Social Psychology Flashcards
Define attitude.
A positive or negative evaluative reaction towards a stimulus, such as a person, action, object or concept
Define prejudice.
To judge, often negatively, without having relevant facts, usually about a group or its individual members
Define conformity.
The adjustment of individual behaviours, attitudes and beliefs to a group standard
State three factors that affect conformity.
Group size – increases up to a group size of 5 or 6 (no increase thereafter)
Presence of a dissenter – one person disagreeing greatly reduces conformity
Culture – greater in collectivistic cultures
Describe the Asch study and what it showed.
Tested CONFORMITY
Set a very simple vision test comparing the lengths of lines and put a subject in the room with several actors who all chose the wrong answer
Majority of people conformed when everyone else chose the wrong answer
In the control group, less than 1% conformed
Define obedience.
Compliance with commands given by an authority figure
State some factors influencing obedience.
Remoteness of the victim
Closeness and legitimacy of the authority figure
Diffusion of responsibility (obedience increases when someone else takes the blame)
NOT personal characteristics
Describe the Milgram experiment.
Tested OBEDIENCE
There was one learner and one teacher
They were told that the experiment studied the effect of punishment on memory and they were told to deliver more and more intense shocks as the actor made more and more mistakes
Even though the shock had reached a fatal level when the actor seemed unconscious or even dead, the majority of subjects still obeyed the commands
Define Social Loafing.
The tendency for people to expend less individual effort when working in a group than when working alone
State some factors that make social loafing more likely to occur.
The person believes that the individual performance is not being monitored
The task or the group has less value or meaning to the person
The person generally displays low motivation to strive for success
The person expects that other group members will display high effort
Describe the effects of gender and culture on social loafing.
Social loafing is more likely to occur in:
All male groups
Individualistic cultures
When might social loafing disappear?
Individual performance is being monitored
Members highly value their group or the task goal
Groups are smaller
Members are of a similar competance
Define group polarisation.
The tendency for people to make decisions that are more extreme when they are in a group as opposed to a decision made alone or independently
Define group think.
The tendency of group members to suspend critical thinking because they are striving to seek agreement
State some factors that make group think more likely to occur.
Group think is more likely to occur if the group:
is under high stress to reach a decision
is insulated from outside input
has a directive leader
has high cohesiveness
What are the 5 steps of the Bystander effect?
Notice the event
Decide whether it really is an emergency (social comparison – see how others are responding)
Assuming responsibility to intervene (diffusion of responsibility –believe that someone else will help)
Self-efficacy when dealing with the situation
Decision to help (based on cost-benefit analysis)
State some methods of overcoming the Bystander effect.
Reduce restraints on helping
Reduce ambiguity and increase responsibility
Enhance guilt and concern for self-image
Socialise altruism Teaching moral inclusion Modelling helpful behaviour Attributing helpful behaviour to altruistic motives Education about barriers to helping
Describe the experiment by Darley and Latane and describe the results it obtained.
Tested THE BYSTANDER EFFECT
Participants were invited to take part in a discussion about ‘personal problems’ over the radio
An actor in the adjacent room pretended to have a seizure
When by themselves – the majority of participants helped
When in a group of 4 – only around 30% helped
When in a group of more than 4 – hardly anyone helped
Outline the three leadership styles described by Kurt Lewin.
Authoritarian/autocratic style – all decision making done by leader
Democratic/participative – makes decisions after consulting group
Laissez-faire or free reign style – leaves the group entirely to itself
What is cognitive dissonance?
The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the feelings of discomfort that result when your beliefs run counter to your behaviors
For example, ‘I am a smoker’ but ‘Smoking causes cancer’
How can cognitive dissonance be resolved?
Change behaviour: In the case of smoking, this would involve quitting, which might be difficult and thus avoided
Acquire new information: Such as seeking exceptions e.g. “My grandfather smoked all his life and lived to be 96”
Reduce the importance of the cognitions(i.e. beliefs, attitudes). A person could convince themself that it is better to “live for the moment”
What is framing?
whether a message emphasizes the benefits or losses of that behavior
Positive and negative
When is positive and negative framing most appropriate?
If a behavior leads to a relatively certain outcome, then gain-framed messages work well.
When we want people to take up behaviors aimed at detecting health problems or illness (e.g. HIV testing) loss-framed messages may be more effective e.g. if you dont get tested then you could die
If a behavior leads to a more uncertain outcome, then loss-framed messages are more effective
When we want people to take up behaviours aimed at promoting prevention behaviours (e.g. condom use) gain-framed messages may be more effective e.g. if you wear condoms then you’ll be healthy and wont have herpes
Define stereotype
Generalisations made about a group of people or members of that group, such as race, ethnicity, or gender. Or more specific such as different medical specialisations (e.g. surgeons)
Define discrimination
Behaviours that follow from negative evaluations or attitudes towards members of particular groups
