Social Effects on Behavior Flashcards
A baseball player pitches his best game when he is mildly stressed and when a small crowd is present. This is an example of
This is an example of Yerkes-Dodson law because the baseball player’s performance improved as a result of mild stress and NOT necessarily as a result of the presence of others. If this were an example of social facilitation, it would need to be demonstrated that when the player’s teammates are not around, he plays worse.
A student scores higher on digitally administered exams when in a classroom with other students present than when alone at home
This is an example of social facilitation, or the tendency for performance on difficult tasks to spontaneously improve when performing the task in the presence of others. In this instance, the presence of classmates is the only factor that changed, allowing the student to succeed on a difficult exam.
Julie plays lacrosse. She plays her worst games at unimportant scrimmages and at the playoffs, but plays her best games at normal games throughout the season. This is an example of…
The athlete performs best during moderately stressful matches (during the regular season) and worse during low and high stress matches (scrimmages and playoff matches, respectively). This reflects Yerkes-Dodson law, which suggests that performance on a task is improved by a moderate amount of arousal.
John, Jack, Jake, and Jim are running in a 4x100 relay race. They can each run a fast 100 m dash, but don’t run that same pace during the relay race. What could explain this?
Social Loafing. These track and field sprinters perform worse when they are on a team, versus when they are competing individually. This can be explained by social loafing – the sprinters are working less hard because they believe their teammates will pick up the slack.
Group members lack awareness of their own self-identity when they belong to a larger group.
Deindividuation
Group members believe that whether or not they take action, nobody will recognize their efforts because they belong to a crowd.
Anonymity
Group members attribute the negative consequences of inaction to other members of their group.
Diffusion of Responsibility
How does group size impact group psychology?
Group size is a characteristic of every group. Increasing group size will magnify several characteristics of individuals in groups – including feelings of anonymity and the diffusion of responsibility. Decreasing group size will minimize these characteristics. The larger a group gets, the more likely individuals are to experience deindividuation and lose awareness of their self-identity.
This graph demonstrates what aspect of group psychology:
The yerkes dodson
This graph demonstrates what aspect of group psychology:
Psychological arousal when performing a SIMPLE task
People perform tasks better in a group setting where psychological arousal is higher
Social Facilitation
Belief that others will pick up the slack and that you don’t have to work as hard are key traits of what?
Social Loafing
Kitty Genovese was murdered in NYC. Her neighbors heard her screams, but no one called the cops because they thought someone else would have. This is an example of…
The Bystander Effect
Loss of self awareness in a crowd, high psychological arousal, lower perceived responsibility, anonymity, diffused responsibility, and group size are all contributing factor to which phenomenon?
Deindividuation
The three members of the experiment were the experimenter, who represented an authority figure urging test subjects to carry on, the learner, a confederate (“in-the-know”) who pretended to experience excruciating pain, and the teacher, the test subject who was requested by an authority figure to carry out evidently immoral actions and cause pain to the learner.
The results of the experiment showed that while test subjects were uncomfortable and stressed by causing pain to others, if urged on by an authority figure they would comply to an extreme extent.
These famous experimental results have been extrapolated to explain real-world examples of obedience leading to negative outcomes – answering questions such as, “Why would a country’s citizens listen to an immoral leader?”
The Milgram experiment— a controversial experiment to determine the limits of what immoral actions humans could be persuaded to carry out as a result of obedience to an authority figure.
Experiment where test subjects were divided into ‘guards’ and ‘prisoners’. Test-subjects who were assigned to be ‘guards’ quickly internalized negative beliefs about the prisoners and treated them with genuine maliciousness and harshness. Dr. Zimbardo – the researcher in charge – did little to prevent these actions, and in fact encouraged the divide between the two groups.
While it remains questionable whether the Experiment’s results should be considered valid, it can be used as a case study for conformity. For example, prisoners in the experiment displayed obedience to authority figures such as the guards and Zimbardo. Guards, seeing their peers act in certain ways, conformed to their role.
Stanford prison experiment
Experiement where participants changed their answer to reflect wrong answers provided by confederates
Asch Experiement
Two subsets of conformity
Compliance and internalization
