Social Psychology Flashcards
Social Psychology
Its the scientific study in which people thoughts, feelings and actions are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people .
Influences
Other people can influence us either though direct attempts at persuasion , or more indirectly through their presence and the transmission of cultural values .
Social Influence is the effect that words , actions , or mere presence of other people have on our thoughts , feelings, attitudes or behavior .
Individual Differences are defined as the aspects if peoples personalities that make them different from other people .
Social Interaction is the positive and negative aspects if people relating to others .
Internal Validity
This is the extent to which a study establishes a trustworthy cause and effect relationship between a treatment and an outcome .
Its not a yes or no concept , rather we consider how confident we can be with the findings of a study while avoiding problems that may make the findings questionable .
Internal Validity depends largely on the procedures of a study and how rigorously it is performed.
External Validity
This refers to how well the outcome of a study can be expected to apply to other settings .
In a simpler explanation it refers to how generalizable the findings are .
Ecological Validity
An aspect of external validity , refers to whether a study’s findings can be generalized to the real world .
Conformity , Compliance and Obedience
Conformity - Any change in behavior caused by another person or group.
Compliance - A change in behavior requested by another person or group .
Obedience - A change in behavior that is ordered by another person or group .
Difference between compliance and obedience
Obedience occurs when you are told to do something (authority) , whereas conformity happens through social pressure (the norms of the majority).
Obedience involves a hierarchy of power / status.
Agency Theory
Developed by Stanley Milgram who carried out the Obedience Studies.
His idea was a response to war crimes of the Nazi’s especially Adolf Eichmann .
He rejected ideas like the persecution of Jews was some sort of rational response to a perceived enemy or that Germans had something particularly brutal or mindless in them .
Explaining The Agentic Shift
Milgram had an evolutionary explanation for the agentic shift .
He says that obedience is a survival trait that enabled tribes of early humans to flourish . Early humans who were disobedient did not survive the dangers of the prehistoric world and we have not inherited their genes . Even today society cannot function without obedience .
However Nazi Germany was an example of the Agentic Shift backfiring , because the people obeyed orders they should have been rebelling against
Moral Strain
When an authority figure issues an order that goes against our
conscience, we experience moral strain.
This is because we have two contradictory urges ; to obey the authority figure or to obey our consciousness
Moral strain can be identified as a physical condition.
Milgram pointed that his own participants used a few defence mechanisms . Notably :
Denial: some of the participants in Milgram’s study minimized the pain they were causing to the Learner, convincing themselves that the shocks weren’t dangerous (even though “DANGER” was
written on the shock generator).
Avoidance: many participants tried not to look at the
Experimenter or even look up from the shock generator
Degree of Involvement: some participants only flicked the switches on the shock generator lightly, as if this would somehow lessen the pain.
Helping the Learner: other participants tried to help the Learner by stressing the correct answer on the memory test; in Variation #7, some participants deliberately gave a weaker shock rather than the stronger shock because they thought no one was watching.
When in Agentic state the moral strain is removed as we presume the figure of authority is responsible for any actions .
Social Impact Theory
This theory was developed by Bibb Latane , an American psychologist.
This theory is an attempt to produce an underlying law that explains a whole set of studies from the 60s and 70s .Including Milgram and Tajfel , into how people conform to the group they are in.
Three Laws of Behavior
Latane argues that every person is potentially a “source” or a “target” of social influence - sometimes both at once .
He though there we 3 rules or laws at work ;
Social Force
Psychosocial Law
Divisions of Impact
Social Force
A pressure that causes people to change their behavior , if it succeeds ir social impact.
This is generated by persuasion , humour , embarrassment and other influences , the equation for this is i=f(SIN) . The i stands for social impact , S,I, and N stand for Strength , Immediacy , and Numbers .
Strength - This is how much power you believe the person influencing you has .
Immediacy - This is how recent the influence is and how close to you .
Numbers - The more people putting pressure on you to do something , the more social force they will have .
Psychosocial Law
The first source of influence has the most potential of creating an impact on people , but as it goes higher , the sources generate less and less Social Force.
Divisions Of Impact
Social Forces gets spread out between all the people it is directed at and gets less powerful . This is also known as diffusion of responsibility .
Equation for this is i=f(1/SIN)
Research Into Social Impact Theory
US Christian televangelist Billy Graham
The hypothesis was that Billy Graham would make more converts in front of small audiences.
Latané researched the numbers of people who responded to Graham’s appeal for
converts and found that when the audiences were small, people were more willing to sign cards allowing local vicars to contact them later. This demonstrates divisions of impact (also known as diffusion of responsibility).
Diffusion of Responsibility
Latané & Darley (1968) experiment
Participants sat in booths discussing health issues over an intercom. One
of the speakers was a confederate who would pretend to have a heart
attack.
If there was only one other participant, they went for help 85% of the time; this dropped to 62% if there were two other participants and 31% if there were 4+.
Prosocial Behavior
Antisocial Behavior
