Psychology - Social Psychology Flashcards
What is social psychology?
How our thoughts, feelings, motives, perceptions, and behaviors are shaped by other individuals and social situations.
- How individuals affect each other with regard to friendships, relationships, expectations, and social situations.
Situationism
- The power of situation on your thoughts, emotions, and behavior.
- We adapt our behavior to fit a particular situation.
- If a situation is ambiguous, we look to other people for cues as to how to act.
(eg. of situationism: how you dress at church would not be the same as you dress at a club)
Social Roles
- Everyone plays different roles in their life.
- There are different expectations for each role.
Ex: Mother vs. Daughter and Student vs. Teacher - Script: knowledge about the sequence of events and actions that are expected of a particular social role.
- Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Dr. Zimbardo
Social Norms
- Expectations about appropriate attitudes and behaviors of members of a social group.
“Unwritten rules”
Ex: dress codes, political views, ect. - When new to a group you
a) Identify the social norms
b) View the negative consequences for violating them (think Mean Girls)
Conformity
- Conformity is changing yourself for other people.
- Chameleon Effect: changing to fit in to the environment (mood, clothes, ect)
- The Asch Effect: studied the influence of a group majority on individual judgement (think of the different lines on a board, blahblah)
- Independents: nonconformists
(think of that one brave soul who will try to open a door even when there are a bunch of people standing outside waiting)
Conformity (Cont’d)
- 3 factors that influence whether a person will conform to group pressure:
1) Size of majority
2) Presence of a partner who dissented from majority
3) Size of the discrepancy between correct answer and majority’s disposition
More factors - p. 485
Groupthink
- Process by which groups are pressured to conform.
- Members attempt to conform their opinions to what each believes is the consensus of the group.
- Leads to bad/irrational decisions
(Could possibly be reason for why our government makes poor decisions at times) - p. 487
The Bystander Effect
- Kitty Genovese: a woman stabbed to death in a NY street while 38 bystanders watched.
Only 1 person called 911 (after she was raped and murdered!!!) - The more people thought to be present, the less likely people are to react.
- “Diffusion of responsibility” = Likelihood of intervention decreases as a group size increases.
- Ways to counteract this effect: involve others personally. Also, education of this effect.
Obedience to Authority
- WWII: Hitler/Mussolini and the Holocaust
Gave rise to modern social psychology. - 1978: Jim Jones and the ‘People’s Temple’
- 1993: David Koresh and the Branch Dividians
- 1997: Heaven’s Gate
- 2001: 9/11 and Islamic extremists
Notice that the context that leads to these mass genocides is very important. During WWII, Germany was going through an extremely bad time.
When Jim Jones created that cult, he was advertising togetherness which was very appealing during the 70’s.
The Milgram Experiment
- 1965: Stanley Milgram’s study on obedience.
- Looked at how far people would go before they would defy authority.
- Study showed that situational, not personal variables are responsible for obedience.
Why do we obey authority? (p. 493)
The Experiment
You are asked to deliver volts of electricity to a patient (whom you can hear but not see) when he delivers an incorrect answer. The voltage goes from 15 volts (a mild shock) to 450 volts (marked by ‘XXX’ on the machine).
The results showed that the vast majority went all the way just because the psychologist told them to continue.
Only 3 decided not to go through with the experiment.
