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 (no increase thereafter)
- Presence of a dissenter – one person disagreeing greatly reduces conformity
- Culture – greater in collectivistic cultures
Describe the Asch study on conformity and what it showed.
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 does the dirty work)
- NOT personal characteristics
Describe the Milgram experiment on 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 individual performance is not being monitored
- The task (goal) 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 monitored
- Members highly value their group or the task goal
- Groups are smaller
- Members are of similar competence
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
