Social Psychology Flashcards
What is social impact theory?
The effect that real or imagined people can have on out behaviour
What’s the source?
The person doing the influencing
What’s the target?
The person who is being influenced
Three factors that effect social influence?
- strength of group
- immediacy
- number of sources
What’s the law of diminishing returns?
As the source of influence gets larger, the impact of each individual source reduces
What is the divisional effect?
The number of targets to be influences effects the impact of the source
What is social loafing?
Reduction in an individuals effort when working with others on a collective task compared to when working alone or coactively
What’s diffusion of responsibility?
Tendency for an individual to assume that others will take responsibility, resulting in no one taking responsibility.
Aim of Milgram?
To see whether people would obey and inflict harm on another person using electric shocks, by following orders from an authority figure.
Why did milgram do his experiment?
To see whether all individuals had the potential to cause harm like the Germans and the Nazi’s or if they were different.
How were Milgram’s ppts recruited?
Advert in a newspaper, offered 4.00 dollar reward and travelling responses.
How many participants in Milgram study?
40 male
How were Milgrams ppts assigned a group?
- Introduced to who they believed to be another ppt (confederate)
- rigged draw occurred where ppt was allocated role of teacher and the other ‘ppt’ given role of learner.
- they were told this was an experiment about human learning and memory.
How was realism created in Milgrams study?
- Ppts were shown the shock generator then given a shock of 45v.
-they saw the generator was marked in 15v intervals up to 450v, with comments such as light shock and dangerous.
What task were Milgrams ppts asked to do?
- Read word pairs to the learner, the learner then had 4 option to choose from.
- if the learner gave a wrong answer the teacher was instructed to shock them.
What happened when the Milgrams ppts shocked the learner?
- At 150v the learner (actually a recording) said ‘ouch this hurts, these shocks are becoming painful’
- at 300v they became silent and refused to answer, to which the teacher was told to treat as a wrong answer
How were Milgram’s ppts encouraged?
- if they wanted to stop they were prompted to continue such as ‘please continue’ and ‘the experiment requires you to continue’
When did Milgrams experiment end?
- when they reached 450v
- or after the teacher asked to stop 5 times
Conclusion of Milgram?
People will obey an authority figure even when this causes harm to another individual
Findings of Milgram?
- 65% of ppts gave the 450v shock.
- 100% ppts gave shock to 300v
Milgrams variation 7 experiment?
- teacher given instructions via telephone
Why do Milgrams variation 7?
To test immediacy in social impact theory
Results of Milgrams variation 7?
- 450v obedience fell from 65% to 22.5%
- ppts also continued giving smaller shocks and lied to the experimenter
What was Milgrams variation 10 experiment?
Experiment carried out in in downtown office rather than at a prestigious university
Why do Milgrams variation 10?
Less reputable location may change the ppts view on the experiments legitimacy
Results of Milgrams variation 10?
Obedience dropped slightly 48%
Milgrams variation 13 experiment?
Experiment or left then room and a non uniformed man took over
Why Milgrams variation 13?
- To test the role of authority in obedience
- status of source
Results of Milgrams variation 13?
- 20% obedience rate
What’s the agentic state?
- person no longer feels responsible but instead acts according to instruction of someone else
What’s the autonomous state?
- person feels responsible for their actions. We act according to our conscience.
What’s moral strain?
- obeying an order that goes against our conscience in order to function as an agent of authority.
What’s the agentic shift?
Shift from the autonomous state to the agentic
Supporting evidence for agency theory?
- Fred Prozzi
- argued throughout Milgrams experiment and even asked who would be taking the responsibility for harming the learner.
- once being told all responsibility lay with the experimenter he complied and continued to shock up to the max 450v.
Name the 5 ethical consideration people argue against Milgram?
- consent
- debriefing
- withdrawal
- deception
- competence
Link consent with Milgram?
- didn’t get informed consent from ppt
- was meant to properly debrief them after
Debriefing on context of Milgram?
- somewhat achieved
- some still left confused or unaware
- 84% said a year later that they were glad to have been a part of it.
Withdrawal in context of milgram?
- they could withdraw
- however they were pushed to continue
- had to ask 5 times to leave
Deception on context of Milgram?
- ppts thought they were going a memory test
- thought that the learner was receiver real shocks
Competence in context of Milgram?
-yes
- Milgram higher regarded professor of Yale university
What is locus of control?
- an important aspect of personality
- an individuals perception about the underlying main causes of events in his/her life
What does high external locus of control mean?
- more likely to conform
- more likely be in the agentic state and hand over autonomy
What does high internal locus of control mean?
- less likely to conform
- feels responsibility for the direction of their life and actions.
Supporting research for locus of control?
- Oliner and Oliner
- interviewed non Jewish survivors of WW11
- compared those who had protected Jewish people (406) and those who had not (126)
- those who resisted orders were more likely to have a high internal locus of control
Burger aim?
- to investigate obedience by partially replication Milgram’s study to examine obedience to authority and whether rates had changed in the last 45 years.
How were Burgers ppts recruited?
- advertisements in the local paper and online
- given 50 dollars to take part
What happened to Burger’s ppts before the study began?
- extensive screening
- checking if Ppt’s had studied psychology
- also given psychological assessments measuring depression and anxiety
How many Burger ppts were left after screening?
- 70
- 29 male
- 41 female
- 20-81 yrs
Explain Burger experiment one?
- followed Milgram
- however learner protests started at 75v and 150v
- 150v max rather than 450v
Describe Burger experiment 2?
- modelled refusal
- teacher joined by another teacher (actual confederate) who refused to continue past 75v
Results of Burger experiment 1?
- 70% continued to max 150v
- Milgrams obedience at this point was 82%
results of Burger experiment 2?
- 63% continued to 150v
Burger differences between men and women?
- little difference
Conclusions of Burger?
- results found were similar to Milgrams 45 years ago
- time and changes in culture did not have an effect on obedience nor did the refusal of another person
Aim of social my own social experiment?
- to investigate the differences in expectations of boys and girls on the home.
Procedure of social experiment I conducted?
- questionnaire of 11 questions
- 4 open and 7 closed
- 18 participants asked, opportunity sample (who was in the study room at the time)
- 9 girls and 9 boys
- survey online, anonymous and no time limit to fill it in
Findings of the social experiment I did?
- girls asked to do more domestic jobs than boys
- girls had stricter rules for romantic partners set by parents than boys
conclusions of social experiment I did?
- accept hypothesis
Evaluation of social experiment I did?
- ppts didn’t take seriously
- ppts sometimes unclear in questionnaire response
- people answer in socially desirable ways
- opportunity sampling not representative
- more girls answered than boys
What is the social key question?
Use social psychology concepts to explain why genocide takes place
Key areas to focus on for the social key question?
- locus of control
-social identity theory - sherif
- realistic conflict theory
What did Urgru find?
People with a high external locus of control were more prejudiced against homosexuality than those with a low external locus of control.
What did Tajfel develop?
Social identity theory
Aim of Sherif?
To explore how competition between groups can lead to unfavourable stereotyping and prejudiced attitudes towards an out group and encourage in group solidarity and cooperation.
Three steps of social identity theory?
- social catogarisation
- social identification
- social comparison
What kind of experiment was Sherif?
Field experiment
What kind of ppts did Sherif have?
- 22 middle class, white, Protestant, American boys
- all socially and emotionally well adjusted
- none knew each other beforehand
How were the Sherif boys split into groups?
- 2 groups
- each group comprised of boys with equivalent abilities
- parents and doctors gave consent for all activities but the actual boys were unaware that they were in a study
- parents paid a small fee for the camp and asked not to visit
Describe Sherif procedure first part
- 2 groups arrived on separate days to different location, bunk house etc
- they took part in non-competitive activities to bond with their in group (Rattlers and Eagles)
- 2 eagles left near the end of the week due to homesickness
Describe Sherif procedure second part
- both groups learn of the others existence
- researchers made a tournament with prizes for the winners (tug of war, baseball, tent pitching, cabin inspection, comedy sketched and treasure hunt)
Findings of Sherif?
- different social norms (Rattlers: tough, swore/ eagles: cried, anti swearing)
- hostility developed rapidly (name calling, fights, raided and trashed cabins, one group even burnt the others flag)
- only 6.4% rattler friends were eagles and 7.5 eagles were rattlers
Further findings of Sherif?
- social contacts and subordinate tasks initially did little to reduce conflict
- although after persevering hostility did greatly decrease
- they left friends and on the same bus
- friendship % increased
Sherif conclusions?
- inter group completion increased in group favouritism and solidarity but also out group hostility
- increased social contact not enough to reduce prejudice but a series of superordinate goals can reduce prejudice effectively.
What is social categorisation?
- when we categorise other people as members of particular social groups typically involve: gender, race and social classs
What is social identification?
- adapting the identity of the group we have categorised ourselves as belonging to maintain self esteem.
What is social comparison?
- hostility between groups is thus not only a matter of competing for resources like jobs but also the results of competing identities.
- ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality
- out group and in group
What did Jane Elliott do?
Brown eyes blue eyes experiment.
