Lecture 11 Flashcards
Social Influence
- influence of ppl on ppl
- change in person’s thoughts, feelings, behaviour when someone else is present
Audience effects
- 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
Social loafing
- 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
Compliance
- 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
Compliance tactics EXAM
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
Obedience
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
Obedience MILGRAM EXPERIMENT EXAM
teacher (participant) shocks student (confederate) every time answer wrong
65% obeyed till end as responsibility was on experimenter
Behaviour in groups
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
Conformity
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
Conformity - Asch Line Length Study
- 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
Group decision making
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
Group decision making - Group polarisation EXAM
- 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
Aggression
Verbal/ physical behav aimed at harming
Explanations:
- Situational (frustration - cognitive neuroassociation theory, environmental cues, social learning/modelling, deindividuation, norms and roles)
- Instinct
- Biological
Aggression - Instinct and evolution
- 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
Aggression - Biology
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
Aggression - Frustration-aggression Hypothesis
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
Aggression - Cognitive Neuroassociation Theory
Aversive situations --> -ve affect (collection of -ve emotions) + arousal --> aggression Aversive situations can include: - frustration - hot temperature - hostility
Aggression - Environmental cues
Weapons effect
- presence of weapons increases aggression
- mind associates weapons with aggression and violence
Aggression - Social Learning Model EXAM
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
Aggression - Deindividuation
- 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
Aggression - Norms and Roles
- 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
Zimbardo’s prison study
- 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
The bystander effect
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
Prosocial behaviour
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
