SOCIAL - KEY QUESTION Flashcards
what is the social key question?
how can knowledge of social psychology be used to reduce conflict such a rioting and crowd behaviour?
AO1:
why is this an important key question?
->society needs to sort out the issue of rioting and crowd behaviour as it creates hostility and can lead to fear, damage, injury, and even deaths
what is crowd control/riots?
->the idea is, the larger the crowd, the harder it is to manage
->riots have many costs to society: they divide communities, leave residents fearful, and cause financial costs to homeowners and businesses
an example of rioting behaviour is…?
->football hooliganism:
–>in 1987, Wolves supporters invaded Scarborough for their opening game
–>56 people were arrested and £1000 worth of damage was caused in some of the worst violence the town had ever seen
–>this is why a greater understanding of crowd control is important in order to avoid these violent situations from happening
AO2:
SOCIAL IMPACT THEORY:
->SIT is an explanation of social influence, suggesting that we are greatly influenced by others, especially in a group setting (like a crowd)
->sources are those who are trying to influence others
->targets are the ones being influenced by the sources
->the number of people performing a behaviour means we are more likely to perform the behaviour ourselves, which is why crowd rioting is so influential
->immediacy refers to how close the sources are to the targets, the closer the proximity increases the likelihood of obedience - this is very influential as crowds have no choice but to have very close immediacy
–>in situations of crowd behaviour, the targets are the protesters and the sources are the police (identified by uniform status). As division of impact suggests, if there are more targets than sources, then the sources will hold much less influence - this is why crowd behaviour is difficult to control, as the crowd will always be larger than the amount of police/security they have available
–>from this, we know that if we were to get more authority figures (eg. police) at an event, the strength and number of the sources would increase, allowing for easier crowd control
REALISTIC CONFLICT THEORY:
->RCT explains such behaviour through the notion of competition; whenever there are 2 or more groups that seek the same resources, this will lead to conflict and discrimination between the groups
->zero sums fate means that only one group can win; the in-group should always win, even at the cost of the out-group - as only one team can win a football match, or a tournament, this creates feelings of resentment and hostility towards the out-group, leading to prejudice and discrimination, like violent crowd behaviour
->to reduce violent crowd behaviour, if a common goal is provided (such as a charity football match) then prejudice is reduced
AO3:
RESEARCH TO SUPPORT:
->Milgram (1961) provides research to support SIT as an explanation of crowd behaviour
–>the experimenter had strength over the ppts as the experiment took place in Yale University, which is a highly prestigious location, the reputation was reinforced by the experimenter wearing a white lab coat which made him a legitimate figure of authority in the eyes of the ppts
–>he also had close immediacy as he was in the room with the ppts, majority of which showed obedience (65% continues to 450V)
–>thus showing that SIT and legitimate authority can cause obedience with the right strength and immediacy
AGAINST:
->these theories of obedience/social control tend to ignore free will
–>there are people who disobey, even when the required factors of SIT are met, for example, in WW2 there were many people who hid Jews despite there being many sources (Nazi soldiers) who patrolled (having high immediacy) and also had lots of power and status (strength), but still people disobeyed their orders to protect Jewish people
–>therefore, this theory is deterministic as it ignored people’s free will, and cannot fully be applied to answer our key question
