seconds per mile up to 25 miles. The factors of shelter from the mind, encouragement, brain worry, hypnotic suggestion, and automatic movement, are common to both, while the competitors participate simultaneously in person only in the first. However, nowadays the study can be criticised for being statistically inadequate.

Question 18

What is the co-action effect?

Answer 18

Triplett’s experiments demonstrate the co-action effect, a phenomenon whereby increased task performance comes about by the mere presence of others doing the same task. The co-action effect may come into operation if you find that you work well in a library in preference to working at home where it is equally quiet (and so on).

Question 19

Detail the other studies that support the co-action effect

Answer 19

Other co-action effect studies include Chen (1937) who observed that worker ants will dig more than three times as much sand per ant when working (non-co-operatively) alongside other ants than when working alone and Platt, Yaksh and Darby (1967) found that animals will eat more of their food if there are others of their species present.

Question 20

What is the audience effect?

Answer 20

Social facilitation occurs not only in the presence of a co-actor but also in the presence of a passive spectator/audience.

Question 21

Detail the other study that support the audience effect

Answer 21

This is known as the audience effect, surprisingly. J.W. Michaels et al. (1982) looked at the performance of skilled pool players against amateurs when they were either alone or being observed by 4 people. They found that the skilled pool players performed better when being observed rather than alone whereas the opposite was true for the amateurs.

Question 22

Detail the non-human animal study that supports the audience effect

Answer 22

Another study involving animals conducted by Zajonc, Heingartner and Herman (1969) demonstrated that social facilitation occurs not only in humans, but also in species with limited or no cognitive processing. Zajonc developed a series of mazes, differing in difficulty, each having a light at the beginning to ensure the cockroach would begin the journey to the end of the maze. Variables such as the difficulty of the maze, whether the cockroach went through solo or with a partner, and also if the cockroach had an audience of a small group of other cockroaches watching were all taken into account.
The results proved similar to Triplett’s for when the cockroaches travelled through the easy mazes; they would finish faster in the presence of an audience. But in the harder mazes, the results were just the opposite; it took longer to the cockroach to get to the end of the maze with others watching. From this, Zajonc theorized that social facilitation was a result of arousal created by the presence of another being. The easy mazes were quicker in the presence of others because easy tasks require a higher arousal. Vice versa for the difficult mazes. The harder the task, the less arousal is recommended for the best performance.