Lecture 11

Question 1

Social Influence

Answer 1

• influence of ppl on ppl

- change in person’s thoughts, feelings, behaviour when someone else is present

Question 2

Audience effects

Answer 2

• changes in persons behaviour when alone vs with others
• e.g. sporting, academic, singing
• Triplett (1989): cyclists ride faster when racing, children reel faster when in pairs (fishing)
• Murray, Newmann, Mofitt, Thomas (2016): performance and distance of rowing increases with VR and audience present

Arousal from others present leads to:

• social facilitation: increased performance, do better, familiar simple tasks
• social inhibition: decreased performance, do worse, unfamiliar more complex tasks

audience present –> arousal –> increased tendency to produce dominant response –> either do correct or incorrectly leading to increase or decrease in performance

Question 3

Social loafing

Answer 3

• decrease in individual effort when working on group task
• less ppl = equal effort
• more ppl = less effort
• Max ringelmann found individual exerted less effort when pulling rope in group compared to alone

Question 4

Compliance

Answer 4

• Superficial public change in surface behaviour and expressed attitudes
• response to request and coercion by others
  Cialdini’s key factors:
• liking
• authority
• reciprocation
• commitment and consistency
• social proof
  -scarcity

Question 5

Compliance tactics EXAM

Answer 5

Foot-in-the-door

• make sml request then follow with larger
• e.g. sml sign vs billboard
• commitment and consistency

Low-balling

• make reasonable request, then reveal hidden cost after
• e.g. drive to airport, flight at 5am
• commitment and consistency

Door-in-the-face

• make ridiculous large request, follow with sml reasonable request
• reciprocation - almost like doing them a favour but making smaller

Question 6

Obedience

Answer 6

Authority commands us to change behav and we do
Agentic state
- frame of mind where we shift personal responsibility onto personal command
POWER OF THE SITUATION

Question 7

Obedience MILGRAM EXPERIMENT EXAM

Answer 7

teacher (participant) shocks student (confederate) every time answer wrong
65% obeyed till end as responsibility was on experimenter

Question 8

Behaviour in groups

Answer 8

Typically try to follow group attitudinal/behavioural norms

• formal: group formed by someone else and has leader
• informal: group formed by members and often doesn’t have leader

Powerful sources of conformity

Question 9

Conformity

Answer 9

Tendency for actions/opinions to change and match group norms (e.g. behav in lift, sim clothes to peers)

2 processes

• Informational influence: e.g. new social group with element we are unsure of. Conform because we think others know better than us and when we’re uncertain of how to act (“private” conformity)
• Normative influence: conform cause we want others to like and accept us, when group has power to punish or reward (socially) (“public” conformity)

Sherif (1963) auto kinetic effect

• small light dot movement tested alone vs in group
• person with high deviation with 2 people with low deviation found person with high conformed to the others

Question 10

Conformity - Asch Line Length Study

Answer 10

• participant at table with confederates
• asked which line correct
• confederates all answered same incorrect response
• 76% conformed at least once, 50% on 6 or more trials, 5% on all 12 trials
  POWER OF THE SITUATION

Question 11

Group decision making

Answer 11

Important decisions made by group rather than individual as groups:

• pool knowledge
• diverse perspectives
• eliminate biases

bigger, diverse groups –> better decision
smaller, homogenous groups –> worse decision
- group think (desire to maintain harmony, fall in line with each other/leader)
- group polarisation

Question 12

Group decision making - Group polarisation EXAM

Answer 12

• Tendency for group discussion among like-minded individuals to strengthen preexisting attitudes
• Decisions are either one extreme or the other e.g. overly conservative vs overly risky

Question 13

Aggression

Answer 13

Verbal/ physical behav aimed at harming

Explanations:

• Situational (frustration - cognitive neuroassociation theory, environmental cues, social learning/modelling, deindividuation, norms and roles)
• Instinct
• Biological

Question 14

Aggression - Instinct and evolution

Answer 14

• Freud, aggression is basic human instinct
• Current theorists, we have behaviour potential and frustration + anger trigger
• Parents often have to teach children how to inhibit aggressive responses
• Agg is evolutionary adaptive: survival and reproductive value

Question 15

Aggression - Biology

Answer 15

Genetics

• highly aggressive rats, mice, rabbits can be selectively bred
• twin/adoption studies: 50% inheritability

Neurological

• brain activity in hypothalamus, limbic system, prefrontal cortex
• damage, delayed development can influence aggression

Hormonal

• agg determined by levels of diff hormones
• testosterone –> social, aggression to maintain status

Question 16

Aggression - Frustration-aggression Hypothesis

Answer 16

fail to achieve goal –> frustration –> aggression
Original form:
- all frustration leads to aggression
- all aggression results from frustration

When source of frustration can’t be challenged

• scapegoating/ displacement of aggression on target
  e. g. take anger out on family instead of boss

Question 17

Aggression - Cognitive Neuroassociation Theory

Answer 17

Aversive situations --> -ve affect (collection of -ve emotions) + arousal --> aggression
Aversive situations can include:
- frustration
- hot temperature
- hostility

Question 18

Aggression - Environmental cues

Answer 18

Weapons effect

• presence of weapons increases aggression
• mind associates weapons with aggression and violence

Question 19

Aggression - Social Learning Model EXAM

Answer 19

People behave aggressive cause see others behave aggressive

bandora’s bobo doll studies

• children presented with either: aggressive model, non aggressive model or no model
• children exposed to aggressive model displayed more aggressive behav when given chance to play with toys

Question 20

Aggression - Deindividuation

Answer 20

• When in crowd, lose sense of self and become one with group
• become more aggressive and impulsive
• normally inhibit agg to conform
• crowds = anonymity –> less fear of -ve evaluation, therefore revert to agg. and impulsive instincts
• e.g. video of winning money vs kidnapping
• ppl generally want bad things to happen when lose sense of self

Question 21

Aggression - Norms and Roles

Answer 21

• roles associated with both prosocial and antisocial behav
• certain roles associated with aggression (gang members, police)
• ppl become aggressive in these roles (deindividuation occurs and assists ppl to take on roles)
• e.g. Zimbardo’s prison study

Question 22

Zimbardo’s prison study

Answer 22

• fake jail
• randomly divided college students into prisoners and guards
• both deindividuated to socialise them into roles e.g. uniforms
• guards became cruel and abusive\
• prisoners compliant and powerless
• planned for 2 weeks but had to stop after 6 days
• prisoners psychologically affected

Question 23

The bystander effect

Answer 23

Kitty Genovese

• attacked outside apartment
• newspaper reported 38 witnesses in apartment building but none intervened or called police
• assailant: “I knew they wouldn’t do anything, ppl never do”

Less likely to help when others are around
Diffusion of responsibility
- when assume others will take responsibility, therefore sense of responsibility decreases

Question 24

Prosocial behaviour

Answer 24

Any act with goal of benefitting others
Altruism
- desire to help others with no apparent reward, even if involves cost for helper
Influencing factors:
- empathy (resolve -ve emotions)
- modelling (modelling altrusic behav can increase and rise versa)
- Instruction (closer we are to person, more likely to help)
- Time