Social Psychology Flashcards
What is social psychology?
- Study of how people influence others’ behaviour, beliefs, and attitudes
- We tend to believe only others are vulnerable to social influence but not ourselves
On average, how many people can one person maintain interpersonal connections with?
• Robin Dunbar
o Suggested 150 is the average size of social group humans are capable of forming interpersonal connections with
• Research suggests it’s based on the size of our cortex compared with brain size
o Animals with smaller ratios have smaller groups
What is the need to belong theory?
• Need to belong theory
o Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary
o We have biological need for interpersonal connections
o Negative psychological and physical effects if we cannot
• Even threat of social isolation leads to self-destructive behaviour
Describe the interaction between evolution and social behaviour. When does it become maladaptive?
• Social behaviour naturally selected because it has served us well over time
o Only backfires occasionally
• Social influences becomes maladaptive only when they are blind or unquestioning
• When we accept social influence without evaluating critically, we are at the mercy of others
What is social contagion and what are some examples of irrational behaviours or beliefs held because of this?
Social Contagion
• Social behaviour is often contagious
• We look to others in ambiguous situations to figure out what we believe
• Often works, but if others are thinking or acting irrationally, we may do the same
Mass Hysteria
• Outbreak of irrational behaviour that is spread by social contagion
• Can lead to collective delusions
Urban Legends
• False stories that have been repeated so many times that people believe them to be true
• Often oversimplified through retelling to make for a better story
What is attribution?
o The process of assigning causes to behavior
o Can be internal or external causes to the person
What are dispositional influences?
o Enduring characteristics such as personalities traits, attitudes, etc.
What is the fundamental attribution error? What cultures are less likely to be affected?
o Tendency to overestimate the impact of dispositional influences on other people’s behaviour
o Tendency to underestimate the impact of social influences on other’s behaviour
o We only make this error with judging others behaviour, not our own
o Less likely to make this error if we have been in their shoes before
• Japanese and Chinese are less likely to be affected
What is conformity?
• Tendency of people to alter their behaviour as a result of group pressure
What were the Asch studies on conformity?
• Solomon Asch, 1955
• Used confederates
o Agents of the researcher disguised as a participant
• Used line trials with 1 participant and 7 confederates
• About 75% of people identified the incorrect answer to conform with the incorrect answer given by the confederates
• Participants reported being confused and distressed because their own perceptions did not match other perceptions
What were some influences to social influences on conformity that were noted during the Asch studies?
Unanimity
• If confederates all gave wrong answer, participant more likely to conform
• If 1 confederate gave a correct response, conformity decreased
Difference in Wrong Answer
• If confederate gave a different answer than the others, even he gave another wrong answer, conformity decreased
Group Size
• Size only mattered to 5 or 6 in the group, after that, size didn’t matter
What do imaging studies show us about conforming behaviours?
• Conforming behavior associated with activity of amygdala, triggering anxiety response
• Occipital and parietal lobes also engaged
o May indicate change in perception
o May indicate doubt and rechecking initial perception
What are some individual differences that can increase or decrease conformity?
- Decreased self esteem leads to increase in conformity
- Asians have increased conformity vs Americans
- Female conformity decreased with female experimenters but increased with male experimenters
What is deindividuation?
• Tendency of people to engage in uncharacteristic behaviour when they are stripped of their usual identities
• Most prominent factors are
o Feeling of anonymity
o Lack of individual responsibility
• Makes us more vulnerable to social influences
• Impersonal communications (i.e., text), wearing masks, etc. contributes to anonymity
Briefly describe the Stanford prison study?
- Philip Zimbardo
- Volunteers for prison study, randomly assigned to guards or inmates
- Guards instructed to only refer to inmates by numbers
- Prisoners arrested by real police, stripped, and held in cells
- Guards became extremely sadistic
- Test ended 8 days early
- An attempt to replicate failed
Describe the effects of deindividuation with Abu Ghraib
- Guards were US soldiers
- Guards disturbingly similar to Sandford
- Dehumanization due to situation may have contributed
- Many guards in same circumstances did not abuse prisoners
- Individual differences play a role
- Deindividuation doesn’t make us bad; for good or bad, it makes us behave as a member of a group than as an individual
Describe mob psychology basics
- Actions of people in crowds depend largely on whether others are acting prosocially or antisocially
- Vast majority of large crowds results in no violence
- Some crows may generate prosocial behaviour like helping during disasters
What is groupthink?
- Emphasis on group unanimity at the expense of critical thinking
- Groups can make good decisions if group members are free to contribute opinions not swayed by the group
- Poor decisions made when people do not make decisions independent of others
- Groups tend to rely on common knowledge rather than unique knowledge
When does groupthink really become an issue? What was a real world example of this?
- Not speaking up when someone knows there is an issue
* Challenger explosion, knew it would fail if frozen
What are some symptoms of groupthink?
- Invulnerability – we can’t fail
- Unanimity – obviously we all agree
- Morality – we know we are right
- Conformity pressure – don’t rock the boat
- Stereotyping out-group – they’re all morons
- Self-censorship – don’t say anything even though the idea is bad
- Mind guards – self appointed individual who stifle disagreement
What are some solutions for groupthink?
- Have a devil’s advocate
- Independent experts
- Encourage discourse
What is a cult and how do they promote groupthink?
• Cult
o Group of people who exhibit intense and unquestioning devotion to a single cause
• May be dangerous
• Promote groupthink by
o Pervasive leader who fosters loyalty
o Disconnecting group members from the outside world
o Discouraging questioning the groups assumptions
o Training practices that gradually indoctrinate members
• Leaders often suffer mental illness but followers often psychologically normal
• Controversy about existence of brainwashing
What is the inoculation effect?
- Approach to convincing people to change their mind about something by first introducing reasons why their perspective might be correct and then debunking those reasons
- Works like a vaccine by giving them a small dose activating the bodies natural defences
What is obedience?
- Adherence to instructions from those of higher authority
* Becomes an issue when people stop asking why
Who was Stanley Milgrin and what test did he develop?
• Student of Solomon Asch
• Wanted to know how holocaust could have occurred
• Developed study about teacher shocking the learner
o Confederates played the learner
o Not actually shocked, just acting the part
What were the general themes found in Stanley Milgrin’s test about obedience?
- The greater the psychological distance between teacher (participant) and experimenter, the less the obedience
- The greater the psychological distance between teacher and learner, the more the obedience
What are some individual differences caused people to be more or less obedient in Stanley Milgrims experiment?
- Higher morality scores led to an increase in defiance
- Authoritarianism personality trait more likely to comply
- No sex differences
- Rates in Americans similar to other countries
What did we learn from Stanley Milgrims test about obedience?
- Authority figures are greater influence than imagined
* Most underestimate situational influences on behaviour
What are the prevailing thoughts regarding not helping in an emergency situation?
• Original thoughts were of bystander apathy
• John Darley and Bibb Latane
o Suspected it was due to phycological paralysis
They want to help but find themselves frozen
o Believed the presence of others make people less likely to help, not more
• Research shows we are more likely to help if we are alone than if we are in a group
• Two major factors
o Pluralistic ignorance
o Diffusion of responsibility
What is pluralistic ignorance as it relates to bystander non-intervention?
- Error of assuming that no one in a group perceives things as we do
- If we see that no one else thinks this is an emergency, we assume it’s just us, so it must not actually be an emergency
What is diffusion or responsibility as it relates to bystander non-intervention?
- Reduction in feelings of personal responsibility for negative consequences of not helping in the presence of others
- It’s not MY fault idea
What is social loafing?
- Phenomenon whereby individuals become less productive in groups
- People in individualism countries more prone than collectivist countries
- Best cure is to ensure each person in the group is identifiable
What is altruism?
- Helping others for unselfish reasons
* Help others not because it makes us feel good, but just because it will help someone else and we have empathy for them
What are situational influences on altruism?
- More likely to help if they cannot easily leave the situation
- Characteristics of the victim play a role
- Being in a good mood increases likelihood of helping
- Exposure to altruistic role models
- More likely to help if we are not in a hurry
What is the enlightenment effect as it pertains to altruism and bystander non-intervention?
- Learning about psychological research can changes real-world behaviour for the better
- Learning about bystander non-intervention makes one more likely to help
What are individual differences as it relates to prosocial behaviour and altruism?
- Those less concerned with approval and are less traditional are more likely to help
- Extroverts more likely to help than introverts
- Emergency workers more likely to help even when off duty
- Men more likely to help women, especially if they are attractive
- Women less likely to help if physical or social risk is involved
What is aggression?
• Behaviour intended to harm others, either verbally or physically
What are situational influences of aggression?
- Interpersonal provocation
- Frustration
- Media influences
- Aggressive cues such as weapons being present
- Arousal of our autonomic nervous system
- Alcohol and other drugs may lower inhibitions to violent behaviour
- Temperature (increased temperatures related to increase in violence)
What are some individual differences as it relates to aggression?
• About 5% of people account for half or more of all crimes
• Personality traits related to higher aggression
o High levels of negative emotions
o Impulsivity
o Lack of closeness to others
• Males more violent than females
o May be due to higher testosterone levels
o Only related to direct aggression
• Relational aggression
o Form of indirect aggression involving spreading rumours, gossiping, and nonverbal putdowns for the purpose of social manipulation
o More common in females
o Suggests women are just as aggressive as males
• Cultural differences
o Violent crime less prevalent among Asians than Caucasians
o Culture of honour
Social norm of defending your reputation
Prevalent in southern US
How do attitudes and behaviour relate to each other?
- Only moderate correlation between attitude and behaviour
- Attitudes that come easily to mind tend to be strongly predictive of behaviour
- Attitudes more predictive if they are a long standing and firmly held
What is an attitude?
• Belief that includes an emotional component (how we feel about something)
What is a belief?
• Opinion based regarding factual evidence
What is the recognition heuristic?
- More likely to believe something we’ve heard many times
* Can fall prey to “it’s too good to be true”
What is cognitive dissonance?
o Unpleasant mental experience of tension resulting from two conflicting thoughts or beliefs
What is the cognitive dissonance theory?
- Leon Festinger
* Alter our attitudes because we experience cognitive dissonance between two or more conflicting thoughts