Lecture 9 Social influence Flashcards
What is Social Influence
Process of change in behaviour that is produced by the presence of people and social interaction
What is conformity?
When you decide (self made decision) to change attitude or behaviour to be more like those around you
What experiment tests conformity?
Asch’s experiment where one participant is in a room of confederates (fakes) that give the wrong answer on purpose to make the participant follow.
What is the informational influence?
When you think someone else has more useful knowledge on a topic than you, and so you are more likely to go along with their opinion.
What is Referent informational influence?
similar to informational influence but in relation to a larger group that you believe have more useful knowledge on a topic than you
What is normative influence?
Wanting to get social approval and be liked by a group, doing what you think others want you to do
What is obedience and why do we do it?
When you receive a directive/order and obey it, helps us to learn social behaviours and can provide safety when in the context of thinks like the law (seatbelts)
What experiment looked at obedience?
Milgram experiment involving a shock board that was to be used when the confederate got a wrong question.
What is compliance and how does it differ from conformity and obedience?
Compliance is when you get people to say yes to your request. It differs from conformity as it is a specific request (not a trend), and differs from obedience as it isn’t a demand (is a request)
What is the door in the face technique?
People say no to a big request, and then are given a smaller more realistic request and as a result are more likely to say yes.
What is the norm of reciprocity?
We feel compelled to comply when someone has helped us in the past
What is the ‘But wait….there’s more’ technique?
The addition of a supposed freebie along with a request to make it more appealing (reward for just saying yes)
What are the 3 types of group dynamics?
- Mere presence effect
- Deindividuation
- Minority group influence
What is the mere presence effect?
Just being around someone else can change your performance on a task. Improve (social facilitation) or worsen (social inhibition). Depends on the task and your confidence.
What is deindividuation and what experiment looks at it?
Where your sense of personal identity and self-awareness weakens in the presence of a group you are in. Leads to increase in impulsivity. Zimbardo’s prison experiment looks at this.
What is the minority group influence and what experiment is related?
When members of a minority can influence the attitudes and behaviours of the majority. An ash type study that replaced the majority of lying confederates into a minority in the group of participants.
What are some factors that increase the impact/success of the minority group influence?
- Forceful
- Consistent
- Logical argument
What is prosocial behaviour?
acts that are positively valued by society
What is help?
acts that intentionally benefit someone else
What is altruism?
help given without any expectation of personal gain
What are the 4 major theoretical approaches to prosocial behaviour?
- Evolutionary (nature/innate)
- Social learning (nurture/learnt through reinforcement)
- Social-cognitive
- Cognitive-physiological
What is social loafing?
Where people working together on a task generate less total effort that they would have if they had worked alone
What is the bystander effect?
People are less likely to help in an emergency when they are with others than when alone. The greater the number, the less likely it is that anyone will help. (diffusion of responsibility is a reason for this.)
What is the social-cognitive approach?
Looks at the element of an emergency (unusual, unforeseen, costly…), and suggests that to help we must
- attend to what is happening
- Define event as emergency
- Assume responsibility
- Decide what can be done
What is the cognitive-physiological approach?
- Arousal
- Label arousal (causes e.g. I’m in trouble and scared)
- Evaluate costs (of helping or not helping)
What are perceiver-centred determinants?
shows if bystanders are more likely to help.
- Personality
- Mood
- Competence
What is the negative state relief model?
proposes that we help other in order to lift us out of a bad mood (by smiling, good gestures, nice social interaction….)
What is the empathy-altruistic hypothesis?
States that we help for one of two reasons
- Personal distress and we help to reduce our own distress
- Empathic concern and we help to reduce the other person’s distress
What are some recipient-centered determinants?
- If recipient is attractive you’re more likely to help
- If you feel empathy towards recipient you’re more likely to help
- Responsibility of misfortune (e.g. natural disaster vs man-made disaster)
