Social area Flashcards
2 key principles
Our behaviour is the result of perceived or actual presence of others
So we need to investigate the social context behaviour occurs in
Key concepts
Diffusion of responsibility
Arousal cost reward model
Destructive obedience
What is diffusion of responsibility
A form of the bystander effect Where they won’t offer help/intervene in a situation if other people are present, because they assume other people are responsible thus feel less guilt
What is the arousal cost reward model
Cognitive model proposed by Piliavin:
Event occurs causing negative physiological response (worry)
Analysis occurs: weigh up the pros and cons to intervene
And weigh up pros and cons to not Intervene
Decision is based on cost/benefit as a result
What is destructive obedience?
Compliance with orders from authority that is illegal, harmful or immoral or contradicts one’s own principles
What are the 2 themes in this area
Obedience to authority figures
Helping behaviour
What studies research obedience to authority?
Milgram
Bocchiaro
Why does Milgrams study fall under the social area?
Investigates how the presence of an authority figure can influence behaviour, in this case obedience to shock the learner
As well as the social dynamics (Yale, Experimenter) can influence this: prestigious location and stern attitude
Why does Milgrams study fall under the theme of obedience to authority?
Because he set up a controlled observation to investigate how someone can behave immorally through delivering shocks to a learner purely as a result of obedience to an authority (stern experimenter in Yale)
Why does Bocchiaro s study fall under this area?
Because this study investigated how participants would respond to an unjust authority figure (experimenter) whether they would obey (write the letter to 5 friends) or whistleblow
Investigates dynamics of whistleblowing, a social phenomenon where wrong doing is reported to the public
How does Bocchiaros study fall under this theme of obedience?
Because a cover story was created about an experimenter wanting to complete an unethical study into sensory deprivation, and whether participants would respond in 3 ways: obey, disobey, or whistleblow in terms of if they write a letter, don’t, or write the report
How does
What studies fall under the theme of helping behaviour in need?
Piliavin
Levine
How does Piliavin’s study fall under this area?
Investigates how the presence of other passengers on a subway train effect whether help is given to an actor who pretended to fall over
Investigates the presence of the model helper in whether participants offer more or less help
How does Piliavin’s study fall under the theme of helping behaviour
Investigates 4 variables in the amount of help offered: black/white victim, ill/drunk victim, model helper intervene early or late by creating a fake situation where an actor pretended to stumble on the subway train
How does Levine’s study fall under this area?
Aimed to investigate whether the amount of help given to fake actors (blind person across the street, dropped pen, hurt leg) was affected by the presence of other people within different cultures
How does Levines study fall under the theme of helping people?
Investigated how participants of different cultures varied in the amount of help they offered to fake actors, who would pretend to be blind to cross the street, drop a pen or drop magazines with a broken leg
And what characteristics of the culture affected this behaviour
Strengths of the social area
Often uses field studies to be accurate reflection of real life, so the studies have high ecological validity
Often has large sample sizes
Has many practical applications to social situations and interactions with others
Weaknesses of the social area
Field studies often lack controls on extraneous variables so may not be standardised for all participants
Research is ethnocentric so must be repeated in multiple different culture, as social factors differ across cultures
How does Bocchiaro change our understanding of obedience to unjust authority?
Shows us that the same level of obedience to authority occurs in the Netherlands as well as the US
How does Bocchiaro NOT change our understanding of obedience?
A very small percent of participants disobeyed, showing the same conclusion that people are more likely to obey in spite of unethical or unjust orders from authority
How does Bocchiaro change our understanding in terms of individual diversity?
Investigated personality characteristics that affect obedience and disobedience through test (HEXACO)
Though, no significant difference in characteristics other than whistleblowers have a slight significant more faith
How does Bocchiaro change our understanding of social diversity?
Bocchiaro investigated both males and females whereas Milgram only investigated males
BUT to a small extent as the results were similar across genders
How does Bocchiaro change our understanding in terms of cultural diversity?
Was carried out in the Netherlands instead of the USA
But found very similar results, as well as western cultures both being studies
How did Levines study change our understanding of helping behaviour ?
Contradicted Piliavin’s claim than men help more than women, as he found there were no gender differences in amount of help given
Also specifically investigated a range of different cultures: characteristics of different cultures also affects helping behaviour
How did
How does Levines study change our understanding of individual diversity?
Did not investigate individual characteristics so does not change our understanding
How does Levines study investigate social diversity?
To a large extent, as women were investigated too and were found to help significantly more than men which differs from Piliavin’s claim
How does Levine change our understanding of cultural diversity?
Investigated a range of different cultures to show there were cultural differences in amount of help given
Applications of social area
Ticket officers can use stern demeanour + jackets to increase amount of obedience of general public
