Social Psychology 2

Question 1

Altruism

Answer 1

Behaving in a way that helps another person with no apparent gain or with potential cost to oneself.

Question 2

Reciprocal Altruism

Answer 2

Theory that natural selection favors animals that behave in an altruistic way if the likely benefit to each individual exceeds the likely cost over time.

Question 3

Ethical hedonism

Answer 3

The school of philosophical thought that asserts that all behaviour, no matter how apparently altruistic, is and should be designed to increase one’s own pleasure or reduce one’s own pain.

Question 4

Aversive-arousal reduction model

Answer 4

Helping relieves the negative feelings aroused through empathy with a person in distress.

Question 5

Three levels of prosocial behaviour.

Answer 5

Micro: altruistic tendencies and individual differences are considered primarily in terms of biological processes, developmental and personality factors or evolutionary theory.

Meso: behaviours of helper–recipient dyads are studied according to specific situations.

Macro: Prosocial actions at the macro level are examined within the context of groups and large organisations, such as volunteering. Various theories underpin our understanding of altruism.

Question 6

Obedience

Answer 6

A social influence process whereby individuals follow the dictates of an authority. Can be pro-social or anti-social (war crimes, cults, crimes). Important to maintain social order.

Question 7

Conformity

Answer 7

The process by which people change their attitudes or behaviour to accommodate the standards of peers or groups (peer pressure, gangs, group norms, online ‘trolling’). Conformity varies across and within cultures, and tends to reflect economic and ecological demands. Few, if any, gender differences in conformity exist.

Question 8

Factors that strengthen Obedience

Answer 8

Proximity to victim
Proximity to authority figure
Personality (hostility)
Legitimacy of authority
Liberating effects (following other people)
Directiveness of commands

Question 9

Reasons for conforming:

Answer 9

Normative Social Influence- conform to fit in and be part of a group.

Informative Social Influence- accept information from others (pressured).

Question 10

Factors that strengthen conformity

Answer 10

Number of people in group, everyone in the group agrees, the group’s perceived status.

Question 11

Social influence

Answer 11

Refers to the influence of the presence of other people on thought, feeling and behaviour

Question 12

The Milgram Experiment

Answer 12

Also known as the electric shock experiment, where participants thought they were giving an electric shock to people when they got an answer wrong. This experiment relates to Obedience. The Milgram studies indicated that most people will obey without limitations of conscience if they believe the authority is legitimate. 65% of participants conducted experiment to the end.

Question 13

Asch Study

Answer 13

Highlighted conformity, as participants would say the wrong answer if all other members of the group said the wrong answer. If one member was correct, the subject would also answer correctly.

Question 14

Zimbardo Experiment

Answer 14

Also known as the Stanford Prison Experiment. A mock prison was developed to investigate conformity, obedience, and roles. In this experiment participants were assigned the roles of either prison guards or prison inmates. The study was supposed to run for two weeks but was ended after six days due to the participant’s extreme behaviour.

Question 15

Bystander effect

Answer 15

Phenomenon where people are less likely to help others when there is a group of people.

Question 16

Diffusion of responsibility

Answer 16

If there are a lot of people around, an individual will not take responsibility because they assume someone else will.

Question 17

Social Loafing

Answer 17

Another example of behaviours that occur within social groups where people exert less effort in a group setting. Another diffusion of responsibility.

Question 18

Techniques of social influence

Answer 18

Ways we can manipulate people’s behaviours.

Question 19

Foot-in-the-door technique

Answer 19

“Hey I missed class this week, can you please give me your notes?” “Great! Would it be OK if I had notes from the previous weeks too?”. Start with smaller request then increasing it when it is accepted.

Question 20

Door-in-the-face technique

Answer 20

“Hey mum, can I please have $100 for shopping today?” Mum: “No” “Can I have $50 please”. Starting with a larger and exaggerated request then decreasing it after it is refused.

Question 21

Bait-and-switch technique

Answer 21

“There is actually already an offer on this house that has been accepted, but we also have a listing just down the road I can show you”. Presenting an appealing option that is not available then offering another available option that is not as appealing.

Question 22

Labelling technique

Answer 22

Shopping mall charity donation employee: “Oh it looks like you must really love dogs, would you like to donate to the [dog charity]”. Assigning a label to someone then asking for a consistent request.

Question 23

Low-ball technique

Answer 23

“Your artificial lawn will be $1795.” “Plus $565 for installment”. Starting with low request then revealing hidden cost after it has been agreed to.

Question 24

Legitimization-of-paltry-favors technique

Answer 24

“You can sponsor a child for only the cost of a coffee per week”. Make the request more appealing by reducing perceived cost by comparing to affordable items or offering smaller instalments.

Question 25

That’s-not-all technique

Answer 25

“Purchase today and receive another set completely free”. Start with inflated cost then immediately adding a bonus.

Question 26

Group

Answer 26

A collection of people whose actions affect the other group members.

Question 27

Reference group

Answer 27

The group to which a person refers when taking a particular action. A reference group can be positive or negative. A reference group is considered positive if the person tries to emulate its members and meet their standards. A reference group is negative if a person rejects its members and disavows their standards.

Question 28

Norms

Answer 28

Standards for the behaviour of group members.

Question 29

Roles

Answer 29

A position within a group that defines appropriate behaviour for the person occupying it. Individuals internalise roles as role schemas, which direct their behaviour when they are in a particular role and lead them to expect certain responses from people with complementary roles

Question 30

Leaders

Answer 30

People who exercise greater influence than the average member of a group. Instrumental leaders take responsibility for seeing that the group completes its tasks. Social–emotional leaders try to keep the group working cohesively and with minimal animosity.

Question 31

Social facilitation

Answer 31

When people are performing dominant, well-learned behaviours, the presence of other people can facilitate performance. On the other hand, when people are performing non-dominant behaviours, or behaviours with which they are unfamiliar, the presence of others can hurt performance.

Question 32

Group polarisation

Answer 32

A movement towards a decision that is at the extreme position, either conservative or risky. May be increased with less face-to-face interaction.

Question 33

Group cohesiveness

Answer 33

People tend to cluster together to be viewed even more favourably by members of their ingroup.

Question 34

Groupthink

Answer 34

Where members of a group make decisions based more on maintaining group harmony and cohesiveness than a critical analysis of the realities of a situation. Having a member with opposing views may increase better quality decisions when warranted but lower moral and reduce group cohesion and satisfaction with the task.

Question 35

Bystander intervention

Answer 35

To intervene, a person must notice the event, define it as an emergency and assume personal responsibility for intervening. Situational determinants of whether or not people will help interact with individual difference variables, such as gender, determine when helping will occur.