Social and cultural issues in psychology - 5

Question 1

Social issues in psychology

Answer 1

1. Society refers to a group of people living together in a large group
2. Social psychology investigates how these groups exert an influence on our behaviour
3. A social issue is a problem or situation of conflict within a society
4. One of the most widely researched social issues occurred during the Nazi regime in Germany during the Second World War
5. Anti-semitism was a social issue that involved prejudice, discrimination, and persecution of the Jewish population. Rioting can also be seen as a a social issue because it involves members of a social group

Question 2

Obedience (social issue)

Answer 2

1. Milgram’s research into obedience helps us to understand the atrocities committed against Jews by soldiers during the war because their behaviour could be partly explained by high levels of obedience to authority
2. Milgram helped us understand that the German soldiers were no different to anyone else, but that the situation they found themselves in determined their behaviour

Question 3

Conformity (social issue)

Answer 3

1. Conformity can also help us understand social issues
2. In august 2011, riots occurred in London in reaction to the police shooting of Mark Duggan, and quickly escalated to other parts of England
3. Informational social influence can help us understand how people were unsure how to respond to the shooting and looked to others for information on how to behave
4. In a crowd, they would observe the other members being hostile, causing damage and looting, and internalise the norms of the group
5. Normative social influence can also explain that members of the crowd may have felt that they needed to fit in and so joined in with the rioting

Question 4

Deindividuation (social issue)

Answer 4

1. Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo’s study showed us how our behaviour can change when we lose our personal identity (deindividuation)
2. Deindividuation might help us understand the behaviour of the Nazi soldiers during the Second World War - as they wore uniforms they were anonymised as individuals
3. Research has demonstrated that we become more aggressive with loss of personal identity, which may explain the soldiers’ aggression towards the Jews
4. We also know that larger groups are more likely to become deindividuated and therefore more aggressive if the group norms are anti-social
5. e.g. as the riots grew in the UK as did aggression

Question 5

Bystander Effect (social issue)

Answer 5

1. German citizens could have failed to help Jewish people being persecuted during the Second World War because many other German people were not helping
2. Alternatively, they may have decided not to intervene because they diffused responsibility onto others. This pluralistic ignorance may have occurred because many Germany people did not comprehend the level of persecution the Jews experienced
3. German people may also have evaluated the cost of helping as too high, because it was likely that they would have been imprisoned or killed for helping the Jewish people.

Question 6

Culture

Answer 6

culture refers to a set of beliefs, practices, and traditions held by a large group of people

Question 7

Division of culture

Answer 7

1. Individualistic cultures

2. Collectivistic cultures

Question 8

Individualistic cultures

Answer 8

1. a culture that emphasises independence, autonomy, and individuality
2. usually Western

Question 9

Collectivistic cultures

Answer 9

1. a culture that emphasises group membership, interdependence, and cooperation
2. usually Eastern (asian)

Question 10

Obedience (cultural issue)

Answer 10

1. It could be suggested that individualistic cultures, which stress the role of the individual, equality and independence are less likely to follow orders from an authority figure
2. Collectivistic cultures stress the importance of group goals and respect for authority, so its members are more likely to fall into line if ordered by an authority figure
3. However, as Milgram (1963) demonstrated, obedience is more a product of the situation we find ourselves in rather than the culture we come from.

Question 11

Conformity (cultural issue)

Answer 11

1. Whether we see ourselves as individuals or as part of a group can affect whether or not we conform to group behaviour
2. Individualistic cultures are more likely to be non-conformist because individualism is not feared and there is less need to fit in
3. Collectivistic cultures emphasise group coherence and not being seen as distinct from others. Therefore, they are more likely to conform to the behaviour of the majority
4. Rod Bond and Peter Smith (1966) demonstrated this in a study that replicated Asch’s line judgement study across 17 different countries. They compared the findings and found that collectivistic cultures were more likely to conform to the group majority than individualistic cultures.

Question 12

Deindividuation (cultural issue)

Answer 12

1. Deindividuation is likely to occur across all cultures equally and the outcomes of deindividuation, whether peaceful or aggressive, are dependent on the norms that are established within a group
2. For e.g. warriors in tribal cultures that use face paint to disguise themselves are preparing themselves for warfare
3. The face paint deindividuated them allowing them to be more aggressive
4. Similarly the KKK member disguise themselves in white robes when taking part in racist practices.

Question 13

Bystander effect (cultural issue)

Answer 13

1. Cultural differences in bystander behaviour are likely
2. Individualistic cultures do not form close social bonds within groups as there is no need to cooperate for collective goals
3. This may result in an indifference to others’ suffering and more self-protecting behaviour
4. Collectivistic cultures have strong in-group favouritism as they are driven to cooperate together as a social group. Therefore, people in collectivist cultures are strongly motivated to help members of their groups such as their family or peers
5. However they are less likely to help those they do not see as belonging to their group
6. This in-group favouritism was demonstrated in Piliavin’s study which found higher incidence of same-race helping particularly when the victim was drunk, meaning the cost of helping was at its highest